ă€ŠI am the God of Technologyă€‹


 Chapter 1 Dante

    ?[ount Bnce: $-2,345.44]

    Dante''s expression froze when he saw his new ount bnce after making a down payment for his new apartment. He had juste out of the real estate building too, and he was initially feeling good about everything.

    Dante sighed and looked to the sky. At some point, drops of rain began to fall, which was kind of ironic given his current financial circumstances.

    Were the heavens crying from sadness through empathy orughter through mockery?

    Dante sighed again. Truly, poverty would make any fellow have poetic and deep thoughts.

    However, despite being in debt, Dante could truly im to be poor. After all, he had grown up in an upper-middle-ss family with two loving parents and a nuclear as well as extended family that werergely supportive and capable.

    Dante smacked his face and changed his train of thought.

    "You got this man, you made this decision and now you have to live with it."

    Reminding himself of his own - probably - poor life decisions, Dante ordered an uber and set the destination to home. He then sat in the backzily and leaned on their side, cing his earphones in as he opted to listen to hardcore rap music.

    "~~Motherf*cker I killed three n***gas, f*cked three b*tches, and then robbed ten banks while smoking weed, and-"

    As he soaked in the mindless words, his thoughts began to wander. He turned to look outside the window and saw the setting sun, which he initially felt was a sign that an old door was being closed in his life while a new one was being opened.

    However, his bnce had pped him back to the reality that while a new door might have opened, whaty behind it was not exactly a frat party, but might be a neighborhood shootout.

    Dante looked at the box in his bag and felt his eyes gleam. This was another reason why he had rapidly fallen into debt, thetest Huawei G20, a spectacr handheld phone made for enthusiasts and professionals who wanted to be productive on the go.

    Its price tag was over $1500 for Christ''s sake, and even thetest iPhone XV was even 300 dors cheaper and about 20 years behind in technology.

    What could Dante say, it was 2030 and China''s technology was on the rise. After America''s business empire declined due to the failure of fiat money and the betrayal of Saudi Arabia by eliminating the petrodor, China quickly showed its fangs.

    Not to mention, after raiding and plundering Taiwan, they had ess to semiconductors and their technological might soared rapidly.

    As a second-generation immigrant to the almighty United States of America, Dante was ambivalent about these happenings. For one, his rtively dark skin won him no favors with most Asians, and secondly, as someone who lived in America, his livelihood was tied to its continued dominance, like riding on the back of a tiger.

    Dante''s eyes flickered. Truly, he was thinking about all sorts of things, but the only thing he should consider now was what to do next; his future.

    As a 21-year-old young man, he had endless prospects ahead of him. A second-ss upper degree in BSc Software Engineering, a rtively good-looking face, and a good credit score thanks to intuitive parents, he had a great starting point.

    Many would kill to have credentials like these, despite the debt. Not like any American was debt free anyway.

    But what was the source of Dante''s problems was not any external factor, buty internally.

    You may know what it''s like to be a very clever kid in your formative years who loved to read, exercise and generally loved to explore new things, but had that all beaten out of you by the mindless school system which requires repetition rather than creativity.

    You may know what it''s like to be well-to-do during your school years, always having thetest games andputers, tinkering with them, and destroying enough of them that you got scolded often.

    You may know what it''s like to see your ssmates struggle with their studies while thingse to you rtively easily, until at some point you stopped putting in effort and got by with C''s.

    You also may know what it''s like to love your cousins and extended family, but the pressure to perform due to endlessparisons cause a rift between you all during adulthood.

    If you know any of these, and most likely all of them, you would understand Dante''s conundrum.

    Intelligent but unmotivated.

    Competitive but quick to give up.

    Tunnel visioned and unable to multitask.

    And most crucially...

    Driven for sess through uniqueness but craving to do so independently.

    Such led to the current situation where a young man from a family that makes more than $250,000 a year, is over $2,000 in debt.

    This sudden drive for independence and the unwillingness to rely on his parents baffled the duo to no end, making them wonder if their son was going through a phase - but at his age? - or if someone was crudely influencing him.

    His father wanted him to follow the same path he did and be a high-ss architect to inherit his medium-scalepany that mostly worked for upper-ss contractors.

    That way, he could push his son to the top of the business, lower the steep learning curve and also pass on his contacts and connections in the industry.

    His mother, a chemical engineer working for the now beaten-up and bullied Pfizer, wanted him to learn an Applied Science. So she supported his decision to enter IT, but his father was not too happy that his hard work and small empire would die with him.

    After all, how could a coder link up with architects? Unless maybe he learned 3D design and rendering.

    Dante sighed for the third time in less than 30 minutes. His rash decision to rebel by doing what he wanted had led to a small tension in their nuclear family that became slightly more intense after thest Thanksgiving when his cousins were revealed to be Doctors, Pharmacists, and Lawyers and he opened his dog mouth to say ''I am an App Developer''.

    Well, he was lucky it was 2030 and even the older generation understood that IT was the future. If it was around 20 or 10 years ago, most would have ssified him as a failure right off the bat.

    The painful question wasn''t why he chose to be an App Developer. The hard-hitting question was: ''what app have you made?''

    None. Nothing.

    At least, nothing he wanted to show. Obviously, a few were from practicing, tests, and projects but none of them were going to go anywhere.

    Dante looked down and gripped the phone box in his hands. With this new device, that should change though, as this device was built for people like him and came with many tools and suites to make coders excel.

    He already had the code written on hisptop after spending over 3 weeks and screaming over 400 times at ''syntax errors'' and only needed to package it and run the test build on the phone.

    From there, any errors could be handled on the device itself and then curated carefully before a softunch among peers and friends.

    Just thinking about it made Dante giddy. He almost wanted to p the back of his uber driver''s head and tell him to hurry up, but was left speechless when he saw that there was traffic ahead of them.

    He couldn''t very well point to the pavement and say ''the sidewalk is good enough. Go!'' like some 100-year-old British vampire who liked to pose and throw knives in stopped time.

    Dante could only sit back and wait while his thoughts run abound, switching between excitement towards the - seemingly - promising future and anxiety towards the possibility of failure as well as disgrace.

    Eventually the uber came to a stop before his house. Dante paid the fare with his credit card and increased his debt even more. However, with an exceptional credit score of 750, his credit limit was around $15,000 anyway.

    It was more than enough for him to live on until he turned his first profit. Whether it was Muskovic, Billy The Gates, or the Z Meister, all had started from the bottom and had deceptively moving origin stories that motivated impressionable young men like Dante into risking it all.

    With that much financial leeway, he would be able to kickstart his grand life!

    Assuming of course, that everything miraculously works out on the first try, and he doesn''t fail over and over until his debt runs high, and is able to make enough profit off whatever he creates that he can clear his debt, start a life and be fully independent.

    This is the beginning of Dante''s story, and it was quite impressive already.

    However, the events in the next hour proved that Murphy was the number G.O.A.T in life as hisw had an unbeatable winning streak against reality.

 Chapter 2 Quantum Entanglement

    ?Dante got out of the uber and stood before his family home. It seemed like a typical suburban neighborhood, but it was actually a semi-walled as well as gatedmunity for the elite among the middle ss.

    His eyes gleamed as he held the box in hand tightly and walked up to the gate of his house. The security guard at the front was watching videos on TikTok to pass the time and greeted Dante when he passed by.

    "Yo Dante, what''s up? You''re back from the shopping?"

    Dante turned to smile at the neatly-dressed and muscr guard who actually had a stun baton as well as a pistol strapped to his waist.

    "Eduardo, what have I told you about TikTok? It''s a psy-op from China to make the American youth stupid. Also, the shopping went well."

    Eduardo rolled his eyes and waved his hand, not willing to descend into a tinfoil hat battle with Dante who was like a storm when he started. Dante wrung his lips with dissatisfaction seeing that he couldn''t share his conspiracy theories with another unwilling person.

    However, his attention was soon taken away when he entered his home then saw that his dad and mom were seated in the living room.

    For being about 50 years old each, they still looked really good, mostly thanks to his mom who emphasized eating healthy and exercising at all ages.

    His father was a handsome man with light caramel skin, a pair of square-rimmed sses, and short-cropped ck hair. Apart from a white Polo t-shirt disying his broad chest, tucked into a pair of stic Burberry shorts and a pair of green crocs, he also wore a bored frown.

    Beside him was his lovely mother, a tall Eurasian woman that inherited the best characteristics from both ancestries. Long, silky ck hair, two light blue eyes, fair skin that was neither pale nor pasty, but healthy, and the typical small, extremely cute face of an Asian woman.

    Apart from her favorite blue sundress and a pair of slippers, what else would his mom wear when at home?

    "Dad, mom, I''m home," Dante called out to them with a smile.

    David, his father, turned backward and saw Dante then nodded. "Good to see you''re home safe son. If you''re hungry, let me know and I''ll cook something up for you."

    Dante rolled his eyes at his father''s usual stoicism. "Alright dad, sure."

    Aileen, his mother, smacked David on the shoulder. "Stop being childish just because he doesn''t want to be a clone of you. Smile at your son, honey."

    David simply looked away, folded his arms, and harrumphed. Aileen chuckled and Dante rolled his eyes again before going upstairs to his room.

    He was an only child and had no other person staying here apart from the three of them, so his room was ratherrge with its own walk-in closet and bathroom.

    He removed his clothes and tossed everything to the side before slipping into a singlet and a pair of mesh pop shorts that didn''t require one to necessarily wear underwear because they had a inside.

    He then sat at his desk and opened his $3000ptop with an Intel I-9 17900k, 128 GB 5000MHz DDR5 RAM, and an Nvidia RTX 6090 TI Super Mobile.

    The specs were thetest of this year and it was definitely a beast. Dante had no issues gaming or working on it and his attempts to code had gone without a hitch so far.

    He then opened the Huawei G20''s box and unpackaged it slowly. It was always nice to unbox new tech, as long as you could ignore the wails of your wallet from the intense blow it suffered.

    After unboxing, Dante plugged the new phone into the charge and saw it was at 75%. He let it charge to full, which only took like 15 minutes on Type-C fast charging, and then started it up.

    He had already backed up his old phone onto hisptop previously, so he went ahead and plugged it in on the spot. He set it up using his backup, so in a matter of minutes, this phone was just like his old one, and ready to be used.

    He then opened the productivity apps that came with the phone and saw the app he needed, he opened it up and imported the finished code as well as the necessary files from hisptop, then chose to build the package directly on the phone.

    True to its advertising, it only took it around 1 and a half minutes toplete this, so Dante chose to run the app. The loading screen came up and Dante waited patiently.

    Now would be a good time to talk about the app Dante was making. As Dante''s lecturer had once joked, App Developers made apps in response to a need, not a want. It was the only way for an app to break through and be a legendary Super App!

    So what did people need in this day and age that wasn''t already covered? Dante had thought long and hard about it, doing extensive research, talking on many boards and social apps with randoms to see what theycked.

    The answer was always straightforward: ''I need something that can fix my f**king life, bruv. That''s not something an app can do.''

    So Dante''s response to this was to make an all-purpose app. It was Facebook/Twitter, Snapchat/Instagram, Whatsapp/Telegram, Ebay/Aliexpress, Doordash/Ubereats, Spotify/Deezer, Youtube/Vimeo, Twitch/Mixer, Tinder/Grindr, and Chrome/Firefox in one.

    It was a social media app with streamable music, pages for various emerce stores to sell wares, a page for people to watch uploaded videos - be they short like TikTok or long like youtube - and even watch live streams as well.

    Also, it had an inbuilt browser.

    From an objective point of view, the idea wasn''t bad, but its fate would be decided by the execution. However, doing something like this would require near-perfect execution, especially on the backend.

    Dante had agonized over building this thing for weeks and had finally put something together. After spending so much time and effort, he no longer even thought about failure.

    It was either this thing seeded orˇ­ he didn''t even know what he would do next.

    Now that the screen was loading, he couldn''t help but anticipate whether it would activate without a hitch. For one, you should know that even if one develops an app, one can''t just think of the technical details, but also of the aesthetic and external details.

    So in order to make the app stand out from anypetitors or just from the millions of productivity apps out there, he coded in a special intro.

    When the person clicked on the app, they would see the app''s logo for about 2 seconds before a transition would ur and they would be brought to a semi-realistic 2D background of a floating ind.

    Lines would appear on the screen saying ''are you ready to enter the world of eternal enjoyment?'' and then they would pass through an animation simr to entering the animus or when a certain character esses the full-dive.

    Then, you go to the login page or the home screen depending on whether you''ve logged in already.

    Yeah, yeah, the line and the various stuff were super corny, you didn''t have to tell Dante about it, he knew. It was just a ceholder till he got a better idea, besides, it was not the point!

    The app finally loaded up, much to his excitement, and took him to the screen. Right away, he noticed some issues with how the appgged and that the resolution of the floating ind was not optimized at all.

    This didn''t dishearten him, as he never expected the first test build to be perfect. No experienced programmer was that arrogant. In fact, most lived in fear of their code, believing that every line hid a potential bug.

    If it run too smoothly, rather than be happy, the coder in question would sneer and know that it was a trick!

    The bugs were hiding until the final version was published, then they would bare their fangs on the end user''s devices and tarnish your reputation!

    Dante clicked the button to switch from the intro scene to the actual login page, but something wrong seemed to ur at this point. A familiar and fearsome prompt appeared before him that every coder hated.

    [Error at line 34598: Syntax Error!

    Description: "#ˇĚ P? |¦× ˇµ = |?zˇµ|+z hahaha Quantum Entangle my balls b*tch!#" cannot be read!

    Ignore and continue?]

    Dante was embarrassed and then furious.

    ''I put the bloody line in a hash! Why the hell are you reading it? Which editor does that?!''

    Ignore and continue of course!

    It was just something he typed into the editor near the ''jump''mand that led to the login page because he felt like... well.

    The first screen switching to the second screen - coupled with the animation - sorta looked like passing through a whole world, so he ended up thinking about the Quantum Entanglement equation.

    He was tired, sleepy, and hungry at the time, so he angrily typed that out and felt much better before forgetting about it and continuing onward.

 Chapter 3 Avalon City

    ?Dante was not prepared at all for what happened next. The moment he chose to ignore and continue, his phone began to process themand before suddenly freezing.

    He only had time to furrow his brows and wonder what the hell was wrong before his phone screen virtually exploded in a purple-ck light and swallowed him whole.

    No sound was made as he was sucked in and he disappeared from his room without even causing a stir. His parents downstairs had no idea that their son was about to be thrust into a world of danger and opportunity!

    ...ˇ­..

    "W-What the hell?" Dante shouted, his voiceing out distorted and slow while echoing on itself. He felt like he was being sucked through a straw, hurtling within a tunnel that looked no different from the animation he used for his app.

    The next second, he was thrown out harshly onto the ground, hitting his head against a wall and concussing himself. He fell to his knees and retched slightly before hazily looking around.

    He would have been better off refraining from doing so as the visual impact caused him to cover his eyes.

    ''So goddamn bright!''

    The amount of neon light that infiltrated his retina in that one second was like a sh bang, even to a city boy like Dante. He could only rub his eyes painfully and let his squeamishness recede before raising his head once more.

    Dante was naturally stunned by what he saw. He was currently in a rtively dirty alleyway, with highly futuristic trashcans that glowed with neon bar lights around the lids and around the edges.

    Apart from him was a strange-looking cat that had one metallic eye that glowed with a red light and was staring at him with disbelief. In all its nine lives, it had yet to see such a thing happen.

    Before either Dante or the cat could react, an alert was heard.

    "ALERT! ALERT! Detected a mass breakout of unknown bacteria from Sector 86! Anyone nearby, please evacuate!"

    A lovely female voice that sounded strangely synthetic spoke out from all around Dante, and he could tell that this warning sounded out from every disy in the distance.

    At this moment, Dante''s mind cleared and he inferred many things.

    Well, everyoneined about Gen Z and their destructive tendencies, as well as their weird social cues, but one strength they did have was adaptabilityˇ­ well moreso, than the average human at least.

    Watch enough isekai anime, transformers movies, star wars, and star trek, and you''d also have the basic capabilities to quickly ept a situation like this.

    "Either I''ve progressed in our timeline and gone to earth''s future, died and entered another sci-fi-like world with an identical body and identity, traveled to another world with my original human body, or I''ve been sucked into a digital or quantum-like world through my phone," Dante muttered as he observed both exists of the alleyway carefully.

    "Judging by the warning, I have brought alien bacteria from my timeline to this ce, so option 2 is out. It''s either option 1, 3, or 4 and I need to determine which one it is to decide the next move." Dante whispered as he nced at the cat that was eyeing him up and down.

    Looking at its red eye, Dante''s heart felt a chill. Could the cat''s synthetic eye be connected to argerwork, and thereby used to monitor him? So they might have footage of him appearing from nowhere?

    Damn!

    Dante fled.

    He had no idea of the level of tech. It could be early cyberpunk which was like the game of the same name that was popr a while back, moderate sci-fi which was like that movie with the blue people, or top-level sci-fi like star wars or mass effect.

    If it was early, he would be lucky. They shouldn''t haveser weapons that could disintegrate him in one hit. Anything above early and he was done for. He was just a 21-year-old coder from earth, what advantage did he have here?

    Well, he had - possibly - killer bacteria from earth, but they detected it within seconds, so they likely had ways to contain and decontaminate the ce.

    Dante reached the end of the alley and emerged on a rtively busy street. The people were still stunned from receiving such a weird and unique warning that they had yet to move, so Dante had time to inspect the area around him.

    Dante''s heart sank.

    Flying cars that zoomed up ahead, people on hoverboards doing tricks and moving where they went, AI-driven robots of different models that walked or performed different activities, neon lights and buildings that had uniquely minimalistic designs, people using teleporters to move up and downˇ­

    And worst of all, alien races!

    Different skin colors consisting of the entire color spectrum, humanoid, quadrupedal, scales, cat ears, wolf ears, insectoids, walking cephalopodˇ­

    You name it, they were present.

    In fact, there was a distinctck of ''pure human'' like him, and the closest to it were the ones with animal features in different parts.

    Once again, Dante was stunned. He didn''t even live in an era where holographic technology was perfected, much less an era of Virtual Reality, so he had no cognitive failsafe for the extreme visual impact before him.

    Movies and anime helped him ept the situation, but seeing things in 2 dimensions and seeing them in 3 dimensions was a whole different ballgame.

    Funny enough, when he exited the alleyway, the nearest species around him were also stunned to see something they had likely never seen before.

    However, their reaction was faster than Dante''s.

    "Oh my Sacred Light! Is that a pure-blooded human?!" A giant wolfman shouted in a deep bass voice.

    "I-Impossible, what would one be doing here in Avalon City?"  A female cat-woman gasped with dismay.

    "I don''t care, I''m going to be rich!" A Squid-like being that had its head area covered by a purple bowl-like helmet with water eximed through its device''s speakers.

    Immediately, the squid extended many tentacles toward Dante in an effort to capture him. The other aliens'' eyes lit up as they seemed to have woken up from their stupor, and were reced by a sort of mob-like madness as they charged at the young man.

    "Don''t touch him, he''s mine!" A female giantess who was the size of a small building roared and swung her hand out, smashing many aliens aside.

    "Ha, you are too weak to im this prize!" A scaled man with a mouthful of yellow serrated teethughed as he pulled two guns from his trenchcoat and fired at the giantess'' hands which were about to grab Dante.

    The giantess screamed in pain as twoser beams with a reddish hue tore through her skin, leaving two gaping holes within. The moment the croc-man fired, another alert sounded as the synthetic voice spoke again.

    "Alert, Alert! Detected use of lethal weaponry in a civilian area. Dispatching Bionic City Guards!"

    The moment the alert was sounded, the faces of all the aliens around changed greatly. Many turned to escape while those closer to Dante seemed conflicted for a split second before their eyes became bloodshot. They continued to grad towards him and fought with each other brutally to drag him away.

    As for Dante, he slowly backed away with a pale expression. As a proud Gen-Z upper middle-ssd, he hadn''t even gotten into any situation where hundreds of people would be gunning for his life or body.

    To suddenly experience thatˇ­ he was naturally stunned. However, even if he had the sharp senses of an experienced person from earth, it would be useless, because these aliens, moved so fast and so nimbly that it was like he was in a ninja or wuxia movie.

    There was even an extremely obese female with red skin that had green splotches on her body that moved faster than any athlete Dante had ever seen.

    If it wasn''t for the fact that they seemed to prioritize his safety and wholeness, as well as their constant disruption of each other''s attempts to get forward, he would have likely been swooped away by now.

    Looking at this scene, Dante only had one thought in his head.

    "I need to get out of here. I need to go home asap. I need to return to earth!"

    There was nothing but trouble for him here and he would be better of going back home. All thoughts of adventure and wonderment were beaten out of his mind by the reality that he was overwhelmed, poorly informed, outssed, and in perpetual danger.

    It seemed as if the heavens answered Dante''s prayers as right before everyone''s eyes, he simply disappeared with a ''pop'' sound, like a bubble that had burst.

    All that was left of Dante''s short but eventful visit to the city of Avalon was the harmful bacteria, a crazy mob that was stupefied as well as iing bionic guards who were coking weapons at the crowd, ready to fireˇ­

 Chapter 4 AI Chip

    ?Dante was unceremoniously deposited back into his room, and his face was still as pale as it had been from the moment every single being on that street treated him as their life''s goal.

    He was panting heavily and sweat formed on his body despite not partaking in any strenuous physical activity. His mind buzzed with thoughts that were flying through rapidly and he realized that he was having difficulty actually getting air into his lungs.

    [Detected that the user is in a state of severe mental imbnce due to heightened fear and panic. Releasing required amounts of mtonin.]

    Suddenly, Dante felt his body rx involuntarily and he felt incredibly sleepy. He only had enough energy to lift himself up from the floor and fall onto his bed before he began snoring lowly.

    [Host is in a peaceful state, and is asleep. Beginning in-depth assimtion to the neural system! Estimated time: 10 hours.]

    ...........

    Dante woke up and blinked three times, his brain barely functioning. Before he could even think, he jumped off his bed and rushed to his toilet before going to take a long and deep piss.

    The more time he spent excreting, the more his brain fired up and memories came back to him. Now that he was out of the intense situation, he was far calmer about everything and couldn''t help but feel strange.

    First question, what exactly happened?

    Second question, why had it happened?

    Third question, how had it happened?

    Every other question would have its content partially answered as long as he could satisfy these three. In order to investigate what happened, the first thing was to check his phone and the app he made, which were the most likely culprits.

    As such, Dante patted himself for his phone and realized it wasn''t on his body. He then checked his desk, his bed, and the floor where hended.

    He began to panic slightly when he realized his phone was missing inexplicably, but then he remembered something from yesternight.

    "That''s right, a voice spoke in my head, and it was also synthetic. Could it be that the Huawei gained some new features after passing through what should be a quantum wormhole?" Dante pondered.

    Then how was he supposed to contact it? Uh, in the fictional stuff, they often had to either think or speak ''status''.

    "Status," Dante spoke and thought at the same time.

    Nothing.

    Dante was slightly embarrassed before iming himself down and pondering once more. He had an idea and decided to be more direct and not be obtuse.

    "Huawei G20, respond."

    [Greetings, Dante. What can I do for you?]

    Dante was startled that it actually worked. A part of him wanted to believe that everything he experienced was a fever dream he made up due to fatigue or excitement, but this practically cemented that everything was real.

    "What exactly are you? How are you able to do this and what happened before I went to sleep?" Dante asked three of the most pertinent questions rapidly.

    [To answer your first question, I am an embedded AI chip formed from the hardware of the previous Huawei G20 that was modified by an external force and merged into your body.]

    [To answer your second question, I am currently merged with the entirety of your body''s brain and neural system. This is my current limitation as I require further upgrades to be able to extend to your other organs and systems for maximumpatibility.]

    [To answer your third question, you ran a program on my previous model which was misread and processed, opening a spacetime anomaly that warped you to another universe. Upon return, you were heavily panicking and hyperventting, so I flushed your brain with mtonin and forced you to sleep.]

    Dante was amazed. He received the answers directly in his mind and there was no dy or misunderstanding. He understood each word and phrase without any ambiguity that came from listening or speaking to others.

    He saved this miraculous feeling and then thought about the phone''s... AI''s... answers. He realized that there was a good chance it could answer some questions since it seemed to understand some of what urred in-depth.

    "Alright, thank you for the answers. Before I continue, may I know what kind of authority you have over my body and how I can ess or control you?" Dante asked calmly with his hands on his thighs.

    [I have only partial ess to your body outside of emergency situations, limited to scanning, assisting, and boosting. In Emergency situations, I can take the most logical options to preserve your safety in the most optimal and beneficial way.]

    [Your control is full and unlimited. You only need to think of any application of which you want me to perform, and it shall be done.]

    "Hmm..." Dante rubbed his chin and thought about it.

    "I don''t have any qualms with this, maintain these settings as they are, thank you," Dante instructed with a smile.

    Dante wasn''t enough of a blockhead to do something stupid like limiting his AI''s ability to save his life in a critical situation. He did not believe his thinking or reasoning capacity was better or faster than an AI.

    "Hm, Alright then. You changed from a phone with an AI? Do you still have a physical form or are you in the form of nanobots or the like?"

    [Unfortunately, I am the most basic AI model avable on the market, so I have a physical chip lodged in the center of your brain. Also, because I was not naturally produced and rather converted from a phone, my capabilities and functions are far weaker than even the AI chip I am supposed to emte.]

    This naturally made Dante frown. No one liked hearing that something they owned or possessed was far inferior to everyone else''s, even to the basic standard of mass-produced items.

    "Why did this happen? I saw you said you were modified by an external entity? What exactly was that?"

    [Upon intrusion into the alternate world, we were noticed by some form of high-dimensional entity. After we were inspected, it chose to allow us passage and chose the ce where wended. It also modified my form into an AI chip and imnted it into your body perfectly.]

    [I was also given basic information about the universe we entered, itsws,nguages, and customs. That was how you were able to understand what they were saying.]

    Dante was shocked by this. A high-dimensional lifeform? So in other words, assuming he wasn''t turned into primordial soup by the travel, he could have just been silently erased if he was detected to be a threat by that entity?

    Dante shook his head. He then thought for a short while, contemting what was important to him and what wasn''t.

    "You said you have scanning functions, right? Can you scan my body and let me know my statepared to the average humanoid organism in that universe?"

    [I have already done so while you were asleep. I will now disy your information in the standardized method used in the Eternal universe and exin what they are or what they correspond to.]

    ??ˇéUser: Dante

    Age: 21 (Converted to Earth years)

    Race: Pure Human (99.9% gic perfection)

    Strength Index: 0.3

    Agility Index: 0.2

    Dexterity Index: 0.3

    Intelligence Index: 0.5

    Constitution Index: 0.1

    Vitality Index: 0.1

    Bionic Level: 0

    Psionic level: 0

    AI Chip level: 0.1

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement.??ˇę

    [This is the SDI, the Standard Disy Index, for all living beings in the Eternal universe when they undergo any scan. Each category has a different meaning. The ''User'' denotes who the AI chip is registered to.]

    [The ''Age'' is converted in earth years, so if you ever exchange information with another person, their age will be automatically converted to this value.]

    [The ''Race'' naturally denotes the species and gic stock of an entity, and at times, the quality of their racial gics might be disyed.]

    [The six body indexes are calcted based on your current value versus the basic standard of your species. In this case, it is beingpared to the standard of pure humans in the eternal universe. Naturally, a full point is the average.]

    [Bionics are physical enhancers that are installed into the body. Theyprehensively increase the physical prowess and indexes of a person depending on the level and type.]

    [Psionics are mental enhancers that are installed into the body. They alsoprehensively increase the mental prowess and indexes of a person depending on the level and type.]

    [AI Chip level is an indicator of my current performance quality against the basic standard per level.

    [Superpowers are special gic mutations obtained by organisms that allowed them to perform incalcble feats that neither bionics nor psionics can mimic.]

    [Your current superpower is the ability to open a quantum wormhole to the Eternal Universe and back.]

    Dante looked at the information and took in a deep breath. He just shut up and digested the information and its meaning for about 10 minutes, thinking rapidly the entire time.

    Then he focused on one important fact.

    "You say I can go back? Back to that ce?" he asked with incredulity.

 Chapter 5 The Next Step

    ?[That is correct. It is a power that has been granted you by that high-dimensional being, no longer linked to me or your app.]

    Dante suddenly jolted. "Right, that app!"

    He then rushed to hisptop and lifted the screen, waking it from sleep mode. Just as he was about to type, he saw a bunch of random strings of code sh by on hisptop as if it were some cheap hackerman movie.

    Dante was initially stunned then pped his forehead.

    "Is this your doing?" He asked the AI chip in his head.

    [That is correct. I can interface with any electronic device, wirelesswork, or even wiredwork so long as it''s either releasing a signal or has an ess point. This is only at level 1, higher level AI chips can remotely ess even the most secure intrs from kilometers away.]

    Dante leaned back in his seat and rubbed his chin. "Huh. That''s super neat and convenient. You are every user''s dream."

    [This is just the surface-level use. I only acted upon yourptop because I detected that you wished to ess something on it. AI chips are designed to be one step ahead of their users, acting on their wishes and fulfilling their wants as well as their needs to the highest degree of perfection and efficiency.]

    Dante shrugged. "Keep it up, I like the proactivity."

    [I have checked the original code for the multipurpose app you created and copied it into my database, deleting it from yourptop system.]

    Dante nodded. That was basically what he wanted to do, copy and paste the code elsewhere then delete it. He didn''t want any liabilities leading to him down the road.

    ''Down the road huhˇ­''

    Dante pushed his seat back from the table and let it spin around slowly. He finally had to think about the most important thing right now, which was his next step.

    Knowing about this alternate universe as well as his ability to go ande from it changed everything. His dream to make an app and get a few million dors from it seemed childish and useless with what he just experienced.

    The most logical way to move forward would be to make the most of this gift from the higher dimensional being. Dante did not know why it did this, but then did humans ever im to know what the gods were thinking?

    It might have done so for shits and giggles, but it didn''t matter. What mattered was what Dante would do with it.

    Dante slowly rubbed his temples, where he assumed the AI chip to be, and then smiled. It was a very dark smile that any young adult born after 2000 would make if they were in the same situation as him.

    What other option was logical? Of course, it was the make the most of his opportunity!

    To gain the best of both worlds!

    He might be a backward, uneducated dog in the Eternal Universe, but that could be changed with time as he integrated into their world. More importantly, just a smidgen of tech and knowledge from their world could help him build an empire in this one!

    No!

    Dante stood up in shock.

    No, he had been thinking too small!

    Where hended was just a random cosmopolitan city on a random he didn''t even know the name of, in a random gxy within the Eternal Universe.

    With the knowledge and advantages he could glean from the Eternal Universe, he could take over earth and expand outward! Conquer the sr system, then the Milky Way, then the entire Home Universe!

    Then, use the resources of the Home Universe to counter-invade and take over the Eternal Universe!

    My god!

    Dante sat down with a frown. However, how many years will that take? Just growing his pedigree in the Eternal Universe to acquire information about top-level tech might take a while.

    Not to mention, how was he supposed to expand outward without manpower? Humans can only give birth so fastˇ­

    [Cloning technology.]

    Dante''s eyes lit up. That was one way, but eh.

    He''d watched the movies and yed the games. Trying to mass control organic species would always backfire when they developed things like ''a sense of self'' and start to desire luxuries like ''freedom''.

    [Then Androids are the best option.]

    Dante nodded. Synthetic humanoids made of metal with human skin and features were much better. He could control them with a single powerful AI that was linked to their central processors which would ensure peak efficiency and loyalty.

    Of course, that was all far in the future. Whether it was on earth or on the other, he was broke. Even if he returned to that city and - assuming people didn''t lunge after him again - he had absolutely zero of whatever currency they had.

    Assuming he could even get things like gene serums, bionics, and psionics, how would he buy them? Was he supposed to sell his booty on the corner for quick cash?

    No, Dante needed to n things properly. First, he had to contrast andpare, as in what did earth have that the people in that universe valued or needed?

    Well... apart from pure human DNA, which was why they were about to ost him, nothing else really.

    Dante briefly considered robbing a sperm bank and selling the stuff in that city''s ck market, but he wouldn''t even sell his own. After all, something so precious that could get random civilians frothing at the mouth for it was something that would make the news.

    Dante had to make sure it was squeezed for its maximum value, and by the time he reentered that world, those who could make the most of that value would soon swarm to that to investigate his traces.

    This was why he hadn''t yet popped back in to take a peek. Not only that, but he had to make somemon sense preparations first.

    Dante stood up and walked downstairs to see that his mother was washing the dishes while his father was cutting up some fruits. Dante smiled, took one of the sliced apples, and took a bite with relish.

    "Well, good to see someone is up and in a good mood." His father remarked with a stoic expression.

    "Of course. You always told me growing up that the best way to start the day is with a positive mind, as it affects your sess in all endeavors." Dante replied while opening the fridge for some milk.

    David smiled slightly but suppress it and nodded. "Good to see you remember. It will help you now that you''re an adult."

    "Mhm, speaking of an adult. I want to aplish something and acquire some advanced life skills. To that end, I rented a one-bedroom studio apartment in the mini-estate on the west side of the city."

    Dante wore a solemn expression and faced his father. "Dad, I think it''s about time the bird left the nest and learned how to fly on its own. What do you think?"

    David paused and looked at Dante with a raised eyebrow. He then nodded and smiled slightly.

    "Sure, as long as you remain safe and know what you''re doing."

    Eh? That''s all? No fierce rejection?

    "What about you mom? How do you feel?" Dante asked cautiously.

    His mother ced thest dish in the rack and then removed her gloves before inverting them and carefully cing them to the side. She turned and walked to Dante with a gentle look.

    "Well, I''m not too happy that my baby is leaving. However, I''ve greedily kept you around for 21 years, I can''t always keep you forever."

    She then hesitated and made a soft request. "Justˇ­ just make sure to call often as well as toe and check in on us okay?"

    Dante felt his heart soften. "Aww mom, you''re so cute."

    He moved to hug his mother and kissed her on each side of her cheek, which she received with a roll of her eyes. Dante then turned to look at his dad, who looked back at him calmly.

    ˇ­Dante wisely chose not to try that with him. He was sure he wouldn''t be leaving the house with his head attached if he did.

    "Right then, I''m going to go pack and then move out asap. There are a lot of things I want to try and learn in theing month." Dante confessed with a smile.

    "Sure, go ahead. When you''re done, we''ll go ahead and drop you there so we see where you are in case of an emergency." Davidmented calmly.

    Dante nodded and walked upstairs, his heart feeling heavy. However, he knew he couldn''t be going in and out of an alternate universe in his parent''s house.

    He didn''t have much to pack, only hisptop, some books, and some clothes. He didn''t even pack toiletries and the like because he could buy new ones and also because he woulde home often if things got too hot at his other ce.

 Chapter 6 Beatrice

    ?Dante moved downstairs and saw that his parents had already gone to the car, so he moved his stuff outside and with the help of his dad, lugged his suitcase into the back of the sedan.

    Then came a short drive where his mother exhorted him on the way about hygiene, girls, and safety. Dante listened to it all seriously, because hey, while it may be slightly annoying, there was actually some good stuff hidden in there that people often reflected onter in life.

    The apartment was in a small townhouse estate that had simrly built ultra-modern style houses. White walls, polished wood flooring, and a LOT of ss.

    David and Aileen both nodded their heads with satisfaction praising their son''s taste. They almost thought he would go for some ramshackle ce to cut costs.

    Dante rolled his eyes. With the kind of allowance they gave him and the savings he had built up, how could he have fallen into debt if he rented a normal ce?

    His father helped him carry his things up to the bedroom while his mother inspected the ce carefully and was satisfied by the cleanliness.

    The two hung around for a few more hours, calibrating the TV, the water, and checking the wifi, and so on. They used anything as an excuse to stick around till the veryst moment.

    Eventually, they could only leave with unwillingness on their faces - at least on his mom''s visage - while his father wore his trademark poker face, which gave Dante the necessary space to breathe.

    He sighed and slumped down on his sofa. Before he could even say anything, the AI chip responded.

    [I have connected to all systems in the house and can control anything and everything as and when you need.]

    Dante rxed further with a satisfied smile. Afterzing on the sofa for a while, he saw that it was still bright out, and the time said it was 2 pm.

    Dante then sat up and pondered carefully.

    ''I still have some money. I should probably buy a gun or something then get some body armor before returning to that ce.''

    Dante felt like this was a good idea until the AI chip spoke.

    [Unfortunately, your Quantum Entanglement ability is still undeveloped and is in its infancy, so you cannot take along foreign items except your clothes and anything directly attached to your body.]

    "Alrightˇ­ so just body armor?" Dante muttered.

    [That will not work either. Thicker materials of such kind would disintegrate in the Quantum Wormhole. Currently, only simple clothing can go along with you.]

    Dante was disheartened by this. "So I can only go there practically naked and vulnerable, open to the elements of that world?"

    [Yes.]

    Dante sighed deeply. Always had to be a catch, didn''t there?

    Whatever.

    "We''ll return to that ce tomorrow. I want you to spend the night downloading as much useful information from the Inte as you can pertaining to survival, electronics, building, and whatnot." Dante instructed as he walked upstairs with an expression of resolve.

    [It shall be done.]

    Even if the methods of this universe were backward, it was best to have some foundation before heading over.

    Dante let the night pass until the morning of the next day.

    After a short breakfast at a nearby diner, he returned to his apartment and then locked himself up in his room. He first called his parents because he knew they would likely do so within the next few days to check up on him, so it was better to do it now rather than let them panicter.

    Then, while seated on his desk chair, Dante asked. "So how do I activate it?"

    [It is your power, so you only have to will it.]

    "Okay thenˇ­" Dante shrugged and thought about how he wanted to go to the Eternal Universe.

    He immediately disappeared from where he sat with a ''pop'' sound, his existence within the home universe disappearingpletely.

    When Dante reappeared, he was right back on the pavement, near the alleyway beside the exact street he hadst been on. He only had time to curse that his ability returned him to the same spot before a soft fist grabbed him by the throat a lifted him up.

    Dante struggled and grabbed the arm that was lifting him up, but was surprised by its softness and sticity. When he looked down, he paused for a split second and stopped struggling.

    The one holding him was a woman with creamy white skin, pale golden eyes that sparkled strangely, and a swath of waist-length purple hair that was like the finest silk.

    What left Dante stupefied was not only the fact that she was the first seemingly pure human he had seen in this world, but that her angr face - and cheeky smirk - were symmetrically perfect without any blemishes.

    That was simply impossible. Even cosmetic surgery wouldn''t make one thisˇ­ wless. Dante wanted to pull her face and see if a mask woulde off, but he was not in a situation to do so anyway.

    To his surprise, she dropped him the very next second, allowing him tond on his feet and take stock of his surroundings properly.

    First off, the entire area had been cordoned off, and there were no pedestrians around. The shops were closed and the buildings were evacuated.

    Secondly, apart from this woman, some cyborgs hung around holding rifles that glowed with a red light, looking like sma guns from sci-fi games.

    The moment he appeared, all of those muzzles were aimed at him with cold efficiency.

    Seeing that the crowd was not so friendly, Dante shivered internally and turned to face the woman.

    Surprisingly, she was almost the same height as himself, and he was over six feet. She wore a skin-tight purple uniform that looked like spandex of sorts, with a leather jacket with military badges and symbols.

    In terms of womanly charm and sexual appeal, she was definitely top-notch with a rtivelyrge bosom, a t, muscr stomach, and wide hips that stretched the edge of her pants.

    Her tight uniform did nothing to hide these features and rather highlighted them, making it such that regardless of whether you were a girl, boy or all those in between, your eyes would be drawn there.

    "Had enough of a good look?" a light Contralto-ranged voice spoke, alerting Dante to his rudeness.

    However, rather than be embarrassed, he was more confused.

    "Are you real? Or are you just a fantasy?" he asked.

    "Me? I am Admiral Beatrice Portinari of the 34th Prime Fleet. I am not a holograph or a form changer, but a real human. A pure human." The woman answered calmly while folding her arms beneath her bosom.

    She then narrowed her eyes and leaned forward. "Just like you. I wonder how it is a pure-blooded human came to be on this backwater in the middle of this cheap gxy?"

    Dante shrugged. "I teleported here using my superpower."

    Beatrice raised an eyebrow. " A superpower? You have no civilian Bionics or Psionics, an underperforming AI chip, an SDI below average in all fields, and im to have a superpower?"

    Dante nodded calmly. "I do im so. I''d like to know if I have broken anyws by existing here?"

    Beatrice looked Dante up and down. "Well, apart from your poor fashion, nothing I have jurisdiction over. Though without identification and a visa, you are illegally trespassing on Etonia, so they''ll likely chew you up."

    Beatrice grinned widely, showing her shark-like teeth. "I can assure you, if you end up in their hands, you will never see the light of day again, not with your value."

    Dante felt a chill at that. He thought quickly and understood what this woman was trying to do.

    "Well, that''s only if they have jurisdiction over me. Judging by the fact that you are a high-ranking military personnel and also a pure human, I take it I can avoid such troubles by following you?"

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Beatrice''s smile remained but her eyes shed with a certain light. "Oh? For your low intelligence index, you do think quickly. Yes, you follow me back to my battleship and we can begin investigating the circumstances around your existence."

    ''So either be imprisoned and milked of my value without ever seeing a fair trial, or follow one of ''my people'' and be interrogated at length as to why an anomaly like me exists.''

    Great, what a lovely set of choices.

    Of course, there was a third optionˇ­

    "Oh right, I wouldn''t advise you to use that teleporting superpower of yours. After all, it seems to be in its infancy and is not very flexible. If you leave ande back, you may not be lucky enough to find me here waiting for you." Beatrice advised as she turned around.

    Without waiting for his reply, she began walking away. Dante folded his arms and contemted his choices carefully before choosing to follow.

    Of course, as a fellow bro and a man of fine taste, he had to vent his shock as his eyes fell on therge and swaying backside of the woman before him.

    "God damnˇ­"

 Chapter 7 The Inferno Battleship

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel ?Dante kept his eyes to himself most of the time. It couldn''t be helped since she practically walked a few meters in front of him and walked like she was on the runway.

    However, the cold cyborgs by her side with their white coating and glowingser rifles certainly made him not really enjoy the experience. Getting shot by metal was one thing but getting hit by pure energy? Dante feared that even more.

    Soon, they reached a teleporter nearby that was cleared for their use by even more cyborgs. There were no living organisms that seemed to be a part of this woman''s squad, which was an interesting thing to note.

    Beatrice turned to him with that smirk of hers still on her face. "Come on, you know how to use a teleporter right, mister ''my superpower is being able to teleport acrosss''?"

    Dante shrugged. "I never said that I could teleport acrosss."

    Beatriceughed mockingly. "Right, so you, who does not exist in any public or private database, have no citizen registration documents throughout the entire Etr, and don''t even have any documents regarding Etonia, got here from where? The''s core?"

    Dante frowned but remained silent. He simply observed the teleporter carefully and tried to understand what he was looking at. It was a simple circr tform that could house about 3 people side by side with strange energy waves emitting from the base into the air, up to about the height of four men.

    "What? Scared? Get in boy, we don''t have all day." Beatrice mocked as she unceremoniously pushed Dante into the teleporter, which startled the fellow. But before he could make any reaction towards this, the energy waves swept over him and he felt weightless for a second beforending on his feet.

    He almost fell forward due to the sudden change, but threw his right leg forward and stopped himself. Meanwhile, Beatrice appeared behind him, walking out of the teleporter with augh.

    "Ha! You''re really strange and suspicious, you know that? A teleporter is the most basic public amenity in the universe, yet you actually inspected one and almost feel! Are you a child?"

    Dante sourly turned to Beatrice and red at her, but she just grinned back.

    "Come on, let''s go." Beatrice took the lead once more, but Dante paused as his eyes narrowed.

    He was starting to get a dangerous feeling from this woman in terms of her disposition. Her constant smarmy grin, beauty, and sexiness made one feel at ease and interested.

    She felt like a fun person to be with and one wouldn''t need to feel uptight or worried in her presence. That she was ''chill''.

    But so far, her every word and action since Dante met her was not ''chill''. She had constantly been probing past his origins and pointing out his ws that made it clear he was not familiar with anything in this world.

    She also constantly mocked him for thinking his flimsy verbal defenses would work. Not only that, but when he first appeared, she immediately grabbed him by the throat so fast and lifted him up that he couldn''t even process it.

    She said something about Civilian Bionics and Psionics? Then, were there special military or professional Bionics and Psionics?

    As an Admiral, she would likely have top-tier Bionics and Psionics right? So putting aside his low indexes, she probably had stats that he couldn''t even fathom as he stood here.

    What was most interesting was that the moment she lifted him up, Dante sensed in a split second a tension on his neck as if she was about to squeeze the life out of him.

    However, she paused when she identified him as not only a pure human, but a male and a young one. Ever since then, her charm has been turned up to the max, where it was unting her chest or her ass when she was walking then and now.

    Was this a sort of thirst trap? To keep Dante from running away?

    So did it mean she couldn''t do anything to stop him from teleporting away? They didn''t have technology that could lockdown space? Or even track him to his home dimension and invade?

    That was the main reason he hadn''t jumped back yet. If he rashly did so and gave them the coordinates to the home universe, rather than take over anything, he would be the one facing a takeover.

    Following that same train of thought, could she be acting like this to lure him into using his power out of wariness, and then obtain the coordinates? Maybe the power behind her invaded worlds like his for fun and she would be rewarded?

    She was human, and military too. The simple fact was, Dante didn''t know shit about this world. The AI had thenguage, culture, and general history of this world, but it was only enough to make him equivalent to a first-worlder entering the third world for the first time: all you know was that it was bad, but not how bad and why it was bad.

    "Hm? What, are you having second thoughts now?" Beatrice asked as she noticed Dante wasn''t following her anymore.

    Dante nced at her and made a decision to follow her. She had presented a generally non-threatening front, was of a simr likeness to himself, and seemed to have some vested interest in his survival.

    From him, she would gain an understanding of why he was here and whatever else the faction behind her wanted, and he would gain some knowledge of this world.

    Dante silently straightened himself and followed along behind Beatrice, who exhaled lightly. He now had time to observe the spaceport he was in and saw that while there were many different spaceships of all sizes and makes parked, there was hardly anyone around.

    Only the familiar cyborgs with rifles patrolling the ce and cordoning it off.

    Dante was awed by the technology here. He saw rows of duty-free shops by the side selling clothes, gadgets, and even weapons. What was interesting was that the items weren''t actually put up on disy, but rather a holograph of them.

    There were many terminals in the ships where buyers could likely input what they wanted, pay for it with their AI chips, and then have it either delivered to them here or wherever they wanted it to go.

    Dante wanted to browse through the various items desperately, but he did not even have a single cent of their currency. He did not even know what currency was used on Etonia and it definitely wasn''t in the basic information the high-dimensional lifeform gave.

    What the AI chip was given was basically a confirmation of this universe''s structure, concepts,ws, and most importantly, its science. Biology, chemistry, and physics were confirmed to be the same as the home universe with some slight differences.

    It was given a universalnguage trantor and some basic cultural knowledge like dressing, music, food, and basic philosophy across all races.

    Dante continued to inspect all corners of therge and magnificent spaceport that was straight out of the best CGI sci-fi movie and then noticed that Beatrice had stopped.

    She then turned dramatically to face him and gestured behind her.

    "Say hello to your new prison- uh, I mean home, The Inferno!" Beatrice eximed grandly.

    Dante looked up to take in the sight of the floating mega battleship that was about asrge as Dante could fathom. It was painted blood red and seemed to glow with scorching mes.

    In terms of design, it was most simr to the Falkenhayn Dreadnought from the earth. The sheer amount of mounted guns and engines on the goddamn thing gave Dante a surreal feeling, especially the giant thruster at the back which was big enough to swallow a whole city with ease.

    While Dante admired the beastly machine, three cyborgs came over and greeted Beatrice.

    "Admiral Portinari, the ship has refiled and is ready to move. What are your orders?" The cyborg asked in a standard masculine voice with a deep edge that was clearly AI-generated.

    "Send down a shuttle to pick us up. Also, prepare forunch, we don''t n to stay here once we board." Beatrice answered, her usual smile thinning significantly and an element of seriousness entering her tone.

    "Understood. What about the restriction?" The cyborg pressed calmly.

    Beatrice nced at it askance and smiled slightly. "Naturally, release it. You don''t need me to teach you the obvious, now do I?"

    Beatrice then ignored the cyborg that left with its other fellows and looked up to the left with her arms folded. Dante followed her eyesight and saw a small ship hurtling towards them,ing to a stop before Beatrice and opening itspartment door.

    Beatrice mbered into the white shuttle and then turned to Dante with her smarmy grin right back where it used to be.

    "Come on in, it''s prettyfortable, trust me."

 Chapter 8 What It Means To Be A Pure Human

    ?Dante obliged and got in, sitting opposite Beatrice. The internal of the shuttle was like a trainpartment, or like the inside of a carriage. Due to the limited space, Dante''s and Beatrice''s knees were touching.

    She ced her hands on herp and smiled while staring directly at Dante. Dante stared back with a neutral expression, wondering what kind of game this woman was ying now.

    Beatrice patted the pace beside her. "Why note and sit beside me? That way we can be closer."

    Dante shook his head. "You are an Admiral, it is improper to treat you in such a manner."

    Beatrice snorted unhappily and looked away, making Dante sigh internally with relief. Very few people on earth could boast about having a staredown with an attractive person, but those who did could tell you right away that it was as difficult as hell.

    The longer you stared, the more intrusive thoughts would enter your mind and the more you would be tempted to do something that might get you a p and a sexual harassment charge.

    Why do you think in those romantic movies, the male and female would stare into each other''s eyes for a few seconds before slowly closing in?

    Fortunately, Dante''s time in the shuttle was short as thepartment door opened and revealed an airlock. Dante was surprised as he didn''t even feel the thing elerate, move or even stop.

    Beatrice took the lead once more and deliberately bent down and arched her back whening out of the shuttle. Dante could only sigh and follow her with a tired expression, feeling like he had to do something, but didn''t know what the do exactly.

    When they entered a decontamination chamber, the door behind them closed and sealed itself. Then, a wave of red light covered them from head to toe as a female AI voice dered them to be safe.

    After a second, the other door opened, revealing the observation deck of the battleship. Beatrice walked in confidently while Dante slowly entered while looking left and right carefully, as if expecting an ambush.

    To his surprise, there was no organic life in the observation deck. Apart from an empty pilot''s seat, there was an open lounge with various seats and sofas, as well as the captain''s chair at the back, overseeing the entire room.

    Rather than doors, Dante saw two teleports at either end of the room, which likely allowed one toe and go from this area and to other parts of the ship instantly.

    Beatrice moved straight to the pilot''s seat and bent over to handle the consoles without sitting down. After pressing a few buttons, the entire ship came to life, and from the porthole, Dante could see that the battleship was beginning to move, detaching itself from the railings and maic mps.

    It turned around slowly and began to elerate into space as it left the spaceport, but Dante did not feel even a lick of it in the ship, despite seeing it move. This discrepancy caused a slight cognitive dissonance and panic, forcing him to lower his body to touch the floor.

    Beatrice turned back to look at this and her eyes narrowed for a second. She then left the terminal and walked up to Dante with her arms akimbo.

    "Hmmm? Have you never been on a spaceship before? No scratch that, on any ship before? Not even a hoverboard? Otherwise, how can you react like this to anti-force technology?"

    Beatrice walked around Dante and looked down on him with an expression of interest, like a scientist seeing an exciting specimen.

    Dante ignored her and let his mind and body adapt for a while before shakily standing up and absolutely refusing to look out the porthole.

    Beatrice chuckled and walked to the lounge and sat down on a sofa.

    "So Mr. Dante, why don''t you have a seat and we can talk?" Beatrice prompted as she gestured to the seat opposite her.

    Dante took a deep breath and moved to sit opposite her, which was facing toward one of the portholes. However despite moving, space was rtively still and he couldn''t see much of its eleration, so he was fine in this regard.

    Beatrice swung her legs upwards, disying her supple thighs that were squeezed by her uniform before crossing her legs elegantly. Dante also leaned back in his seat and crossed his legs the male way, his arms folded before him.

    Both sides remained silent and observed each other for a short while.

    Beatrice eventually chuckled. "I seriously don''t get you. At times, you behave like the most ignorant country bumpkin, far more ignorant than even the most isted child, and other times you seem quite clever despite your poor indexes."

    "Alright then, I''ll be the one wearing the pants and rise to the asion. Sigh, how tough it is to be a man nowadays." Beatrice shrugged dramatically.

    She opened her right-hand palm and a light emitted from it, forming a holographic image in the air. On the image was a bunch of documents and databases that shed by rapidly while Beatrice watched boredly.

    "So Mr. Dante, if that even is your name, you have no file in existence, anywhere. Byw, every species in the universe is to be registered in the Etr Registry at birth or they will not be able to receive any public welfare, protection, or even any legal rights." Beatrice began in a slow drawl without even looking at Dante.

    "So then, do you understand, Mr. Dante, that you are basically at your most vulnerable anywhere in the universe? That was why I had to blockade that entire backwater, otherwise, they would have had every right to deal with you as they saw fit."

    Dante felt a chill. No basic human rights without registration? Very brutal but utterly sensible. When your territory spans gxies, it became so hard to track individual lifeforms and if any government or controlling authority wanted to maintain control, they had to up the surveince.

    Now that Dante thought about it, the free AI chip they gave everyone was the best way to track every lifeform. It was indispensable if you wanted to interact and live in society, but it also allowed the powers that be to know you and where you go.

    "No answer? I''ll take it you''re aware then. Do you also know that every pure human is a precious resource in our universe? I assume you don''t." Beatrice continuedzily.

    "When humankind first stepped into the wider stage of the gxy, then the universe, we were but the weakest race. However, technology and reproduction allowed us to expand rapidly and be the strongest power in the universe."

    Beatrice opened her hands helplessly. "However, by that point, more than 79% of our race no longer had pure human genes. Many had cross-bred with aliens to forge diplomatic ties or to hijack their gicposition without, causing many quadrupedal and other special races to be majorly humanoid."

    "By the time we realized, 8 out of 10 humans sported unique gics and visible features that marked them as demihumans at best. Apart from the top elite who maintain bloodline generation after generation, as well as a fewmoners who were averse to cross-breeding, there were few others."

    "However, the ones who held the reins to power were the pure humans, so you can imagine how the mixed ones felt. Were they no longer human anymore? But then you had to understand how the pure humans felt. Were those mixed breeds truly ''humans''? Or were they the other race they mixed with? Where did their interests lie? Who took priority between the two?" Beatrice paused here.

    "And now, it''s only gotten worse as the years have passed. Only less than 0.1% of the googol numbers of the human race being pure. That might seem like a lot, butpared to the opposite number, we are a minority of minorities."

    "That''s only within our own race. There are many species that we cannot breed with or breed out of extinction because they also kept pure-blooded members. They are not happy that humans have power over them and re at the entire race. Within the entire race, mixed breeds are not happy that pure breeds have power over them, so re at the entire minority."

    Beatrice looked at Dante whose expression had be solemn and grave.

    "Do you understand now, Mr. Dante? Whether it is you or me, our situation is as tenuous as can be, held up by a certain level of deterrence that you wille to learn ofter if you don''t already."

    "The human race has already issued a gxy-wide bounty reward for each pure human found and reported, but the other species have even higher bounties for the capture and trade of pure humans on the ck market."

    Beatrice snorted. "The amount of money paid out is enough for a civilian of any species to be the top 1% in their race immediately. That''s how valuable we are."

 Chapter 9 Conditions

    ?Dante felt enlightened. No wonder...! No wonder, those aliens had acted so crazy back then. It was a good thing he didn''t wait to see how the situation would y out because he likely would not have his autonomy anymore by that point.

    "So how did you get here so fast?" Dante asked the crucial question.

    "I was actuallying here to refuel for a return journey to The Central System to report back for debriefing. Can you imagine my shock when I hear an unregistered pure human appeared on a random street on thatmon?"

    Beatrice shook her head. "I''d received many false rms from enemy factions trying to bait me into a trap, for every pure human is obliged to help or rescue each other byw. However, a quick search showed that unique bacteria was detected, and that got me suspicious, so I ordered a blockade on the and came down myself."

    "I''d only just gotten to where you werest seen when you suddenly popped out of nowhere. If I didn''t identify you as my target, I would have snapped your neck thinking I was being ambushed again."

    Hearing this, Dante grabbed his throat instinctively and couldn''t help but feel cold within. How close was he to death in that split second?

    "Mhm, onto the next point. Mr. Dante, do you understand that since you are not registered in any database, have no rights as a citizen, and are a fugitive of Etonia, your future is quite bleak?" Beatrice asked while scrolling through the holographic projection before her.

    "Look, Beatrice, just hit me with whatever offer you have, and let''s not do this. I''m grateful for the information about pure humans, but I want to know the next step so I can n ahead." Dante replied with a shake of his head.

    Beatrice finally paused her movements and then looked at Dante head-on for the first time since she sat down. Her smarmy grin found its way back on her face and she sighed.

    "Fine, fine, the n to scare you into submission didn''t work. I''ll theny it out for you as raw as possible."

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Beatrice sat up and folded her arms. "You''re a pure human with very good gics, so you are valuable to both our enemies and to us. We''re prepared to give you an identity in the universe as a resident of the earth who is currently orphaned."

    "Apart from that, you will be given a weekly allowance of 300 Etrans to spend as you wish. You will be given a vi on earth in any continent of your choice, of which all maintenance and operation costs will be paid by the Human Council."

    "You will also be sent into the Unique Batch of Cadets in the Eternal Academy, the number 1 academy in the universe for all forms of education rting to military, economics, technology, entertainment, and especially, exploration."

    Dante took a deep breath. He might not understand the value of everything he was given, but he was no fool to know that this was definitely a good deal. The question was, was it truly good enough or was this a lowball offer?

    "Exin to me the value of all these things in detail as if I am totally ignorant of everything, having lived under a rock," Dante asked as he gazed at Beatrice sharply.

    "Uhhˇ­ why would I do that? Wouldn''t you then be able to make the smartest choice for yourself? How can I enjoy exploiting you then?!" Beatrice retorted with an expression of unwillingness.

    Dante nced at her calmly and then asked. "Is there a terminal here where my AI chip can interface and acquire information?"

    Beatrice froze and then sighed with defeat. "Fine, whatever. Listen closely because I won''t exin this stuff a second time."

    Beatrice leaned forward and her eyes glinted. Dante followed her movements and made sure to focus.

    Beatrice opened her mouth and began exining.

    "Habababahahabububah!" She bellowed majestically.

    Dante sat there in confusion like an idiot, wondering if his ears were ying tricks. Making sure he wasn''t under the effect of any hallucinogen and seeing the satisfied expression on Beatrice''s face, he flew into a rage.

    "What the hell! What was that?!"

    Beatrice seemed offended. "What do you mean what was that? I just exined everything you wanted to know."

    Dante was speechless.

    Beatrice looked bored and leaned into her seat. "So, what''s your decision?"

    Dante red at her and shook his head. "I refuse. Send me back to Etonia and let me serve my sentence."

    Dante stood up and made to leave, which stunned Beatrice. She froze for a split second until she literally leaped up into the air like a cat that had seen a snake.

    "Wait, what do you think you''re doing?!"

    She quickly rushed up and appeared in front of Dante, blocking his way with both arms outstretched.

    "If you go back there, you will be milked every dayˇ­ like a cow! Do you want that?" She asked hurriedly.

    Dante looked her right in the eye. "Moo. Now move out of my way."

    Beatrice was left speechless. She pulled Dante back to the lunge and seemed to sober up slightly.

    "Fine, I will stop ying around. I''ll exin the value of the things offered you."

    Beatrice locked her fingers around her right kneecap and became more formal.

    "Firstly, an identity of earth certifies you as a pure human from the origin and one whose gics is very pure. This will make enemy forces want you more, but they will be even more deterred to do anything because they will understand how important you are to us."

    "Secondly, a weekly allowance of 300 Etrans is really high ie for a single person. The Etran is the universe''s strongest and leading currency and its value cannot easily be exined if you don''t have a concept of currency in the universe. All I can say is that the more you interact with markets and economies, you will understand just how pampered receiving 300 Etrans A WEEK is."

    Beatrice pointed to herself. "I am one of the 100 Admirals of the Prime Civilization''s fleet, subject only to the authority of the Fleet Commander and the Human Council above him, yet I earn 30,000 Etrans a year as official sry."

    "Thirdly, A vi on earth is precious. Even when we were confined to the, the price ofnd was touted as the only truly appreciative asset. Now that we have more beings among pure humans than can even fit on the, every inch ofnd is worth millions of Etrans and this is not an exaggeration."

    "Finally, the Eternal Academy is where everyone who is someone went to study and train, including me. I was part of the Elite Batch during my time, and graduated with honors."

    "I cannot easily describe the value of the Eternal Academy to you. It''s not just knowledge, information, connections, or even grants, but the more direct benefits like special AI Chips, unique Bionics and Psionics for specialized students, and most importantly, the Zero Gate."

    "Long story short, the Zero Gate is a special wormhole that leads into a small that is barren. It is divided into 10 sectors and students are forced topete for the Fruit of Condensation produced by a special tree in each sector."

    "The Fruit of Condensation is the most valuable item in the universe, something that is priceless in Etrans. That is because it is the only guaranteed way for a person to gain a superpower."

    Dante''s heart caught at this point. So far, his heart had been beating the more Beatrice exined, but this particr one made him feel an explosion mentally.

    A superpower! Something that Dante had gotten only through the blessing of a high-dimensional lifeform could be acquired by chewing a fruit? Damn!

    "A few questions. Firstly, how often is the Zero Gate open, or how often do the fruits condense? " Dante calmed himself down and asked prudently.

    Beatrice raised an eyebrow. "Once every year, around December."

    Dante thought about it and felt this was good. 10 fruits a year meant that ten superpowers were born each year. Even if the superpowers were overpowered types, it was not enough to do anything.

    Even if this was brought to earth with 7 billion people, 10 a year was not enough to do anything. Assuming every earth human could live 100 years, it meant that they could only have a superpower for 100 years before dying.

    So assuming 100 years was a generation, by the time generation 1''s first batch died, there would be 1,000 people in the world with superpowers.

    Yeah, that was nothing. And when Dante considered this on the scale of the entire universe with numbers that he couldn''t even fathom, it was even worse.

    Dante suddenly realized that his good treatment and offer so far were not exactly due to being a pure human, but might be due to his alleged superpower.

 Chapter 10 Signed And Sealed

    ?"Second question, are superpowers hereditary?"

    "There is a chance, but it is very low," Beatrice answered calmly.

    "Final question, what is the Unique batch and how does it differ from other batches?" Dante inquired.

    "Hmm, how do I say thisˇ­ do you watch high school shows? The Unique Batch is basically the topmost elite who also happen to be special needs, who also happen to be misfits, and also happen to be incredibly gifted." Beatrice exined with a smile.

    Dante was speechless.

    "So, what''s your choice?" Beatrice asked finally.

    Dante pondered for a little before ncing at Beatrice sharply. "No one gives out things for free. What am I expected to do on my side of the deal?"

    Beatrice pped her hands. "Good question!''

    She then pointed to herself. "Me!"

    Dante was confused. "You?"

    Beatrice nodded and folded her arms with satisfaction. "Me."

    Dante looked her up and down. "Why you?"

    Beatrice seemed unhappy. "Why not me?"

    Dante scoffed. "Why should you?"

    Beatrice snapped. "Because I want to."

    Dante was shocked. "You want to?"

    Beatrice nodded shyly. "I do."

    Dante''s eyes fell on wrongful ces. "Do you?"

    Beatrice took a step back but firmed her expression. "ˇ­Do me."

    Dante seemed puzzled. "Secretary?"

    Beatrice folded her arms behind her back with a confident smile. "CEO."

    Dante turned his head to the side and blushed. "Do the secretary?"

    Beatrice leaned forward with a tempting smile. "Do the secretary."

    AI chips in their brains: "ˇ­"

    "That can''t be the only thing, right? What other obligations do I have?" Dante asked with a severe look.

    "Well, what else do you have to offer?" Beatrice asked bluntly as she looked him up and down.

    Dante was left speechless.

    He sat down and thought for a bit with his eyes closed. Beatrice also sat down and moved her attention back to the holographic screen before her,zily browsing through it at speeds that the natural earth human eye couldn''t follow.

    After about 30 minutes, Dante opened his eyes and sighed deeply.

    "I agree."

    Beatrice paused her scrolling and then looked at Dante skeptically. "You do? Woˇ­. The almighty Mr.Dante who is the most valuable superstar in the universe finally agrees to the overwhelmingly beneficial offer he barely deserves!"

    "Aren''t you going to continue asking me questions, or are you not going to try and change the terms?" Beatrice asked with a teasing voice.

    Dante didn''t even bother to reply to her snark. He just pondered his fate in this new world and what he would do next.

    Soon, his eyesight was blocked but two huge mounds that were hanging off an impossible cliff.

    Dante was amused. "There is no way this should be possible."

    "ording to all knownws of gravity, there is no way that pair of breasts should be perfectly horizontal from the base. Its shape and fat, as well as the fact that it protrudes, prevent it from staying airborne. The breasts, of course, hover anyways. Because breasts don''t care what humans think is impossible." Beatrice scoffed as she pushed a screen before him.

    "Ha." Danteughed dryly.

    He then focused on what was put before him. "And what the hell is this?"

    "Contract. You don''t think we make agreements by word of mouth here, do you?" Beatrice blinked.

    Dante shrugged. "Okay."

    [I have scanned the contract and found no loopholes, twisting words, or altered terms from what was agreed upon verbally.]

    And before Dante could even ask Beatrice to send it to the AI chip for a review, it already connected to the interface and did it. Well, it certainly did live up to its task of taking one step before its user.

    Dante then shrugged and sighed by dripping a drop of bloodˇ­ *cough*, by using his signature like a normal, sensible person.

    Beatrice seemed satisfied by this and retracted the contract. She seemed obviously relieved and Dante couldn''t help but feel like he should have taken her up on her offer to haggle.

    But whatever, better to have a good deal and be in her good books than sucking her dry and then incurring dissatisfaction. She was, after all, the first person he met here and his link to the secrets of the Eternal Universe.

    "Right, so when do I enter the academy?" Dante asked curiously.

    "Pretty much as soon as we get your identity squared up, which should take about a day. After that, you''ll have to first head to earth to receive your property, open a bank ount, and do some other misceneous things before going to the Eternal Academy." Beatrice answered cooperatively as she plopped into her seat.

    "That''s good. Has the school year already begun?"

    Beatrice paused and looked Dante up and down. "Of course it has. Do you think the universe will miraculously spin on an axis that revolves around you, conveniently making it so that when you appeared from nowhere, you would get to enter school on the first day?"

    Dante rolled his eyes. "If there is one thing you''re good at, it''s putting words in my mouth."

    "There are many things I''d like to put in your mouth." Beatrice snorted and muttered under her breath.

    Dante shivered at that. He got up from the lounge and walked towards a teleporter near the right side of the room. Beatrice tracked him with her eyes, wondering if he was trying to run.

    Dante then turned to her right in front of the teleporter. "Right, which quarters are my own?"

    Beatrice sighed with relief. "The vice-captain''s. Make yourselffortable for as long as possible. It will take 12 hours to reach the Central System from here and about 3 minutes to reach earth after that."

    Dante nodded and stood on the teleporter. His AI chip was prompted as to where he wanted to go and it was one step ahead of him, downloading the ship''s internal map and teleporterwork before issuing amand to send him to the vice-captain''s quarters.

    He disappeared and felt weightless for a second before reappearing in front of a door. He looked behind him to see that it was a dead-end corridor with only the teleporter behind him, leaving Dante speechless.

    Hey there, if the ship was attacked and the teleporter system was damaged, how would the vice-captain escape?

    Of course, Dante did not know that the level of Bionics and Psionics of a Vice-Captain of a Dreadnought-ss battleship like this would probably be strong enough to punch his way out of the ship and even survive in outer space for a long period of time.

    Dante stood before the door and was scanned from head to toe. The AI announced that he had the requisite clearance, and so could enter.

    When he did, his jaw dropped.

    Quarters? QUARTERS?

    Dammit, this was a goddamn ultra-modern house! No, it was a top presidential suite!

    From where Dante stood, there was a wide hallway with doors on either side, one for a washroom with a WC and the other for a shower. At the end of the hallway, the entire left side was a kitchen with various appliances that Dante absolutely had no idea how to use.

    This was not because he didn''t know how to cook, but because he simply couldn''t easily tell what these appliances were for. He could only tell that this should be a kitchen area because of what looked like a disintegrator for rubbish as well as a floating, glowing sink.

    In front was likely the living room, because there was a lounge-like area simr to what was at the Observation Deck. Rather than a TV, there was a terminal to which one could connect their AI chip to ess the ship''s intr or the Etr of the entire universe.

    Dante''s eyes shed as his AI chip immediately connectedˇ­ but he could not ess the Etr because he needed to log in with his Citizen ID.

    He did not have one yet.

    So he could only ess the intr, of which he had a vice-captains authority, so he learned the wholeyout of the ship as well as its mission, its make, and its crewˇ­ of which there were only two.

    Just him and Beatrice.

    Dante saw that there was a set of stairs nearby and went up. Here was the bedroom which was wide and grand, with arge bed that could change from leather to water, to foam, to whatever type you liked.

    The lighting in the room could be changed to represent a holographic projection. In other words, it was like a 4D cinema, but real.

    You could set it to be a grassy in and you would be lying on afortable bed in the middle of a grassy in, feeling the full effects of the breeze, the sun, and even the various scents.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Dante guessed that for staff who were space bound all the time, this was a way to replicate their sleeping environments at home and would significantly reduce fatigue and stress.

    Dante jumped on the bed andy down while staring at the ceiling, which he made to replicate his home on earth.

    He eventually fell asleep after thinking about his future.

 Chapter 11 Injection

    ?Dante slowly felt his minding to, but he was still so very groggy. His mind was extremely tired after going through that hectic situation with Beatrice, as he had always been on guard.

    The man was just a 21-year-old, not some 10,000 IQ champion. It was good enough that he didn''t show his young age when dealing with the serious stuff, but to expect him to wade through all of that like a seasoned pro with no bacsh was asking too much.

    And that manifested itself in the form of mental fatigue.

    So his mind wasing to, but it would take some time for the engine to warm up and for his thoughts toe to life.

    That would have been the case but, his slightly awake mind heard some frightening words.

    "I wonder if this will fit inside him? It''s a bit big and it might hurt though, but I''ve always wanted to try it and he''s vulnerable anyway."

    Immediately, all fatigue was beaten from Dante''s body as he jumped up and grabbed his booty while scuttling away. The sheer look of frozen fear mixed with the fact that his eyes were still bloodshot from his deep sleep created a veryical image.

    Beatrice, who was standing by the bed with an injector in hand, was utterly dumbfounded as she stood thereˇ­ for only a second.

    Then she burst into uproariousughter that almost caused her to fall over herself. Her body shook as the injector in her hand fell onto the bed, the blueish liquid within sloshing viscously.

    Dante slowly came to as his beating heart calmed down, and his horror and fear turned into rage. However, he simply rose to his feet and patted himself while ring at Beatrice coldly.

    Beatrice tried to hold back herughter, but she was gasping at this point and struggling to breathe. She clutched her midsection as she gasped for air in betweenughter.

    Seeing Dante''s cold look didn''t make it stop, but she did try to suppress herself more. In the end, her eyes became bloodshot from holding it in and her teeth were about to crack.

    Dante walked to a glowing door by the right of the bedroom, which was locked. A red circle glowed at the center and it seemed to scan him first before switching to green and allowing him in.

    The moment he disappeared from sight, Beatrice burst intoughter again, freeing what was held back by sheer willpower.

    As for Dante, he knew from the downloaded n of the entire ship that this was the bathroom for the vice-captain. What was downstairs was for guests and visitors.

    The bathroom here was spacious. There was enough space between the toilet and the jacuzzi, shower, as well as bathtub such that even if one released the filthiest and smelliest lumps, it wouldn''t reach the ce where one bathed.

    Dante scratched his chin and did his morning do, which was routine for him. Then he walked over to the shower and noticed that while it was kinda high-tech, it was still a very modern design.

    When he walked in, the door automatically closed and an AI voice asked him how he wanted to shower. The AI chip connected and automatically inputted the settings Dante wanted: mildly hot water and lime-scented soap.

    This one too had holographic features, so Dante set the background to be his shower at home. The opaque ss that constituted the shower''s body instantly became transparent and perfectly reflected the scene of his home''s bathroom.

    Dante had seen this amazing technology with the bed, but damn, it was something else. It really looked like if he opened these doors, he would walk out into his bathroom on earth.

    He showered but almost didn''t want to leave as he rarely encountered such a perfect soap and water temperature like this. Not to mention that there was a heap of assistance from the shower itself which had many automated features.

    Seriously, even if you were the type who waszy to bathe at home, this kind of technology was meant for you. You''d probably catch yourself showering ten times a day.

    Dante eventually got out and was blow-dried by the shower after he exited. Then a towel was wrapped around him by some robot arms and he couldn''t help but feel his dark mood lift up.

    He came to the door of the bath and exited, but the AI voice warned him that he had a guest in the room in case he was dressed improperly.

    There, seated on his bed while fiddling with the injector, was Beatrice. When she saw Dante, her eyes roved his body up and down. However, there was a mild look of disdain in her eyes.

    "Yeah, I already knew this, but damn, you are wed as hell. You are probably the only pure human with such pure gics that is soˇ­ deformed." Beatrice stated bluntly.

    Despite the harsh words, Dante reasonably took no offense. He was not ugly nor unfit by normal standards, he was rtively slim, kinda tall as he was over 6 feet, and handsome enough that it was semi-easy to attract female partners on earth.

    However, given Beatrice''s wless body proportions, skin, and her perfect symmetry - which Dante assumed should be the norm for every pure human - he really would look deformed in her eyes since humans on his earth couldn''t customize their genes or enhance themselves using technology.

    It was like an earth human telling an intelligent monkey that it was a monkey. No matter how offended the monkey felt and how simr it felt to humans, it was still a monkey.

    "Uh-huh. Are we at earth yet?" Dante ignored her and asked coolly.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel "We''re just about to enter the orbital space station. Before we do that, I''ve got to inject you with these modified gene enhancers I spent all this time working on." Beatrice waved the injector around.

    Dante''s heart skipped a beat. "Gene enhancers?"

    Beatrice nodded. "That''s right and custom ones for you too. When you entered the ship, your entire body was scanned and uploaded to the internal database, so I had ess to a copy of your unique gic code."

    Beatrice hesitated, folded her arms, and then looked Dante up and down. "Is it okay if I call you a Neanderthal? Because that''s totally what you are."

    "You are such an anomaly. Your gic code is at the peak of when humankind was still trapped on earth, just a few years before we began spacefaring officially."

    "It''s like you time-traveled forward into the future and appeared on that street, huh?" Beatrice asked with a sudden sharp gaze.

    Dante controlled his reaction forcibly, but Beatrice noticed some ticks. No matter how strong the poker face, it couldn''t withstand the senses of someone with bionics and psionics of her level, not to mention her base gic level.

    Topare, it was like the difference between superman or the sh and a normal person. To the normal person, the sh was talking with them at normal speed, but for the sh, he was literally slowing himself down to match you.

    "Whatever. So what happens to me if I inject that?" Dante asked what was on his mind.

    "Well, first of all, we update your gic code to our level. There are hundreds of adaptations and modifications to the human DNA that have urred over the millennia since we left the. You have none of those protections." Beatrice answered with a shrug.

    "Ever since I met you, you have been exposed to hundreds of millions of unique bacteria that your body had never adapted for, some harmful and others not."

    "The only reason you haven''t melted into goo is because you''re automatically disinfected whenever you use a teleporter, when you entered the ship, and when you entered the shuttle."

    Dante shivered at that.

    "However, we can''t have you walking around on earth while sweating in pain from hundreds of viruses and the like running rampage in your body," Beatrice concluded as she got up and brought the injector near him.

    Dante took a step back when he saw that huge needle that looked like it could prate his organs. However, Beatrice suddenly moved like a cheetah and stabbed the needle into his chest, right into his heart.

    The pain made Dante almost ckout, and he felt his knees go weak. Having your heart suddenly pierced was not something you could picture unless you went through it yourself.

    What came next was even more horrific as the blue liquid was pumped into his heart right from the tube, and then entered his bloodstream.

    Dante fell on his ass and coughed painfully, clutching his chest as he felt likeva was flowing through his body starting from his chest. His temperature spiked greatly and he began to sweat.

    Before he could even scream, he fainted right away in order to protect his mind from the part that came next.

    As for Beatrice, she carried him and put him on the bed before sitting by the side and watching him quietly.

 Chapter 12 Genetic Enhancement

    ?Dante''s eyes snapped open as he took a deep breath and jerked upwards. He noticed that his body was extremely sticky and sweaty, and he suddenly felt extremely ufortable.

    He tried to wipe his eyes, but his face and hands were covered withˇ­ stuff. When he focused on what it was, he almost screamed.

    Blood!

    There was so much blood!

    God, all the sticky stuff on him was mostly dried blood and some that was still partially liquid. Even worse, he felt a warmness and extreme difort around his groin, and he looked down to see a huge patch of yellow.

    Not only that, there were some slight hints of brown.

    Dante closed his eyes and took deep breaths, which was naturally a mistake given the circumstances. However, he couldn''t afford to care as he forcibly calmed himself down and refused the urge to snap his own neck.

    Waking up in filth was not something anyone could tolerate, especially not in this regard. Dante was about to get up and clean himself when a huge torrent of water sshed over him, soaking him deeply.

    "Wakey wakey. You finally woke up after so long, and look at the mess you''ve made!" A familiar teasing voice sounded from the side.

    Dante looked at his naked body and then slowly turned to re at Beatrice who was smirking while holding arge basin of water with a single hand. Before he could protest, she flicked her hand slightly and another batch of water was thrown at him.

    More than anger, Dante wanted to ask how she had the strength to lift a basin full of water that even two people side by side would struggle to carry, but then realized it was probably a stupid question.

    Also, the two tubs of water significantly cleared the filth around Dante, which ironically made him feel better. He rolled to the side and stood up, ncing at Beatrice coldly before entering the bathroom.

    On his way, she smacked his ass and squeezed, causing Dante''s face to change. However, he knew he was no match for a woman with gics like hers - if his guess was right - so he continued in and went to the jacuzzi this time.

    He gingerly entered and allowed his AI chip to interact with the jacuzzi''s AI, and the deep cleansing began. Dante spent 3 hours having himself cleaned, scrubbed, soaped, washed, and even almost drowned himself 3 times since he didn''t let any part of his body go.

    When he came out, he felt refreshed in more ways than one. Dante finally noticed that his body felt lighter and his mind felt sharper. His thoughts moved fast and were more organized rather than random blurs that appeared and disappeared like lightning.

    When he exited the bath, he was curious about what had changed about him specifically then noticed that the room was spotlessly clean. The bed especially looked brand new, and there was Beatrice boredly scrolling through her holographic screen by the side.

    When she saw hime out, her eyes lit up slightly. "Yes, yes, now that''s much better! It''s not perfect, but it''s nowhere near as bad as before!"

    Dante paused and furrowed his brow. "You mean, I look better? But you said the injection was to patch up my DNA in terms of missing protections against viruses and stuff. I don''t remember you saying it would enhance my looks or abilities."

    Dante thought that such a thing woulde in ater injection or through some other method.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Beatrice shrugged. "Hey, the best defense is a good offense. We raise your body''s power and increase your gics and you''d naturally not be troubled by such viruses or bacteria, right?"

    Dante was speechless.

    Beatrice pointed a finger to the now spotless bed. "You didn''t think all thatˇ­ residueˇ­ was from just filling up the holes in your DNA?"

    Yeah, Dante had wondered about that. Now it made sense, increasing his body values sharply in one sitting would have drastic effects and would require a deep-set modification.

    It was not like the natural residents of this universe who had slowly umted their current high indexes through gic evolution over generations. Beatrice just helped Dante skip centuries of evolution in a few hours.

    "Right, how long was I out?" Dante inquired as he walked to the closet nearby.

    "About 8 hours. Enough time that I''ve already sent your physical details down to the bureau and they''ve long sorted out your identity and registration." Beatrice replied with a yawn.

    Dante''s eyes lit up. "So I can log into the Etr now?"

    Beatrice nced at him strangely. "You just got an elite pure human citizen ID issued by earth''s bureau itself and the first thing you think of is the Etr? Tsk! Youth of today, always on their goddamn AI chips!"

    Dante ignored her and checked his AI chip.

    [Greetings, Dante. While you were out, I handled the gic modification for you and monitored your body in depth. I have screened your current gics and havepiled them into your SDI. Please check it.]

    Dante followed his AI chip''s request and opened his Standard Disy Index.

    ?User: Dante

    Age: 21 (Converted to Earth years)

    Race: Pure Human (99.9% gic perfection)

    Strength Index: 2.3

    Agility Index: 2.2

    Dexterity Index: 2.3

    Intelligence Index: 2.5

    Constitution Index: 2.1

    Vitality Index: 2.1

    Bionic Level: 0

    Psionic level: 0

    AI Chip level: 0.1

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement.?

    Dante was surprised. Each of his indexes had gone up by exactly two points, making him twice as potent in each field as the average pure human in this universe.

    A burning curiosity lit up in his chest and he couldn''t help but want to test his prowess. As such, he made and few punching and kicking motions, which shocked him because their potency had increased by leaps and bounds.

    The current him was no different from a skilled martial artist in a CGI movie, able to perform movements at speeds that did not seem logical.

    "Are you done beating up your imaginary friend for not remembering your birthday?" Beatrice mocked from the side while stifling a giggle.

    However, Dante was too pleased to be angry. Rather than that, for the first time since he met her, he actually smiled at her, causing Beatrice to be stunned.

    "Thank you, Beatrice. I''m very grateful for the upgrade." Dante thanked her sincerely.

    Especially since it was not part of the contract. After all, the bureau did not know about Dante''s poor SDI as that would raise questions, so Beatrice had only sent his current SDI after upgrading.

    His AI chip already told him this.

    Beatrice was silent for a while and then sighed. "Whatever, you''re wee. Let''s get-side and check out your vi among other things. We need to report to the Eternal Academy as soon as possible, a day wasted is one more point of danger to your life when you enter the Zero Gate."

    Dante nodded and selected an attire from the wardrobe. As you could imagine, the clothes were not physically essible, rather a long selection was sent to the AI chip from which he could choose.

    Dante finally got to enjoy using the AI chip thanks to his increased intelligence index, as scrolling through the hundreds of lists was easy for him to process.

    Previously when he had been at the spaceport of Etonia and had passed by the duty-free shops, he had taken one look at the lists and felt like his brain was about to explode.

    Eventually, he selected something simr to what Beatrice wore minus her purple color. A skintight inner ck shirt inside a ck pilot''s jacket, as well as ck leather pants along with fitting ck boots.

    When he turned around, he noticed that Beatrice was looking him up and down with a smile.

    "Good taste, now I won''t be embarrassed walking around with you."

    Dante rolled his eyes and followed Beatrice out of the vice-captain''s cabin. They both entered the teleporter outside his room and appeared in the shuttle, as itunched from the battleship and down into the bay.

    Since they used teleportation, there was no need for disinfection when leaving the ship, unlike when entering. Besides, it was not allowed to teleport into the battleship because what if an enemy used it to sneak in?

    As for teleporting out, there was no problem with that.

    The shuttlended in a parking spot and the duo disembarked from it calmly. Dante saw that the spaceport was far smaller than the one on Etonia, but it was far more developed and busier.

    Even more frightening was the customs queue to enter the elevator leading to the arrival area. Even with AI and robots handling it, the line was long like a winding snake.

    While Dante was bracing himself for a long wait, Beatrice pulled him to a rather quiet customs post that had only about 3 people there. Each of them was a pure human like them, and they had arrogant and lofty expressions on their faces.

 Chapter 13 Earth

    ?The pure humans in the line turned and saw Beatrice as well as Dante. Their cold expressions softened significantly, like seeing an old friend. They even greeted them with respect when they saw their attire.

    "Greetings, Admiral."

    "Hello, Vice-Admiral."

    They greeted Beatrice as an Admiral and Dante as a Vice-Admiral, which left him stunned. He was not even a cadet yet, how did he suddenly be a Vice-Admiral?

    Beatrice nodded to them amiably and introduced the two of them. She introduced Dante as the Vice-Captain of the Inferno, and when she mentioned her own name, the expressions of the surrounding pure humans changed subtly.

    Even the AI robot that was handling their details with utmost respect paused and nced at Beatrice for a second before continuing.

    Dante noticed this and guessed that Beatrice likely had some other special identity, maybe from a powerful faction or most likely, her n.

    Thinking about it, it should be obvious. Dante may not know her age, but she seemed young enough. Not only was she admitted to the number 1 Academy''s Elite Branch, but she was a fucking Admiral of the Prime Fleet and had her own Dreadnought ss battleship which she alone managed.

    Dante doubted that just being clever would allow one such privilege. She could even fearlessly tamper with his details and sign a contract on behalf of the entire human government, not to mention she could easily produce a serum for him that upgraded his genes without melting him into primordial soup.

    He looked at Beatrice''s lovely side profile and remained silent. He would wait until she was ready to tell himˇ­ as if!

    The moment he got ess to the Etr, he would investigate everything about her, down to what underwear she liked to wear. There was no way he would remain ignorant about someone like her no matter how good she was to him.

    Surprisingly, they were given priority in this rtively short queue and fast tracked. They even got on the elevator alone, forcing those who passed through the normal line and even pure human VIPs to wait for the next round.

    Beatrice seemed to treat this as normal, and Dante did not act out of ce. As a bourgeoisie kid, he too was given such treatment in select ces in America, especially in his city.

    The space elevator was quiterge and wide, with seating areas within. Beatrice stood to the side and beckoned to Dante, who nced at the seats with narrowed eyes.

    "Don''t bother sitting, that''s for the weaklings. Stand like a man and feel the G''s." Beatrice taunted with a look of provocation.

    Dante quickly scrambled and seated himself before tightening the buckle, making Beatrice chuckle.

    "If you had been stupid enough to think you could do something like that, I could have watched you excrete everything within your body all over again."

    Dante ignored her and listened to the countdown then braced himself. Luckily, when it hit zero, it wasn''t like some rollercoaster or amusement park ride, but rather a feeling simr to sliding down an inclined slope.

    When they arrived at the bottom around 30 secondster, the door opened to show a passageway that led to sunlight. Dante unbuckled and followed Beatrice out and into the world ofˇ­ earth.

    It wasˇ­ pretty normal? Like, Dante had watched enough scifi and yed enough games to see what futuristic earth would be like, and this was like that.

    Eerily pristine white coatingon everything, unnecessarily tall everything, most buildings shaped like mushrooms, walkways that looked like tunnels surrounded by ss, and flying cars.

    Of course, it was marvelous to see in person, but the very predictable setting made it a bitˇ­ dull. Dante was tugged by his cor to see Beatrice pull him into a nearby car that was driven by force propulsion.

    It was ck and sedan-like, with afortable interior meant for high ss passengers. Dante and Beatrice ended up sitting opposite each other, and the space here was even narrower than the shuttle.

    Dante sighed and ignored Beatrice who was smiling at him provocatively. He then looked outside as the car began moving rapidly, heading to their next destination.

    As he noticed the passing scenery and therge volume of cars, Dante couldn''t help but ask: "Why so much traffic? Why not just use teleporters?"

    Beatriceughed softly. "Teleporters are banned on Earth. We have used our best space technology to lock down the entire space in the sr system around earth to prevent enemies from jumping in."

    Dante thought about it and felt it made sense. "How many wars were won using that method before they developed counter measures?"

    Beatrice smacked her knees together, which naturally smashed one of Dante''s legs and made him wince in pain.

    "All of them. Every war using this method was a massive victory."

    Dante was shocked by this. "Then who used it the most?"

    Beatrice nced at him as if he was dumb. "How do you think humanity became the number 1 rulers of the universe?"

    Dante was speechless.

    As they say, no one hated the taste of medicine more than the one who dished it out. After using this cheap method to invade countless systems and win all their battles, it was natural that humankind would be the first to develop countermeasures for it.

    After all, no smart scientist created a poison without making the antidote first.

    It was simply toxic behavior to the extreme, bullying everyone with a big stick thenter wearing threeyers of armor so that no one could use that same stick to beat you back.

    Dante was proud to be human.

    Eventually the car slowed down andnded before a giant building. When Dante looked at it, his eyes narrowed as he felt it was familiar.

    When they got down and walked through the front gate which was heavily guarded by many cyborgs withser weapons, Dante''s face showed shock as he recognized where he was.

    This was the White House!

    It had been modified greatly and expanded quite a bit, but it still had the familiar shape and outline.

    When they walked to the entrance, Beatrice was scanned from head to toe, and then Dante too. The door then opened for the two of them and admitted them into a straight, neat hall with cyborgs standing on either side with weapons low.

    Dante looked at the hall and observed many technologically advanced devices and changes that he could barelyprehend, until Beatrice pushed one of the various doors open and took him into a small office.

    Seated at the end of the room was a dark-skinned male with square-faced features and a rtively stocky build. He wore a set of navy blue military armor that looked simr to ker but had glowing lights all over.

    When he looked up from his documents to check who entered, his eyes lightly scanned Beatrice before fixing on Dante and staying there. A frown seemed to appear on his features, but was soon suppressed into neutrality.

    "Admiral Portinari, its good to see you. I take it this is the fellow you reported about? Dante, I believe?" He asked with a surprisingly lighter tone of voice.

    Beatrice''s smile was gone, only reced by a coldly indifferent demeanor that made Dante feel strange. "That''s right. I was informed that his ID is ready and his bank ount has been issued?"

    The man nced at her and nodded. "That''s right. But before I give them out, I would like to ask a few questions."

    Beatrice''s face became colder and even bore a hint of hostility. "Director Johnson, are you trying to cause trouble? Remember your ce!"

    A hint of anger crossed the man called Director Johnson''s face for a split second, but he clearly suppressed it and focused his gaze on Dante.

    "Mr Dante, I''d like to know if you were coerced by the Portinari family in anyway into signing a contract on behalf of the state?"

    Beatrice''s face paled as she mmed her hand into the table. "Bastard, how dare you im such a thing?!"

    Director Johnson forcibly ignored her and stared at Dante. Dante''s expression was slightly confused but he knew what to do next anyway.

    "Beatrice, please allow me to speak to the director." Dante asked Beatrice with a calm expression.

    Johnson smiled as if he had won something big while Beatrice froze. She turned to re at Dante, but he maintained a cold face and looked her back in the eye without any fear.

    Beatrice felt her chest be stuffy and stomped to the side, not even looking at Dante any more as she felt her emotions go out of control.

    Dante then focused Director Johnson. "Sir, please exin what you mean."

    Johnson nced at the fuming Beatrice and felt things were strange. Why was she showing such a strong emotional reaction just for this guy? Could the rumors be true and the famous xenophobic admiral had found a boytoy?

    Whatever the case, Johnson pursued his sess further.

 Chapter 14 Director Johnson

    ?"As far as I have been told, you were discovered by Admiral Portinari on the remote Etonia?" Director Johnson asked with a smile.

    Dante''s eyes narrowed. "Director, I asked you to exin what you meant about being coerced."

    Director Johnson''s face froze as he clenched his fists under the table but maintained his smile. Beatrice nced at Dante with a surprised look for a split second before feeling angry again and looking away.

    "To answer that, we need to build up facts, I''m sure you understand, right?" Johnson answered with a forced smile.

    "No. I just want to know the raw details of what you meant without adding anything else. Otherwise, I''d like my ID and passage to leave." Dante spoke as he folded his arms.

    Johnson''s eyes twitched. He clearly didn''t expect this fellow to be so difficult to deal with. Was he really an uneducated person?

    "When a pure human born outside the control of the Earth Bureau''s purview is found, they are supposed to be handed a standard contract from the Human Council in order to grant them special rights and protections afforded most pure humans." Johnson began after taking a deep breath to calm himself.

    "However, the terms in your contract are vastly superior to what is usually offered to any pure human of your stature. So I am liable to believe that they offered you more benefits in exchange for something else, which would invalidate the contract and free you of such uwful terms." Johnson finished with an amiable smile.

    Dante listened to it all and went silent. He lowered his head and closed his eyes, taking deep breaths before opening them again. He nced at Beatrice, then at Johnson, then sighed.

    "Director, with all due respect, if I wasn''t so weak, I would punch you in the face."

    Director Johnson, who had assumed Dante was about to say what he wanted to hear, froze and became confused.

    What the hell, where did thise from?

    Even Beatrice was surprised and finally stopped sulking to nce at Dante, who looked at Johnson with direct hostility.

    "You''re a really good fellow. You clearly have some beef with Beatrice and want to undermine her, having chosen the weak and unremarkable little me as the tool to achieve this."

    "First off, your words made it seem like signing a contract in the first ce is something illegal, trying to drive a wedge between us and make me doubt her."

    "Secondly, you say ''offered to a pure human of my stature'', so clearly in your eyes, I am a lower ss being and have been from the moment I crossed that door. You only smile at me because you want something from me."

    "Thirdly, you want to undermine Beatrice through the contract and probably im she abused her position, which would have the effect of voiding the contract we signed. Even if you were right and I was tricked into doing something extra, you yourself said it, the terms are extremely good. Losing that would be more harmful than good."

    Dante sneered. "So in this entire farce, the only one benefiting would be you. Under the guise of freeing me from oppression, you would be able to get evidence to attack your opponent while either swallowing up the extra benefits meant for me or passing them to someone else."

    Director''s Johnson face changed greatly as he exploded and mmed his hand on the table.

    "How dare you?!''

    Beatrice had a look of suspicion as she nced at Director Johnson and quickly manifested her holographic browser to check something. When she saw what she wanted, her expression became frosty.

    "What a good ploy Hector Johnson. You have a nephew who is 13 and in the queue to enter the Eternal Academy!"

    Just by revealing this, everything could be understood. Dante''s heart became cold because he had only said those conjectures out loud to close any gap that appeared between him and Beatrice.

    In truth, he was as lost as amb. When Director Johnson first spoke, he suspected that Beatrice was guilty of foul y which was why he resolutely did what he did. After all, he didn''t have any side in this conflict except his own.

    My guy, he only knew Beatrice for a grand total of slightly over 24 hours. There was no way he was going to trust her like a life-and-death friend when he didn''t even know everything about her.

    She had seemingly done him good, but Dante couldn''t gauge the value of her ''kindness'' because of his ignorance. It could entirely be that everything she did so far was an obligation and she was stringing him along.

    It could also entirely be that she was strangely generous to him and that wasn''t any better. Whatever the case, good or bad, he would be able to tell once he had ess to the Etr and could understand the information posted there.

    This was why his citizen ID was necessary. This fellow spoke as if what Beatrice did was wrong from the onset, something Dante suspected already, so he took the risk of offending Beatrice to find out more.

    However the moment the fellow spoke, Dante knew that this was just a meager political spat between two factions or two persons, and he was just a medium to execute the ploy.

    When he understood this, he panicked slightly because while it didn''t absolve Beatrice of any doubts, it meant that he had estranged their rtionship for no fucking reason and that was detrimental.

    So he quickly made his stance clear, directly insulting the fellow and disying hostility to show he was on Beatrice''s side. Hister conjectures were to make it seem he was a clever bloke who had seen through the ploy from the start and wanted to out him.

    But hearing Beatrice reveal this information, his heart went cold because he realized he was likely right. It was that feeling when you swerved your car and avoided a fatal ident, and realized that you could have died just then.

    If Dante didn''t have a architect as a father who taught him the importance of understanding the minor details as well as a chemical engineer for a mother who taught him to always observe and deduce, who knew what he might have done?

    Dante stepped back and stood beside Beatrice. "I thought as much. The moment I entered, he frowned when he saw me, meaning that I was far less than he expected, which probably gave him the idea that he could deal with me."

    It made sense, but Dante was not sure of this. He was just specting, but given the circumstances, a spection like this sounded like damning evidence.

    Beatrice snorted. "I''ve already reported everything that happened here to the Human Council. Expect their answer soon!"

    Director Johnson paled. How the hell did things reach this point? All he did was try to use a mediocre-looking pure human without any background to try and one-up Beatrice, his rival from the Eternal Academy.

    As far as he knew, even if he was right, Beatrice would only receive a p on the wrist for the offense and he would be able to torment her verbally whenever he saw her, relieving some of the dissatisfaction in his heart.

    But things had spun around and he was now the one frying on the pan while his backing was nowhere near as solid as hers. Before the human council, even Beatrice could be a little fearless, but he was the same as any dog on the street!

    His eyes shed with hatred. Sitting in a position like this involved a web of interests and decisions that no one could easily ount for.

    In other words, in his tenure of working for the Earth Bureau, he had definitely offended some people who didn''t dare touch him because of his position and those he offended them for.

    But once he lost his position, he lost his value. Who would waste energy to protect him? What benefits would they get from it? He was basically an abandoned dog without even losing his job yet.

    He and his entire family might suffer a cmity. They certainly will not die since every pure human was as precious as a 1000-year-old ginseng.

    They also would not be forced too low since every pure human had sufficient welfare, but even if you had money in your pocket, it wasn''t nice to be beaten up every day by hooligans, was it?

    Director Johnson breathed deeply, but did not do anything. Attacking Dante or Beatrice would yield even worse consequences and trying to tamper with the system for petty revenge wouldn''t work with Beatrice''s background.

    As such, the man took a small tube and tossed it to Beatrice, pointing to his door.

    "There is your ID and your AI Chip infusion. Now get the hell out of my office before I call security!"

    Dante and Beatrice shared a look and left the office, smiling smugly on their way out.

 Chapter 15 Citizen ID

    ?"So, did you actually report him?" Dante asked as they walked out of the former White House building.

    "No, of course not." Beatrice shook her head.

    Dante smiled in approval. "It''s better that way. He will be grateful to you and now you have ckmail on him. You can get stuff like this done much easier next time."

    Beatrice smirked and folded her arms. "Not only that, but he would be in a worse position and have nothing to lose if I did report him. I don''t want someone like that having hatred towards us. Who knows what he can do?"

    Dante shrugged. He doubted that even if the fellow went crazy, he could do any harm to Beatrice. As for him, Dante, there was no telling what could happen, so he obviously wouldn''tin.

    When the duo sat in the car, Beatrice gestured to the tube with her chin. "Inject the stuff and familiarize yourself with your new identity. You''ll need it since we''re off to your potential vi right now."

    Dante nced at the injector and remembered when Beatrice stabbed his heart with the gene enhancer. His heart couldn''t help but be cold and his resolve wavered.

    Dante firmed his mind and brought the needle to his arm, ready to stick it in. Beatrice looked shocked and hurriedly stopped him.

    "What do you think you''re doing?!" She asked with a reprimand.

    Dante stopped and nced at her with confusion. "Is there a problem?"

    "Of course there is! Where do you think you were about to inject yourself? Your arm?! Are you mad?!?" She shouted with increasing intensity, making Dante frown.

    "Shouldn''t it all be the same? The bloodstream is the bloodstream." Dante argued as he brought the injector away.

    "No, not in this case. You are injecting foreign coded nanites into your body that are going toe together to form your AI chip, or in this case, upgrade your AI chip to the level 1 standard. You think this is something you can just do with ease?" Beatrice chided with a look of disapproval.

    Dante looked down at the injector then up at the solemn Beatrice and his eyes narrowed. " I don''t believe you. Why didn''t Johnson inform me of this and why aren''t there any instructions on the tube?"

    Beatrice tilted her head like she couldn''t believe this garbage. "You mean the guy you just offended and outed as a corrupt official, who thinks he''s about to lose his job because of you, would tell youmon information to us that we all know is actually crucial to you? Wow!"

    Dante''s lips twitched.

    "Besides, he knows I am with you and there is no way I would make you take the wrong path. If you do, the me falls on me, not him." Beatrice waved her hand and exined.

    "Okay then, where am I supposed to inject?" Dante asked with exasperation.

    Beatrice pointed to different spots on her head. "This is going directly to your brain and needs the best ess, so anywhere on your head would do. Your neck, your cheeks, your nose, or even your ears."

    Beatrice folded her arms coolly. "Personally, most people do it in their eyes. It''s more direct and the safest, and there''s no pain since- hey!"

    Dante ignored her and stuck it in his arm, choosing a suitable vein and gritting his teeth from the short stab of pain. He then pushed the substance in slowly until the tube was empty and then removed it.

    Beatrice''s expression was ugly and she sulked as she leaned back into her seat. She red at Dante with dissatisfaction andined.

    "You selfish guy, that was myst chance to trick you. After you get your citizen ID and your AI chip is updated, you can just search these things up."

    Dante nced at her, but his heart couldn''t help but skip a beat. This woman loved to cause trouble too much, and he always had to calcte the meaning of her words as well as the likely truth behind them.

    This, plus the unfamiliar environment, was why Dante was so cold, always frowning and acting wise. He felt like the moment he let up and showed his normal self, who was pretty above average in this regard, he would be yed to death.

    With his citizen ID and an upgraded chip, this should change!

    Dante closed his eyes and felt a wave of coolness in his brain. He literally felt the insides of his scalp shift a little, but apart from feeling gross and weird, there was nothing else but the refreshing coolness.

    Eventually, the shift came to an end and Dante felt like something new was in his mind, something far more present and potent.

    [Greetings, user Dante. Since Ive have already registered your usership, I have attached your Citizen ID and automatically listed you in the pure human database. You already have a preliminary idea of my capabilities from when I was partially functional, but I will divulge the rest.]

    [As you know, AI chips are only as good as their users. Our storage andputing power are based off of your own brain power. However, myputing abilities have been greatly optimized, and can do ten times what I could before while using ten times less of your brain''s resources.]

    [Also, I will always have a connection to the Etr, but without a terminal, it would be sector-based and quadrant-limited. To ess all of the Etr with nog or dy, you would need a quantum terminal like on The Inferno.]

    [In times of emergency. I can take over your physical functions to ensure your survival at all costs. I can control everything you wish to control that iswork/digital-based at any time.

    [Some other functions are being uploaded to your mind; you can ratify them at your own pace.]

    Dante was surprised. Thismunication within his mind was far faster than before, and only less than a picosecond passed in reality as he learned this.

    He also noticed that the information uploaded to his mind was part of his memory and had already been processed. He only needed to casually ess it to remember what it said.

    That was exceedingly convenient. Dante opened his SDI to check.

    ?User: Dante (ID Number: DANTE10998-03-15)

    Age: 21 (Converted to Earth years)

    Race: Pure Human (99.9% gic perfection)

    Strength Index: 2.3

    Agility Index: 2.2

    Dexterity Index: 2.3

    Intelligence Index: 2.5

    Constitution Index: 2.1

    Vitality Index: 2.1

    Bionic Level: 0

    Psionic level: 0

    AI Chip level: 1 (Civilian Category)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement.?

    Dante put that aside and finally got to what he was looking forward to all this while.

    The Etr!

    The moment he essed the Etr, Dante felt the same wonder he did when he first logged into the inte, but this was grander since he was directly essing with his mind.

    He felt like his mind was sucked into a vortex and then appeared in a white room. In the white room, a terminal stood in the center that was glowing with a resplendent light.

    Dante looked around and realized that he could control everything in this room, so he replicated his bedroom at home, and it was done to perfection.

    Even the terminal melted and transformed into hisptop at his desk, so he sat down and essed it.

    When he did so, his eyes shed with many weird symbols and signs unbeknownst to him.

    Dante was fed information about the Etr to his mind by the AI chip which was the intermediary for the connection. He was given the equivalent of a basic tutorial on how to use the Etr for all newbies logging in with their citizen ID for the first time.

    After he processed the information, he sighed and felt amazed. This kind ofwork had been theorized on Earth as many scientists and researchers strove day and night toplete it, but here it was.

    And in the tutorial, the basic framework of this was easily exined, all the fundamentals that scientists on Earthcked weremon knowledge here.

    There was no search engine for this kind ofwork, anything you could think of could be essed by you at any time and at the speed of thought.

    For example, Dante curiously searched for how to achieve Controble Nuclear Fusion, and he was led to many sites for basic primary school science to help kids pass their 3rd-grade exam.

    Dante was thoroughly speechless.

    He almost had a breakdown on behalf of all the Nuclear Physicists of Earth. Something they strove for and were stumped by even to the modern day was something that children by the age of 8 were writing for their 3rd grade, third-semester exam.

    Above that was Dark matter energy, Anti-matter energy, Psion energy, natural energies, and more, studied by kids all the way to 12th grade. The various forms of energy above this were for higher students and required specialization, like what we all experienced in Senior High ongoing.

    That meant that these science-fiction and almost pseudo-science energies believed to be alien-tier tech on earth were ''general'' knowledge things all beings of this universe were supposed to know.

 Chapter 16 Quantum Network

    ?What is a Quantum Network?

    It was a unique form ofmunication that surpassed themon method that required a direct physical connection. Unlike typicalworks that transmitted data through wires or waves, the quantumwork used the quantum realm of the universe.

    In other words, you don''t necessarily need a ''cable'' to connect two interfaces. Through quantum entanglement, one side would send themunication and the other side would receive it through the quantumwork.

    The AI chip in everyone''s heads at level 1 was a basic quantum processor, which was why it was so powerful. Through it, anyone could connect with the quantumwork of their sector without a terminal, even if you were in the dead of space.

    However, even if it could do so, the AI chip at its current basic level was not powerful enough to use the quantumwork of the universe on arge scale.

    Putting aside its own limitations, it worked with the brain power of the user. Unless you wanted to fry your brain from overextension, it was better to find a terminal if you wanted to ess the full quantumwork.

    As Dante was on Earth, the entire was a hub, so his connection was fluid and could reach anywhere in the universe.

    And the quantumwork when used directly through the mind was akin to a virtual reality experience. In fact, Dante knew from the tutorial uploaded to his mind that some sites even possessed augmented reality features.

    For now, he essed his bank to start. He was banking with the biggest and most stable establishment in the universe, the Bank of Eternity. They were the central bank of the entire universe and handled the financials of the entire universe as well as all civilized systems.

    They also issued Etrans and were the only authority allowed to do so, so they kept strict control on the amount of currency floating about throughout the universe at any time.

    With AI and the quantumwork, you could be sure as hell that intion was a thing as rare as a unicorn. The level of intensity and calctions the bank had over this was beyond what even a skilled economist could specte.

    After all, working with AI and the quantumwork meant one solid fact; the human element that poisoned all concepts and ideas was gone, reced by the cold impartiality of AI.

    No embezzlement, no stealing, no nepotism, no favoritism.

    Dante appeared in a virtual banking hall where he could see the avatars of other bankers. He realized that he was in an instanced banking hall, and this one was instance number 4 quadrillion and some remnant numerals.

    There was a limit to the number of people who could enter each instance, which was 30. Dante saw that there were 23 of out 30 in the room and it was filling up quickly as new instances were being created to handle neers.

    Dante looked around and saw a variety of races and species just like on that street on Etonia. Standing here, he finally felt the Sci-fi vibes again that filled him with excitement.

    The past few hours he had been stuck with Beatrice and despite being beautiful, she did not excite him much. Not to mention she took him straight to earth and he just saw some futuristic human buildings and another human.

    This right here was much better for his sense of aplishment and adventure.

    The aliens who were in the banking hall doing various things were also surprised to see a pure human in their instance. After all, the ratio of pure humans to any other species was like grains of sand on a beach to the number of crabs on that same beach.

    Dante just happened to see a lot of them because he was one, so they seemed moremon than they were.

    Despite his rarity though, the other aliens only looked a bit to see what was different about this one before looking away. None came to fawn on him for being a part of the racial elite of the universe or to find out more about him.

    In fact, there was a faint hostility in their demeanor, not enough to do anything violent, but they certainly would not show any unnecessary goodwill without a solid reason.

    Dante narrowed his eyes. It seemed that Beatrice had underyed the dislike the other species had for pure humans.

    Whatever the case, Dante noticed that he was called up to a booth that was numbered 23, which was his number. In there, an AI-generated human was formed right before him that was based on his taste.

    This was generated by his preference through his AI chip. At all times he wasmunicating with the Etr with his mind, so anymand he had that he wanted to share was implemented at the speed of thought.

    The representative shed a brilliant smile and gestured to the seat opposite her. Dante naturally sat down and got to business, stating that he was there to bind his ount.

    The bank''s representative nodded and then processed his Citizen ID. She soon found an in-trust ount opened for him and then handled the transfer process.

    The ount was bound to Dante''s AI chip and could not be essed by anyone else without his permission. Not only that, but he could use it anywhere in the universe since the Etr was everywhere.

    Even in those ound ces, they mostly had to use the quantumwork, and the bank didn''t care if you were a criminal or a hero. They only dealt with money and notw, this was something they were strict about.

    Dante opened his ount and saw that a bnce of 300 Etrans was sitting inside, ready to use however he wanted. That reminded Dante of something else he had to do and he thanked the representative before logging out of the Bank of Eternity''s site.

    Dante came to his home page and pondered. He then gave the AI chip amand to download all the formation, be it writing or videos of ''basic'' things like Controble Nuclear Fusion, the initial breakthroughs in medicine like the Penicillin 2.0 which could cure all known diseases, as well as the Literfuel, a special nutrient solution that could slowly enhance the quality of life of any species.

    The Literfuel was proprietary, but the patent was over 3,000 years old and had be obsolete with modern tech that had found better forms and even the gene enhancer, so such a thing was dumped into the public for kids in high school who chose a medicine-rted course to study.

    Dante was excited. To the Eternal Universe, these things were absolutely outdated and useless, akin to a modern earthling hearing about the steam engine and lotion, an ancient breakthrough in technology that was long developed upon.

    However to the earthling that was stuck in this ''ancient'' era, this was revolutionary!

    With this, Dante could start on some basic things on Earth. However, before that, he would need to set up a few things and buy some other things.

    Most importantly, he would need to empower himself further as his current ability was not enough to make him infallible. If he was to use these things to stand out on earth, he would need martial might as well as political and financial power.

    The kind of progress he would be bringing would revolutionize the and usher in a new era, causing his name to be in the history books forever. Many would kill for such an opportunity and Dante wasn''t about to die to his measly earthling colleagues when he had ess to this vast world.

    Dante sighed a logged out of the Etr. His mind could situate itself in reality while his AI chip was on thework doing things for him, so there was no conflict.

    The only reason he went in like that was because he was somewhere safe and also because it was his first time. He absolutely had to experience for himself what such a thing would be like, and his curiosity was mostly sated for now.

    Beatrice was seated before him, ncing at him with interest. "Well, how was it?"

    Dante smiled. "It was actually quite fun."

    Beatriceughed. "Right? I also felt the same way when I first logged in. Oh, we''re here by the way."

    Dante was startled and looked out. He noticed that they had left the bustling city and hade to a countryside-like area. There was a swath of beautiful vis on each plot that extended for miles and the environment was almost magical.

    The mental health of anyone who lived here would be extremely good, that was something Dante could swear.

    The shuttle came to a vi numbered 56 and entered itspound. A few butler robots and maid robots filed out from the main door and stood on either side of the entrance, bowing to the humans.

    "Wee Master Dante and Mistress Beatrice!" They echoed in vibrant tones.

 Chapter 17 Leaving Earth

    ?Dante was surprised by this entourage. While the idea of a vi naturally had him picture maids and butlers, he had never actually experienced such treatment directly.

    Naturally, Beatrice was unfazed, likely due to her upbringing, so she ignored the robots and entered the building. Dante noticed that she had a sharp dislike for non-human machine life, and his eyes narrowed as he wondered why.

    He kept his thoughts to himself and followed her in. The interior was much more splendid than he expected. Picture the most ultra-modern house you could and then magnify the size by ten times.

    There were so many rooms and facilities here that Dante would literally never need to leave the house.

    Food? He had 3 kitchens and even a pantry big enough to be called a presidential bunker that could store anything indefinitely by freezing it in spatial stasis.

    Water? He could literally condense atmospheric humidity into dew through the purifier.

    Labor? There were androids ready to serve him in any way for anything. ANYTHING.

    Social? He could connect to a quantumwork and interact with anyone, anywhere as if they were right in front of him, y PvP games like he was in Sword Art Online, and more.

    Health and Fitness? You didn''t even need to worry, your AI chip regtes your body''s hormones and prevents the storage of fat. So even if you''re a slob, you''ll only shit more since nothing is stored as excess. As for muscture, that one is hard to atrophy or deteriorate since the standard of humans and species here are much higher than on Earth.

    Dante was set. If he didn''t have to go to the Eternal Academy to better himself, he could justze here every day and absorb what he wanted, live a decadent life based on the 300 Etrans per week welfare he got thanks to the contract.

    He would rx in the Eternal universe and then slowly take over Earth using superior technology, living the life of a lesser god.

    However, that thought only fleetingly passed through his mind. There was no earthling born after 1980, one who was born in the digital era, who would receive a chance like this and use it toze about.

    Rather, like Dante was about to do, everyone would actively seek to better themselves as if they were preparing for war, with a zeal that would make natives of this universe wonder if you were a tryhard.

    Dante followed Beatrice to the central control room of the vi which was underground and closed offpletely from the outside world, disallowing any signal to escape.

    There, he bound the vi and its facilities to his AI chip since it was already bound to his ID. Thanks to quantum connectivity, his AI chip was the only entity that had a direct connection to it from any distance in the universe.

    So no, you couldn''t be all assassin-like and sneak into Dante''s vi to steal or kill him. Well, there might be other methods since no technology in the universe could block the effect of superpowers, which was why they were so revered and treated so importantly.

    Bionics could be crippled and Psionics could be disabled. Even one''s AI chip could be interfered with if one had special methods, but superpowers could only be countered by superpowers.

    Anyway, Dante had sorted out his vi and Beatrice pulled him to the living room to chill. He didn''t need to explore every single room since his AI chip had already downloaded theyout and presented a fully holographic 3D image of the entire vi, a list of rooms and their functions, as well as all surveince facilities directly to his brain.

    Right now, no one knew this vi better than Dante, even the ones who build it would pale inparison.

    He sighed and sat down opposite Beatrice and folded his arms. He had only woken up an hour or so ago but felt like he had walked 300 miles. Even with his vastly superior SDI than earth humans, he still felt physically and mentally fatigued.

    For the first time, Beatrice didn''t tease or bother him. She just nced at him casually and then brought up her holographic screen from her right palm and browsed the things on it with her eyes and her mind.

    Dantey with his head back on the seat, slumped and deeply rxed. He even napped for a short while before suddenly waking up, feeling less tired than before.

    He also felt little to no grogginess thanks to his increased SDI and AI chip regting his body. As such, the moment his eyes opened, he was ready to go.

    "Where do we go from here?" Dante asked while rubbing his eyes.

    "Straight to the edge of the universe," Beatrice repliedzily as she closed her holographic screen.

    "And what''s over there?" Dante asked with confusion.

    "The Eternal Academy of course. The Academy was built around the Zero Gate, and the Zero Gate is located at what was previously the edge of our known universe." Beatrice answered helpfully.

    Dante nodded and set his AI chip to download information about the Eternal Academy. By the time he exited the building with Beatrice and walked towards the car, he was already well-versed with the Eternal Academy, its rules, location, history, rumors, and thetest news.

    Dante had to say, that academy was less of a school and more of an organization. If he was topare its power, wealth, and influence on society, it would be like Disney on modern Earth.

    It was definitely going to be a big stage in his future in this universe, so Dante was looking forward to it.

    One thing everyone could agree with was thating to a ce or location seemed to take years upon years, but leaving seemed to be in the blink of an eye.

    Dante and Beatrice left Earth and entered the spaceport, being shuttled into The Inferno rather quickly. They got instant clearance to move out and then did so,unching into the sr system at light speed.

    Unfortunately, they couldn''t enter Hyperdrive within the milky way gxy, so they had to exit it first. This took about 30 minutes of travel with the speed of The Inferno, making Dante click his tongue.

    Why did going from the sr system to the edge of the milky way feel like taking an Uber down to the city center to do shopping?

    While they moved, Dante was pondering many things while Beatrice was interfacing with the ship. When they eventually exited the gxy, Beatrice was about to initiate hyperdrive when Dante stopped her.

    "What is it?" Beatrice asked with surprise.

    Dante took a deep breath and decided to trust her with this much since his future hinged on it.

    "I want to test some of the limits and rules of my superpower," Dante stated calmly.

    Beatrice''s eyes shed. "No problem, I can leave if you want."

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Dante shook his head. "I need you here because what I am about to test is very risky."

    Beatrice was deeply shocked. To show someone your superpower was almost taboo and despite Dante iming to have one, she never actually asked for it, and neither did the Human Council before giving him his identity.

    Unless you took the initiative to reveal it or used it in public, allowing people to deduce your power, no one would ask. Some children didn''t even trust their parents with their superpowers, and Dante was about to show her his??

    Beatrice was a little flustered inside by the sudden kindness. Her impression of Dante so far was not entirely positive, as he was mostly cold, on guard, and confrontational, but she understood why and did not me him for it at all.

    She sucked in a deep breath and nodded gravely. "I''ll help you, and I swear that I will not reveal anything I see here ever in my life. I put this on my word as a member of the Portinari Family."

    Dante nodded and then looked around. "Can I get an Exosuit? It can be any type."

    Beatrice didn''t ask why andmanded the ship to grant Dante the Vice-Captain''s Exosuit. Akin to iron man equipping his nanotech suit, a wave of nanites were released from Dante''s jacket that slowly covered his body, much to his surprise.

    "If you''re going to be the Vice-Captain, you naturally have to get all the stuff allotted to them. This is the Mark V Exosuit, the current top in our entire military and usually meant for those with Bionics and Psionics over level 25 in the military category." Beatricemented with amusement.

    "But technically as long as you have an AI chip, you can use its most basic functions." Beatrice shrugged and exined.

    Dante''s AI chip paired with the Exosuit and registered it to his own DNA. He then received a tutorial and list of its function, and he couldn''t help but suck in a deep breath.

    This thing was crazy!

 Chapter 18 Testing Superpower

    ?Aside from its ability to keep Dante alive in the vacuum of space, it also recycled the liquid in his body so that he would never be dehydrated and could extract the waste in his body to obtain nutrients to sustain him.

    But that was just basic life preservation.

    It was apparently strong enough to resistser sts head-on! As thetest in military tech, it had surpassed all other defenses and was now tuned to protect from the most dangerous of attacks from superpowers and the like.

    Protecting from mereser beams was child''s y. Even more exaggerated was the fact that the user of the Exosuit could survive having a nuke dropped on your head.

    That''s right, whether it was the shockwave, the heat, or the radiation, they were all nothing to the Exosuit. All forms of kic and natural elemental damage werepletely blocked and the majority of special energy damage likesers, psion beams, dark matter weapons, etc were easily resisted.

    Kic damage immunity especially meant that dropping a building on Dante was useless. Hitting him with a speeding train was useless and dropping him from high up into the ground was useless.

    Dante couldn''t help but breathe roughly. In his ns to conquer earth, he had mostly opted for the conservative approach, by taking over in the shadows through the underworld and then moving into the light through finance, entertainment, politics, and then the military if necessary.

    However, with this, he could just take the direct route and beat everyone to death. Even if he currently didn''t have the power of Bionics or Psionics, he could walk around earth unimpeded for nothing at their level of technology could even remotely threaten him with this on.

    Still, even if he did have the power, he wouldn''t choose that path. Dante calmed himself down and remembered his goal, as well as the reason for this.

    Having this Exosuit guaranteed his safety in this powerful universe and practically deified him in his home universe, so could do what he wanted to now with a level of impunity.

    Dante closed his eyes and then pictured his home universe. As for Beatrice, he simply used the AI chip to transmit that he wanted her to lower the ship''s speed so that she could leave this particr coordinate of space but remain nearby.

    Then, he used his Quantum Entanglement ability to return to earth with a pop, causing Beatrice''s face to change greatly. Was this Dante''s superpower? Teleportation he called it?

    But if he could teleport... then where did he go?

    ...........

    Dante reappeared in his apartment and felt his body stabilize. He noticed he was still connected to the Exosuit through his AI chip and this made him happy. As long as he could carry this suit back and forth, he would be good to go.

    With his superior SDI and upgraded AI chip, Dante felt like the world around him had changed. He felt it in the other universe too, but that was different because well, it was hard to tell since he was not truly a native.

    But here he could feel it, the heightened colors, senses, and smells. Most especially the pollution in the air that even caused him to choke up slightly as he frowned.

    However, nothing could prepare him for what happened next when his AI chip automatically began scanning for a Quantum Network Hub. There was obviously none on this earth, so it searched the entire sector, which included the Milky Way, Andromeda, and a few other gxies and nebs.

    Dante sat down on the ground with a dazed expression as this was his first time roaming the Quantum verse without a hub, so the AI chip used more brain resources to facilitate it. Coupled with the fact that there was no proper ''Etr'' here, Dante was forced to search for one.

    Unfortunately for him, he did not find a universe-wide or even quadrant-wide connection, but he found little pockets of weakmunications from various civilizations.

    These civilizations had either mastered or were at the entry-level of Quantum Computing andmunication, but they only used it tomunicate within their own species and spheres of influence, ignorant of the others.

    The nearest quantum species to earth was in a whole other sr system around 30,000 light years away, deeper into the center of the milky way. This didn''t rule out that non-quantum civilizations like earth didn''t exist on the way, but they were too weak to even make themselves known indirectly.

    Dante shut down the connection and found himself sweating profusely. His brain was hot and he felt like he was having a migraine, but the AI chip soon regted his stress and temperature to normal levels.

    Dante settled down and pondered what he found out. Most of it was gibberish since thenguages each race used was different, but the AI chip could trante them using a cipher from the Etr if Dante went back.

    For the meantime, he was done here and had to head back. As such, he naturally pictured himself returning to the Eternal universe and felt himself sucked into that familiar long tunnel.

    Only that this time, he felt like there was a branch in the tunnel. Two exits were ced in front of him, one that led to the dead of space and one that led to the spot he stood within The Inferno''s Observation Deck.

    Surprised, he naturally chose the second exit and felt himself pulled along that flow. When he stabilized, he was standing in front of a puzzled Beatrice who was looking him up and down like he was a monster.

    "So what did you even test?" She asked with rightful confusion.

    Dante paused and then sighed with relief. Naturally, the most important thing to test with a space-rted power was how it regarded space. Some powers automatically distinguished between livable space and unlivable space, but some others were raw.

    If Dante had teleported back to earth while on a ship and then ported back without any safeguards, there was a chance his superpower could deposit him right in the vacuum, causing him to die.

    That would be a pointless death, so it was better to test such a thing when he was safe and had someone who could rescue him like Beatrice if something went wrong.

    Now that he had gotten his answer, he was quite satisfied. There was one more test he had to make, but he wasn''t sure if Beatrice could do it.

    "Does the Inferno have onboard space suppressors like on earth?" Dante asked solemnly.

    Beatrice noticed that he did not answer her question but was not bothered. After all, she was lucky enough to win his trust regarding his superpower, and asking for more was taboo.

    "Yeah, sure. The ship can do that easily and we even have various levels of it. What do you want to do?" She answered with a bored expression.

    Dante sighed with relief. "Great, then I want you to set it to the highest level of suppression once more. Oh, and the ship can return to full travel speed."

    "Right-o Daddy-o," Beatrice responded half-heartedly, causing Dante to nce at her askance.

    He could recognize that she wasn''t too happy being ordered about for something she wasn''t really involved in and wasn''t allowed to know, but she was toozy to act difficult.

    "I''m just testing whether I can teleport out of a space-locked area. Previously, I tested whether I would end up at the same exact coordinate I left from or whether I could appear on a different coordinate when I leave from a moving vehicle." Dante decided to reveal this to her because it didn''tpromise the main secret of his ability.

    Once she heard this, Beatrice was surprised, then she nced at Dante weirdly.

    "This is probably why we should get you to the Eternal Academy quickly. They have in-depth courses on superpowers and how they work, and the first thing I can tell you is that superpowers function based on higher dimensional rules and science." Beatrice shook her head.

    "I mean, if a person who could control fire as a superpower had to be afraid of the heat of his attack, the kic force ofunching it, and the physics of me generation, why would we treat superpowers with such respect? We''d ssify them as hazards and people like you would be pitied." Beatrice stated as she folded her arms.

    Dante heard this and felt a chill in his heart. His mind was on something different than what Beatrice said.

    From a certain point of view, it was very reasonable and wise for him to test out such basic rules of his superpower.

    From another point of view, wasn''t he insulting the intelligence and effort of the higher dimensional lifeform that was kind enough to turn his mistake into a superpower and stabilize his existence?

 Chapter 19 Etraverse

    ?Of course, Dante might be overestimating himself. Just because that high-dimensional lifeform helped him once didn''t mean it always had its eyes on him. It might have been a casual act of boredom before forgetting Dante''s existence 0.0001 secondster.

    It could also be that a high dimension lifeform was too lofty to care about the underestimation of a mere lower-dimensional lifeform. After all, how could Dante understand the thoughts of such a being?

    It was like a worm or an ant trying to guess what a human was thinking. The ant would think the human was considering grander things along the line of building a hive, expanding and storing more food, meanwhile the human was probably thinking of Tracer rule 34.

    He settled down and did not cause any more trouble. After all, the words of Beatrice were easily verified with his current connection to the Etr so he could tell that while superpowers were generally mysterious in terms of their deeper functions, some basic fundamentals had been dug out after centuries of exposure.

    While they were on their way to the Eternal Academy, Beatrice told him about something he should try.

    "I''m sure you''ve logged into the Etr and experienced the Quantum Network of yourself right? What do you think?" She asked with a smile.

    Dante pondered for a bit then gave his honest thoughts. "It''s amazing, sort of like my mind exists outside my body. The Quantum Network feels as real as reality itself. It''s sort of like FIVR."

    Beatrice raised an eyebrow. "FIVR?"

    "Fully Immersive Virtual Reality. It''s a theory about how the mind canˇ­" Dante paused as he realized that talking about this was stupid.

    Beatrice was speechless. "I swear Dante, you are so weird. Sometimes you act like a native and sometimes you act like you''re someone who time-traveled to the future from our ancient past."

    Dante could only rub his forehead and change the subject. "So what did you want to bring up by asking about this?"

    "Hm, I was going to suggest that you buy a subscription to the Etraverse," Beatrice stated with a casual nce.

    Etraverse?

    Dante had his AI search it up and was granted a wealth of information right off the bat. Once he understood what the Etraverse was, his eyes couldn''t help but narrow and his heart beat rapidly.

    The Etraverse was basically a tform that allowed creators to host their own virtual worlds so that others can explore and use them. By paying a subscription fee of 0.1 Etrans per year, you can ess all the affiliated services and worlds linked to the tform itself.

    Of course, there were independent worlds belonging to indie creators where you had to pay a fee set by the world creator to use. Most of the top worlds in the Etraverse were like that while the ''free'' worlds were usually just entry points for newbies.

    There were a variety of worlds that were styled by different categories. Anime worlds, RPG worlds, fantasy worlds, cultivation worlds, racing, slice of life, sports, everything.

    The Etraverse was the most used service in the universe, with almost 99% of sentient civilizations using it almost daily. Many people worked and lived through the Etraverse and its worlds, and many economies worked around its functions.

    Many schools also used it for their training and testing of students. As you could imagine, militaries of various factions also used the virtual worlds here to train their soldiers. It was very versatile and adept.

    "You''ll be having your entrance exam in the Etraverse, so I suggest you register for it asap," Beatrice advised sagely.

    Dante nced at her askance. "Entrance exam?"

    Beatrice scoffed. "Of course. Did you think you were such hot stuff that they would let you in? You''re applying for the Unique Batch, so you naturally have to prove what''s unique about you. You say you have a superpower, and I know it and you know it."

    "But do they know it?" Beatrice shrugged.

    Dante was left speechless. It did make sense, but he really did think he would be passing some backdoor.

    Also, how the fuck was he supposed to use his Quantum Entanglement in a virtual world? He would be plugged into a quantumwork at the time, so would he justˇ­ pop back into the quantumwork of his home universe?

    How would that even work? And was it even possible? What would be the likely oue if he used his power in such a ce?

    Dante couldn''t sit still, because this was a very valid concern. He understood that superpowers had their own rules and were not so wed, and he also believed somewhat that the higher dimensional being that modified it for him was not so short-sighted.

    But still.

    Beatrice saw Dante''s uncertain expression and snickered. "What, you''re scared? You think your superpower is something so special that we haven''t seen something like it before?"

    "Tsk, tsk, what a backwater civilization we are. How could we possiblyprehend the length, breadth, and height of almighty Dante''s abilities? Why, just using it is enough to destroy the fabric of reality!" Beatrice made exaggerated gestures of remorse.

    Dante calmed down and nced at her casually before looking away. While annoying, her words did calm him down and bring rationality to his mind. He had to get it out of his head early that he was some uber-special entity that was chosen by some cosmic force to wow the universe.

    He only got here through a fluke and would have be primordial soup if not for a bored 4th dimensional or higher being thinking it would be fucking funny if he survived.

    Beatrice noticed Dante had settled down and smiled slightly before focusing on her holographic screen. Meanwhile, Dante closed his eyes and entered the Quantum Network.

    He naturally chose to enter the Etraverse and he was brought to the front of arge mall-like building. When the pushed the ss doors opened and entered a foyer, he noticed that there were AI receptionists again.

    Likewise, he was in an instanced lobby for visitors and clients, so he was quickly received and guided amongst strange looks from aliens. After all, given the ratio of pure humans to aliens, most aliens could go 3000 years without seeing a single pure human live in the flesh - or in the data - so this was quite an event for them.

    However just like before, they did note up to him nor stare too long. Not only was this due to racial tension, but even if they hadn''t seen a pure human in such a location, they had either seen pictures or videos of them, so they were not too shocked.

    Let''s not even talk about Dante, because he felt that if he dared to act like the shocked one here, he would be the victim of a social event where everyone treated him like a white person in modern America.

    Dante was led to a counter where he then spoke to a receptionist about the Etr and its benefits. Dante skipped this because he could simply download it and this was done for those old-fashioned fellows who liked the experience of chatting with the receptionist.

    Naturally, he was not interested in such a thing. Rather, he paid for the initial subscription for the first 11 years, of which the first year was free. In all, that was 1 Etran and he now had 299 remaining.

    In truth, Dante felt a pain in his heart spending so much! 1 Etran might not sound like much, but one could literallypare the value of an Etran to that of a Bitcoin at its peak.

    No, based on Dante''s research, one Etran would be about the value of $100,000 before the whole BRICS super alliance. It was big money that most people did not see a year after working even top-end jobs.

    Most Etrans were used in decimals, going as far as 0.00000X and beyond. For the Etraverse to charge 0.1 Etran per year, that was a yearly payment of $10,000!

    Is there anything on this earth you would pay for with that much money?

    Funny enough, if Virtual Reality dide to earth, it realistically would not be as cheap or free as people thought or as fiction presented. There would not be a benevolent billionaire or secret supernatural entity promoting VR through a game, but more likely that it would be overpriced for a select few, and heavily focused on porn.

    After all, with VR real enough, one could capture all the fringe groups who had unattainable fantasies due to limited science or social/legal restrictions and grant them their dreams in the most realistic way possible.

    No one was going to use it to make a game for some lucky NEET to gain a broken skill and then continually break the bnce of the game as he rises to the top.

    Likewise, the Etraverse captured to all of those things for the entire universe and there was money to be made. If Dante could spend his Etrans on anything, he would definitely want to buy shares in the corporation behind it.

    Can you imagine the profits they were raking in?

 Chapter 20 Arriving At The Eternal Academy

    ?Dante did not spend time exploring the Etraverse. Unfortunately, one thing that separated the Quantum Network from a digitalwork was that it could not be time-dted, so everything there urred in real-time.

    Dante did not have the time to enter the Etraverse because Beatrice hurriedly informed him that they had reached the Eternal Academy. She even pulled Dante over to nce at the academy from the Observation Deck, and Dante was absolutely sted away.

    The Eternal Academy was like a giant floating ne in the cosmos. It was a huge continent-shaped mass that was made of endless buildings that sprawled across every inch ofnd. There were segments filled with greenery and life, as well as segments filled with rocks and mountains. There were even ces with water and seas, not to mention fierynds full ofva and active volcanoes.

    Most importantly, there was a futuristic urban scene spread across the entire ne that even popted the ''natural zones''. Beneath the ne was a spinning blueish-purple neb-like existence that looked simr to pictures of the milky way.

    Above the ne, one could see hundreds of shipsing and going, as well as many interster cars traveling with the atmosphere of the ne. In the center was a building so tall that it wasrger than anything else on the entire ne, piercing straight into space itself.

    Dante was utterly awed by this sight. He had never and would never have seen something like this, not in the flesh. He couldn''t help but clutch his chest and wipe his eyes as tears began to form.

    He was not sad, but full of gratitude. Gratitude for the chance that brought him here, and gratitude to the higher dimensional being that allowed him to stay here.

    He would be a corpse buried under the earth for thousands of years on earth before he could even hope to see something like this.

    Not to mention he had ess to it and was even soon going to be a part of it!

    Dante could only feel gratitude to the godly forces of the universe for choosing him to enjoy this, while Beatrice by the side nced at him with a smile. She felt that she could understand how awed he would be, for she too was moved when she first saw the academy for herself.

    Soon, the Inferno docked at one of the special receiving spaceports for new students. Despite what Dante thought, there was no nepotism or separation, as their ship should have high-ss rights and priority. However, they queued in the end obediently and when he came down, he noticed there were many youths like himself of varying races.

    Well... for some of the aliens here, Dante could only assume they were youths because their physiology obviously couldn''t tell him that unless he specifically researched how they would look at different stages of life.

    They were also d in varying attires, standing in different groups having formed cliques as they seemed to wait for something. When Dantended, he noticed that there were only about 3 pure humans in this entire bay that had over 2000 people at least from what he could count.

    While everyone was in cliques, it wasn''t that they shunned each other but were just unfamiliar for now. However, there was a clear gap given to the 3 pure humans in the center, and they did not seem to care. Rather, they seemed to take pride in this separation and held their chests out.

    At least, that was how they looked to Dante. As for the aliens around, they seemed to asionally nce at the pure humans in the center with slight hostility and unfriendliness in their expressions.

    Dante nced at Beatrice askance. "I think you have severely underyed how much strife exists between pure humans and mixed races."

    Beatrice chuckled dryly. "Well, what could I say? I couldn''t say we''re on the brink of a cultural and political war, could I?"

    Dante was surprised. "Political as well?"

    "Well yeah. Mixed breeds and aliens want more representation in the upper echelon of the government, but every position with even the slightest power is held by a pure human. How do you think they would feel?" Beatrice shrugged and exined.

    Dante was speechless. In that case, wasn''t this universe is few steps away from a Boston Tea Party situation? Or had something like that already happened?

    He followed Beatrice into the bay and naturally, all eyes turned to them. In truth, having more than 2000 peers stare at you felt exactly as you thought, but Dante wasn''t a shut-in. He often visited social spaces and had some social acim of his own on earth, so he could force himself to be calm.

    Beatrice simply did not care and like the other pure humans, seemed to swagger as she walked. Dante noted that this seemed to be sub-conscious and natural, not another ploy by her to cause trouble. It seemed like pure humans of this universe really did treat themselves as nobility, even if they didn''t harp on about it.

    Dante did not frown or shake his head at this. In truth, he didn''t care. He had been a part of the privileged ss since he was born and he wasn''t the type of idiot to go on social media to virtue signal by tarnishing his own group/caste for likes and fame.

    He had fully enjoyed the privilege his background brought him and continued to do so, so he would do the same here. It would only be a problem if he was obviously a part of the other side, but he wasn''t, now was he?

    However, not sabotaging himself was one thing, but he couldn''t muster the swagger that Beatrice and the other pure humans had. He felt it was unnecessary and a bit cringe anyway.

    The aliens in their path made way with cold eyes as they walked towards the pure humans in the center. When they reached them, Dante noticed that it was two older men and one young female who were also ncing at them with smiles.

    Of the two older men, one was tall and burly, with bronze skin slightly darker than Dante''s own and long brown hair that reached his waist. He wore abat exosuit as identified by Dante''s AI chip which was of the Army''s upper echelon.

    The other man was grizzled and lightly tanned, with a wide grin and two sharp blue eyes. He was slightly shorter than the other fellow and not as burly but was definitely more lithe. Hisbat exosuit was brownish-red, which was the same as the other man.

    As for the young girl between them, she looked to be about 16 years old with a body that belonged to a 21-year-old at least in terms of physical development. It was her youthful face and aura that gave her away, but Dante could be wrong.

    After all, the state of gics in this universe made it such that trying to gauge by physical looks was extremely difficult unless you adapted to the standard here.

    The girl had long blue hair that seemed watery, and her eyes were also aqua blue. She was fair-skinned and a little cute but leaned more toward being beautiful. She wore a long blue dress thatplemented her hair and eyes and stood there nobly as if the world revolved around her.

    Beatrice waved a hand and greeted them. "Hello, hello. It''s great to see gentlemen from the 2nd Sr Corps here."

    The two men nodded and smiled. "It is also great to see the Admiral and Vice Admiral from the 34th Fleet. It''s our honor sir and madam!"

    Dante was surprised that they could tell, but Beatrice seemed to treat this as normal. "You two are Lieutenant Generals (AN: One tier below General and the top of the army rank) so there''s no need for that. We can also learn a lot from you."

    Beatrice then nced at the young woman who was sizing Dante up with interest. "Hello, beautiful young miss. May I have the pleasure of knowing your name?"

    The young woman turned her eyes to Beatrice and then bowed politely with a curtsy, something Dante thought would be obsolete here. In truth, he was right since the mixed races were confused by her actions.

    "I am Louisa Nicides, second daughter of Mikael Nicides, Patriarch of the Nicides family." She introduced herself in a calm and elegant manner.

    Beatrice seemed partially surprised and then nodded. "I was wondering who could have two whole Lieutenant Generals as her protectors to the Eternal Academy. So you''re the pearl of Uncle Mikael''s eye. I''ve heard about you."

    Louisa seemed surprised and then raised an eyebrow. "You sound familiar with my father. May I know how?"

    Beatrice paused and then pped her forehead. With an amused smile, she also curtsied, but it looked weird with her skin-tight admiral''s uniform that disyed all her S-grade curves.

    "I forgot to introduce myself. I am Beatrice Portinari, first daughter of Augeus Portinari, Patriarch of the Portinari family."

 Chapter 21 Beatrices Reputation

    ?Dante didn''t even get a chance to introduce himself before the atmosphere of the small circle they upied changed. The two men immediately went on guard and positioned themselves in front of Louisa as if being one second too slow would be worse than death.

    Louisa herself began to tremble, her expression scandalized as if she had been bitten by a snake. The two Lieutenant Generals prepared for a fight, sweat forming on their faces through their exosuits, which was a rare sight.

    Dante stood there dumbfounded, not because he didn''t know how to react or was shocked, but because he simply couldn''t react fast enoughpared to how quickly they moved. Beatrice may have enhanced his genes, but he still had a lot to catch up on, especially considering that these individuals likely had elite bionics enhancing them.

    As for Beatrice, she didn''t react much. She maintained her casual smile and seemed to have expected this reaction. "Why the sudden hostility? Are we not all pure humans?"

    The trio opposite her froze, realizing their reactions had been extremely rude and excessive. They rxed significantly, their expressions filled with shame and apology.

    "Haha, that''s right. It''s just that Admiral Portinari''s reputation precedes her," the burly, brown-haired man on the leftughed awkwardly.

    "It''s like thunder in the ears of normalbatants like us," the lithe, slightly shorter man on the right remarked with a bitter expression.

    "Haha, that''s good to hear. If my allies react this way, then the reaction of my enemies should be even better," Beatrice chuckled amiably.

    Seeing that Beatrice wasn''t bothered, the two guards heaved audible sighs of relief. Louisa gathered herself, taking much longer to control her mental state andpose herselfpared to the seasoned veterans.

    "I sincerely apologize for my behavior, Lady Beatrice. You can be sure that I will work on making it up to you in the future on behalf of the Nicides family," Louisa bowed slightly with a serious expression.

    Beatrice smiled. "I respect and honor your apology, Louisa, but I''ve told you, Uncle Mikael is no stranger to me or my n."

    Louisa smiled bitterly. "Oh, trust me, I know. I have long heard about you and your siblings growing up, and it''s shocking to meet you in the flesh for the first time."

    Louisa then turned to Dante with a strange look. Both her guards also focused on Dante, their expressions unnatural. It was as if they were looking at Beauty and the Beast, where Beatrice was the Beast and Dante was the Beauty.

    There was an obvious question in their eyes as to why a fine young man like him would choose to be here. Initially, Louisa had even shown interest in him because, by their higher standards in this universe, he was a rtively good-looking, pure human male around her age. But now, she regarded him no differently than a tablecloth.

    "And may I know the name of this fine young gentleman?" Louisa asked with a smile.

    "Me? Dante," Dante introduced simply, folding his arms casually.

    Louisa''s eyebrows twitched as she tried to furrow them, but she quickly suppressed it. Dante could obviously tell that he had made more than a few social gaffes with that introduction, but he had no idea what they were, and he couldn''t rapidly learn them in such a short period of time anyway.

    Maybe in the future, to avoid unnecessarily offending others, he would learn them and put them into practice. For now, since he didn''t know them, he would act the part of an uncultured brute. While it might make this girl dislike him, it wasn''t impossible for dislike to change into admirationter on.

    Beatrice saw Dante''s actions and smiled widely, misunderstanding his intentions. "Don''t mind my Vice-Admiral; he is a recently discovered pure human who was lost."

    Louisa and the two guards seemed surprised by this. Random discoveries of pure humans had be pretty rare in the past few centuries, so they were naturally startled to hear about one and see one in person.

    Louisa, in particr, seemed to understand something as her smile became wider and her gaze towards Dante became less offended but more arrogant. There was a slight sense of superiority in her eyes, as if when a human raised in a bourgeois family met a country bumpkin from the countryside with a broken ent and ''poor'' manners.

    "I see. Well, Mr. Dante, I''d advise you to sign up for etiquette sses on the Etraverse to catch up on how to behave among your peers," Louisa stated with a nod.

    Dante decided not to bother with her for now and simply agreed to her suggestion amiably. Beatrice slightly understood Dante''s nature and knew it was better for her to take over from here, so she began to chat with Louisa about various things while the two guards kept watch.

    By listening in, Dante learned many things about pure humans, the ns and families that formed the upper echelon, and the current state of allegiances and enemies of the two ns the women belonged to.

    Dante wondered if Beatrice did this intentionally, but then again, it didn''t really matter. What he cared about now was how quickly he could get this over and done with, and his prayer was soon answered as a broadcast was made for all prospective Cadets to line up.

    They were guided to different booths based on their assigned sses, which were split into three rows: the Normal Batch, the Elite Batch, and the Unique Batch. The distinctions between these batches were already well known gxy-wide.

    The Normal Batch consisted of individuals with average backgrounds and/or capabilities who came to learn and use the school''s resources and name to graduate into top positions in society. They formed almost 98% of the school''s entire student body and at least 89% of those signing up.

    The Elite Batch included individuals with average capabilities but top-grade backgrounds. The ss was further divided into three categories: aliens and mixed races with superior capabilities and talent but average backgrounds, pure humans with average talent but superior backgrounds, and pure humans with superior capabilities and backgrounds. They formed about 1.99% of the entire student body and more than 10% of those signing up.

    The Unique Batch consisted of individuals with exceptional talents that were one of a kind or those who possessed born/awakened superpowers without using the fruits from the Zero Gate. Here, background and race didn''t matter; only their uniqueness counted. They made up less than 0.1% of the entire student body, and only five people queued up for this line.

    Surprisingly, Louisa was among them. She was surprised to see Dante queue up behind her but then smiled and nodded. Meanwhile, the others in line were two mixed breeds and one alien species.

    The two mixed breeds were females, while the alien was likely male. The first female was a mixture of rock and human, with a humanoid body and human features along with rocky skin that rubbed against itself, causing dust to fall.

    The second female was a literal Lamia, with a human upper body and arge snake-like lower body with reddish scales that gleamed in the light. However, she was conservatively clothed, unlike typical depictions on Earth where theirrge breasts were barely covered.

    The first girl only wore bracers and bands on her wrists and ankles, and the rest of her body, while possessing a feminine form, was not necessarily ''naked'' in a way that would expose genitals.

    As for the ''male'' alien, he was a tall 7.5-foot insect man with arge proboscis on his face, two ckpound eyes, and sharp yet thin wings that looked capable of slicing a person in half. He was somewhat humanoid and bipedal butcked any features linking him to the human genome.

    Dante nced at them briefly before looking away. However, they had no qualms about casting more than one nce his way and at Louisa. The looks were not exactly hostile, but they were not friendly either. There was a clear intention topete and prove superiority in the nces they gave.

    Louisa remained unfazed by this and maintained a sweet smile that both alienated others and made them understand that she was looking down on them. As for Dante, he kept his arms folded and his expression neutral in order to present a seasoned and mature front.

 Chapter 22 Entrance Examination

    ?They didn''t have to queue where they were for long as a light scanned over the entire group slowly. Each person received a message directly to their AI chips informing them of the details of admission and the entrance examination about to be held.

    Dante was surprised when they were told that they were to be examined on the spot by going to the Etraverse. The Eternal Academy had set up a seed world for them to carry out their examination.

    Because the test might take some time, they were admitted into afortable lounge and made to sit while their bodies would be watched over by guard robots as well as their own AI chips that monitored their bodies'' processes.

    Dante was led into an ultra-luxurious lounge reserved for the Unique batch with the other 4 people including Louisa. Everyone took a seat away from each other and sat down. They sunk into their couches or sofa and closed their eyes as they connected to the Quantum Network with their minds.

    Usually one wouldn''t need to prepare this much when casually browsing the Quantum Network. Despite how it seemed, it would be like looking through twitter on your phone or watching a short video, you can even chat while doing it or even do it while walking or running.

    It was quite different when you considered the fact that the Etraverse was advanced FIVR, so naturally it would require a more in-depth connection, just like if you were yed a high-stakes ranked match on your phone, you certainly could not do so without seating yourself somewhere with less noise to focus yourself.

    When Dante logged in to the Etraverse, he didn''t have to enter the lobby. In his Quantum ''homepage'' which was basically your personal server on the quantumwork, he could directly decide to hop onto any of the words essible for free with the basic Etraverse subscription.

    As for those custom ones uploaded by themunity, he would have to pay for them directly. Luckily, he did not have to pay for the world that the Eternal Academy set up and he entered the seed code that was delivered directly to his AI chip by them.

    Immediately, Dante jumped through the Quantum Network to his target location, and he couldn''t help but note that it felt awfully simr to how he felt when using Quantum Entanglement to go back and forth between universes.

    When he nded'', he noticed that he was standing in a void-like space, hovering betweens. In this space area, there were two tforms suspended in space as if tethered by something, and Dante was standing on one.

    Before Dante could be allowed to be confused, a pure human woman of obvious Asian descent appeared before him. She wore a tight-fitting exosuit that hugged her svelte body and her purple hair was tied into a Chinese bun.

    When she saw Dante, she raised an eyebrow in surprise. After scanning him from head to toe, she muttered to herself.

    "A pure human of African descentˇ­? How rare nowadaysˇ­. Hmm, is he from the Mensah Family?"

    Dante''s expression became dark and he red at the woman opposite him. She seemed to realize her gaffe and smiled in a lovely manner.

    "Ah, forgive my surprise. My name is Xue Bing and I am one of the instructors for the Unique Batch of the Eternal Academy. I have been assigned to you as your examiner and possible instructor since it''s been reported that you have a space-rted superpower?"

    She ended her introduction with a questioning tone, but Dante did not reply. Xue Bing did not seem to care about this and opened a holographic screen before her and sued her screen to scroll through it.

    "Right, it says here that you are Danteˇ­ huh, no family name. Oh I see, you were recently discovered, not even amounting to a week! That exins a lot."

    Xue Bing read some more details from the screen and then closed it, focusing on Dante once more. "Right, Dante. So your file and admission form states that your superpower has to do with teleportation, right?"

    This time, Dante answered. "That''s right, it''s in the general category."

    Xue Bing hummed. "Well, I''d like to believe you, but we have received falsified admission before and had students try to sneak into the unique batch, so we have to test your abilities before letting you in. That''s okay, isn''t it?"

    "It makes sense, but I have a question. If those fellows tried to sneak into the Eternal Academy, why use the conspicuous Unique Batch? Why not the normal or elite even?" Dante asked with confusion.

    Before Xue Bing could answer, Dante stopped her with a raised finger. "And please don''t say something like ''the safest ce is the most dangerous one'' as that concept requires the administrative/punitive party to be utterly braindead and ignorant."

    Xue Bing giggled with a mature tone. "Of course, it isn''t that. The reason is simple, it has to do with why everyonees to the Eternal Academy despite there being billions of other academies that can teach just as well as we do."

    Xue Bing pointed at herself and then Dante. "Naturally, it''s for the Zero Gate, the holynd of superpowers. Where the mostmon bloke can rise to prominence by consuming one of the Fruits of Condensation produced in each of the 10 sectors on the other side once a year."

    Dante folded his arms and nodded. If it was for that, then it made sense. However, there was still something missing.

    "Still, as I said, any batch can do. Why specifically the Unique batch?"

    Xue Bing shrugged. "Priority. There are many benefits to being in the Unique batch like early entrance to the Zero Gate when it opens, better training and facilitations for its inner workings, and priority choice for some of our academy special bionics and psionics."

    "Oh."

    That was all Dante could say. He could understand now why would want to sneak into the unique batch, but not why the unique batch was given such special treatment.

    The obvious first conclusion would be that because the unique batch had superpowers already, it would make it easier for them to navigate the Zero Gate? Maybe the Zero Gate had special rules that limited Bionics, Psionics, and/or technology, making it such that the only usable things were superpowers?

    If so, that would make a lot of sense and seemed to be very likely.

    "Okay, so basically I was chosen as you''re examiner and instructor because my superpower is also of the space element, so I''m best suited to guide you in the use of yours." Xue Bing reminded as she pped her hands.

    "So go ahead, use yours and let''s see what it''s all about." Xue Bing prompted with a cheery smile.

    Dante hesitated and did not use it. He rather visibly narrowed his eyes and inspected Xue Bing from head to toe with obvious distrust on his face.

    Xue Bing chuckled and shook her head. "It''s good to be wary because your superpower is your biggest secret and should be protected."

    She then gave him a pointed nce. "I could give you a list of reason and soothe your wary spirit in order to loosen your guard, but I don''t think you''re worth it."

    "There''s nothing about you that requires me to give you special treatment or makes you worth me fawning over. Everything you have that makes you special, I have as well, and even better."

    "If you absolutely value your superpower, there''s no problem. You can cancel the application to the school and return whence you came." Xue Bing concluded with a soft smile.

    Dante rolled his eyes internally. Beatrice had already exined this to him, so he knew that there was theoretically no harm in just disying SOME of your superpower and hiding the rest as trump cards. However, Dante had to act the part of a country bumpkin who was slightly ignorant given his background, otherwise it would be a bit too weird.

    "Sure then." Dante ''acquiesced'' with a slightly sullen expression.

    He paused for a second or two and breathed in deeply, steeling his heart for anything that happened next and used his Quantum Entanglement ability.

    The moment he activated it, he could feel the universe warping at its very roots as reality began to shatter, the chaos and paradoxical nature of his current location coupled with the nature of his superpower causing both universes to shatter and merge into one, changing the trajectory of fate forever!

    ˇ­ or that was what Dante thought would happen, but in reality, he just found himself back in his apartment with his real body. He patted himself from head to toe to make sure everything was okay and then raised an eyebrow.

    He hadn''t been here for a day or two, and the ce was still new so everything was spick-and-span. Dante connected to the digitalwork of earth with his AI chip and logged into his various ounts to check for anything interesting.

    Apart from a message from Dahlia, one of his female friends, and a swarm of messages from the other social groups he was in as a partial socialite, there was only a call from his bank.

    Seeing that nothing was out of order, Dante teleported back.

 Chapter 23 Exam Completed

    ?Upon reappearing, Dante was right where he felt he should be, which was on the couch he had been seated on when he disappeared. His entire body had left and returned, and he had ''safely'' disconnected from the quantumwork as he did.

    In truth, there were so many ways in which this could have gone wrong, but what Beatrice said turned out to be true. Superpowers - or at least, Dante''s Quantum Entanglement superpower - were not so short-sighted and limited in design.

    That was extremely reassuring, and when he returned, he immediately logged back into the quantumwork and reappeared within the special astral-like area where Xue Bing was looking at where he used to be with a nk expression.

    Dante nodded to her when he returned. "Sorry for the dy. I''m done."

    Xue Bing tilted her head towards Dante with visible confusion, as if she was seeing a rare specimen. "Your superpower isˇ­ logging out and logging back in?"

    Dante was speechless. "No, it''s quantum teleportation. My real body left the lounge area, you can check the cameras and records if you have any."

    "Oh." Xue Bing said softly, but she didn''t make any moves and continued staring at Dante silently.

    Dante frowned deeply and sighed. "You literally just need to check, there''s no way I can falsify something like this. Besides, I was rmended by the Portinari family, and you think they would risk ruining their reputation for this?"

    Xue Bing remained where she stood with a soft smile, staring at Dante calmly. Dante''s expression finally turned cold. "If there is a review section after this, I am going to make sure to leave a poor one and also report your misdeeds to administration."

    "Hmmˇ­" Xue Bing finally moved as she pondered while rubbing her chin and looking skyward.

    Dante was speechless again. THAT was what made her react?

    "Meh, too much of a riskˇ­" She muttered as she hesitated and finally nced toward Dante as if he was a bother.

    She then opened a holographic screen in front of her and scrolled through some videos casually. Dante nced at this Xue Bing woman silently, and his expression was not very pleasant.

    He didn''t know if all the superpowered persons had such interesting mindsets, but he felt that dealing with this one would unnecessarily increase his stress levels.

    "I wonder if it''s possible to apply for a new instructor after entering?" He muttered seriously.

    Xue Bing, who was casually andzily scrolling through, trembled and closed the holographic screen. Her tform dashed forward and came before Dante, shocking the fellow.

    "Now, now, there''s no need for that. As I said before, if you prove your value, you will be treated like a king by not just me, but everyone else."

    She said this as amiably as possible and Dante took a step back as he nced at her suspiciously. He looked her up and down then suddenly understood.

    It seemed that there was a severe penalty for being ''rejected'' by a member of the unique batch, so rather than suffer that fate, she simply changed her attitude.

    What a personality this one had.

    "Alright, I''ve verified your superpower. Not only did you teleport, but youpletely left the range of the entire Eternal Academy and the nearby spatially-monitored gxy. Not only that, you broke through the spatial blockade we created using thetest technology." Xue Bing spoke calmly at the beginning, but her voice became more solemn towards the end.

    "After uploading your details to the central server, the rating for your ability isˇ­ SSS grade." Her voice caught at the end and Dante was at least sharp enough to realize that this was very good. Very, very good.

    Xue Bing immediately bowed to Dante with a serious expression. "Mr. Dante, I am sorry for my earlier behavior. Due to the current structure of the academy and the nature of thepetition for the Zero Gate, I am being very honest when I say that giving even basic respect to a pure human with superpowers requires a good reason."

    "There are monsters in this academy that you cannot Fathom Dante, I promise you. Some have been born with SDI''s in the triple digits and have thetest Bionics and Psionics that are hard for even some privileged races to acquire."

    Dante''s expressions hardened when he heard this and his heart became heavy. He knew that he was far behind the denizens of this universe, especially in a prestigious academy that gathered all the elite youths across the ENTIRE universe, but hot damn!

    With his current SDI of 2 points, he might not even be able to react to the movements of any of them. He would be standing there one moment feeling special and the next, his head could have been blown off.

    He wouldn''t even know how he died.

    "However, Dante, do not be disheartened. Despite what I told you, such students are mostly in the normal and elite batch, and they are not even qualified to receive a look from me when I walk by them, yet they have to bow in my presence."Xue Bing continued with a smile.

    "It''s because of the special power we have that is fully backed by quantum science and still retains elements of mysticism from the ancient era. These abilities transcend anything and everything in our current universe, whether money, power, fame, or even might."

    "The reason is simple. Even in the case of you who is so gically backward among our pure human race, we can raise your SID in time to the triple digits with an infusion of resources and scientific methods. We can load you with the best Bionics refreshing from the militarybs. We can also strap you with the best Psionics from the scientific institutes. Heck, we can even p on thetest quantum AI chip into your brain."

    "However one thing neither we, pure humans nor any other species can currently do is grant you superpowers. Even with the Zero Gate, superpower acquisition is not guaranteed for various reasons. A person who enters the Zero Gate and acquires a superpower, even if it is to float in the air for a few seconds, is of a status far superior to even the best non-superpower user."

    "Even among superpowered users, there are also gaps based on the quality of a superpower. A superpowered person with an F-rated ability can step on anyone else without a superpower, but a person with an E-grade superpower can step on an F-grade superpower user and so on as the ranks rise."

    Xue Bing hesitated. "You with SSSˇ­ it''s not the highest Rank, but it''s only one step below. As far as what we have registered, there are only about 500 people spread across the entire universe of a nearly uncountable number of living beings with the same rank of superpower as you."

    "You are now the 1% within the 1%, and that''s not even adding your status as a pure human. However, Dante, I have to absolutely remind you before you are admitted that this grading is temporary, and this is exclusive to you for now."

    Xue Bing shrugged helplessly. "The reason is simple, we can''t really measure the extent and upper limit of your power. However, from the lower limit alone, or what we can verify, is terrifying enough that you have been given this grading."

    "What I am saying is that there is still room for improvement and that you can ascend higher if you disy better abilities. However, if this is the extent of your power, or there is some misconceptionˇ­ keep it to yourself. It''s for the best."

    Dante had been quietly listening up to this point, but his eyes shed when Xue Bing reached this point. Telling him there was room to improve made sense, but telling him to hide inconsistencies and ws?

    "Do you, as my instructor, receive some form of benefit if the student you teach in the Unique Batch has a high-ranking superpower?" Dante asked pointedly, though he already knew the answer.

    Xue Bing only smiled.

    Dante sighed internally and nodded. "Okay, so are we done?"

    "That''s right. You can log out and follow the procedures toplete your admission. You will be taken to your dorm and then begin orientation tomorrow. See you then." Xue Bing stated coolly as he turned and disappeared.

    Dante watched her leave silently and then logged out as well. He opened his eyes on the couch and noticed that the others had stood up and were about to leave. Clearly, they were already done with their demonstrations and tests.

    Dante also stood up and found a guide that was a female android gesturing to lead him to his room.

    After moving to the teleporter, the guide sent the details of their destination to his AI chip and it automatically entered the coordinates into the teleporter as Dante stepped in, the man himself not even having to do anything conscious.

 Chapter 24 Foundational Work

    ?When Dante appeared on the other side, he was standing at the entrance of a small self-contained room that had a tiny yard as well as a strange machine glowing with a green color that looked like a dustbin at the front, which Dante knew was a Quantum Transporter.

    Basically, it delivered packages ordered online or even food. No more 3 days shipping or same-day delivery, this was now instant shipping, not even international, but intergctic!

    You might wonder, if they had this technology, then why couldn''t they transport humans and invalidate Dante''s so-called superpower?

    Well, most of the clever folks would already be able to guess that the reason was pretty simple and obvious.

    Quantum Transportation involved breaking down an item from its molecr and atomic structure into quarks and q-bits and then reassembling them at a designated quantum reception point.

    As you could guess, breaking down inanimate objects with no life? Pretty fine most times.

    Doing the same to a living being? Very, very ill-advised. Also, please do not put in nts or animals, you sick fuck.

    Dante entered the building after being given the virtual key which was downloaded to his AI chip and tied to his ID. As such, the entire building came under his control, every facility controlled by his mind as if he was psychic.

    The door automatically opened for him, showing him his living space for the period of time he would be enrolled here. The Eternal Academy was a ce where every bit ofnd was like gold, because the uncountable number of people in the universe all battled to send their children here to study.

    Of course, while they had the technology to expand thendmass and take in more, why would they do that? To control the enrollment and keep the prestige, as well as limit outside interference, it was best to fix the areapletely in terms of living space and only addnd for necessary facilities that would bring more objective value to the academy.

    So even in a super advanced sci-fi universe, schools were still greedy fucks withholding generational knowledge and putting results over nurturing.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Then again, what did anyone expect?

    Unless the government was fully run by impartial and untouchable AI, the human element will always find a way to cken even the whitest canvas.

    Dante noticed that his apartment had one bedroom, one study, a kitchen, and a living room as well as two bathrooms. For its size, it was pretty elite and almost as good as his earth bathroom.

    But on this floatingndmass in space, it was practically a 3000-acre vi. Dante knew full and well that this was a privilege for not only being in the Unique Batch, but also for being a pure human, his link to the Portinari family as well as his high-rank superpower.

    Thest one likely made up 90% of the reason.

    With his brief encounter with the Eternal Academy, Dante''s conclusion was that this academy firmly cared about your objective value and would treat you exactly ording to your perceived value.

    Dante had a feeling that Xue Bing''s behavior might not be unique, but amon disposition and treatment here. If so, then there was no incentive to be ''low-profile''. It seemed the higher your profile, the higher your value and the higher your treatment.

    Understanding this, Dante settled down and did not cause trouble. First, he checked out his residence and got familiar with it before downloading everything that was public about Quantum Transportation.

    Unfortunately, not every detail was avable, but it was enough to do a lot with. Coupled with the other technologies he had ''borrowed'', it was enough to do a lot of things on earth for a long time toe.

    Dante sat down on his bed and opened the Quantum Network, and then found the most popr emerce store on thework which was calledˇ­ you guessed it, the Etramall. He browsed the stores and then bought two things that he needed.

    The two items came to less than a hundredth-thousandth of an Etran, and Dante got it delivered to his Quantum Teleporter. He went out and then the machine spat out his packaged items like a vending machine, making Dante smile.

    He took the two items and ced them in the pocket of his captain''s jacket and then sat on his bed once more. With a light breath, he returned to his home universe, appearing right in his living room where he left.

    He was seated on the couch and the apartment was silent apart from the hum of electronics. Dante had left his old iPhone on the table but he no longer needed it as his AI chip connected to Earth''smunicationswork, whether cellr or inte, and then essed Dante''s relevant personal ounts.

    The reason this could be done easily was that it stripped the details from Dante''s phone and e-sim. Well technically, he could also easily hack into the details of everyone on the, but he was not really interested in that right now.

    He was still focused on settling himself in the Eternal Universe and acquiring more standing as well as personal power before dipping his fingers into the home universe. However, that did not mean that there was nothing to do, and this was why he came back.

    One thing about the modern era is that with the advent of the inte, many things became traceable, and a lot of information was shared really quickly across the globe.

    As such, if he waited for a few monthster when his Bionics and Psionics were set, his livelihood there was secured and he had better technology to start taking over, he would experience extreme pushback because he would literally appear out of nowhere with all these ground-breaking things and umte power too fast.

    Many factions and governments would feel rmed and begin to go against him in every way, using financial, political, and in the worst case, legal methods to hinder as well as crush him.

    The simplest way to prevent or control this was to create a trail, a public and clear - as well as trustworthy and irrefutable - roadmap that led to his current location.

    For example, if Dante started releasing these scientific technologies through variouspanies andbs under his name without the roadmap, that would be fine initially until the questions came.

    The questions were usually very piercing, like where did the moneye from? Secondly, they would ask, where did he get his qualifications? Thirdly, where did he learn this knowledge and how did he get there when so many ''smarter'' people before him failed?

    He did not necessarily need to answer these questions, but they could be slowly twisted in a way that would cause him endless headachester. As such, it was just wiser and better to build a slow roadmap unless he nned to use military force to take over.

    To that end, Dante was nning to solve the three questions of money, education, and qualification. To acquire that, he needed to take organic and logical means from his current location and position in society, so the first item he bought was indispensable.

    Dante opened the package and removed the seal, cing the item on his table in his room. It was a small ck box with no opening except for a port to receive power. However, Dante did not dare plug it into any socket in his room for this small ck box was a generation 3 miniature quantum Raspberry PI.

    In other words, it was a pocket-sized quantumputer!

    Its specs were too long to exin, but it could virtually destroy any form of technology in this universe even considering the various alien races Dante happened to discover when he connected to this universe''s Quantum Network.

    And yet, this thing cost him the equivalent of $200 Earth dors.

    Dante then took out the second thing he bought and then assembled it following the manufacturer''s instructions. He opened the tank and poured in water to fill it up then sealed it tightly using the instructions.

    After that, he hesitated before trusting the Eternal Universe''s technology level and the products sky high reviews before turning it on. With a soft hum, it came to life and the water in the tank began to boil then fold crazily.

    The indicator near the output port shone green, meaning that it was functioning perfectly. Dante''s pale face regained color and he sighed with relief.

    The reason for his reaction was because this product was a 100% efficient ultra-miniature nuclear fusion reactor. It was a tabletop device meant to power the mostmon devices of the Eternal Universe and was equivalent to the lowest quality power bank.

    It only cost like $3 and was equivalent to the average child''s science fair project in the Eternal Universe, something that they could smash together with ease.

    Yet this thing could likely power every household on this.

    Comparisons were truly odiousˇ­

 Chapter 25 Setting Up The AI

    ?Dante''s goal here was pretty simple. He couldn''t be here physically all the time toy the groundwork, but this quantumputer could handle anything he needed to since it came with an advanced system AI.

    The AI within was not as advanced as the one in the brain chips, but it was enough to surpass anything that the humans of this earth could picture in their movies and TV shows, not to mention that was only the base AI.

    Depending on the user''s necessity, child AI with custom uses could be easily created and run at the same time as long as you supplied enough power. This was why the miniature nuclear reactor was needed, AI of this level could obviously not be powered by a wall socket.

    In doing so, Dante would destroy every power nt linked to his apartment and damage the mini quantumputer due tock of power on startup.

    The mini nuclear reactor was good enough, it had a high power output enough to maintain constant use of the quantumputer without external input since the system was endlessly renewable and produced next to no waste.

    If the people of the eternal universe werefortable enough to let children y with it, you know that its hazard rating was extremely low.

    Dante plugged the mini-quantumputer into the main port and it came to life immediately. He could tell because space seemed to warp around it slightly and bent the area around his table like a model''s poorly done Photoshop to increase the size of her assets.

    Not only that, the quantumputer connected to his AI chip and registered him as its user. This meant that even if Dante gave this to anyone else, without an AI chip and a Citizen Id, they could not use this thing.

    Dante allowed the base AI to maintain a supervisory role while he created child AI. The first one was the Student AI, which would connect to earth''s inte using his name and sign up for plenty of online courses where he didn''t have to show his face.

    Even if he did, the child AI could easily replicate a 3D model of him on screen that looked lifelike, like a Vtuber sort of thing but infinitely more perfect.

    As for the courses, there were many universities that were online and gave out such courses, some with cheap fees to gather money and some with high fees because they had reditation that was actually worthwhile.

    Dante didn''t care about that though. The AI was just to stake as many courses on diverse scientific topics over the next few months and then excel in them greatly. That way, he would build up ''knowledge'' with ease.

    The second child AI was the Tycoon AI, which was to make him rich. Dante did not n to take his shabby degrees earned by the Student AI to find a job, and that would be pointless. The schools that offered these courses were cheap in the first ce because no respectablepany would hire graduates of such a thing.

    So he would have to set up his ownbs in his own name and be his own main researcher. Luckily, in America of today, one did not need much to set up ab except to follow the safety guidelines, acquire the rtive permits, buy the equipment and hire the necessary staff.

    In fact, most applied science-rted graduates would tell you that the hardest part about setting up ab was the bloody money, because acquiring the machines and tools needed to run the experiments cost a heckload of money.

    Obviously, the Tycoon AI was on that. How it would make money was by doing various inte jobs that were short and quick payout, like artmissions. With a quantum-level AI, you could be sure it could generate a whole anime series of top-notch quality based on a 20-word prompt in any sub-style you want, so meremissions were nothing.

    The AI would also write web novels and upload them to certain tforms that paid well for them. No organic author could beat its chapter upload speed and mechanical uracy, so it could have hundreds of chapters out in a day, but obviously it would be best to tone it down to make it realistic.

    The Tycoon AI would also develop games of all genres, from 2D anime-like games simr to dangaronpa, to 3D anime games like Genshin Impact, to 3D realistic games like The Sims, it could code anything in seconds and produce all the assets itself with slight training.

    What you thought the Tycoon AI would do think like hack banks, y with the stock market, and steal money covertly from the rich? That was too naive and cliche, not to mention it was not solving the issue of acquiring clean and irrefutable money.

    Working inte jobs like this was the only way to quickly amass money with clean electronic traces without working a physical day job, that''s why so many people do it. Even if the Pentagon, the CIA, the FBI, the other governmental agencies of America, and even the other big countries wanted to descend on Dante once he released some of his ''findings'', they would be left speechless.

    The boy was from a good family and his grades all his life were above average. No offenses, a very clean sex life that could not be turned into ckmail from false rape usations nor any illegal drug use.

    The boy was just a socially-adept handsome nerd!

    How do you deal with someone like that?

    They''d be more likely to believe he was a natural genius that awakenedter than any foul y. After all, it wasn''t impossible for him to gather such skills given that his mother was a Chemical Engineer, so there were some ''science'' genes in him.

    The third and final AI was to perform the task of Assimtion and Qualification, called the Genius AI. This AI would publish some papers in various science journals that were very groundbreaking and near to the truth, but not enough to give others the boots they needed to get there ahead of him.

    Its job was basically to make his name rise to fame among the world of scientists, making even the best of the best known that there was a rising kid who seemed to be enlightened by the God of Science himself.

    The reputation was necessary because if he opened hisb and officially published his results, the first pushback would be among the sciencemunity. They are responsible for a lot of the great technological progress we have made, but as stated, the human element stains everything.

    Hubris grows where intellect flourishes, and it festers evermore.

    None of the older scientists are subconsciously willing to ept that some brat from somewhere suddenly got up and solved the problem they had been stumped with for years, and so they would hinder it. It didn''t even matter if they took a look and felt like this was the truth, they would refuse to see the positives and only see the negatives then exaggerate them.

    However, if Dante had built up his rep as a wonderkid close to the truth, some may not even go against him. He might even have some fans among the older folks because scientists respect anyone who can truly enlighten them and make them marvel.

    In essence, the goal was to change ''where did this arrogant brate from? Where are his qualifications?'' to ''hm, if it''s that ster young man, then it might be likely''.

    After setting them up, Dante stood back and saw that everything was beginning to run smoothly. The Quantum Computer obviously did not need plugs or ports, it could connect to anywork just like his chip.

    The Tycoon AI would take over Dante''s ounts and debts, and pay what needed to be paid while gathering the finds, the Student AI would take his credentials from his schools and then act like him, ''studying'' online, and the Genius AI would contact various journals with his ''minor breakthroughs'' and build credibility as well as fame.

    Seeing that everything was set, Dante was satisfied. There was also the mother AI to supervise anything and maintain the set of extensive rules andmands Dante had input to be the baseline.

    It could be seen that in the time Dante was away, this small ck box could turn the world upside down and do things no human would think possible, but funny enough, that would only be the tip of the iceberg.

    Dante stepped back and nodded to himself before teleporting to the Eternal universe.

    When he appeared, he was in his bedroom, still seated in the ce he left. Obviously, nothing had changed since he only spent a few minutes away, and Dante finally felt the fatigue that came withpleting so many objectives in a short period of time.

    He sighed and had his exosuit sink into his flesh as he preferred to sleep with little clothing on. As such, the young many on hisfortable bed and set the room to resemble his childhood bedroom before going to sleep.

 Chapter 26 Orientation 1

    ?Dante woke up suddenly, feeling like he waste for something. However, his AI chip reported that he had no pending engagements except the orientation at 7 am, and it was only 5 am.

    He rubbed his face and entered the bathroom to soak in the tub for a few minutes beforeing out. He simply willed his exosuit toe out of his flesh and his attire reformed around him, being the jacket, shirt, pants, and boots that formed his vice-admiral''s uniform.

    After checking himself out in the mirror, Dante decided to head out and reach the location of the orientation early. Luckily there was a private teleporter right in front of his room, so he stepped into it and was given ess to the destination he sought, the Assembly Hall.

    Still, Dante did not directly teleport over right away. After all, one thing about the Eternal Academy was that the teleporters did not give you full ess to all exits nor did it download the map of all such entrances and exits to your chip automatically like public teleporters.

    Rather, you only had ess to those that were given to you at the time. As far as Dante was aware, he currently only had 3, the spaceport, the assembly hall, and his residence. He naturally guessed that he would receive more, if not the rest, after orientation waspleted.

    Whatever the case, he arrived at the campus area quite easily after taking a Quick Transit Vehicle after stepping back from the teleporter after careful thought.

    As for these Quick Transit Vehicles, it was a fact that the entire Eternal Academy had a lot of them, and they made many students, as well as workers, use them. It would seem like, in this academy, ess to teleporters was a luxury.

    Dante would not be too surprised if it were even treated as some form of a status symbol, used by students and workers here to show how ''different'' they were from the rest.

    Dante put it in mind to restrain how often he used it in order not to attract hatred. It might seem like he was overreacting but anyone who had worked in an office space, or with co-workers, knew how easy it was for another person to hate you.

    You could be a nice person, and because of that, someone hated you. You could be tall and handsome, and because of that, someone hated you. You could be favored by the boss because you were hardworking and because of that someone hated you.

    It wasn''t that Dante wanted to live in fear of other people''s dislike, but that usually, people could do very dangerous and stupid things out of hatred. Avoiding unting his usage of teleporters was such a small sacrifice for peace of mind.

    At least, until he was sure that the consequence of a random person''s hate-filled actions could not affect him negatively. At that point, why would he hold back?

    The campus wasrge and expansive. He came from the residential side, and even there, he was allocated his own residence in a sort of vi-like area. Behind the Assembly Hall''s gates was a bustling school area with hundreds of different species walking about.

    What was interesting though, was that while everyone was wearing diverse clothing and attires, they all had distinct color-coded badges ced on their clothes. Probably something to distinguish students from each other and then students from teachers?

    Dante noticed that he wasn''t the only one in the square of the Assembly Hall. Many other students hade here using different means, most using teleporters as the authorization to this location was given freely since students would likely often be required to report here quickly.

    Dante noticed many from the spaceport when he came for the test, and he also saw many others. The Eternal Academy had hundreds of spaceports for receiving, sending, business, pleasure, and military functions.

    The spaceport Dante came in was far from the only one for new students. Of course, how many passed the initial tests and entered would not amount to even 5% of the total number, but he counted around 2000 people at least.

    The crazy part was that more people wereing!

    As Dante surveyed the area, he noticed a bunch of pure human youths gesturing at him. They grouped up in arge bunch, numbering almost 50. As usual, they were separated from the other aliens and mixed-race humans who made up the bulk.

    Dante naturally walked up with a smile to the pure human group. Now that the troublesome Beatrice wasn''t around, he was free to be more natural and less guarded. Of course, caution would not be discarded, but living like that 24/7 would shoot his stress levels to cmitous degrees.

    The pure humans made way for him and introduced themselves one by one. Most were in the Elite Batch, numbering around 46. Only 4 were like Dante, recruited into the Unique Batch. Among them, of course, was Louisa who stood like a swan among a flock of ducks, the entire social group seemed to be orbiting around gathering her attention.

    So it was to no one''s surprise that Dante got heavy and envious looks when Louisa brightened up at his appearance and began chatting with him in a friendly manner. After all, Dante was a pure human with natural superpowers like her, not to mention he was sort of a ''family friend'' since he was associated with Beatrice.

    Even though his status as a discovered pure human was lower than hers within the pure human ranks, it was offset by his overall backing. As such, Louisa did not treat him like a possibleckey but as a sort of equal.

    However, her attitude was still there, nothing particrly rude or offensive but just a slightly superior tone, like an intellectual talking to an average person. The others noticed this and among other reasons, began to inquire on Dante''s background in a seemingly harmless manner.

    Louisa seemed to have a yful expression on her face as she first revealed that he was recently found and brought here. Immediately, the attitude of many of the pure humans here changed, and while they were still willing to ''allow'' Dante into the group, they became less equal and more condescending in a polite way.

    Louisa let them make fools of themselves for a bit before ''casually'' adding that Beatrice found him and was tied to the Portinari family. Not only that, but his military rank was Vice-Admiral of the 34th Fleet.

    The fellows were left speechless.

    Many felt extreme resentment towards Louisa. This was a fellow with a background no less than hers and could be someone they would socially orbit around as well. However, due to her prank, the rtionship had gone cold and their futures with Dante as close friends were directly cut off.

    Dante too nced at Louisa coldly, and her yful expression changed slightly. These fellows'' unhappiness she could ignore, but Dante''s was not so easy to brush over.

    However, whether it was the pure human elite youths or Louisa, neither made a move to apologize to Dante or act in a lower position. Yeah, his backing was superb, but their own was just one rank below, and in the case of Louisa, slightly higher!

    There was no need to bend their backs and fawn over anyone. As for their orbiting around Louisa, it was normal. Every social group had a core and that core was usually the most handsome/beautiful person, the richest person, or the ''coolest'' person.

    Even if this person had a conflict, no one would necessarily kneel to them but rather scoff and walk away.

    Dante was also a rtively skilled socialite, so he smiled and brushed off the earlier unpleasantness and began chatting with everyone normally. In the meantime, he assessed them and their behaviors as well as gathered information about them through their chat which he logged to his AI.

    Soon, their chat was forced toe to an end when the announcement was made, it was time for the students to gather within the hall. At this time, the original 2000 had swelled to almost 10,000 in number, while the number of pure humans reached about 200 in total.

    They were ushered into the hall in an organized manner and led to their respective seats.

    ... yes, the seats too were separated by ss. Not racial or based on background, but purely the internal ssification of the academy itself. Front row seats to the Unique Batch Students, middle row for Elite Batch, and back row for the numerous Normal Batch.

    Not only that but each ss was separated into ranks ording to whatever standard was tested in the entrance examination.

    There were about 28 Unique Batch students among the total number epted this year, and out of their ranked 28 seats, Dante was slowly but surely led to the first one.

    ''Welp, there goes all ns of not attracting hatred. High profile it is then.'' Dante thought to himself.

 Chapter 27 Orientation 2

    ?

    Dante really and factually stopped caring at this point. His guarded expression became much morex and he plopped into his seat confidently like he was destined to sit there. Beside him was a mixed-race male with elf-like features who nced at Dante with a look of neutrality before looking away.

    The third seat was upied by themia girl from before while the fourth seat was upied by a slug-like alien that remained motionless after it took its seat.

    Dante looked further down and saw Louisa at the 20th position, eight ces fromst. Her expression was exceedingly awkward, especially when factoring in where Dante was sittingpared to her.

    The other pure humans did not fare much better, ranging from one at 8th, to one at 13th, and the other two at 17th and 18th in the end. Louisa was thest among the pure humans and this caused an instant hierarchical shift that the five of them could directly feel.

    Their respectful looks towards Louisa reduced significantly while Louisa''s expression became extremely ugly. Dante noted all of this with a chill in his heart. He had read on the Etr while searching for information about the Eternal Academy that all forms of social ss and background from outside did not matter once one became a student.

    Beatrice had also harped on about this, but people always said such exaggerative things when talking about top institutions. However, when you entered, you realized that it was severely exaggerated because the rich young master still had cronies following him around even if his grades were trash.

    However, they hadn''t even seen the face of the leaders of the academy and a ss system had been established! Louisa, who was at the top in terms of racial and family background outside was now reduced to the lowest ss among their group in less than a few seconds after sitting.

    All this just because of the ranking the school gave their superpowers during the entrance examination. Dante thought back to Xue Bing''s words about how he should conceal any ws if the rating was inurate, and he deeply understood what she was trying to hint at.

    Eventually, a song began to y as a band of humans, mixed breeds, and aliens came from the back of the Assembly Hall and marched to the front. While they yed, the podium before them came to life since the seats that had been ced on the stage lit up as projections appeared on them.

    From left to right, there were 46 projections, and all of them were arrogant and well-dressed adults who nced down at them with amusement, mockery, or a yful look, making Dante frown.

    In the center, with the best seat almost simr to a throne and a projection that felt life-like, was a beautiful fair-skinned young woman wearing purple military clothes meant for a general with her coat handing off her shoulders.

    She had a head of lush white hair that reached her shoulders, some parts of it spiky. Her eyes were blood red and she wore the coldest expression Dante had seen since he came to this universe.

    She simply nced at the student body casually and then looked away. Her eyes were like giant searchlights ced upon a group of prisoners who were slowly escaping from prison, making them freeze in ce and tremble like rabbits.

    When her gaze alighted, they all sighed subconsciously. The woman then nced at the fellow beside her who was a schrly young man with a gentle and caring smile on his face.

    "Vice Principal Andrais, give me the statistics, and let me see if this batch is worth my presence." She requested neutrally.

    "Hm, sure. Don''t be too harsh on them though, there are only a few good seedlings. The rest are average." The one called Andrais said as he stood up, making the hearts of everyone clench.

    The woman in the center, likely the principal, humphed coldly but did not retort. Andrais pped his hands and smiled genially at everyone.

    "Hello students, my name is Andrais Faven and I am the first Vice-Headmaster of the Eternal Academy." He then bowed graciously while the students pped uncertainly.

    Andrais did not mind and gestured to a woman who was basically a brown-haired underage-looking girl in round-rimmed sses who was frowning at all of them. "That is Elizabeth Lyon, the second Vice-Headmistress of the Eternal Academy."

    Andrais then introduced all 46 people seated in the projections one by one, but very few got up to bow to the students. Most just looked down with disdain or boredom, wondering when this was going to end.

    Finally, he gestured to the woman in the middle. "And of course saving the best forst, there is our beautiful and all-powerful headmistress, Lara Sanguis!"

    Lara did not stand up, but the students still pped respectfully. Some faces changed greatly as they recognized this name and even Dante quickly downloaded some basic information about her. When he did, his heart stopped for a second due to the sheer absurdity.

    Cutting out the other parts, the key things to note were that she was the Admiral of the First Fleet - which was the most powerful - and she was also a councilor of the Prime Civilization. On top of that, she was the most powerful person in the known universe, with 7 superpowers belonging to her alone!

    "I will cut to the chase. The rule of the Eternal Academy and everything you need to know including your sses, electives, teachers, roles, requirements, obligations, and goals have been uploaded to your AI chips the moment you sat on your respective seats." Andrais continued.

    "That way, the ceremony can end quickly since we, your teachers, are actually quite busy. Before, I let you go though, there are two more aspects to orientation that we do for all new students."

    "The first is that I will give you advice. Some of you may have noticed already, but the Eternal Academy does not care about rights, morals, or ethics. The only thing that speaks here is your talent, potential and current power. Status, wealth, and all those things you have outside only work outside, here they mean nothing."

    Andrais'' eyes became sharp as he smiled wider. "If you doubt me, you can unt it or try to use it to bully others or advance yourself. There are those among the teachers, the students, and even the workers who are hungrily waiting for you to do so in order to enjoy the feeling of stomping your head into the ground."

    The eyes of all the aliens and mixed-breed humans shed with amazement and excitement, while the face of the pure humans became ugly. The other aliens in the other seats nced at Dante who was in first ce with a hint of yfulness and cruelty while he ignored them, still wearing a confident smile.

    They tsked and looked away, but then focused on the other pure humans who were not nearly as calm as Dante. Louisa had it the worst as the two aliens seated on either side of her began whispering cruelties into her ear, making her pale greatly.

    "Of course, that doesn''t mean you should go breaking the rules or doing anything stupid! As I said, theck of status only works here in the Eternal Academy. If you stomp on someone''s head and you leave the academy grounds, whatever consequence you suffer is your own!" Andrais reminded ''kindly''.

    Suddenly, the excited aliens and mixed breeds changed greatly, while the pure humans who had been suppressed became ferocious. It was clear that after this orientation, a few calls will be made and a few tragedies may ur outside.

    The two aliens seated on either side of Louisa trembled and felt regret, while Louisa''s expression became extremely cold.

    As for Dante, his face changed slightly when he understood what Andrais was trying to do, but he didn''t understand why. Suddenly, his mind clicked and he looked up to the podium and actually observed the projections once more.

    His findings chilled his heart greatly, for what did he see? Every single member of the 46 upper echelons of the Eternal Academy was a pure human! Not a single mixed breed or alien race among them!

    The implications of this were severe beyond belief.

    Before Dante could think further, Andrais did something that he would have never expected, not in a million years.

    "Settle down students! Nowes the second and final part of the orientation ceremony, the reality check!" Andrais stated as his eyes fell on the Unique Batch students.

    "You have all been separated into ranks based on your exam scores, and some of you, especially those among the Unique Batch, are extremely unwilling with the position you have been given. That''s totally understandable!"

    Andrais patted his chest innocently like he understood their worries.

    "When I first came here, I too was set at 3rd ce. I didn''t believe nor understand why the two ahead of me got there until sses began and the facts were pped in my face. However, you don''t need to wait for sses to start, I''ll do it for you right now."

    Andrais then gestured to Dante, and the lights focused on him, bringing attention from both students and teachers to his person.

    "To begin with, let''s introduce your year''s number one Unique Batch student, Dante, with his graded SSS-Rank superpower of teleportation!"

    While exmations urred in the Assembly Hall, Dante''s eyes became bloodshot from hatred and killing intent that surged into his heart.

 Chapter 28 Orientation - End

    ?

    Dante had never felt so much anger in his life, and he was not sure he ever would. However, he was far from the only one who would experience this today, and Andrais was going to make sure of that.

    "Then there is the second ce Humphrey with the graded SS-Rank talent, Aerogenesis! Let''s give him a round of apuse."

    Humphrey, the mixed-race human seated beside him who had ears like that of an elf, showed an even stronger reaction than Dante as his powers seemed to rise, the wind around him bing sharp like a de.

    He looked like he was a second away from firing at the projections, but he seemed to realize it would be futile as these were not their real bodies.

    "The third ce, Slessor with the graded SS-Rank talent, Space Folding! Let''s give the lovelydy a round of apuse!"

    Themia girl''s body changed, her beautiful face morphing into one of ferocity as her slitted eyes widened and her fangs elongated. Her tongue stuck out and her tail tensed, as if she was ready to pounce. The killing intent she gave off was more primal than Dante or Humphrey.

    Andrais continued listing out all the Unique Batch''s member''s superpower''s one by one, causing each and every one of them to re at him with utter hatred. What he had done was a universal taboo that was about as bad as a crime as murder.

    "Now, I see you students have been ring at me with such ferocity that if I were here in reality, you''d probably try to kill me, and you would be justified too. After all, revealing someone''s superpowers which they entrusted to you in confidentiality is a severe breach of trust and is heavily punished by the Prime Civilization''s Human Council." Andrais continued when he finished his iprehensible act.

    "However, as I stated before, this second part of the orientation is the reality check. Here, we, your beloved teachers, take the risk of eternal damnation to p your faces awake to the reality of the world and teach you the first lesson: don''t trust anyone with such information ever again!"

    Andrais smiled. "But I see that none of you show grateful looks for the important lesson and still harbor malice, so I must say this for the record. Whether it is myself, the headmistress, or the teachers, none of us truly care or fear your little tantrums."

    "We were once students who naturally awoke superpowers and entered the Zero Gate, acquiring even more for ourselves as time went on. We have lived for more years than three of your family''s generations, so we have had ample time to practice and extract the potential of our abilities."

    Andrais sneered and the teachers behind him showed the full disregard they had for the harm they had caused the students, regardless of pure human or not.

    "We happily wee any attempts at revenge you have, now and forever till you eventually turn to dust. You can even report our misdeeds to the Human Council right after this orientation, but haha, good luck with that."

    Andrais looked back. "About half of the teachers here are councilors themselves, and are powerful enough that no one dares to punish them even if they genocide an entire race, much less reveal your little secrets."

    The faces of all the students changed greatly, and they finally understood what Andrais meant by a reality check. They had been brutally wronged and abused, but due to how weak they were, there was nothing they could do about it, as background and wealth were irrelevant in the face of raw martial might.

    Who was going to police the strongest few beings in the universe?

    "Haha, that''s it for the orientation. Oh, and students of the Elite and Normal Batch, please do not spread what you''ve heard today anywhere. If we find out that any persons of the Unique Batch''s superpower are revealed to the public, we will hunt you down and personally take your life~" Andrais said in a kind manner, but the students of the two batches couldn''t help but feel a chill.

    The projections left without waiting for any closing ceremony, and thest to leave was actually the headmistress. She nced at Dante with her blood-red eyes, seated from a high position.

    "Work hard and impress me student, and I might take you in as my apprentice. There are powers in this universe that are far beyond yourprehension, and superpowers are just the bottom-floor requirement to get in touch with them." She spoke these cryptic words and then did not even nce at the others like they were trash, not even those with SS-Rank superpowers, then left.

    The entire Assembly Hall was quiet for a long while before it erupted in noise as the students vented their fury and fear at such treatment. While there were those with ugly expressions who lowered their head and nned to swallow this grievance, there were some hotheaded ones who wanted to fight right away.

    There were also those who thought their IQ was above the world itself and had glints in their eyes as they prepared to use the Quantum Network to contact certain dark societies to sell the information they had received today.

    There were also those righteous fellows who believed in the system and had filed long petitions as well asints to the Human Council, sneering at those arrogant teachers. There were those who sneered at the righteous fellows for being dumb and opened social media, nning to post what happened to everyone and use the public''s anger to put pressure on the academy.

    Everyone reacted with their own methods, but only the 28 Unique Batch students remained silent as they seriously digested the headmistress'' words. They had never heard of something like this despite their various backings, though there were hints from their elders that something special was going on.

    Something that contributed to the value of superpowers overall, but they did not have ess to that info. It seemed that because Dante had an SSS-rank superpower, he had achieved the basic qualification to receive a hint from the headmistress.

    As for Dante himself, he maintained a cold expression like he was unhappy, but inside he sighed with relief. It was a good thing his superpower was mistaken as teleportation and he swore never to tell anyone about his true ability no matter what.

    Today''s lesson was very astute, especially for him. Unless he had the all-epassing strength to suppress everything, a secret must remain a secret. He could be high profile for sure, but it was not necessary to reveal his Quantum Teleportation to anyone unless he could absolutely guarantee their trust.

    He was even thinking a step ahead about Andrais'' actions and what he said. They did this every year to every new batch? What a bunch of arrogant and crazy fellows. Did they know how many enemies with superpowers they were creating?

    Dante was a person who wasn''t born and raised in the Eternal Universe, so he did not have the full sensibilities and ideals that the natives had. He might forgive their trespass because they were wrong about his superpower and because he didn''t much care due to the wrong information, but these natives had expressions like they had witnessed their parents being killed in front of them.

    Seriously, who does that? Just create hundreds of young enemies that will work hard to try and kill you? All of that just to establish your prestige? Why not just organize a tournament and beat them up instead?

    Dante then thought about what Headmistress Lara said, and his surprise was not that great. After all, these fellows might not know, but he knew. There were higher-dimensional beings in this universe, who lived in the Fourth Dimension and above.

    That was how he survived his trip into this universe and even gained his superpower. These beings were so powerful that they could grant superpowers on a whim, so Dante was not like his ssmates who felt that superpowers were the limit and height of what one could achieve.

    Dante did not want to think about higher dimensional beings and what that meant for now. He simply got up from his seat and began to leave the Assembly Hall while the others seemed to wake up. They also left one by one, some in groups as well while they continued to chat and form cliques.

    Many eyes filled with schadenfreude or pity fell upon the 28 Unique Batch members, feeling excited that they got ''vited'' without being able to fight back. After all, the ss system between students had already caused dark feelings to emerge in their hearts.

    As for Dante, he directly stepped into a nearby teleporter and left, appearing in front of his residence. He looked over and saw that Humphrey appeared at the teleporter to the residence on his right, and the two shared a look before ignoring each other and entering their residences.

    Dante slumped on a sofa in the living room and gazed at the ceiling. He felt tired despite only spending less than 20 minutes in that orientation, and it had also given him a lot to think about.

    Anyway, while he was here, it was time to check out the information uploaded to his chip.

 Chapter 29 Bionics And Psionics Acquired!

    ?

    Dante downloaded the school''s information and was given a full and total understanding of the Eternal Academy, the rules, theyout, the schedule for his sses, the schedule for other''s sses, extracurricr activities, the benefits, entertainment options, and most of all, the school shop.

    He was also granted his Student ID which gave him ess to all these facilities and more. As you might expect, in order to cut itself off from outside influence, the school had its own internal currency.

    This currency was called the Supercoin, because the main theme of the school was superpowers.

    Naturally, this left Dante speechless.

    He wasn''t going to go through everything one by one but would experience each and every one of these things for himself. Seeing as the day was fresh, he got up and nned to take advantage of one of the free benefits that came with not only being a student, but being a student of the Unique Batch.

    It was time for Dante to install his Bionics and Psionics!

    The young man couldn''t conceal his excitement at the thought and had no ns to, wearing a pokerface like he was some unfeeling bastard was not reallyfortable and did not represent his true character in any way.

    He took the teleporter to the Institution of Student Enhancements. Here, whether it was Bionics, Psionics, upgraded AI chips, or gene enhancers, students could ess them all as long as they had enough Supercoin to pay.

    You could not buy Supercoin with external money, not even with the powerful Etran. Only internally validated methods that Dante would partake inter could gather Supercoin. He put them in his ns after acquiring his enhancements.

    He was spat out of the teleporter into the lobby and saw that the building was semi-empty. After all, it was not like Supercoins were easy to farm for students so that they could continually upgrade and each upgrade cost leagues more than the previous one.

    So even with arge continent-likendmass with probably millions of living beings on it, this building was only half full. Dante remembered the rules of the academy and went to a nearby 3D printer to create a badge that was imprinted on his chest.

    It was a purple color badge with a number in the middle which was his student ID. Among the various student ranks, Grey was for Normal Batch students, Gold for was the Elite Batch, Purple was for the Unique Batch and ck were for staff/workers.

    Seeing the purple on his badge, many of the grey-badged and gold-badged students nced at Dante with envy and hints of hatred, making him frown. It seemed like the ssism of students in this academy caused greater negative feelings to brew than he thought.

    He ignored everyone and headed to one of the counters. It was manned by an android staff as the number of organic beings in the entire Eternal Academy''s workforce was limited to prevent intrusion and interference from outside factions.

    "Hello student, how can I help you today?" The Android asked in a pleasant androgynous tone.

    "I''d like to receive my student standard Bionic and Psionic upgrade package," Dante replied with a smile.

    "Not a problem. Before we begin the procedure, I have to ask for health and safety reasons, did you have any previous Bionics or Psionics installed?" The Android asked while a holographic screen shing with numbers appeared before it.

    "None." Dante denied it with a shake of his head.

    "That''s for the best. Also, would you please upload your SDI into the database so we can gauge how the various Bionic and Psionic types we have in stock will affect you?" The Android requested with a smile.

    To this, he hesitated. He had already learned his lesson from the orientation and it was clear that this academy had no scruples. However, he definitely was not going to lie or withhold information from his ''doctor'' when something very powerful and dangerous was going to be inserted into his body.

    As such, he obediently uploaded the details and just hoped for the best. If it ever came to bite him in the ass, he would ept it and seek revenge on this academy doubly for the earlier transgression as well.

    After all, cough cough, he had the backing of a fourth-dimensional being right? Dante forcefully thickened his skin and decided to self-appoint himself as that higher dimensional being''s number 1 crony.

    The higher-dimensional being was left speechless.

    Dante was brought into a high-tech operating room with a tform. He was instructed to lie on the table which then lifted itself up to an inclined position. While Dante was beginning to feel nervous, his AI chip immediately received amand and ryed it to Dante.

    Dante epted themand, which was to apply natural anesthesia in the form of being asleep, so his chip released the required hormones that soon had Dante close his eyes tiredly.

    Hi AI chip ''watched'' the entire process like a hawk as they injected Dante with nanites that began to burrow into his flesh, bones, organs, and marrow. As they began constructing the framework of his bionical enhancements, another needle was plugged into his spine.

    These nanites rushed toward his nerves, lymph nodes, and mostly to his brain. Each of these nanites worked separately but extremely efficiently, getting the job done in under 20 minutes each. If one looked at Dante''s body on the inside, one would note that his internals looked less human and more robotic.

    Where they had been a red sheen due to blood, they were now a greyish-white sheen that made his body feel firmer, yet more metallic.

    Dante''s body was connected to a nutrient supplement and then pumped with the juice crazily. His AI chip was then given the go-ahead to wake him up and when it did, Dante''s first reaction was to ask how everything went since he was not really groggy at all.

    However, anything he wanted to say was sicked back into his mouth as he gasped deeply, his body shrinking rapidly like someone was sucking his internals out with a straw.

    Immediately, the attached nutrient solutions pumped him with tons of juice, and his body slowly filled out till it reached its previous state. Dante''s pained expression rxed greatly as he began to breathe out, feeling like his previously empty body was now somewhat full.

    He then felt fear. He had been warned about the side effects of installing Bionics and Psionics the first time, especially in the case of Bionics, so he was not too shocked.

    After the nanites build the relevant enhancements within his body, it would be like an engine or a generator. It would need a spark to ignite the propulsion and fuel to keep it going. In this case, when his consciousness returned and the enhancements kicked in, they began drawing the fuel which was his body''s power.

    This was why the nutrient solution was necessary. However, thanks to advancements in the technology of enhancements, Bionics and Psionics were much more efficient and manageable than before.

    It was more like a cont system, where you only filled the tank once and it would cycle the same liquid over and over again. So Dante did not need to do anything more at this point, nor would it suddenly cause an increase in appetite or other such changes.

    Dante was released from the table andnded on his feet. Immediately, he felt the difference when his legs met the ground. It felt less like he was standing on a pair of fleshy feet and more like he was standing on two alloy soles.

    His entire body felt full of power and sturdiness. Dante was not hallucinating, he could quite literally stand for a heavy-duty truck to hit his head on and he probably wouldn''t even take a step back.

    Dante felt a surge of confidence emerge from his heart as he took a few steps forward to test his enhanced abilities. The transformation was astounding. His every movement was smoother, faster, and more precise than ever before. It was as if he had unlocked a hidden potential, a power waiting to be harnessed.

    As Dante walked through the halls of the Institution of Student Enhancements to head to his next destination, he couldn''t help but notice the curious nces from other students.

    Some of them were in awe of his aura which radiated more power than before, while others seemed envious of his newfound strength.

    Dante shook his head and decided to check his SDI.

    ?User: Dante (ID Number: DANTE10998-03-15)

    Age: 21 (Converted to Earth years)

    Race: Pure Human (99.9% gic perfection)

    Strength Index: 2.3 (23)

    Agility Index: 2.2 (22)

    Dexterity Index: 2.3 (23)

    Intelligence Index: 2.5 (25)

    Constitution Index: 2.1 (21)

    Vitality Index: 2.1 (21)

    Bionic Level: 1 (Unique Student Version 10.)

    Psionic level: 1 (Unique Student Version 10.)

    AI Chip level: 1 (Civilian Category)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement.?

    With his body now reinforced with bionics and psionics, Dante felt a surge of gratitude towards his extra-dimensional benefactor.

 Chapter 30 Testing World 1

    Now that Dante had acquired his Bionics and Psionics, it was naturally time to test them out and learn more about these two power systems. After that, he would deal with what he had been excited to try ever since he received his information from the school, which was extracurricr activities to earn Supercoin!

    First, he used the teleporter to return to his residence andy on his bedfortably. He then entered the Quantum Network then straight to the Etraverse. He entered his Student ID and was able to ess the unique VR worlds belonging to the academy, of which he chose the ''Testing World''.

    A pop-up appeared exining the details of the Testing World, something which wasplimentary with the entire service.

    [World Name: Testing World

    World Owner: Eternal Academy

    World Creator: Eternal Academy

    World Size: Small

    World Type: Instanced

    World Genre: Training

    Bionics Allowed: Yes

    Psionics Allowed: Yes

    Superpowers Allowed: Yes

    Requirements: Student ID

    Duration: Unlimited

    Description: This is the basic testing world created by the Eternal Academy for its student to use in order to test the effectiveness of their Bionics, Psionics, or superpowers in a virtual setting with any parameters of their choice.]

    Dante chose to enter and was brought into arge white room that had grids as far as the eye could see. His AI chip was then prompted to design the kind of scenario in which he wanted to test his various abilities, so Dante chose a random temte.

    [You will be using the Terrorist Attack on Civilians temte. Here, you are browsing through your city''srge mall when the mall is surrounded by terrorists who are here to ughter everyone and take no prisoners. Your duty is to either escape or incapacitate all enemies within the time limit and your efforts will be graded using an objective score. Continue?]

    Dante chose to continue and was warped into a cafeteria that was packed with people. From right to left, there were different vendors from the ssic McDonald''s and Burger King to even Panda Express and Hooters.

    He only had about three seconds to take in his surroundings before the entire area quaked as the sound of multiple explosions urred. Everyone was thrown to their feet and screams abounded in the area.

    Dante could almost taste the panic in the air and his enhancements passively kicked in as soon as he detected the chaos. Immediately, the world around him changed in more than one way possible.

    Now, Bionics and Psionics were separated into different types and sses. There were Civilian, Military, Commercial, Private, Business, Government, and Student Bionics as well as Psionics.

    Due to the different categories, each type had different functions and increased your SDI in different ways.

    At its base, regardless of type, a Bionic or Psionic Enhancement could not turn you into a God. They worked with your natural SDI, so much like the various fictional transformations from popr shonen anime, the higher the ''power level'' of your base form, the higher your final power level after transformation.

    This was what Xue Bing had warned Dante about that there were some aliens or even pure humans who had SDI with points above the double digits. Compared to him who had recently been boosted to 2 points in each field, he was like a bear cub before a dragon.

    Bionics were physical enhancements that multiplied your SDI values of Strength, Constitution, and Vitality by a factor of 2 for Civilian, by 3 up to 5 for Private, Business, and Commercial, by 5 to 8 for Student and Government, and from 10 and above for Military.

    Due to the focus, it made your muscles stronger and sturdier, made your body more impervious and resistant to damage, and then increased your recovery in terms of stamina and fatigue greatly.

    Taking into ount the special nature of the Eternal Academy, Dante''s identity as a student of the Unique Batch among others, his Bionics granted him a boost of 10 times.

    Psionics were mental enhancements that multiplied your SDI values of Agility, Dexterity, and Intelligence by the same factors per type as for Bionics.

    With its focus, it increased coordination, reflexes, reaction speed, bnce, and acuity greatly. You might think that such things had to do with the body but no, they were more of a thing of the mind and the nervous system.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel The current Dante was experiencing the first taste of full activation of both his Bionics and Psionics. Many details had been documented and written about the first experience, calling it the greatest high that was not replicable ever again.

    Dante himself could not easily describe what he was going through in detail. Having your body filled with power, having your mind flow like it was a filthy pipe that had been washed clean, it was truly a high like no other.

    Dante was filled with confidence that he could not suppress at all. The world itself seemed to slow down around him and the movements of the panicking civilians behind him seemed toe from a far distance.

    Dante cast his senses out and felt the presence of over 50 hostiles equipped withser weaponry slowly and methodically killing everyone in the mall. The guards and sentry robots were all disabled through some elite means that Dante did not know about.

    The enemies had spread out and covered every possible entrance and exit of the mall. After all, this was a lightning operation where they came to ughter to leave a message or something else, then evacuate.

    Having people escape would ruin the purity of their operation on one hand and it might alert the authorities to send armed forces over much earlier than necessary.

    With these kinds of operations, the timing was strict and they all had watches counting down each second till they had to evac whether they were done or not.

    These men were likely equipped with either Military or Private Bionics, so their SDI boost could be between 3 to 10 times. One fact was that the base SDI of everyone in this instance was the same as him, or around the same range.

    Everyone was even of the same race, and the details had been crafted based on Dante''s impression of a mall through the AI chip. This was to create a perfect scenario for him to test his abilities without making his foes impossibly strong or needlessly weak.

    Dante sucked in a deep breath and then bolted forward rushing out of the cafeteria area and into a nearby shop that sold perfumes and women''s clothing. The attendant was also screaming and scrambling to hide under something, so Dante ignored her and rushed into the backroom.

    It would have been more logical for him to stay put with the masses and use them as body shields to escape, but this was not necessarily a survival mission but a testing one.

    Dante found what he was looking for in the fire kit, which had an extinguisher and an axe in a ss case. He smashed open the case and took the axe, twirling it in his arms.

    He swung it for a bit and was shocked. He was a normal civilian with nobat training whatsoever, so he had no skill in wielding an axe.

    However, when stats and ability reached a certain threshold, the casual act of one could replicate a seasoned master. Not in terms of true form, that required proper training, but theck of clumsiness was apparent.

    Dante rushed out of the back room and send that the shooting and murdering had started in earnest as some of the men split into different shops to take down those within as quickly as possible.

    With their Psionics, they could sense those who were hiding with ease, so there was no point in doing that. In fact, they had already sensed Dante, but they could not tell how different he was like this.

    He just seemed like a brave but foolish young man who thought he could ambush one of them. The nearest one to him acted ignorant as he cleared the stores leading up to where Dante was, but Dante knew that his opponent was aware of him.

    An axe versus aser gun? Not very good odds.

    If Dante threw the axe when the guy got close, with his level of enhancements he could easily dodge it and Dante would now be unarmed and dead.

    If Dante waited until he got close and tried to jump out, his foe would still easily dodge Dante''s unskilled swing and thenser him in the face with the fellow''s superior marksmanship training.

    The only thing that would work was a feint. Dante had to pretend he was doing one of these actions but cancel it at thest moment and then find a connecting move to get himself into the danger area of his foe for a takedown.

    Pretend to throw or pretend to hack at his foe? That was the question.

    Dante had little time to decide because the fellow had just dealt with the next store over and would being his way very soon.

 Chapter 31 Testing World 2

    ?

    Dante naturally decided to do neither. He grabbed a whole wad of clothes and covered himself. With them on him like this, he looked to be azy fellow who didn''t want to carry more than two batches of clothes from the drying line into the house.

    He then smashed through the window of the shop and charged towards the enemy who was walking over slowly. Naturally, Dante''s actions had been quick enough that he maintained a slight element of surprise, not to mention the randomness of seeing a manyered with unworn clothes charging at you.

    Even worse, Dante threw the bundle of clothes at him, blocking his view. Even as he fired, he could tell he missed Dante and tried to take a step back to create distance, but he was forced to dodge when an axe flew through the clothes and tried totch itself to his forehead.

    It was only after his desperate dodge that the man understood what happened and how he was about to die. After all, he could see the shadow of Dante from his crouched position since he ducked to avoid the axe that was thrown as fast as a bullet.

    His expression became solemn and he was about to beg to distract his foe when he felt a leg smash the back of his head and sent him nose-first into the tiled floor of the mall. His skull burst open like a watermelon, the innards and pieces of brain mush flying about like stter.

    Dante stared at the corpse for a short while before picking up the gun he held. It wasn''t that a young man like him was mysteriously immune to death, but rather that he had ordered his AI chip to suppress the urge to vomit and the rising chaos of emotions forcefully.

    He would deal with it after.

    Now that he was armed, Dante could begin the proper process of the testing. He detected that the rest of the men were heading toward his location, giving up on their n to ughter civilians. They could also detect with their own psionics that their teammate had been killed, and they were aware that Dante was likely armed.

    Basically, it was like ying an online multiyer shooter with both teams having ess to radar. While you could see the blue and red dots, it didn''t mean you could see the exact details of what was going on.

    Dante also rapidly approached his enemies head-on and began firing when he encountered the vanguard. He had not taken any gun lessons because he never felt the need to, but with his dexterity boosted to 20 times the standard of a pure human in this universe, which was more than twice the standard of a pure human on earth, his aim was enough to get the job done.

    Dante shot, rushed forward speedily towards new cover, shot again, and then challenged a swarm of foes in hand-to-handbat. Once again, no training, so the battle was more like a street fight but unfortunately, his foes had basic hand-to-handbat training.

    So he got his ass beat up and then shot many times before fleeing. Dante evaded the pursuers long enough that his injuries healed under the starkly increased vitality and began fighting once more. He lost again and was shot many times until he could barely walk.

    Eventually, he was captured and once he reached this stage, the instance came to an end.

    [Congrattions, user Dante! You havepleted an instance of the Testing World using random parameters! After calction, your score is valued to be at the C Rank!]

    Dante was not bothered by the average score. He had no training, no skills, and no techniques. His tactics were unrefined and barbaric while his choices and decisions were questionable at best and suicidal at worst.

    If it wasn''t for the fact that he wasn''t killed but was only captured, his score could have been worse.

    However, it was enough for Dante. He had tasted the full power of his new enhancements and understood how much stronger they made him. The test had been perfectlypleted, now all that was left was for him to train these abilities.

    Still, that was forter. Right now, Dante had to deal with the after-effects of the suppression of his emotional reaction to the cold-blooded killing of his fellow man, so he logged out and got up, calmly walking to the bathroom before emptying out his gut.

    After clearing his internals, he forced himself to remember that nasty scene of his legs squashing the opponent''s head like a watermelon and began a new round of dry heaving.

    Dante then washed his face and rinsed his mouth thoroughly before going to sit on his bed. He simply sat there for a long time, thinking about many things and what to do next.

    He sighed,y his head down, and then slept after making his AI chip secrete the necessary hormones to induce sleep. His n was to rest for a bit before thinking about what came next.

    This was naturally a great idea as when he woke up a few hourster, when the sky was darkening, he felt refreshed and his mind was clear. His reaction to his memory of killing was much weaker than before and he was sure that active conflict would not disgust him so much again.

    Now that he was much better, Dante thought about his next step. This was naturally to increase his SDI by as much as he could until he caught up to the others. There was no reason for others to have such high ''base'' stats and he did not.

    The only way to achieve this was to utilize the gene enhancement technology of this universe. This was a gradual process requiring multiple treatments over time as he boosted and perfected his gics bit by bit.

    There was no shortcut for this unless you had a superpower. There was nothing like a super secret military gene enhancer that could turn a dog into a god, and all he needed to do was ''have willpower'' and ''grit his teeth'' through the pain.

    It would take years of treatments and the only thing that can quicken it is if you want big treatments or small treatments. Also maybe your gic chains were more adaptable and resilient than others, so it could take more modification in a shorter period of time.

    That was far more realistic and was probably what separated the geniuses from the average ones in terms of raw SDI.

    As a student of the Unique Batch, Dante could get up to 15 progressive gene treatments for free, over the course of his first year. Everything after that would have to be paid for through Supercoin.

    As far as Dante knew, the Elite Batch should get 10 free treatments and the Normal Batch 5.

    Now, Supercoin. This vaunted and much-valued currency of the Eternal Academy. How does one earn it?

    To discuss Supercoin, which was integral to all of the academy''s systems, one would also have to discuss the academy''s systems themselves.

    The first was tuition. The Eternal Academy did not take a tuition fee. From the arrogance those teachers disyed, it was likely they would directly say that they did not need your money. The school was run by donations from almost every faction in the universe.

    In fact, wars were literally fought over who got to donate to the Eternal Academy and by how much in a given school year. As for why factions would do this, it was easy enough to guess.

    Tuition was handled not through typical ssroom teaching. This was an advanced sci-fi universe, and even modern Earth was trying to move the ssroom to the online tform. How could this society still rely on such things?

    Especially when you considered the effect of AI chips and Psionics. With such tools why should a person sit in a library or read books when they could carry an entire library right in their brains?

    And the truth was as such. When Dante received the information at the orientation, it included everything he needed to learn for his freshman school year. All the learning materials and information that a teacher would normally exin bit by bit were airdropped into his brain.

    With the AI chip, he could then ratify it and then master the knowledge, essing it at any time.

    So why have schools? Why not just do this for every citizen from childhood and let them learn what they needed to from a young age?

    The truth was that this solved only one problem with regards to tuition, and that was the acquisition of theoretical knowledge. We wasted most of our youth stuffing knowledge into our heads to apply it in the middle stages of our lives with varying sess.

    However, AI chips cut out all those years and allowed one to acquire the knowledge now. So what else would education intuition do but use all that time to make sure that the theory is turned into an applicable skill through practicals?

 Chapter 32 How To Earn Supercoins101

    ?

    The second aspect of the academy system - at least for the unique batch - is the focused training of superpowers. As the faction with the ess to the most superpowered users, one could say it definitely ranked at the top of eligible parties to dere that they were qualified to teach about the esoteric subject.

    This, surprisingly, was a mixture of theory and practical, unlike basic tuition subjects. Dante would actually have to go to an area near the Zero Gate called the ck Land to learn and train his power with other unique batch students.

    Checking the details of the ck Land, it was basically an area around the Zero Gate where energy from the other realm that produced superpowers leaked into our universe and formed a domain.

    Those with natural superpowers or acquired superpowers could absorb this energy actively to improve the upper limit of their superpower''s ability and unlock new skills or abilities within their superpower.

    Of course, this wasn''t the only way. One could simply train in the use of their superpower and practice endlessly, and they would also make progress, but as you could imagine, it was entire levels slower than just absorbing this strange energy.

    The third system was the shop, where one could purchase anything, enhancements for genes, enhancements for Bionics, and Enhancements for Psionics. Even enhancements for AI chips were avable, and all of them cost the ever-desirable Supercoin.

    Bionics, Psionics, and AI chips were obviously not limited to level one. There were levels two and above which all increased the functionality of these enhancements and added new, unique effects to them.

    Beatrice, for example, had Bionics and Psionics above level 20. Lord knew what her power would be like if she erupted.

    Whether it was tuition, the cknd, or the shop, all of them required Supercoin in order to make full use of their capability. In the field of tuition, extra courses could be applied for using Supercoin while more secretive knowledge could be acquired and trained.

    In the field of the cknd, the initially allocated times for cultivation were decided by year and grade of superpowerˇŞany extra time or slot needed to be purchased with Supercoin.

    In the field of enhancements, every level above 5 needed to be bought for Bionics, Psionics, and AI chips, while the gene enhancements from the second year ongoing would have to be bought as well.

    Basically, as a student of the Eternal Academy, you were entitled to a certain amount of ''free'' things up to your fourth and final year. If you did not earn a single Supercoin, you could still graduate spectacrly regardless of what batch you were in and be above students from other academies universe-wide.

    However, this was your one and only chance to be a student of this academy in your entire lifetime. Who would be content to just enjoy all the basic services and then leave without tasting the reason why everyone tossed their kids here madly?

    It was impossible.

    So the one way to earn Supercoin was through extracurricr activities. Not even good grades of exemry school work could get you Supercoin, but these so-called ''extracurricr activities''?

    What were these ''extracurricr activities''? Was it stuff like clubs, sports, and other such vocational-rted activities in most schools? Or was it like missions and stuff where the school would make you sign a death waiver and then you''d risk your life fighting on some battlefront for ''merit''?

    It was neither. Extracurricr activities werepletely safe, fun and mostly benefited you the individuals rather than the school itself. If you thought about it, the nature of these extracurricr activities was obvious from the beginning and had been hinted at many times.

    Dante logged onto the Quantumwork and then headed to the Eternal Academy''s section of the Etraverse. There he saw hundreds of worlds that were set up by the school, and in their description tags, there was the amount of Supercoin a student would be rewarded depending on their evaluation for clearing the score in the world.

    The worlds were of many types, but most of them had very tough requirements and objectives. They were sorted out by their difficulty and Dante checked the top 3 most visited worlds by students.

    [World Name: Apocalypse World

    World Owner: Eternal Academy

    World Creator: Eternal Academy

    World Size: Small

    World Type: Shared

    World Genre: Survival

    Bionics Allowed: No

    Psionics Allowed: No

    Superpowers Allowed: Yes

    Requirements: Student ID

    Duration: 30 days

    Description: This is a special post-nuclear war world from the era when humanity was still trapped on the. Technology has be backwater and people are struggling to survive amidst the dangerous radiation and mutated beasts. However, some individuals have awakened special abilities tobat these beats and have be local overlords, forming their own territories and trying to survive in this wastnd of death.

    Objectives: Survive for 30 days to pass.

    Limitations: AI Chips will be switched off and your basic SDI will be reduced to the base of the pure human race.

    Provisions: Ratified knowledge can be taken in and there is a present power system in the world.]

    The number one was an Apocalypse World which was frequented by over 40 million students since its foundation and had over 500,000 students currently staying in this world at this moment. That was more than 70% of the student body, so that told you how popr it was.

    Dante researched the school forum about this world and saw many guides and information about the world. It seemed that the reason for its poprity was that it was one of the few worlds that allowed normal people to ''acquire'' a superpower through the VR world''s own rules without having to bring their own in.

    So the casuals of the Normal and Elite Batch swarmed this world to enjoy what the Unique Batch students got for free. Obviously, the Unique Batch students hardly ever frequented this world unless forced to, because it didn''t allow them to gain any advantages.

    Dante shook his head and then checked the second one.

    [World Name: Death Game

    World Owner: Eternal Academy

    World Creator: Eternal Academy

    World Size: Tiny

    World Type: Instanced

    World Genre: Strategy, Thriller

    Bionics Allowed: Yes

    Psionics Allowed: Yes

    Superpowers Allowed: No

    Requirements: Student ID

    Duration: 7 days

    Description: This is a small urban city set in the modern day which is full of life and vibrant! However, underneath the liveliness and joy is a dark war that has been ongoing since a certain key event urred. You are one of the 12 Assassins of the Order. Due to an internal dispute, only one of you can live, and must identify them to kill the others.

    Objectives: Be thest one standing or have the most kills by the end.

    Limitations: Psionic sensing will be switched off, but other enhancements will be allowed.

    Provisions: Regrades of methods or SDI, one strike with a weapon will kill a target.]

    This world was darker and more brutal. 12 yers would queue and get an instance of the world where they would have a random urban setting. They were then given disguises and ways to hide themselves and must now observe and locate the others in the city using tactics, guile, and wits toe out on top.

    This was a world that purely trained critical thinking, deduction, and observation. In truth, these three things were the cornerstone of an intelligent person, so having students earn Supercoin from this was a genius way to turn idiotic andzy students into capable young powerhouses.

    Dante made it a priority to try this world and see where he stood on the IQdder.

    [World Name: Pirate Incursion

    World Owner: Eternal Academy

    World Creator: Eternal Academy

    World Size: Tiny

    World Type: Instanced

    World Genre: Survival

    Bionics Allowed: Yes

    Psionics Allowed: Yes

    Superpowers Allowed: Yes

    Requirements: Student ID

    Duration: 1 day

    Description: This is a world that has been styled after a basic space pirate attack. You start after you have been defeated in the battle and are being boarded, so you must either kill all the pirates and repair your ship to leave, repair your ship and escape, or find a way to preserve a third of your crew and escape to safety.

    Objectives: Eliminate all the pirates, detach their tractor beam from your ship, or escape with at least 30% of your crew to pass.

    Limitations: All enemies will have random Bionics, Psionics, AI chips, and even superpowers allocated to them. They will also be of random races and have differing SDIs.

    Provisions: You have your full range of power and can rely on the skills of your crew to assist you.]

    This world was absolutely genius. In a universe like this with high sci-fi, not everyone could travel in a dreadnought belonging to an admiral like Dante. Most people used eithermercial transports or private spaceships, but regardless of the type, they are always susceptible to pirate attacks.

    After all, with great power came great irresponsibility.

 Chapter 33 Choosing A Virtual World

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel ?

    To have students train to resist pirate incursions if random designs would make them extremely adaptable to such situations should they happen. A student who went through this world many times would be a nightmare for a pirate crew, and would probably be theirst ''score''.

    Dante had an interest in these worlds for sure. He was going to select one of them to partake in and harvest as many Supercoins as he could within reason.

    He first looked at the fourth and fifth most visited worlds just to be sure.

    [World Name: Rising Star

    World Owner: Eternal Academy

    World Creator: Eternal Academy

    World Size: Medium

    World Type: Instanced

    World Genre: War

    Bionics Allowed: Yes

    Psionics Allowed: Yes

    Superpowers Allowed: No

    Requirements: Student ID

    Duration: 90 days

    Description: This is a world that has been styled in a medieval setting. You are a random footsoldier assigned to one of the various armies of the kingdom you are serving, thrust into full-blown war as your King has ambitions to rule the entire continent.

    Objectives: Survive for 90 days or rise through the ranks to be a General.

    Limitations: Your Bionics and Psionics will be limited to your military Rank in terms of power, and all entities in this world have the same power as you per rank.

    Provisions: You are given free rein to raise your rank through any means you can think of.]

    Dante nodded his head. This world was perfect for the students who wanted to experience the hierarchy of power, something that was integral to creating great leaders.

    It was often why CEOs ofpanies would not immediately appoint their sons as leaders but have them start as clerks and then rise up. Without the experience of tasting the life of a worker at each rank, you would never be able to understand or lead them truly.

    It wouldn''t even really be your fault, but just an unfortunate matter of disconnect. Your employee was speakingnguage A and you were speakingnguage B, how could you possibly understand each other?

    Dante was not sure why they used a medieval world, but then that would negate hot weapons which kinda ruined the hierarchy. A person with a sma rifle and no bionics could shoot down a person with level 5 military bionics.

    Obviously, that was not very conducive to training a batch of capable leaders. Best to put them in a world limited to cold weapons where they could disy the full range of their physical and mental ability to take advantage of the situation.

    [World Name: Pioneer

    World Owner: Eternal Academy

    World Creator: Eternal Academy

    World Size: Medium

    World Type: Instanced

    World Genre: Exploration

    Bionics Allowed: Yes

    Psionics Allowed: Yes

    Superpowers Allowed: Yes

    Requirements: Student ID

    Duration: Unlimited

    Description: You were traveling through space in your ship with your crew and discovered a lush filled with life. You set up a blockade in orbit and went down with a shuttle to explore and map the as best as you could, either to im it as your own property or sell it in an auction.

    Objectives: Map as much of this world as you can.

    Limitations: The situation differs each time and there may be natives who are hostile, among other hazards.

    Provisions: You have a strong crew to assist you and a lot of good equipment to work with.]

    Ah, another sensible world. In this ever-expanding universe, it was a fact that there was more than 50% of it that was undiscovered and uncharted.

    It was a frequent urrence in society that a person woulde upon a new in uncharted space, and there were whole professions and industries centered around such a thing.

    Fortunately, there was a world like this to help students go through the process of mapping out a discovered world. After all, you can''t justy im to what you don''t know.

    There were rules about such a thing.

    Dante looked at these five worlds and juggled them in his head. He nced at his schedule and saw that his first superpower ss in the ck Land would ur in two days with Xue Bing, so he had time.

    In the interim, he could set himself up in one of these worlds and then continueter. The reason why most students even required four years and above of study in this academy, and in all learning institutions of all grades, was the fact that the Virtual Worlds in the Etraverse do not have time dtion.

    So if a world says 30 days, it meant 30 days in reality too would pass by the time you were done. So not only did you need time toplete some higher-difficulty words, but you also needed to bnce it with your real schedule.

    Fortunately, it''s not like when you began a world, you were forced to stay in it till you were done. As long as your avatar or body within the world was left in a safe ce, you could log out of the quantum universe and do other things in reality then pop back in.

    However, this too was susceptible to poor timing. For example, the Pirate Incursion world had a 1-day timer, so if you logged out to attend to an emergency that took hours or a full day, you would likely log back in to see that time had psed and you had failed.

    With this in mind, Dante chose the first world, the Apocalypse World to start. Not only was it the number 1 world, but he could definitely use 2 days to hide himself somewhere when it was time for his session at the ck Land.

    As for other worlds, their timers were either too short, or in the case of the Rising Star world was in constant war, so where could he hide? In 2 days, he could not be a general and if he missed any postings or orders, that would be a dereliction of duty.

    Dante chose the most popr world and was taken to a login screen. Here, his student ID was entered and his name was generated as his real name. His character avatar was also modeled after himself 100% and he had no say in this, nor did any student.

    As you could imagine, the Eternal Academy disdained such methods. You were in a fictional virtual world for the love of god, who do you think you are that only you must hide your precious face?

    Because of revenge? Then what were you doing taking up a precious slot in this prestigious academy for elites? Go back home and apply to some lesser institution where you can be protected and coddled like a baby!

    After all of that, Dante was presented with an overview map of the entire world, which was about the size of half of earth. It was a Pangaea-like continent with a few settlements andrge cities marked as territories he could be bound to.

    The rest was ruined wastnd and even some marked danger zones as well as death zones where even the toughest would die unless they had the luck of the cosmos on their back.

    Dante could also see the ''yer'' poption of each city and choose the most remote one with the least yers called ''The Fallout Shelter''. However, he had already been informed through his AI chip by the world that he would not conveniently drop into the city at the start.

    No, rather he would be spawned in a random ce within the territory of this city and have to make his way over quickly through the dangerous wastnd to seek shelter.

    Luckily, all yers were given an ''awakened'' superpower the moment they dropped into the world from the highly concentrated radiation, which also acts as the reason you survived all this while out of safety in terms of backstory.

    The superpower was random, and what everyone got varied. Those who already had superpowers would get an extra one for free for fairness'' sake, so if your base superpower was fire control, you could unlock another one like flight!

    Dante finished his assessment and descended into the world. It wasn''t dramatic or anything, the ''screen'' cked out and he found himself kneeling in a bush, warily watching a bunch of mutated two-headed dogs that were tearing a nearby corpse up.

    Dante looked down to see his tattered clothes which were the same as the corpse being torn up and ascertained that they had likely traveled together all this while as partners and well, something clearly happened.

    Dante remained still while in the bush, not daring to move since there were about 5 of the mutated dogs there. If they spotted him, with their strength and numbers, he would follow the person on the ground and be eliminated within seconds of arriving.

    He certainly wouldn''t be the first as many people hadnded in worse situations due to bad luck, but it would certainly be embarrassing.

    He took his eyes off the dogs for a second and opened his current in-world SDI. This did not require the AI chips which were blocked, and was a feature of every virtual world.

 Chapter 34 Apocalypse World Descent

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 10/10

    Strength: 1

    Agility: 1

    Dexterity: 1

    Intelligence: 1

    Constitution: 1

    Vitality: 1

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 10% (Okay)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    The SDI for the virtual worlds were slightly different with each world depending on its rules and how the creator chose to present it. Also, worlds withbat like this always had game-like mechanics like HP.

    Since the world rules stated that everyone would have the base stat value of their race, then that was the case. So even if Dante met another human who had 300 Strength Index outside in this world, that person would only be as strong as him right now.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Of course, to offset this, EVERYONE got a random superpower upon descent. The superpower given was not based on your physique, stats or anything, it was basically a lottery of luck.

    Dante seemed to acquire the superpower called Absorption. He sincerely hoped it was what he thought and he checked the details of it.

    [Superpower Name: Absorption

    Superpower Rank: F

    Superpower Description: Allows the users to absorb the energy of a defeated foe, increasing their own SDI by a small amount.]

    Dante was pleased. It was basically as he thought, the famous ability of ''devour/plunder'', but with a much nicer name for kids. This was one of the most coveted abilities in the universe because it promised, to some extent, limitless growth.

    As for it being the lowest F rank, that wasn''t a problem. Everyone''s superpower that was granted when they descended started from the F Rank and could grow the longer they stayed and achieved certain tasks.

    Most of this knowledge could be found on the forums and were downloaded to the AI chip before descent, but the specifics like what Dante had to do to increase it he would have to discover on his own.

    Unfortunately, while absorption was the best potential enhancing superpower, it had nobat ability, so it did not help Donate in his current situation.

    If he was found by the mutated two headed dogs, he would be killed and forced to re-descend. The good thing was that you kept the superpower you got on your first descent, so there was nothing like re-rolling.

    Otherwise, we all know that the cunning students would die, and descend over and over until they got a suer power to their liking. The bnce to this was that none of the random superpowers were ''useless'' like a superpower to make your clothes clean.

    Most had some utility.

    Dante stayed low and observed the animals have their meal while the stench drifted over. He would definitely have vomited if he wasn''t so determined to survive and see what this new ability could do.

    However, it was clear these dogs were taking their time eating and some even went out to go and release their bowels then continue. Unlike humans who could order takeout, animals could not exactly eat on demand, so they maximized their ability to store food.

    To beat the boredom, Dante checked his SDI and nced at his Quantum Entanglement. He was aware that this interface was designed by the Eternal Academy based on their own archives, so the superpowers that were given in this world actually existed somewhere in the universe because someone had gotten it before and logged it.

    [Superpower Name: Quantum Entanglement

    Superpower Rank: SSS

    Superpower Description: Allows the user to teleport for an unknown distance that is an estimated minimum of 10 light minutes and ignores any spatial defense/barrier/blockade.]

    Dante was disappointed, but he had to reap what he sowed. He hid the truth of his ability, so while his knew the truth of Quantum Entanglement, what the academy had in their archives was what he revealed.

    Still, he could understand now why they gave him an SSS rating with the potential to climb to EX. The ability to ignore spatial blockades meant that Dante could breach earth and other ces with his superpower, so with the right SDI and Bionics/Psionics, he could be a lethal assassin/weapon for the military.

    Then there was the distance, which was a minimum estimated 10 light minutes, or 111,800,000 miles/179,900,000 Kilometers!

    My Brother in Christ, that is slightly longer than the distance from earth to the sun in our sr system. This meant that in the eyes of the academy and the officials, Dante could enter a secret area blocked by space technology, kill a target, and then teleport from to until he escapedpletely.

    Like, how do you even stop someone like that?

    No wonder he was rated higher than the second ce Humphrey who had the ability of Aerogenesis, to literally create wind from nothing even in the vacuum of space!

    Just thinking of the application of such a power made sense that it was rated SS. Then there was the red-scaledmia girl, Slessor, with the legendary Space Folding which was also SS.

    If it lived up to the idea of Space Folding that Dante had in mind, then she definitely deserved third ce. However, even such a killer and overpowered superpower had to bow before what they assumed Dante''s superpower to be capable of.

    As for why they thought his could do thatˇ­ well it was quite funny. Because Dante''s real body disappeared back to his universe despite the fact that the Eternal Academy had the highest grade spatial blockade technology covering its outer shell like a shield, Dante still left.

    And because their scanner could not detect him within the range of the entire Academy''sndmass which spanned 10 light-minutes from all sides, they assumed he had teleported out.

    Well, from their point of view, it made sense, but knowing the truth made it ironicˇ­ and kinda worrisome, if Dante was every made to prove the specifics and clear up the doubts, he would be hard pressed to maintain the lie unless he exponentially upped the scale of the lie.

    In the time that had passed, the mutated dogs had eaten and unfortunately for Dante, one of them had specifically chosen his nice and inconspicuous bush to chose as its defecation location.

    So it was either hey and epted a wild, radiation-infused and mutated dog''s shit all over his body, or he tried to move and alerted the beast as well as its pals.

    Obviously, he chose to attack, but he needed a weapon. He nced at the mutated dog and checked its SDI, a mechanic that should be obvious;ly present in a virtual world featuringbat.

    ?Monster Name: Two-Headed Dog

    Monster Rank: F

    HP: 25/25

    Strength: 3

    Agility: 3.5

    Dexterity: 4

    Intelligence: 0.2

    Constitution: 1.5

    Vitality: 1.5?

    The stats of the monster were based on the standard of the race inspecting it, so in Dante''s case, it was the stats of a purehuman. So its strength of 3 was not 3 times the strength of an average mutated dog, but 3 times the strength of an average pure human.

    The same went of all the others. So in this case, no, Dante was not going to miraculously beat this dog in a one on one fight unless he had a great amount of wits, some advantage and plenty of luck.

    However, why on earth would he fight it head-on? He ced his hand to his side and pulled out a knife, a basic weapon that his avatar carried pre-descent to protect himself.

    In fact, he even had a backpack with supplies and medications, because who the heck traversed the wastnd without them?

    Dante waited for the dog toe close and remained frozen. The dog was only slightly vignt, checking the area superficially before turning around and squatting, ready to empty its bowels.

    And there was Dante, like a snake that was coiled and ready to pounce that had struck out, his hand shoving the stabby end of the knife right into the closest yet weakest point near to him.

    You see, in this world, it didn''t matter if you had 2 or 3 times the constitution of a person, or twice their vitality.

    When you get stabbed in the asshole, its death. A painful, brown, shit-filled, bloody and agonizing death. You will scream, you will thrash, and you will roll, exacerbating the pain and making you resent the fact that death did note instantly.

    This poor two-headed mutated dog went through this experience.

    Unfortunately for it, Dante was smart enough to pull his knife out before it began thrashing about so he could defend himself from its pals who had been alerted.

    As for the other dogs, when they saw their body bleeding mixture of brown and red goop while squealing in an bone-chilling voice, they whimpered and took some steps back.

    To go from a peaceful and happy situation to seeing such a thing, even beasts would be intimidated. Especially since they had 0.2 of the intelligence of a pure human, which was actually not bad.

 Chapter 35 First Skirmish 1

    ?

    This was quite anˇ­ interesting scene. There was a man, a bunch of whimpering mutated dogs, and one final mutated dog deep in death throes that was spraying extremely toxic body fluids and innards around as it writhed in pain.

    If this was supposed to be funny, it really wasn''t. If this was supposed to be horrifying... it also kinda wasn''t. Neither amusing nor blood curdling left one with a feeling of speechlessness.

    The other mutated dogs hung back while watching their buddy die slowly in pain while Dante remained near its body with a menacing posture. The moment the mutated dog died, he ced his hand on its corpse and activated his Absorption superpower the same way he did with Quantum Entanglement.

    Immediately, one could see a visible wave of greenish-red light emerge from the corpse of the mutated dog that entered into Dante''s body, looking like a mixture of mist and lightning.

    Dante had always wondered what it would be like to plunder or devour, absorbing the power of another for your own and feeling your own power rise in tandem.

    You might assume it was euphoric, and that would only be partially true. Dante would describe it as the feeling when a male was about to orgasm but hadn''t reached the peak. In other words, thosest few seconds of build-up before the explosion.

    And then the absorption stopped, and it was like being forced to stop midway.

    Dante''s eyes became bloodshot not from anything, but from the urge to ughter. In this moment, he understood why users of such a power were usually psychopaths with bloodthirsty natures, willing to kill anyone or anything to increase their power.

    The feeling of being right about to reach the peak and then being cut off was extremely terrible. This power could not be given to the average man and the average man should never wish for it.

    You would be putting yourself under the worst kind of torture that required iron-like will to survive without losing your mindpletely.

    Dante received the feedback from Absorption and knew how much he had be stronger. Absorption fedback a percentage of the target''s stats based on the rank of the superpower.

    At the F Rank, Dante only got 10% of it, hence his SDI increased as such;

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 11.5/11.5

    Strength: 1 -> 1.3

    Agility: 1 -> 1.35

    Dexterity: 1 -> 1.4

    Intelligence: 1 -> 1.02

    Constitution: 1 -> 1.15

    Vitality: 1 -> 1.15

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 10% (Okay)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    The mutated dog had increased Dante''s stats by a significant amount at this early stage, making him nearly one and a half times as powerful in an instant.

    And this was just one corpse!

    There were 5 more dogs here. If he were to kill them all, and assuming their stats were to be the same as the one he just took down, then he could even easily surpass his SDI in real life!

    Against other yers and ''NPCs'' of this world who all had 1 point in all fields, Dante would be like a god!

    His breath hitched at this thought and his already unstable mind from the stimulus of the superpower could no longer process the risks ordingly. The normal Dante would obviously be tempted, but know that fighting five dogs came with the risk of death at the slightest mistake.

    It was better to use his current deterrence to back away and flee, then hunt down single targets smartly and efficiently in order to raise his SDI in a semi-safe manner to a certain point before entering the city.

    But looking at the current him, he clearly was not capable of such rational thought. Dante practically roared as he flexed his muscles and felt the increased strength, craving more.

    He charged at the five remaining two-headed mutated dogs with his knife in hand, shocking the beasts but arousing their ferocity. They still held some fear from the sudden attack, but their instinct told them that Dante was not yet qualified to make them tuck their tails and flee!

    They barked menacingly with drool that sizzled the ground dripping from their jaws and charged as well, spreading out to attack him. Dante ignored those that were nking him and aimed at the mutated dog right ahead of him.

    It bayed and leaped towards his throat with its jaws open, which made it easy enough for Dante to plunge his knife right into the lower part of the jaw of its left head.

    In truth, dogs were quite scary to go against, but if you kept calm and had sufficient reflexes, they actually weren''t that difficult to deal with. Their ws were not sharp like a feline to be used as a weapon, so they relied on their jaws to kill.

    So this limited the ways in which they could attack, making them predictable in a head-on sh. Of course, this was obvious to anyone, but it was the reflexes and getting past the fear part that made most people lose to dogs in head-on brawls.

    As for wolves, they were a different ball game. However, none of these beasts were anywhere asrge or menacing as a wolf. They barely passed Dante''s knees in terms of height and they were not that thick.

    The mutated dog''s eyes widened as the knife plunged in and the left head died immediately. As for the right, it whimpered with a dazed look and fell to the ground, inches from death.

    Two heads didn''t necessarily mean two separate brains, but more like one brain split into two. If one half of your brain died right now, you would probably follow along with it no matter how healthy the other side was.

    But this was the least of Dante''s worries. This dog had paid with its life for its fellows to get into position, and they sure as hell were not wasting the chance.

    The mutated dogs that nked him circled around and leaped from where they were with their jaws outstretched. From right, left, and behind, all of them pounced at the same time, leaving Dante virtually no way out.

    Well, it was possible to just leap forward if one had great reflexes and reaction speed, then avoid the mutated dogs then take them down one by one, but one would need a little something called training.

    Since Dante had none, he did try to dodge relying on his natural instincts to step back, or in this case, step forward, but it was not good enough. Two pairs of teeth sunk into his right and left thigh while another pair sunk into his lower back, causing him to shout in pain.

    The pain sobered him up and he seemed to wake up from his haze of power lust. Immediately, Dante realized he had fucked up and was a victim of the downside of the Absorption superpower, something that was created to bnce its seeming limitless utility.

    Even if he could kill these mutated dogs, he would either die from bleeding out or from the poison of their body fluids or even the radiation they had directly poured into his body.

    Still, where there was life, there was hope. Despite logically knowing he would probably fall over in death soon after, he was not dead yet, so he still fought for a chance of survival.

    Dante took his knife and plunged it into the head of the mutated dog biting his right thigh, forcing it to yelp and let go, then fall to the ground as its legs began twitching in an almostical manner.

    As for the one biting his leg and back, they began to tear into his flesh, using their teeth to try and rip out the flesh they had bitten so Dante could start bleeding out.

    Anyone who had been mauled by a dog could definitely sympathize with the pain. Dante grabbed the head of the mutated dog that was biting his left leg and stabbed his knife into it multiple times with hatred on his face.

    The pain he had never felt before in his 21 years of life caused him to go berserk and crazy. Eventually, the mutated dog that got his back achieved its goal and with a horrifying rip sound, fell to the ground with a chunk of human flesh and clothing in its mouth from Dante''s back.

    Dante screamed and was immediately paralyzed by the pain. Luckily it did not get his spine, but it did not matter as the final mutated dog that had hung back now used this chance to bite the arm Dante used his hold his knife.

    The dog with his flesh in its mouth threw its head up, and the piece of bloody meat went sky high then fell down its gullet while it chewed it with relish.

    The mutated dog swallowed the meat and its two head''s eyes seemed to narrow from pleasure and enjoyment. With a vicious bark, it leapt forward to get another bite of this sweet meat!

 Chapter 36 First Skirmish 2

    ?

    At this time, Dante was surprisingly extremely lucid. He would normally go into shock from such pain, but the endless adrenaline being pumped into his system kept him awake and the rapid battlemandsing from his brain kept him on his toes.

    At this moment, with his right arm locked and about to be mauled as a chunk of flesh would likely be ripped out while his back was sending him signals of pain that made him want to curl up and cry on the ground, Dante felt like he had never been more clear-headed in his life.

    He turned around to face the mutated dog that was aiming at his back while swinging the other mutated dog biting his arms like a weapon, crashing it into the body of the leaping assant and sending the two flying.

    He then ignored them then ced his right and left hand on the two nearby corpses while he activated his superpower in full force. The light show urred and Dante felt the same sensation, but much stronger.

    However, the pain, the fear of death, the will to survive, the adrenaline, and the burning killing intent as well as hatred in his heart dulled the difort from having the ability done quickly. He then ced his hand on the third mutated dog and absorbed it as well.

    Rather, when he felt the surging power in his body, the confidence within him grew. After absorbing the three mutated dogs, his SDI had grown further.

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 9.5/16

    Strength: 1.3 -> 2.2

    Agility: 1.35 -> 2.4

    Dexterity: 1.4 -> 2.6

    Intelligence: 1.02 -> 1.08

    Constitution: 1.15 -> 1.6

    Vitality: 1.15 -> 1.6

    Mutation Index: 30% (Warning)

    Radiation Index: 40% (Warning)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    With his strength being more than double the average man''s while his agility and dexterity had almost crossed the threshold of three times, the world seemed to change in Dante''s eyes. He felt much closer to his natural strength in reality.

    But it was more than that. His movement and ability to deal with situations had doubled, giving him the feeling that the mutated dogs who seemed to be elusive and coordinated had be slightly less so.

    Not enough to magically make them seem clumsy, but enough that he no longer felt overwhelmed. He took his knife back from the corpse of the other dog and then charged at the other two who had untangled themselves and were ready to fight.

    However, whether it was Dante''s current movement or his ability, they felt a hint of fear as the intention to retreat came. Their instincts told them that the human before them had changed somehow and his threat level had risen sharply.

    But it was toote to retreat. They could only bark menacingly to halt his charge and then make a move, but Dante directly ignored them and pounced at the dog who bit his right arm, punching its right head and causing it to tumble backward as it yelped in pain.

    Dante then bravely grabbed the tail of the other mutated dog and then dragged it into the air, holding it by its tail upside down while it crazily writhed and struggled while barking and yelping.

    It was ovee with fear as one thing that predators hated was having their weakness fully grasped and being left helpless. Even some domestic and tame animals did not like being held up in the air despite being in the safety of their owner''s embrace, much less a wild one that was in the midst of a life-and-death battle.

    Dante ignored it and used it as a sort of club as he swung it using its tail to smash into the dazed mutated dog that he had punched which had a visible dent on the head that he struck.

    It was struggling to get up, but was sent back down into the ground while screaming when the dog Dante held crashed into it.

    What happened next, you can imagine. In his maddened berserker rage, Dante kept using the dog he held like a club and bashed the other one until both bodies became lumpy pieces of bloodied meat.

    Dante only came to his senses when the tail of the mutated dog in his hand was ripped off and the corpsended along with the other one. He then breathed roughly as he fell onto his ass, his eyes extremely bloodshot.

    He was filled with anger, hatred, the urge to kill, to rip and tear, andˇ­

    Dante took a deep breath. He had to suppress his chaotic emotions but the tears came from his eyes as he pushed himself to his feet. The pain that came washing in made him groan, but he walked over and absorbed both corpses as quickly as he could.

    After increasing his power further, Dante staggered towards the corpse of his former ally and absorbed that too. Now, his SDI looked a bit more developed.

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 11/20

    Strength: 2.2 -> 2.9

    Agility: 2.4 -> 3.2

    Dexterity: 2.6 -> 3.5

    Intelligence: 1.08 -> 1.22

    Constitution: 1.6 -> 2

    Vitality: 1.6 -> 2

    Mutation Index: 35% (Warning)

    Radiation Index: 43% (Warning)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    Dante had twice the constitution and vitality of an average pure human, so even wounded and infected, he was recovering quite quickly. However, he would need proper treatment, and luckily he did have some basic supplies for this in his backpack.

    He also took what he could from his former allies'' backpack and then shuffled out of this clearing to find somewhere to rest and recuperate. He also needed to deal with this entire experience and try to learn from it.

    Dante stumbled along in a semi-daze, his mind numb and his thoughts scattered. It wasn''t until he came upon a small cave that he stooped and seemed to find his consciousness returning to him.

    Apart from plenty of bushes and this small amount of rock before him which had an irregr-shaped opening in the front, there was nothing else around.

    The cave was not deep, and Dante could even see its end while standing outside. He staggered inside and saw that there was a makeshift firepit in the cave that was covered with sand.

    The cave itself looked like it had been used before, but a long time ago. Clearly, someone else who had either been trekking to a nearby city for survival or someone hunting outside the city for something had made this cave their residence for a while.

    Whatever the case, they had conveniently set the foundation for Dante to use this cave. He staggered inside and then sat down on the smooth and damp ground, leaning against a nearby wall as his head drooped.

    He sat like this in silence for a minute or two before opening his backpack and checking the items inside one by one. There was a vial of some blue liquid marked with a messily written ''anti-mutation'' along with some syringes, and another vial of green liquidbeled ''anti-radiation''.

    Dante took a syringe and filled it with each and shot himself. The moment it entered his bloodstream, he felt leagues better, and he saw his radiation as well as his mutation indexes dropping rapidly.

    With the rxation came fatigue and he couldn''t even fight it if he wanted to. Dante was instantly knocked out on the spot,ying down on the ground as he fell into sleep after the adrenaline washed away.

    When he woke up, he felt extremely refreshed body wise but his mind felt heavy. His body was stronger than average but his mind was only just slightly better.

    He looked out and saw that it was dark. He then uncovered the firepit and realized there was no drywood to use to light it up, so he would have to bear with the darkness.

    This was not a problem since he did not n to spend the night here. He went outside the cave and tore some leaves, then sued the remains of the tattered clothes from his ''friends'' corpse to cover his body in the back of the cave.

    He then logged out of the Quantum Network and ''returned'' to his real body that wasying on his soft bed. Dante heard his bones cricked and cracked as he rose up, but there was not much stiffness given the doubled SDI.

    The first thing he did was rush to get a meal from the kitchen. He was utterly famished after not eating for almost a full day and surprisingly, this would actually be his first meal in the Eternal Universe.

    His AI chip connected to the cooking apparatus and then selected a recipe based on Dante''s wishes. Immediately, robot arms began preparing the meal ording to the exact specification, removing spices from the shelves, then cutting up the various ingredients systematically.

    He was both hungry and amazed as he watched this feat of technology as the appliances cooked the food themselves in tandem, despite the arms belonging to different appliances and not all being one thing.

 Chapter 37 First Gene Treatment

    ?

    Soon his meal was ready and he ate like a ravenous beast. He practically inhaled the food like a certain pink star warrior, leaving nothing behind. After cleaning up, he went to bathe and then left his residence.

    He had immediately scheduled his first gene treatment at the Institution of Student Enhancements out of the free 15 granted him. From the moment Dantended in that fight with the wolves, he had direly understood the importance of stats, especially after using absorption.

    He had been given a false understanding of the SDI by the natives of this universe who treated it like trash, something that was a given. They only looked at superpowers and gave that full credence, but Dante saw differently.

    As a non-native, the most important to him was one''s SDI and to some extent Bionics and Psionics. Because of the way superpowers were given, it seemed more to Dante like they were ''granted'' rather than ''awakened'' and that was food for thought.

    Maybe the upper echelon of this universe knew some secrets and the truth of the Zero Gate. Maybe that was why the headmistress gave him those encouraging words.

    Dante didn''t much know. He felt he would find out in due time, but he had to do what he could now to better himself and catch up to the level of those in this universe.

    Upon reaching the facility, Dante noticed it was full up again. Once more due to his identity as a student of the Unique Batch and the fact that there was no other Unique Batch student in line, he was able to cut the queue and enter a treatment room instantly.

    Unlike the Bionic and Psionic instation room, this ce was more like the typical sci-fi medical room. There were plenty ofputers and monitoring equipment around while in the center was a standing tank full of greenish-blue liquid.

    Dante couldn''t help but picture bacta tanks from SW and the healing chambers from DBZ. He was instructed by a female android wearing a nurse attire to undresspletely.

    Dante was not exactlyfortable going all naked, but he was not going to act shy. He quickly undressed and followed the android''s instructions on how to enter the tank.

    Dante was a bit apprehensive about entering liquid like this, but he found that there was no problem. In fact, the moment he dropped in, he did not feel like he entered liquid, but rather a sort of warm, breezy solid.

    He floated in the tank softly and his limbs felt light. What shocked him was that he could actually breathe in this miraculous thing and he even opened his mouth.

    Nothing entered as he inhaled actual oxygen and he felt like he could even speak normally. The android seemed ustomed to such behavior from the meatbags, and waited by the side in a gentle posture with an amodating smile.

    Dante saw this and stopped ying around, ncing over to know what would happen next. ording to the android, he would be put into sedative sleep for a day for the process to begin and end.

    In this time, he could use the quantumwork freely, so Dante shut his eyes and entered the Quantum Network. He simply navigated to the Etraverse and honed in on his ount in the Apocalypse World.

    When he descended once more, he saw that it was still nighttime. This was the case both in reality and in thework. He had only been away for about 30 minutes at best, but the change was quite noticeable.

    There was a gleam in his eyes that was present, much different from the fatigued and weary look he had before. His change in attitude almost seemed to affect his body as his recovery became even faster.

    Dante carefully sensed the area around him and was sure that it was safe. He then shook off the leaves and the clothes covering his body, carefully packing up thetter as he got up and flexed his body.

    His acquired power was still there, so he did feel the overall enhancements straight-up. He walked out of the cave and began searching around the mouth of the cave for anything he could use to start a fire.

    Starting a fire in the wild was dangerous but also useful. Dante felt around a few bushes and found some pieces of fallen wood from the trees as well as the shrubs.

    He assumed this to be dry wood, so he collected enough of it and brought it to the firepit. He swept away the dirt and then set the wood up. In his backpack was a working lighter, so he used it to set some dry leaves ame that soon lit up the wood.

    The fire gained traction and then stabilized, granting Dante light. He then sat nearby and enjoyed the warmth while lying across the wall. He did not n to move from here unless dealing with a threat.

    Seeing that there was nothing to do, Dante forced himself to sleep once more. Well, it was not that hard since he was still in the recovery phase. He tried to sleep lightly so that he would be aware of any danger, but something like that didn''t work onmand.

    He had grown up in the safety of a city, so his sleep was designed fully for rest and not for wariness. He slept deeply and heavily, and the next time he opened his eyes, it was already morning.

    What made him startled was that he could hear some movements outside the cave, as if something was searching the area. Dante stiffened and listened quietly, hearing whatever it wase closer and closer.

    He tensed up and reached for his knife. There was a moment when the search got so close that it seemed like it was right beside the entrance of the cave.

    Once it reached here, the person or thing searching around suddenly paused as if they had detected something, and the area quickly fell into a tense silence.

    Dante began to sweat slightly as he remained tensed for anything but he knew he could remain like this. The cave entrance was notrge enough for him to just rush out and hope for the best.

    If whatever was outside wasrge enough, it could easily block the entrance and then deal with Dante at its leisure. As such, despite his better judgment, he held his backpack tightly and then rushed out.

    He held the backpack to the side where he heard the rustling like a shield, hoping it could block at least one attack before he got into a defensible position.

    When Dante emerged and nced to the left using his peripheral vision, his heart shook greatly. What stood there was actually not what he expected, which was a monster that was searching around.

    It was rather a zombie-like creature that had the body of a human but was slightlyrger. Dante turned suddenly to see that its eyes were hollow and its mouth was wide open, leaking a ck, viscous liquid that stank like undeath.

    It was naked and possessed no genitals or hair. Its skin was extremely gray to the point of being ash-like. It had two huge hands covered with ws and its legs as well as its body, were very thin.

    ?Monster Name: Withering Irradiated Walker

    Monster Rank: E

    HP: 45/45

    Strength: 7

    Agility: 4

    Dexterity: 8

    Intelligence: 2

    Constitution: 1

    Vitality: 9?

    After checking its SDI, Dante''s first thought was to flee. He definitely could not fight this thing and he had learned his lesson from dealing with the dogs. He was unskilled, untrained, and did not have any advantages or useful weapons to make up for his ws.

    His thought right after that was that he could not flee because that thing could probably catch up to him with ease if not outrun him. His third thought was that, since it was an ''irradiated'' monster, maybe he could use the Anti-Radiation fluid like some pesticide.

    He fantasized that he would throw out the ss bottle and have the liquid pour on the monster which would cause it to melt into goo. However, his heart told him that doing so would be unprecedentedly stupid because if it did nothing and he actually fought this thing, he would not have anything to use to treat the radiation.

    In these split seconds of thought, Dante felt incredibly somber. His chances of death were around 99% and the 1% was all up to luck. He did not have the ability to win using his own merits and he recognized that fully.

    Dante sincerely prayed his luck was up to par.

    The monster seemed shocked and startled that Dante had rushed out like this, so it had not attacked yet as it stood stupidly in ce. However, that soon changed as it let out a strange roar that made the ear ufortable and then pounced at Dante with its ws outstretched.

 Chapter 38 Flight Into Safety

    ?

    If the monster imed to have a superpower of its own that was simr to the famous force scream of a certain spinning senate, Dante would believe it.

    The sound caused him to ck for a split second as it pounced on him, and he could only hurriedly dash backwardmely in response. The ws barely missed him, but they struck a tree behind him.

    To Dante''s shock and horror, they almost sliced through the solid bark like it was butter. It got about halfway through before it got somewhat stuck near the end of the trunk.

    The zombie stupidly tried to pull out its w and it was actually working. It was cutting through the rest of the tree significantly and should be freed in the next few seconds.

    Now in this time, Dante had a choice. He could turn and use this chance to flee, putting distance between himself and this monster.

    Or he could use this opening to strike and deal some damage. He had a very short time window to consider the wisdom of both options in the current situation, and he made the best one he could.

    He naturally chose to run!

    While it was a seeminglyme and spineless choice, Dante was not in a situation where he could boast about how he would be the one to strike it and then kill it in a heroic fight like some others.

    His mind was iparably clear. The monster had better stats than him, it had some bestial roar that could stun, and its ws could cut through the bark with rtive ease.

    This meant that - speaking bluntly - he would easily be one-shot if he made a single mistake inbat. There was no chance to umte injuries and battle through attrition.

    Even worse, if he did try to battle through attrition, he wasn''t qualified to outlive it. Also, a single scratch from it, even if non-fatal, would probably send his radiation index into the red.

    Dante truly did consider attacking, and he ran a simtion in his head. He would dash forward with his knife in hand and strike the monster in the spine to cripple it, or the neck to inflict a fatal wound, or its head for a one-shot kill or at least, mash up its ''brains''.

    Then he remembered. It was fucking zombie. Zombies didn''t have fatal spots, and could only be killed through dismembering.

    Welp, his knife was not thick enough to sever the head of a zombie anyway, not to mention if he had the strength to do so. With all of that in mind, he naturally turned to run from this fruitless battle.

    But what made him think he could escape?

    Firstly, this was a forest. He could easily use the various bushes and trees to lose it if it pursued him. Secondly, putting distance between them would prevent it from using that bloody scream that stunned a person.

    Thirdly, he currently had 3.2 points of agility while it had 4 points, meaning it was barely faster than Donate. With an advantage of a head start and the terrain, he could definitely outrun it.

    Of course, there were dangers in doing this. He could rush through a bush and meet a bunch of mutated dogs or a mutated bear or something, which would guarantee death.

    However, that - while likely - was not good reason enough not to take this path because the chances of it were significantly low. Even if he did meet such beats, he wasn''t going to stop and greet them, but could circle back and lead them to meet his attacker.

    Then all of them could discuss politics together in a forest clearing.

    Dante bolted at his fastest speed, jumping over bushes and various roots stretching across the forest floor as he dashed towards the general direction of the city.

    He did not even look back to see if he was being chased. His current speed was around 48 km/h (29.8 Mph) which caused him to leave a blur in the eyes of onlookers and even he himself had some difficulty reacting to various obstacles in his way at first.

    The average running speed of a pure human in this universe with an SDI of 1 in Agility was 15 km/h, so Dante so was 3.2 times faster than that would naturally disy such an unbridled speed.

    The more Dante moved, the more he understood his advantage in this world with limited SDI and the ability to continually increase his, while he also understood the gap between him and the natives in the universe with higher SDI.

    If it weren''t for the sake of socialization, he probably wouldn''t even be able to see them move because they would be moving and talking at speeds that he could not fathom.

    It meant that they were literally slowing themselves down to ''exist'' in the ne of speed for normal people with lower SDIs.

    Dante held that train of thought as he reached what should be the edge of the forest. When he burst out, he was pleasantly startled to see an actual encampment before him, because he knew that these were outposts set up by the various cities to allow survivors who couldn''t get in to live there in rtive safety, also acting as a resupply point for those who made it their business to enter dangerous zones.

    Dante rushed over to the encampment so fast that the guards on duty were frightened. They also raised their guns and opened fire, but Dante slowed down and shouted that he was human before they reluctantly held back their itchy trigger fingers.

    "Hmph, young man, where did youe from? Do you belong to another city or are you a stray?" The guard asked in a mocking and unfriendly manner, because he was angry and embarrassed from being startled like that.

    Dante was not bothered and even disyed a harmless smile to try and defuse the situation. "Big bosses, forgive me just now for my rude behavior. I was being chased down by some terrifying monster and had to erupt with all my speed and more to survive just now."

    The guards seemed mollified and their expressions of annoyance rxed. After all, they could understand the fear of death given the world they were in but then now that they were calm, they realized something was wrong.

    "You, could it be that you are one of the Gifted?" one of them asked as he sized Dante up and down.

    Dante knew that this term was meant for yers who had superpowers to NPCs from the forums, so he nodded. The guards surprisingly did not show surprise or respect. Instead, there was a hint of pity in their eyes.

    "Ah, not another one of these tragic folk." One guard muttered under his breath, but Dante could hear him with his upgraded senses.

    His lips couldn''t help but twitch. The guard''s behavior might seem weird, but all NPCs in this world felt this way toward yers. After all, this was a shared world meaning that it was continuous and perpetual.

    It did not just shut down and reset because a yer had finished their stay. This world had decades of history and hundreds of thousands of yers hade and gone, leaving their own mark.

    But despite their talent, power, or achievements, all of them had mysteriously disappeared after 30 days. This led natives to believe that superpowers came with a curse, that the person could only live for 30 days due to the effect of the mutation.

    The assumption did make sense and it was not like yers were going to clear up the confusion anyway. This led to some changes in how yers were treatedpared to the earlier years when this world was set up, but Dante would experience themter.

    Right now, he was brought inside the encampment and then to the testing device. Of course, they weren''t just going to take his word for it, they had to test if he had superpowers.

    They had a mature testing system that worked on every superpower, but they didn''t actually require him to specifically state what it was. There was a reason for this though.

    Dante was then registered and assigned a small self-contained room near the entrance. He was also made to take a disinfection treatment for radiation and mutations first before he could go and rest.

    When Dante arrived at the room assigned him, he was surprised. Not because it was luxurious, but because it was not very good. However, this ''not very good'' was rtive to the outside world.

    In here, it was practically a mansion given that most others had to squeeze in long houses and sleep with everyone else whether they liked it or not.

    When he pushed the door open though, he saw a shadow leap towards him with a screeching cry. Dante could only raise a hand to block the sudden and unexpected attack aimed at his face.

 Chapter 39 The System Of The Apocalypse World

    ?

    If a normal human had been jumped like this, they would probably panic and react instinctively, defending their facial area from whatever was attacking.

    However, Dante who had almost 4 times the agility and dexterity of the average human, was not even phased. He simply reached out a hand to grad before him and captured the shadow that was leaping at him, revealing aˇ­ cat!

    It was a rtively small cat with a very human-like expression on its face, showing fear and shock. Its body and fur were quite thin and sparse, probably due to malnutrition, Dante could even see parts of its ribs through its torso.

    It had reddish-white fur and bright blue eyes that were as expressive as that of a human. Dante looked the cat up and down then marveled slightly. A cat like this was rare even in the Eternal Universe and could fetch a high price.

    But in a wastnd like this where life and death were not guaranteed, it was only a pest and a burden. Dante looked beyond the cat to the room and saw that the desk area had a small next where the cat likely made its home.

    He then nced at the cat and walked over to the desk before putting it down. Despite its fear, it showed visible surprise at being spared and then sat down cleverly.

    "This is probably your territory and home, so you attacked me because you thought someone was intruding?" Dante asked the cat.

    It seemed to understand his speech and nodded. Dante had assumed it could understand him because there was a forum post about mutated pets in the wastnd world.

    Some animals would end up like the mutated dogs from before while others would end up like this cat. One became a monster archetype and one became a pet archetype.

    "No problem, I''m your tenant from now on. I have been assigned this residence, so I will be staying here infrequently from now on for the next 30 days."

    "You''re free to do as you did before I came, I won''t disturb you and you won''t disturb me. Is that agreeable?" Dante proposed with a smile.

    The cat hesitated and nodded. It was aware that it was only safe because it was living in human space, and after seeing that it was not dangerous, the guards and residents did not mind it.

    In theory, Dante was the true owner of the territory now and it should leave, but it had gotten used to life here, and moving had its own dangers. It was far from the only mutated pet in this encampment.

    Since Dante offered it a chance to stay, it should be grateful butˇ­

    Dante noticed its hesitation and sighed inwardly. It turns out that the post''s details and exnations about the pet system were true. Most of the students who descended would receive a pet like this through various organic means.

    It was to help with mental health despite being in such a world. Most people didn''t mind and kept them around, because while they were not useful forbat, they were certainly lovable mascots that could relieve stress.

    So the cat was hesitating because it wanted to be taken care of. Hunting in this encampment was hard and thepetition with other stray cats was fierce. If it could rely on this human, its days of suffering would be over.

    Dante could guess what the cat was thinking from its expression alone. It seemed like a natural thought process, but he knew the Overseeing Quantum Artificial Intelligence that managed this world was simply influencing its thoughts subtly to fit its programming.

    Dante patted the cat on the head. "Just be good and I will try to see if I can manage to take care of the two of us."

    The cat''s eyes lit up and nodded happily. It meowed cutely, and Dante couldest help but smile. He wasn''t particrly a pet guy, and neither was his family since they had no pet at home, but he was not an animal hater either.

    As long as the cat remained cute and obedient, he did not have a problem. Dante then inspected the residence and saw that it had one bathroom, one kitchen, one living room area, and one bedroom.

    All the areas were rtively clean if not for a smallyer of dust on them that showed how long it had been since this ce was formally upied.

    Dante spent some time cleaning the room properly using the materials supplied and then left the cat in the house. His body in the game was stronger than average thanks to absorption, but it was still subject to basic needs.

    In other words, he was hungry.

    The encampment was not necessarily a fully militarized outpost but more like a heavily guarded town. It had all the facilities necessary, a market, a ce for entertainment and gathering, as well as aw enforcement area.

    Dante already did his research and knew about the current used in this world. Since society had copsed, the paper currency backed by nothing was naturally worth was it actually was, nothing.

    Rather, there was a mixture of two different currencies, one that was high-tier and one that was average. The average currency was gold chips, square-like coins that were very thin and had some simple markings on them.

    They were usually minted by the administrative forces of each city and distributed. It was a worldwide currency that could be used anywhere.

    Each yer was provided 10 gold chips on descent and there were many ways to earn more with superpowers at their beck and call as long as they could survive the initial descent and reach the town or city.

    The second and much more precious currency was the Mutation Cores. This was a beast core-like substance that existed in the body of all Rank F and above mutated monsters.

    The Mutation Cores were much more valuable and were ranked by their quality. F Rank was worth 100 gold chips and every rank after that was multiplied by 10 in terms of value.

    Any and every mutated beast would drop such things, so Dante had 5 from the Mutated Two-headed Dogs. To natives, these cores were very useful in that they were the source of the anti-mutation and anti-radiation drug in Dante''s backpack.

    The ''big pharma'' in this world that had risen from the ashes desperately desired this resource which was why it was worth so much. However, for yers, if they sold their mutation cores, they would be seen as idiots.

    Because, as you could imagine, the only way to advance one''s superpower was to use the Mutation Core! 10 F Rank Mutation Cores allowed an F Rank superpower to advance to E Rank, 10 E Rank Mutation Cores allowed a superpower to advance to D Rank, and so on.

    So the mutation core was a hotcake for natives, as it was necessary to ensure their survival in this irradiated world, and yers needed it because it directly increase their martial might and survivability, allowing them to harvest more Supercoin at the end.

    Dante only had five so he couldn''t advance Absorption. He couldn''t advance Quantum Entanglement even if he wanted to because its power was capped at what he actually had. Only the system-given superpower was bound by these rules.

    Dante found an eatery that was quite popted and went in, he ordered a rice dish that was basically like Chinese fried rice, whichforted him. It seemed like no matter the world, fried rice as a fast food dish would always persist.

    After finishing his meal, he bought some pet food from the marketce and went back to his residence. In this time, he had noticed many students who were bustling about, looking motivated and determined.

    After all, they had 30 days and a goal to make Supercoin to enhance themselves in reality, so they were full of sprightly steps. It was the natives who rather moved slowly and uncertainly, their expressions heavy as if they did not know what tomorrow would bring.

    The contrast was so great that it provided an easy identification for both parties and also seemed like something that could lead to a deep philosophical discussion.

    However, Dante was not in the mood for anything like that. When he returned to his room, he opened the pet food and ced it before the enthusiastic cat who was inches from jumping about in excitement.

    When it saw Dante nce at it with amusement, it immediately coughed with embarrassment and began licking its paw, trying to act nonchnt and dignified.

    Dante rolled his eyes and ced the food in a bowl for the cat before going to lie down on his bed. He immediately began to have a nap in order to rx after that chase from that E Rank Withering Irradiated Zombie.

    His physique was definitely superior, but he did not have any ns to go out yet, so resting was for the best. When he woke up, he would take his next steps.

 Chapter 40 Decked Out And Ready To Kill

    ?

    As naps go, Dante had one that was very banal. It didn''t do much to refresh him, but it also did alleviate the building stress and tension.

    Since he had dropped into this world, he had slept about 4 times over the course of 2 or so days. It was either he was very easily fatigued or there was a severe underestimation by the normal people about how tiring dangerous scenarios were.

    When he got up, he saw that the cat was asleep in its cradle, purring silently. Beside it was a few empty cans, showing how it had gorged itself well before going into a fooda.

    Dante shook his head and washed up a little, but since he only had one pair of clothes, he couldn''t wash them clean. He just wore them as-is and left his residence, noticing that it was finally daytime.

    Dante used the system to check the remaining time on his Gene Enhancement and saw that he had 4 hours remaining. As for his ss with Xue Bing, there were 12 hours remaining, so he had time.

    He then went to the marketce to look for weapons. He was about to head into the wild, so he had to make preparations and make sure he did not end up as pathetically as before.

    Luckily, this world had both superhumans and normal people, so society did not retardedly regress into using only cold weapons. There were guns of all types for sale, and they were the most preferred weapon for anyone and everyone.

    Dante had a limited amount of Gold Chips after spending some on food and some necessities for the residence. He had about 8 gold chips remaining, and even the cheapest pistol avable was over 50 gold chips.

    He sighed and pondered his choices. With 5 Mutation Cores, he could sell them and easily arm himself with suitable weapons and armor before heading out to make up the losses.

    Even though selling Mutation Cores was seen as dumb, it would be even more foolish to hold onto them and then go out there with barely enough supplies or weapons.

    Was he supposed to rely on some cosmic luck to prevent him from dying like a dog? Not to mention that he did not easily believe in such things, it was not in his nature to take such a course of action.

    The other course of action was to follow the guide in the forums and head to the City Militia Outpost to sign up as a superpowered warrior for the city.

    They would given you a basic starter package for joining in exchange for taking 30% of all your spoils for your 30 days lifespan. All the thing Dante wanted they would provide for ''free''.

    Most yers who descended in safety and did not get a single kill would choose this option since they had a short lifespan anyway, and they didn''t have anything to trade.

    Those who were lucky like Dante and harvested a few who naturally auction them and then get their own gear. That way all their future gains would be for them alone, and they would not be pestered by any faction.

    Dante naturally chose to head to the marketce''s center which was highlighted by arge four story building with many peopleing and going from within.

    This was the city''s official armory, and you could buy anything you needed here, from Mutation Cores, to drugs to heal or cure ailments, to weapons, armor and whatnot.

    There was a forum post that advised all new yers to only sell their Mutation Cores to any City''s armory first during their initial descent. It was too easy to be tricked or duped by yers or natives, and even be robbed by them.

    Only pros who had descended multiple times should do such a thing because they would naturally know their way about, Dante wasn''t going to act like he knew better and quietly went to a counter within the shop and ced his five Mutation Cores down.

    The man seated behind the reinforced ss smiled happily and inspected the cores using some special deice. Hearing a pleasant beep and seeing a green light on all of them, his smile became wider and he spoke to Dante in a rugged voice.

    "Five F Rank Mutations cores. Their MSRP is 100 Gold Chips but we''re willing to pay 105 for each."

    Dante knew that this was not a really good offer. The 100 Gold Chips thing was the base price set by the various cities of the world, and most mutations cores sold for far higher than that, even at other shops.

    In direct trades, depending on the desperation of the buyer, one could even reach 150 gold chips. In auctions, they could easily reach 200.

    Offering 105 was not sincere, but the fellow was also trying to make a small profit and increase his margin in his daily report to the administration behind him.

    Not to mention that the reason anyone would sell here was for the safety, quality and trustworthiness. Dante could afford to take a slight loss on this ount, because he was confident he could make more.

    Anyway, he shouldn''t get attached to these things. Every mutation Core or Gold Chip only served the purpose to increase his final score at the end of the 30 days.

    If they could be spent or bought at any price to even increase that score by 0.1%, then it was a big win.

    Dante epted the offer and then from the same vendor, bought a Barret M82 50 caliber sniper, one Kshnikov and one M4A1 Carbine, one Desert Eagle and one Colt 1911, all in mint condition.

    He bought a set of light weight ker armor called ''Sotnik''. It was a Russian developed super armor that was only released for a few years before disaster came.

    It was durable to the point where the wearer could even survive head on assault rifles bullets and even anti material sniper rounds. It came with a helmet that had some technological functions likems, infrared, thermal vision, night vision, facial recognition, aim assistance, target mapping and more.

    It also had a gas mask and a defibritor as well as an internal medical distribution system that could pump adrenaline, morphine or whatever you slotted into the suit right into your system in critical situations.

    Aside that, Dante bought a few bottles of Anti-Mutation, Anti-Radiation, food pills, healing syringes and a lot of ammunition that he squeezed into his newly bought backpack.

    When Dante equipped everything - with the help of the salesman since this wasplimentary service - he walked out of the armory wearing a full body suit that looked heavy despite being rtivelypact already, with a backpackrge enough to cripple a man.

    The vendor looked amused and pped Dante on the back, but he remained steady. The vendor and other onlookers who were amused suddenly had their eyes sh when they saw that Dante could easily move with all that weight without feeling the pinch.

    They made spections and assumed his superpower was the strength or enhancing type, which would make his current get-up sensible rather than short-sighted.

    After all, all of them had lived for a while and had seen many types of superpowered people, so thoseing to do what Dante did were a dime a dozen.

    Of course, there were those with superpowers that did not enhance their strength who did this and fell over in tiredness after two steps, giving the onlookers at the time a goodugh.

    The vendor would usually shake his head and rmend them something else more suited for their build and superpower. After all, it did not benefit anyone for these superpowered people motivated to clean up the world of its filth to die.

    The harder the worker and the more sessful they were, the more the natives benefited. If it wasn''t because it would ruin the economy and cause them trouble, they would like to freely equip all superpowered fellows and toss them into the wild.

    Dante himself walked through the streets looking like a modern centurion, his already slightly tall build making him feel like a significant threat to all those who gazed upon him.

    He did not feel much of the weight as he walked, much like how holding a cup of water was not very hard. However, if you held that cup up for a while, your hand would begin to get tired.

    Dante surmised he could go about 30 minutes of walking before needing to rest until he increased his SDI further. As such, he marched straight out of the gates, bearing the shocked and respectful looks of the guards at the entrance.

    After all, he was well equipped and looked powerful, so they couldn''t help but feel like he was mighty.

    Dante went right to the area where he hade from, which was covered in bushes and shrubs that lead into the forest area. His goal was naturally to see if that Withering Irradiated Zombie was still around and then kill it, iming its stats for himself!

 Chapter 41 Farming Stats

    The forest was starkly different from the nearby outpost he just came from. In the outpost, there was a lot of noise and a bustling scenario as human life in the settlement forged on, but the usually lively forest with plenty of animal sounds was deathly silent.

    In truth, most of the world was like this, ording to what Dante had researched pre-descent. If you heard a noise in the wild, that was rather a horrifying indicator of immense danger and iing demise.

    This was exactly why the pets were a thing. Spending 30 days in scenes like this would not do well for the mind, so the cute and lively pets with near-human intelligence and expressions were meant to be a buffer for the average student.

    Dante walked through the shrubs and bushes, pushing them aside casually as he walked forward. His Kshnikov was held before him, as he preferred to use that first rather than the M4A1 for reasons rting to reliability.

    Soon, Dante came across a pack of strange rabbits with white fur that was spiky in nature along with ckish-white eyes that leaked blood.

    ?Monster Name: Flesh Eating Weeper Lagomorph

    Monster Rank: F

    HP: 7/7

    Strength: 0.4

    Agility: 4.8

    Dexterity: 0.2

    Intelligence: 0.01

    Constitution: 0.2

    Vitality: 0.2?

    There were about seven of them gathered around one of the corpses of the two-headed mutated dogs he had killed over 30 hours ago. They ripped and tore at its flesh wantonly, a look of perverse excitement on their bloody faces as their eyes continually spilled dark red blood.

    The moment Dante entered the clearing, they all stopped their meal and raised their heads in perfect synchronization to nce at him. Having those leaking eyes focus on you in perfect stillnessˇ­ Dante would probably not forget this sight for a long time.

    The rabbits released a strange squeal that sounded cute but made his hairs stand on end for some reason. He raised his weapon and began firing without waiting for them to make the first move.

    Naturally, as rabbits, these beasts were frighteningly quick, especially with almost 5 times the agility of a pure human. Even though all their other stats were trash, their movement was enough to make them hard to track.

    Unfortunately for them, Dante was 3.5 times more dexterous and 3.2 times more agile than a pure human. Agility referred to bnce, movement speed, reflexes, and general skill with feet-rted matters while dexterity referred to attack speed, precision, coordination, and hand-rted matters.

    With such values, Dante was not clumsy with a gun despite never using one before. He was not a sniper or marksman and it was likely that a trained shooter would outscore him easily on a firing range, but his steadiness and ability to track were definitely inhuman.

    He gunned down the seven rabbits before they could split up far enough to take him down. The moment he did so, he walked to their corpses and gathered them up before quickly extracting them.

    After iming their stats for his own, his SDI increased as such;

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 21.4/21.4

    Strength: 2.9 -> 3.18

    Agility: 3.2 -> 6.58

    Dexterity: 3.5 -> 3.64

    Intelligence: 1.22 -> 1.227

    Constitution: 2 -> 2.14

    Vitality: 2 -> 2.14

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    Apart from Agility which literally doubled, the rest had marginal gains. After all, despite being mutated and enhanced by the radiation, it was impossible for a mere rabbit to be able to trade blows with a human.

    It survived and thrived using its crazy agility to ovee foes, and that was why most yers often moved in a party. Someone might have a superpower or equipment that restrained the rabbit while another might have a superpower or equipment that would restrain a two-headed mutated dog.

    For the average yer, the rabbits having low stats in everything but agility was a blessing since it meant that they were easy to restrain as long as one could cripple their movement.

    For someone like Dante who every stat point mattered, it was not a beneficial thing, so he would have to use quantity to make up for quality.

    He then nced at the Mutation Cores from the corpses that had dropped. As for the flesh, it was useless andpletely inedible to anyone and only served to be used as bait to attract other monsters over.

    Dante picked up the Mutation Cores and then tossed the corpses around the clearing on each side before going to sit in a bush, resting his body that was slightly tired after that exertion in this heavybat suit.

    He didn''t have to wait for long before a bunch of two-headed mutated dogs walked over slowly, extremely alert to the area. It was unknown whether they were brought here by the smell of meat or the sound of gunshots.

    Dante quietly assessed the group to see that there were ten of them this time, and they were spread out cautiously. Dante couldn''t help but wonder if there was a den nearby from which this group and the previous group originated from.

    When he saw the two-headed mutated dogs sniff the corpses of the other dogs he killed many hours ago and howl to the sky in grief, he knew his assumption was correct.

    The two-headed mutated dogs nced at the corpses of the rabbits with red eyes, seemingly ming them for the death of their pals. However, they also seemed confused because they could not understand how these puny rabbits which usually avoided them like cowards would dare ambush one of their groups.

    The rabbits didn''t even have much in the way of an agility advantage over them, barely more than a single point. It was enough to guarantee their lives if they wanted to escape but to fight?

    Before the dogs could think though, a barrage of bullets was fired at them, felling more than 6 of them in quick session before the others could even react.

    They turned to bark at Dante, but that was the wrong action to make when being fired upon. But then again, how could you expect wild dogs to understand how bullets worked?

    The remaining four were soon gunned down while whimpering and yelping, their bodies twitching in pain as they bled to death. Once again, Dante dragged the corpses together and absorbed them quickly while making sure there was nothing around to ambush him.

    Upon taking their essence within, he also collected the Mutation Cores. He decided to absorb 10 of the F Rank ones on the spot to raise the grade of his superpower to the E Rank.

    The 10 cores shattered and then flowed into his body, merging into his chest area and glowing for a while. Dante didn''t feel much, but he could tell that his superpower had be a little moreˇ­ perfect?

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 36.4/36.4

    Strength: 3.18 -> 6.18

    Agility: 6.58 -> 10.08

    Dexterity: 3.64 -> 7.64

    Intelligence: 1.227 -> 1.447

    Constitution: 2.14 -> 3.64

    Vitality: 2.14 -> 3.64

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    [Superpower Name: Absorption

    Superpower Rank: E

    Superpower Description: Allows the user to absorb the energy of a defeated foe, increasing their own SDI by a moderate amount.]

    Dante sensed it and could tell that the previous 10% absorption at the F Rank had increased to 20% at the E Rank. This meant that he would get twice as many stats from the same targets as before.

    That was something to look forward to, not to mention that his current SDI was truly frightening. If Dante were topare it to the Withering Irradiated Zombie from before, then he could now be considered an E-Rank monster in terms of stats alone!

    He nced at the fresh as well as the old corpses and decided to remain here. While his heart was full of confidence as his power increased, hepletely managed to restrain his greed and pride in.

    Right now, he was notpeting with anyone. All he had to do was lie in wait here for more F-rank or so monsters toe and ambush them using his weapons as well as statistical superiority.

    He would then harvest their stats, slowly but surely increasing his own while collecting their Mutation Cores. F Rank Mutation Cores were useless to him now, because no matter how many he stockpiled, they could no longer use them to upgrade his superpower.

    However, he could umte them and sell them at a vendor to earn gold chips and enrich himself, getting better amodations, equipment and even hiring his own team to work for him during his downtimes.

    Aside from that, he could even use the gold chips to buy E Rank Mutation Cores if necessary and then upgrade his superpower after umting enough. His method of waiting and then ambushing weaker monsters to slowly umte waspletely viable in the long run.

 Chapter 42 Getting Revenge

    ?

    Dante rested beside the tree near the northern edge of the clearing. His weapons were kept in his arm as he closed his eyes, but focused his hearing acutely. In this deathly silent forest, apart from his own steady breathing, he could hear nothing else.

    Soon, there was the inevitable sound of rustling from the energy bushes as a whole group of the Weeper Rabbits rushed over while hopping excitedly, diving into the plentiful flesh avable. They paid Dante no attention as they gorged themselves as they assumed he was another corpse from the way he was seated without moving.

    Dante raised his head and took aim from his potion, easily dispatching all the rabbits that came in less than one clip. He had learned to be more conservative with his bullets. As for the recoil, with his current strength value, it was like shooting a toy gun or a water gun at best.

    He gathered the corpses of the rabbits casually and extracted them. He then tossed them to the pile and went to sit down again. About 30 minutester, another batch of rabbits came, this time they were met with a group of mutated two-headed dogs who came from another direction to investigate.

    It didn''t really matter to Dante, as both teams were dispatched after they began fighting with each other over the spoils. After extracting all of them, the number of corpses in the area reached a truly worrying amount.

    The worst part was theck of flies buzzing over the meat and flesh, but that did not stop the stench from spreading far and wide. Dante knew that with a stench like this, normal F-rank monsters would no longer dare toe here as there was too much death in one area.

    No, the only monsters this would attract were the confident overlords of this small outpost''s area, the E Rank monsters. Each E Rank monster had a small territory spanning between 10 to 20 kilometers in an almost spherical shape depending on their personal power and prestige among other E Rank monsters.

    Given that Dante had appeared in this range when he descended and the territory was less than 3 kilometers from where he spent the night in that cave, this territory could only belong to his target: The E-Rank Withering Irradiated Zombie!

    Dante only had to wait an hour for him to hear that inhuman screech that caused one to be stunned. This time, its effect was slightly weaker on him due to his increased intelligence, but not by much. After all, his intelligence was his slowest growing stat due to the fact that the monsters in question did not have much to give.

    His seated potion also would not work, as that monster likely viewed the world with either sound, heat, or some other sense. So it could detect his lifeforce and would attack him first, so he rose to his feet and waited patiently.

    Much like a typical zombie, the E-rank monster staggered out from the nearby shrubs in an almost silly andical way, shambling toward Dante. However, Dante''s expression became serious as he held his Kshnikov in hand with a tight grip.

    He still remembered the oppressive presence and stats of the zombie that caused him to feel the previous time.

    ?Monster Name: Withering Irradiated Walker

    Monster Rank: E

    HP: 45/45

    Strength: 7

    Agility: 4

    Dexterity: 8

    Intelligence: 2

    Constitution: 1

    Vitality: 9?

    Andpared to his present stats after farming for this while;

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 100/100

    Strength: 6.18 -> 17.9

    Agility: 10.08 -> 22.5

    Dexterity: 7.64 -> 17.1

    Intelligence: 1.447 -> 1.88

    Constitution: 3.64 -> 10

    Vitality: 3.64 -> 10

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    Clearly his idea to farm weak monsters was the best. He now had enough stats that it should be the Withering Irradiated Zombie that should feel fear and pressure from his existence, not to mention he was armed and ready.

    The only reason Dante was still so wary was because, from the E-Rank and above, monsters did not just rely on their stats to be equal and even superior to yers or natives of the same level. No, just like how yers had superpowers through ''mutation'', these mutated being naturally had something simr.

    We had already seen the Irradiated Withering Zombies won in the form of its screech that was an almost absolute stun.

    It was because of this that students often had to team up and work together. Because at each Rank, the monster had better stats than you and even had its own special ability you had to be careful of. Soloing monsters above the E Rank was impossible but for the absolute best of the students which were mostly made of people like Dante.

    Those who had two or more superpowers, the natural one they had, or those they got from the Zero Gate and the one this world gave them. Naturally, with so many powers at their back and call, they would be able to suppress any monster to death.

    Dante began firing without waiting for the monster to pounce. His Kshnikov bullets roared toward the zombie and struck it brutally, tearing off parts of its body with ease. Dante''s clip came to an end and he quickly reloaded without trying to slip up since he was not a professional at this.

    The Zombie wailed as its torn body began to close up and reform. It had 9 points of vitality, so its regeneration and life force were strong. By the time it patched itself up, Dante had finished reloading and taken 3 steps back.

    The Zombie roared once more, releasing its special stun effect. Dante had been ready for it and pulled the trigger the moment it made a sound, causing it to be interrupted. After that, he had no qualms and emptied another clip.

    He then rushed over and grabbed the Zombie before taking out his tactical knife and severing its head. He hadn''t done this the first time because he wanted to bait it into using its stun screech ability in activebat and then disable it.

    Dante put its head to the side and then dismembered its body quickly, spreading each part away from the other. After waiting for 5 minutes, the zombie''s body began to rot really quickly. He then brought the parts together and extracted them using his superpower.

    The duration was slightly longer this time and the stat increase was quite good.

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 100/100

    Strength: 17.9 -> 19.3

    Agility: 22.5 -> 23.3

    Dexterity: 17.1 -> 18.6

    Intelligence: 1.88 -> 2.28

    Constitution: 10 -> 10.2

    Vitality: 10 -> 11.8

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    Dante collected the E-Rank Mutation Core and noticed that it was easily twice the size of an F-Rank Mutation Core, and far more vivid. He put it away as he would need to take down 9 more E Rank monsters or buy them.

    He naturally preferred to do the former rather. Done with his objective, he packed up and began to return to the outpost with a light jog. At his current agility, his light job was the full-on sprint of a cheetah, and the world around him blurred as he moved fast enough to feel the air pressure.

    Dante knew that if he wanted to keep this up, he would either need to constantly wear equipment like this or find some special material that could withstand extreme friction and pressure.

    If fact, not only for his movement speed, but his attack speed and his strength, otherwise anything he wore would just rip like he was transforming into the hulk. That could be sorted out since he now had a lot of F Rank mutation cores to sell for money.

    When Dante reached the outpost, the guards nced at him with an expression of horror. Not only was his armor bloody, but it was clearly ckish and green blood, meaning it was definitely not his own.

    Not to mention he waspletely unharmed, but his physical presence had magnified more than ten times. They felt like a loose movement from him could easily blow their heads off their bodies.

    Dante only greeted them in passing and then returned to his residence. He noticed that the cat had gone out to do something or the other, so he took off his armor slowly and then put the dirty parts in a basin to be scrubbedter.

    As for himself, he locked the residence up and theny on the bed and closed his eyes. He did not n to sleep in the Apocalypse World as his gene treatment was just about done in reality and he had to discharge himself.

    As such, Dante logged out from his game character in the Apocalypse World and returned to his real body which was still floating within the treatment chamber. The moment his eyes snapped open, he felt the difference right away.

 Chapter 43 New SDI

    If his SDI within the Apocalypse World could be called abhorrent, his SDI in reality had quickly grown to catch up. Dante was discharged from the chamber slowly once he woke up, first having the liquid looking gel drain away before the various tubes that had been plugged into him slowly removed.

    He was surprised because these tubes were not there when he first went under, which meant that they cameter. That was probably why he had to go under, because the feeling of being pierced in so many ces would not be fun.

    Just by raising his SDI to 2 points in each field, Dante had bled so much that he had woken up in a sticky mess. Feeling that his power had grown evenrger this time, he was certain that his SDI had exploded even more.

    He was brought his clothes by the Android Nurse and he equipped them slowly. Dante thanked her for the care and then left the treatment room, to see that it was currently nighttime outside again.

    He shook his head and noticed the crowds that always littered the Student Enhancement Institution and wondered if there was ever a time where it was actually devoid to eager students looking to gain more power.

    He took the teleporter and returned to his residence. He casually nce dover at Humphreys residence and saw that it was silent. He guessed that the fellow was also using the Etraverse to empower himself however he could until their alloted ss began in 8 hours time.

    Dante entered his ce and then sat in the living room. He was not particrly hungry as he was pumped with nutrients of the highest grade during the gene enhancement, so he felt full and satiated. Rather, he finally opened his SDI with curiosity.

    ?User: Dante (ID Number: DANTE10998-03-15)

    Age: 21 (Converted to Earth years)

    Race: Pure Human (99.9% gic perfection)

    Strength Index: 10.5 (105)

    Agility Index: 10.5 (105)

    Dexterity Index: 10.5 (105)

    Intelligence Index: 10.5 (105)

    Constitution Index: 10.5 (105)

    Vitality Index: 10.5 (105)

    Bionic Level: 1 (Unique Student Version 10.)

    Psionic level: 1 (Unique Student Version 10.)

    AI Chip level: 1 (Civilian Category)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement.?

    Dante sucked in a deep breath. In truth, he could feel it the moment he came out, that his SDI had probably reached or surpassed 10 points. That was because the him in the Apocalypse World had more than that, so he could subconsciously feel the range in which his SDI grew.

    10 and half points after the first gene treatment was prettyˇ­ bad. Dante could tell simply because he had his AI chip search the Quantumwork for information about gene enhancements results for pure humans and the usual ranges.

    He then used the AI chip to simplify and extract the key details, allowing him with his current 10 times the mental acuity of a normal person to digest the information quickly. In truth, he really missed the chip, because it was disabled in the Apocalypse World, and it really made all the difference.

    However, his SDI growth was bad because most pure humans, upon undergoing their first gene enhancement, would leap about 15 to 20 points in all fields. Dante had only gone up by 8 pints, which was half of the minimum value.

    This was simply because hecked the optimized gic structure of actual pure humans in this universe who had undergone generations of optimizations using their advanced science among other things.

    Beatrice had done her absolute best by mending arge amount of the ring ws in his gic structure and giving him the basic qualification to exist within the Eternal Universe without melting into goo.

    However, there was a limit to what she could realistically do, and this was the result. Dante would always be behind the average pure human in this universe in terms of gics unless he found some way to get around that.

    And that wasn''t even considering the natural born geniuses like Beatrice and co among them. If such fellows existed among the students, Dante would have a very hard time.

    He could only pass a hand through his hair with a sigh and think about how to deal with thister. As a the ranked first student, all eyes were on him and the slightest flow or mistake could lead to a sea of trouble.

    However, his first rank also led to a sea of benefits, so everything in equal measure.

    Dante pondered what to do next and decided not to return to the Apocalypse World. He had spent some time there and realized that he fundamentallycked far too much to think about anything else, so he had to fill those gaps.

    As such, he opened up the Etraverse and browsed through the various worlds the school possessed. Not only because they were some of the best in their respective fields, but because it was free for students to use.

    He honed in on the world of his choice.

    [World Name: Training World

    World Owner: Eternal Academy

    World Creator: Eternal Academy

    World Size: Tiny

    World Type: Instanced

    World Genre: Misceneous

    Bionics Allowed: Yes

    Psionics Allowed: Yes

    Superpowers Allowed: Yes

    Requirements: Student ID

    Duration: Unlimited

    Description: This is a world that allows a student to undergo any form of professional training in any form of physical, mental or spiritual field through a dedicated practical method.

    Objectives: Achieve the grand sess of your training subject.

    Limitations: There are not subjects for upational and some special fields.

    Provisions: The courses are tailored to perfectly suit your build, situation, mentality and will.]

    Dante felt a tinge of excitement and chose this world. This as a special world that was actually rarely visited by students, because all residents of thus inverse underwent such training to adapt to their physical enhancements from a young age.

    In other words, this was high school sybus tier stuff. The only reason it was likely included in the Eternal Academy was because their student poption was made up of all sorts of unique fellows like Dante, so someone might asionally need this.

    Dante descended into a white room that was styled like an ancient Japanese dojo. The floor was made of lightly polished wood, there were racks of weapons and bookcases with various manuals in the background, and Dante could see a horizon in the distance through the partially opened sliding door.

    He noticed that he had changed from his Vice-Admiral''s uniform that he normally wore to a white hakama. He felt surreal, like he had entered an anime that he loved in the past.

    Dante saw an ethereal older male appeared before him also wearing a hakama. The man looked kind and wizened, having his arms ced behind his back, and his murky grey pupils shone with wisdom.

    "Greetings, young one. I see you havee to me to rectify your ws, and I shall do everything in my power to help you achieve the perfection you desire." He greeted in a serious tone, his voice strong despite his age.

    "Hello sir, and thank you for the chance." Dante decided to greet the fellow back despite not knowing whether he was real or not.

    "Hmm. First, please show me your parameters and run some basic courses for me to gauge where you stand physically." The elder acknowledged while rubbing his beard.

    Dante was prompted by his AI to show his current SDI, which he did. After that, he ran a few courses featuring 5 Cardiovascr Endurance tests, 5 Aerobic Tests, 5 Strength Tests, 5 Anaerobic Power tests (speed), 5 Anaerobic Capacity Tests, 5 Agility tests, 5 Anthropometry tests, 5 Flexibility tests, 5 Bnce tests, 5 Dexterity/Coordination tests, 5 Reaction Time tests, 5 Health tests and finally 5 Sports tests.

    In order to get the perfect representation of his physical prowess, his stamina was restored with each new test, and that included fatigue, muscle tear and muscle tiredness. So he went into each test like it was the first.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel In the beginning, the elder was still smiling, but as Dante ran more and more tests, his expression froze and then became full of confusion. He looked at Dante just like how one would look at a flying pig.

    When Dantepleted the tests, the elder simply looked the him up and down like he was seeing him for the first time. He then broke into a strange smile and remarked.

    "That wasˇ­ interesting. It seems like with you, I will have to start at the very foundational level, but it is no problem. Lets get to work then."

 Chapter 44 Foundational Training

    ?

    "First, we will start at the very beginning. You will have to master the five basic fundamentals of controlling your power, which are Breathing, Posture, Bnce, Reaction, and Traversal." The Elder stated while folding his arms with a serious expression.

    "Sit down first in a meditative position and then follow my instructions to the letter." The Elder instructed, to which Dante immediately obeyed without question.

    This surprised the fellow, as most of the students who came here were headstrong and wanted to know the reason for every little instruction he gave as if they were professionals in this field beyond his capability.

    Of course, Dante waspliant not because he necessarily had to be, but because he was aware of his own faults and desperately needed to fix them. Alsoing from Earth, he had watched many Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon-style stuff and had always hated those protagonists who questioned and doubted their mentor''s seemingly banal training regime.

    You want to defeat the Evil Emperor who ughtered your vige as a farmboy who had never wielded a weapon before, and you were getting impatient because your master made you do basic training rather than teach you world-ending moves?

    Besides, it was a fact that if youpletely mastered the basics, you could probably create your own world-ending moves anyway. The true difficulty was not getting someone to teach you the world-ending moves, but to teach the fundamentalponents which led to the creation of the said world-ending move.

    Dante listened to the elder describe a breathing routine. He did his best to mimic it and was able to grasp it after a few tries. In truth, this was not the hard part, and even the most untrained person could achieve this if they tried hard enough.

    The difficult part came over the course of the next few hours. Dante started by memorizing the breathing pattern and doing it at all times for 30 minutes straight while seated in a meditative position.

    He then had to rise up and do the same while standing for another 30 minutes. Next was to take a step every second while doing the breathing pattern for 30 minutes. After that was to take two steps while doing the breathing pattern and so on.

    At three steps a second, he was practically walking, and the difficulty had increased by an exponential amount. The focus needed to maintain the breathing was tough. As he was exerting himself, his body was telling him to breathe as much as possible rather than to inhale in this foolish rhythm so that it could acquire oxygen for his cells.

    It was extremely tough to override this instinct and rece it with the one that was being taught to him. Even without the Elder exining, Dante understood that the goal of this was to be able to utilize the breathing pattern in all situations, while fighting, sleeping, talking, eating, etc.

    However, this was not something he could achieve in just a few hours. Dante knew as much and the Elder definitely knew as much. However, despite Dante''s progress being slightly below average, the Elder was thoroughly satisfied by Dante''s seriousness.

    When it came to physical, mental, and spiritual training, what mattered less was talent, and more was hard work as well as discipline.

    Dante stopped after 7 hours and 30 minutes due to the fact that it was time for his first ss session to begin. He thanked the elder and turned to leave. Even as Dante disappeared from the virtual dojo, the Elder never asked him why he had to go nor told him toe back.

    Dante opened his eyes and got up from his couch while stretching his body. More than 6 hours had passed so he was definitely hungry, opting to have a quick meal before going upstairs to take a short shower.

    By the time he left his residence, he saw that Humphrey and Slessor wereing out of theirs. This was Dante''s second time seeing Humphrey but he was surprised to see Slessor in the next residence over.

    He looked around and saw the other 28 or so Unique Batch Studentsing out of the nearby residences, each ncing at the other with surprise. Clearly apart from Humphrey and himself who had seen each other, these fellows likely did not know they were all ced in one area.

    Dante and Humphrey were also surprised. They couldn''t help but share an uncertain nce and then look away. Dante maintained a slight smile of superiority while Humphrey wore a cold and unfriendly look toward everyone else.

    Slessor nced at the two males with a hint ofpetitive intention in her eyes, but the two ignored her and entered their teleporters. She rolled her eyes and entered hers, prompting the others to snap out of their surprise and utilize theirs as well.

    Thanks to their uing ss, Dante and the rest had ess to the destination they sought, the ck Land.

    When they appeared, they noticed they were discharged from a bunch of teleporters within a sealed chamber. There were white walls on all sides with blue and green lines running through them, as well as arge door before them.

    From another set of teleporters came around 5 mature adults who were all pure humans. They wore arrogant smiles full of confidence and egotism, making anyone who looked at them naturally feel a hint of dislike.

    However, the students here became solemn because they knew that these were their teachers!

    After being ''taught a lesson'' during orientation, their feelings towards these higher powers were conflicted. On one hand, there was anger and hatred while on the other, there was respect for the strong and eagerness to exploit them for their knowledge.

    Of the five teachers, there was a muscr lion man with golden-white hair and sharp red eyes. He looked awesome and majestic, especially when added to his battle armor which was the same color as his hair.

    He looked like one swipe of his w could cleave a battleship in half, and Dante was sure that was not too far off the mark.

    Another one who had glowing green hair that floated around her body while she herself levitated a few feet off the ground. She did not wear shoes and her attire was a green sundress that fluttered around her ankles.

    She had sparkling amber eyes and purple hair tied into two donut-shaped knots on either side of her head. Her size was also diminutive, reaching Dante''s waist at best.

    The third person was an amalgamation of water that seemed to have some humanoid features. Dante was not exactly sure if they were masculine or feminine, and the person''s form seemed to alternate between both.

    Though, they had golden bands on the arms, legs, and neck which glowed with a blue light, and Dante assumed that this was what helped them maintain their humanoid shape?

    The fourth person was a widely grinning young man who wore a crimson robe and had shark-like teeth. His eyes were scarlet and his hair was literal mes. There was a permanent ring of fire around his legs that radiated heat.

    Finally, there was the beautiful and svelte Xue Bing who had a purple veil of energy around her that warped the fabric of space itself. Her smile was the most friendly of the lot, but it also conveyed ack of interest.

    Basically, she was smiling at you to encourage you to get lost, not to get closer.

    "Hello students of this year''s Unique Batch. My name is Xue Bing, and I am what you could describe as your ss teacher. I will handle most of the general details of your first-year study, so make sure to get to know my face and name." She greeted everyone with a bored voice.

    "Right, this gentleman with the golden mane is Leonidas. He is the teacher in charge of all non-elemental Beast-rted superpowers like Beast Taming, Animalshifting, and Beast Summoning. If you are in possession of such a superpower, please move to his side."

    8 Students moved towards Leonidas and he snorted at them coldly. After all, none of them were about the 15th Rank.

    "This lovely madam is Slyphia. She is the teacher in charge of all wind, air, and gaseous-rted superpowers like Aerogenesis, Aerokinesis, and more. If you are in possession of such a superpower, please move to her side."

    7 Students moved to her side, of which Humphrey was a part of. Slyphia gave Humphrey a winsome smile and a pat on his shoulder but ignored the rest, making their expressions fall.

    "There is also Undina, who is in charge of water, aquatic, and marine-rted superpowers. If you are in possession of any of such powers, please move to her side."

    4 students moved to her side, including Louisa. Undina did not have any visible expression, but she made no movements to acknowledge the students around her. It was as if she would rather just get this over with.

    "And finally, there is Mr. Infernus here who is in charge of all fire, heat, and light-rted superpowers. If you are in possession of any of those, please move his way."

    7 students moved to his side, of which the fourth, fifth, and sixth-ranked students were a part of. The man called Infernus nodded with satisfaction and he covered all his students in his ring of fire.

    And this left the final two, Dante and Slessor who were the only ones with space-rted superpowers. They already knew who their teacher was, so they walked over to her quietly.

 Chapter 45 The Black Land

    The other students nced over with a hint of surprise. They had guessed as to who Xue Bing was, but they now understood that she was the teacher for space element rted powers. It was no wonder she was appointed their ss teacher, as space and time superpowers were treated as the highest.

    Not to mention, out of the only two students she had, first ce and third ce were literally in her hands. This made the faces of the other teachers be slightly ugly, but they could only harrumph and take their anger out on the trash students by ring at them.

    This left the students feeling aggrieved, but what could they do?

    Xue Bing smiled and nodded to the others. "Now, we will take you to the ck Land so that you may begin your first absorption. On the way, each of your teachers will exin some things to you about superpowers, the ck Land, the Zero Gate, and how you can be stronger in your respective fields. Make sure to listen attentively."

    The students made sure to acknowledge this as Xue Bing ced a hand on Dante and Slessor''s shoulders before leading them to a nearby door to the side. The other teachers were not so amiable to their students and led them to other doors.

    Seeing Dante and Slessor''s puzzled looks, Xue Bing exined. "The ranking of your superpowers is not done just to make you hate each other, but to decide how your benefits are disturbed. The ck Land possesses ambient energy that can be actively absorbed by anyone with a superpower."

    "Even so, as if it is the way of the world, this energy has different densities in different ces in the ck Land, so some ces are more lucrative than others. Since the world is not fair and benefits take precedence to justice, we''ve decided to let those who rank higher be ced where the energy is densest over the others."

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Dante''s expression changed slightly and Slessor spoke her mind. "But isn''t that short-sighted for such a so-called great academy? By letting those who are better always take the best resources, how would those who are worse catch up or bridge the gap? Why not just ept those with the best talents and ignore the rest?"

    Xue Bing nced at Slessor directly with her familiar ''neutral'' smile. "Trust me, there have been many petitions to do so. To limit the influx of students, weed out the trash below the A grade and only let those above that enter."

    "After all, the ck Land and the Zero Gate are not age or power locked. Anyone with a superpower can use them, whether the headmistress, a new student, or an aged elder on his deathbed with a superpower. Those who have graduated from your Unique Batch of earlier years crave the ck Land after graduation because they cannot easily increase their superpowers elsewhere."

    Xue Bing sneered. "Do you know how much pressure they put on the academy each year to let them in? They have even formed their own group and with each batch we graduate, they get new fellows into their fold. Do you know how much trouble the Academy takes to limit the use of these precious resources to new students?"

    "If these graduates could, they would even kill you younglings and take your ce. When the Zero Gate opens every year, assassination and recement attempts peak."

    Xue Bing then looked away arrogantly. "Besides, the Eternal Academy has never imed to be a ce where you get to decide your rights and freedoms. What you receive and are given are decided solely by us, and you can only ept or cry about it."

    Slessor frowned and clenched her fists in anger at being chastised in such a manner, while Dante could only shake his head. He might have thought something simr to Slessor, but he knew the end result of expressing it.

    Expecting fairness where something so precious and rare in the entire universe was concerned? Was she living in fantasynd or was she the reincarnated saintess of social justice warriors? The only way anyone would harp about fairness given such a thing was if they wanted to use it to gain more benefits.

    Besides, Dante thought, if she wanted fairness she could justˇ­

    "Oh, and since you are so worried about those below you, you can opt to give them your spot so that they can catch up to their betters. Should I apply for the change for you then?" Xue Bing asked nonchntly.

    Slessor paled and immediately rejected such a thing. When she saw the knowing smile from Xue Bing and the look of pity from Dante, her expression became ugly and she went quietpletely.

    Dante knew that themia had learned a brutal lesson today about herself and about the world.

    After that spell, the group remained silent as they traversed a tunnel that was lit on all sides with a delude of colors, but did not allow them to see outside. It was only when they got to the end where two cyborgs wielding weapons were guarding that they felt something different.

    The cyborgs stopped Xue Bing and checked her qualifications before respectfully allowing her through. Dante and Slessor followed along and were admitted to an area they honestly half expected to see.

    The ck Land wasˇ­ just that, a cknd, An expanse of pitch-ck soil? humus? earth? or even sand? that stretched out as far as the eye could see, right into the horizon. There was no sun here, but the world seemed to be lit.

    It was as if the sun was behind you since the sky was still rtively bright blue, but turning around showed that there was no such thing there either.

    Xue Bing allowed Dante and Slessor to admire the area and express their shock before patting their shoulders. "Enough dawdling, try and sense the energy in the air."

    The two snapped out of their delude and then focused. Dante honestly did not know what to expect by sensing anything, but the moment he did, he actually felt it.

    It was strange, like how one could sense the water around them when they dove into a pool or body of water. You could feel it all around you flowing, and sometimes moving. It pressed against you because you were upying a spot where it would have been, so there was a feeling of pressure.

    Seeing that the two had been able to achieve this, Xue Bing was satisfied. She then shed the air in front of her, and a rip in space appeared. Dante and Slessor were surprised by this, not knowing exactly what superpower Xue Bing had previously. However, they now had an inkling of an idea.

    Xue Bing manually widened the gap and the other side showed a small cabin that was surrounded by ck earth. She gestured to it with a smile and walked through her portal to appear on the other side.

    Looking at their teacher who was smiling at them from the other side, Dante and Slessor shared a look before following through. The experience was quite banal, as it was less like teleportation and more like passing through a wormhole.

    Xue Bing turned to the cabin behind her and exined its purpose. "Naturally, we can''t just toss you lot here to absorb energy while sitting on the hard ground. This is the cabin for the top three, with three separate rooms for each of you to reside in."

    Xue Bing nced at the horizon. "Since first and third ce are here, the second ce should being soon."

    Dante and Slessor were startled as they heard a tearing sound above them and gazed toward Xue Bing''s focus. There they saw a small figure tearing through the atmosphere faster than a jet as it rushed toward them.

    Before they could even be rmed, the figure appeared before them suddenly, stopping all that momentum in an instant with no bacsh. It turned out to be the teacher called Slyphia and in her arm was Humphrey.

    The fellow folded his arms and pretended to be casual, but Dante could see that he was visibly trembling. He was probably new to his wind element power and had never done something like what Slyphia did.

    Xue Bing nced at Humphrey with amusement and then nodded to Slyphia. "Are you gonna stay here for him or are you gonna go back and sort out the others?"

    Slyphia giggled. "Why would I bother with such trash? I''ll stay here of course."

    Slyphia''s voice was slightly high-pitched and very sweet to listen to, but the three students couldn''t help but feel a coldness in their hearts. Those poor blokes who were hoping that their teacher might give them guidance were left to fend for themselves while she came to curry favor with her most talented one.

    This Eternal Academyˇ­ if there was one thing you should pray for, it was not for wealth, not for favor, nor for love, but by god, pray you had talent.

 Chapter 46 Quantum Teleportation And Transposition

    ?

    Dante, Slessor, and Humphrey were led into the rather deceptively spacious cabin. It was furnished quite well and had everything they would need to survive here for an extended period of time.

    The rooms were marked by number so Dante obviously walked to the onebeled ''1'' which made the eyes of Humphrey and Slessor sh with unwillingness. Xue Bing and Slyphia smiled when they saw these looks and did nothing to deter them.

    Dante entered the room and saw that there was a bed to the side of the room along with a desk as well as a praying mat in the center with small vents around. When his AI chip connected to the facilities, he realized that the vents contained various scents and incenses he could freely use at any time in order to help him focus.

    Dante directly sat on the praying mat and crossed his legs. He felt natural in this pose, and he couldn''t help but remember his breathing training in the virtual world. As such, he subconsciously began breathing properly just like that.

    When he was about to enter a daze, Xue Bing entered his room and removed the chair from the desk, and sat on it casually. She nced at the startled Dante who had been broken out of his breathing routine with a smile.

    "Well, my dear number 1 student, it''s time for your teacher to do her job. Let''s exin a few things for you so you understand what you''re doing."

    "Firstly, the ck Land. This area formed before we discovered the Zero Gate and has been here for as long as we have been here. It covers around 300 miles around the entrance to the Zero Gate in all directions."

    "The soil itself has no special properties. We have tried transnting it to see whether we can recreate its energy production ability, but it doesn''t work. On top of that, the energy that you require to advance your superpower doesn''te from the ground or the air, but precisely from the gateway to the world behind the Zero Gate."

    Xue Bing leaned back into her seat slightly. "Don''t ask about the world behind the Zero Gate, it''s not part of today''s info dump and you will slowly learn more about it as you go on during the year."

    "Secondly, superpower ranks. How do we rank superpowers based on their own ability? We have three different criteria or categories. The first is the potency or the actual power of your superpower. This one is easy enough to track as everyone starts at the F Rank regardless of how awesome your superpower is."

    "As long as you haven''t absorbed the energy in the ck Land or Zero Gate to advance your superpower, you will always be at the F Rank. The second is talent. This is basically your recorded starting point for your power, which we use to loosely gauge the end point of your specific superpower."

    "The talent rating is what has divided you all up like different factions during the warring states period. The final category is the potential, and we are going to find out about this today."

    "Potential is gauged simply by how effective your absorption of the energy is and how quickly you are able to raise your superpower to the E Rank. From that, we can extrapte your highest limit within the timeframe granted by the school within your 5-year stay."

    Xue Bing smiled, but her smile was not very encouraging. "Today, your rankings will shift a bit after we discover your rtive potential. So those who were suppressed beneath you might rise up to surpass you after today. How does it feel, are you dissatisfied that your position is being challenged just after a few days of enjoying it?"

    Dante was silent for a short while and nodded. "Not too pleased, but it''s not up to me."

    Xue Bing nodded sympathetically. "That''s right, and you''re smart for realizing that faster than the half-breed snake. Your goal today is to make sure that your potential rating is as high as possible to keep your position."

    "Back to what I was saying, the third thing to know is about the energy itself. We call it Zero Energy, and it''s only found here in the entire universe. You cannot collect it, you cannot store it, you cannot replicate it."

    "We have spent centuries and quadrillions of Etrans trying to study it, but we understand as much about it as we did when we first found it. Do not bother trying to understand it either, just absorb it for your own purposes and move on."

    Xue Bing crossed her legs casually. "Finally, about superpowers ranking up. When you first absorb this energy, you will feel it entering your body but you will not be able to tell where it has gone or how to control it. At your level, you can only absorb mindlessly."

    "You will know all this when you break through because you will release an energy fluctuation that only those with superpowers can sense, and you will unlock your soul space, which is where your superpower resides."

    Xue Bing got up and dusted her butt. "As for what the soul space is, that is too early in your sybus for you to know. Start absorbing and let''s see how long it takes you to reach E-Rank. If you want to get an EX Rank in this regard, you need to only take a few minutes. Good luck."

    She opened a portal that led to Slessor''s room and then walked in without even looking back. When the portal closed, Dante lowered his head and became pensive. He quickly digested all the information he received and then settled down to absorb the energy he needed.

    He was on a timer to prove his potential, so each second counted. He did not use any incense or scents and just followed the description Xue Bing gave him back when they were on their way here.

    Soon, he sensed the strange energy again, this Zero Energy, and began to consider absorbing it. The moment it moved into his body, Dante felt a strange sensation all over his skin. It was like being thrust into a breezy room with a powerful fan blowing on your skin.

    As the energy coursed through his body and rushed to his head, he also felt like his body was cooling down after a hot day at the gym. It was an extremelyfortable and pleasant feeling that one could get lost in, and you could be sure that Dante folded immediately.

    He entered a sort of daydream-like daze where he was partially conscious and partially unconscious. He could feel the time passing, but each hour felt like a second had passed by, and he only woke when he felt his mind explode.

    A painnced through his head that caused him to gasp and grab his forehead before he was dragged into a ck space. When he looked around, he saw that he was floating in a starry sky like area that was devoid of anything else.

    However when he turned to look behind and then upwards, his heart clenched. He saw a huge circr gateway that showed his living room on Earth on the other side. Dante could even see the finer details of the room, and even switch it to his bedroom at his true home or the bedroom of his apartment.

    These were ces he had been in and used his superpower to travel to and fro from the two universes. He instinctively knew that he could now choose any destination to ''fast travel'' to, which consisted of his own universe or within the Eternal Universe.

    It involved Dante forming a Quantum Tunnel to travel between ces he had marked with his Quantum Marker. The actual name of the upgraded ability was called Quantum Teleportation, which meant that to some extent, Dante now had the ability to teleport.

    The huge circr gateway above him was for cross-universal teleportation. If he was teleporting within the same universe, he only needed to use a single thought to move.

    However, that was not all. The Quantum Teleportation ability was an upgrade of the basic utility of his Quantum Entanglement. He had unlocked another new major ability after climbing to the E-Rank, and when he received its details, he was thoroughly shocked.

    It was called Quantum Transposition, and its effect was actually frighteningly simple. It allowed Dante to enter the Quantum Realm with his real body and soul!

    This meant that Dante could now enter the Etraverse worlds himself! This was not very beneficial given that he would be entering with his real body, and most worlds required the user to go through life-and-death scenarios for training.

    After all, the main value of virtual reality was to experience reality or things in reality without the consequences reflecting on your physical body or mind. If Dante entered a quantum world and died, he would die forever and ever.

    However, if you considered worlds like the Apocalypse World where a free superpower was given, there was a thunderous implication behind this new ability!

 Chapter 47 Tension

    Dante considered many things, but he noticed that the dark world around him faded away as he woke up. He was still seated on the prayer mat, but the area around him looked like it had been subjected to an explosion.

    The walls of his room werepletely destroyed, and so was the majority of the cabin. Dante saw that apart from the mat he was currently on and some remnants of the cabin, there were only Xue Bing and Slyphia standing in front of Slessor and Humphrey while covered by purple and green barriers respectively.

    Both barriers had a great number of cracks on them and the two teachers wore solemn expressions as blood leaked from their mouths and noses. Meanwhile, Slessor and Humphrey were frozen where they were seated while ncing at Dante with terror on their faces.

    Dante immediately became rmed and tensed. In this short amount of time, judging from the situation of the area and everyone''s reaction towards him, he could easily piece together what happened.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Slyphia was likely tutoring Humphrey while Xue Bing was probably fulfilling her duty to Slessor when Dante broke through to the E Rank. Due to the power fluctuation of his breakthrough, an explosion likely urred that destroyed the entire cabin and forced the two teachers to hastily put up defenses.

    However, the explosion from his breakthrough had actually even caused cracks in the barriers and caused the two elite teachers to suffer injuries.

    Dante had always been somewhat humble, or at least, he thought he was. He did not assume he was the strongest or the most blessed, just that he had been lucky to appear in this universe at the right time to be saved by a passing higher-dimensional being.

    He felt he was average, which he realistically was in terms of his gics or intelligence, but he had foolishly given that attribute to his superpower as well. After hearing about awesome powers like Aerogenesis or Spatial Folding, he had assumed his Quantum Entanglement was passable, only useful for walking between two universes.

    However, that was exactly the problem. Folding space as well as generating air where there was none were absolutely amazing superpowers, but the ability to walk between two universes at any time from multiple locations was not measurable by any scale.

    Even the ability to travel between gxies was something that was rated as EX rank by the Eternal Academy''s system, as they assumed that Dante''s superpower was a much weaker version of this. If superpowers absorbed energy by their potential and released fluctuations, what would the reaction be if a person who could teleport as far as a gxy broke throughpared to someone who could teleport between whole universes?

    If you thought about it like this, it rather proved just how powerful Xue Bing and Slyphia were to survive such an event and even protect someone at the same time.

    But maybe they were just lucky that this was a breakthrough from the F Rank to the E Rank.

    If it had been higherˇ­

    Dante considered all this and sucked a deep breath. His joy at breaking through was quickly quelled and reced by trepidation. On one hand, it was great that he had such a reaction, as it meant his superpower was truly potent and he was worth investing in by the school.

    Xue Bing especially would value him like a precious gem.

    On the other hand, he had clearly lied about his superpower. Judging by the looks on Xue Bing and Slyphia''s faces, and especially Xue Bing, there was no joy at her student being far more talented than she thought.

    Rather, it was a sort of wary observation of an anomaly that should not have escaped your observation.

    In other words, they cared less about Dante having a greater superpower than he imed and more about how he was able to deceive them. Because if you thought about it, if Dante could deceive them, then how many thousands of Unique Batch students in the past had been able to pull off the same and they had no idea about it?

    The implications were serious. Especially when you considered what Xue Bing said about the alumni of the school gathering together to pressure the school to use the facilities.

    If even 10% of those in that group had superpowers other than what they let onˇ­

    There was an awkward silence in the area as tension seemed to build. Xue Bing and Slyphia did not takedown their barriers as if they were waiting for something while Dante was also seated patiently, waiting to see their verdict.

    If their verdict was dangerous to his survival or freedom, he would simply return to his universe and then enter into this one from another ce. If anything, he could test Beatrice out and see whether she was on his side.

    If not, he would exist like a shadow in this universe and survive in the dark side. There were definitely those who lived such lives here and with his ability to teleport, it shouldn''t be a problem. Heck, if he teleported back from here, he would have a Quantum Marker here meaning that he could return to the cknd whenever he wanted to absorb energy for himself.

    Since he already knew that the spatial blockade technology of this universe could not restrain him, and could not even detect him, he coulde and go as he wanted. Hence, Dante calmed himself down and remained seated on his mat.

    Of course, he had watched enough suspense movies that he was aware that they could be stalling for time to let some intangible poison or tranquilizer work on knocking him out. In fact, they would even be waiting for reinforcements and would subdue him using a mind control superpower or some form of chains that prevented one from using superpowers.

    All of these were possible, but he had to see what the oue was, not out of curiosity, but out of caution. If he disappeared now, not only would that be an admittance of guilt, it would kill his ''innocence'' assuming that there was no negative fallout to this event.

    This was a risk for sure, but Dante had to take it if he wanted to continue his positive life in this universe. As easy as it was for him to be a fugitive and theoretically survive, it was even easier to just be clean and not wanted by the most powerful institution in this universe.

    Dante was startled when he suddenly saw Xue Bing and Slyphia drop their barriers with visible relief on their faces. Humphrey and Slessor still nced at Dante like he was a 10-headed monster though.

    Xue Bing wore her usual smile that was not a smile and walked over confidently. "I say Dante, you scared me for a second there. We almost thought you were aˇ­ *cough*, well let''s just say you passed a test."

    Dante remained where he was with a vignt expression. He activated his Bionics and Psionics so that he could at least, react in time assuming Xue Bing wanted to make a move.

    The moment she entered his room area, he got up and leaped back, creating distance between them. Xue Bing suddenly stopped with a look of surprise and iprehension, but when she saw Dante''s careful demeanor, her expression cramped.

    Slyphia, who was watching the ongoings with a calm look, was also surprised by Dante''s move. Then her eyes became bloodshot as he grabbed her mouth, her shoulders shaking as she tried to fight back explosiveughter.

    Dante saw their reactions and did not feel embarrassed nor did he care if he had done something stupid. He was wondering if this act was intentional to make him lower his guard, so he maintained his vignce.

    Xue Bing''s expression changed a few times but she then mustered her nicest smile. "Dante my dear student, why are you behaving like this? Your teacher is happy that your ability is so strong and doesn''t want to steal it for herself or anything."

    Dante and Slyphia were speechless. Was that how a human being coaxed another person to feel safe in their presence?

    "How long did I take?" Dante asked after being quiet for a second or two.

    "About 10 seconds? I had only begun talking to Slessor about the stuff I told you when we felt an energy vortexe from your room. We marveled because it meant your superpower was truly potent at definitely at the EX Rank in terms of potential, but then you reached sublimation and we could feel the iing wave." Xue Bing answered.

    Xue Bing pointed a finger at Humphrey and Slessor. "Even F-Rank fellows like them could feel the iing wave and wanted to run. Luckily we decided to stay here and then defend each of them from the shockwave."

    Dante nced at Humphrey and Slessor who had calmed down somewhat as they nodded silently. He then sighed internally and dropped his guard a little, but became alert when he saw three people approach from afar at great speeds.

    The three teachers Leonidas, Infernus, and Undina approached cautiously as Leonidas asked Xue Bing in a deep voice: "What happened here?"

 Chapter 48 Madness

    ?

    Xue Bing turned and became vignt when she saw them, moving to stand between them and Dante. "Nothing, I just farted really hard."

    Meanwhile, Sylphia couldn''t take it anymore and burst intoughter while Humphrey had a weird expression. Slessor looked like she was seeing Xue Bing for the first time while Dante felt like he didn''t have enough IQ to process everything that was going on.

    Meanwhile, Leonidas disyed an annoyed expression at the apparent lie while Infernus'' expression changed as he covered his nose quickly. Undina spoke for the first time, her voice sounding like someone that was gurgling water at the back of their throat.

    "Don''t take us for fools Xue Bing. We sensed a severe power fluctuation above the EX Rank here and rushed over."

    Leonidas growled deeply. "That''s right, and you better exin what happened here."

    Xue Bing frowned. "Scram! The Central Server has already decided that he is within eptable range and everything should continue as-is."

    The expressions of the other teachers became ugly, but they didn''t leave. Rather their eyes roved the area and they seemed to see the story of what happened here through the remains. Just like how Dante pieced things together, they were also able to do so as their eyes fell on Dante.

    Immediately, Dante felt goosebumps appear on his skin and he took a step back. Xue Bing''s expression changed as she manifested a wave of spatial energy, which was suddenly stretched thin as Leonidas, Infernus, and Undina suddenly attacked.

    "What are you fellows doing?!'' Xue Bing roared as she became pale-faced, her earlier injuries worsening.

    "Don''t be selfish and let us see this student. It''s best to take him back for ''reeducation'' don''t you think?" Leonidas stated with a roar that caused the spatial barrier to crack.

    "You alone cannot swallow this chunk of meat Xue Bing, don''t let the Xue n behind youe to an end because of your actions!" Undina stated viciously, manifesting spears of high-pressure water to bombard the shield.

    Infernus simply shrugged with a wide smile. "Hey, I''ve got a faction with interests too, so I have to fight even if I feel it''sme."

    Xue Bing paled and was forced to take a step back. She red at Humphrey and Slessor. "The two of you, leave here immediately using your abilities!"

    The two students who were overwhelmed by the events urring before them seemed to snap out of a daze and immediately used their powers to flee the area. Since they were not important, none of the teachers stopped them and tacitly let them escape.

    Dante especially was lost. What the hell was going on, one moment Xue Bing was making a fool of herself to coax him and the next, she had fallen out with her colleagues over him? Why go so far, wouldn''t there be some punishment for their careless actions?

    "Well, it''s because the world is ruled by benefits and interests. Right now, their only goal is to capture you first and bring you back to control you using any means necessary, then they can bear any consequences thate out of it."

    A sweet voice spoke beside Dante, snapping him out of his daze. His entire body felt ice cold like he had fallen into a well as he turned to see Sylphia standing to his right casually, like a friend. When he looked down to gaze at her, she raised her beautiful and delicate face to meet his and smiled in a very lovely manner.

    However, Dante could not find any joy in this. After all, the teachers were fighting Xue Bing and willing to hurt her to get to himˇ­ but wasn''t Sylphia also a teacher? Wouldn''t she have a family or faction behind her?

    Dante immediately wanted to react but he felt like the oxygen in his lungs was forcefully locked in and his brain became fuzzy as he passed out. However at thest moment, he had thought of returning to his home universe, so Dante''s body disappeared even as he was knocked out, causing Sylphia''s confident smile to change.

    When the other teachers also saw that Dante was gone, they rxed their attacks, as their fierce expressions were reced with despair and regret.

    Even if you knew you would be jailed, you would still fight for the 1 billion dors in front of you.

    However, during the fighting, the money was snatched away by someone else, leaving you with the burden ofmitting the crime without the reward.

    Naturally, once your greed cleared up, you would regret even taking part, but if the money were to reappear before you, you would begin fighting again.

    Xue Bing rxed and released the barrier she created but she ended up coughing blood three times. Her eyes were filled with schadenfreude and a bit of hatred as sheughed cruelly.

    "You guys are so dead. You have fucked up so bad that I even feel bad for youˇ­ not! Hahaha!"

    Xue Bingughed shrilly and cruelly, not caring about the pained feelings of the others. This caused their expressions to be downcast and ugly, especially with the serious mocking in the background.

    "Hmph, evil witch it was your fault! If you didn''t interfere, we could have captured the brat!" Leonidas roared as his eyes became bloodshot.

    Beast-rted superpower users mostly focused on training their mental will because they could be easily influenced by the tempers of the creatures they turned into. The regret from failing to capture Dante, the fear of the consequences of his actions and the pain of losing such a good chess piece for his faction turned into anger at this time.

    Leonidas charged forward like a bullet and roared, striking Xue Bing in the torso with a w, sending the svelte woman flying a few meters backward as she spat blood the entire way. When shended heavily, she could barely get up anymore, beingpletely winded and severely injured.

    The faces of the other teachers changed, but they didn''t move to stop Leonidas. After all, there waspetition between them not to mention that acting to save Xue Bing would not mitigate their issues. Along with that was the fact that they were also annoyed by the meddlesome woman who ruined their chance.

    Leonidas was not done as his bloodshot eyes focused on the severely wounded Xue Bing. He roared once more and leaped over, fully intending to maul her. However, he was blown back in mid-air by a force so strong that it caused the world itself to shake.

    When the other teachers saw this, their faces changed greatly. They no longer wished to wait for their verdict to be dealt for they knew that survival would be slim today given the judge who arrived. Immediately, they all manifested their superpowers at the highest order as they fled.

    All of them aimed towards the sky as running on the ground would be futile. Unless they entered space and left the range of the academy, their escape would be useless. However, it was clearly wishful thinking as they all crashed back down to the ground much like Leonidas, a strange force seeming to act on them.

    Only Sylphia was able to get up to her feet as her injuries were the lightest. She looked upward as her face changed, and her body began to tremble.

    Above the group was a peerless woman floating on a golden-red throne that looked futuristic with a thruster below it that kept it airborne and various buttons on either armrest. She rested calmly within her seat as it lowered its altitude to match those on the ground.

    "H-Headmistress Laraˇ­" Sylphia squeaked with fear.

    Lara''s blood-red eyes scanned the entire area. She stretched a palm out and then twisted it counter-clockwise like she was turning a dial. Immediately, the events of the past few minutes seemed to be reyed all over again, only that the repeated events were phantom-like rather than real.

    Sylphia saw this and felt a chill. She knew this was the manifestation of one of the Headmistress'' seven superpowers, Time Control!

    She felt ridiculous when she remembered the power of each of the Headmistress'' seven abilities in the sense that she actually thought she could sessfully flee.

    Lara viewed the events for herself and then released her hold of time with a sigh. She nced at Leonidas who had a hole in his torso, the other teachers who were half dead, as well as Xue Bing who was unconscious due to the damage she suffered.

    She then turned to Sylphia. "Do you understand the magnitude of your actions today? I don''t think any of you do, not even the Bing n girl."

    She nced at the spot where Dante had been when he disappeared with a dark expression. "Even I could not affect the flow of events surrounding him due to his superpower. You cannot possibly understand what this means or entails, but I can tell you this."

    Lara turned to Sylphia and gave her the most intense look the diminutive woman had ever received in her life.

    "You''d better pray to any god that will ept you that Dante returns."

 Chapter 49 Home On Earth

    Dante appeared in his bedroom on earth, specifically within his rented apartment. He fell face-first onto the floor and passed outpletely due to the effects of Sylphia''s attack.

    Dantepletely fell asleep and woke up only 3 hourster. He rubbed his head with fatigue and pain on his face. He also received a report from his AI chip about what happened and how it regted his system after he passed out in order to get him to wake up so soon.

    Dante sighed and rose to his feet before moving to sit at his desk. He nced at the mini quantumputer that was still working hard and shook his head. He had the idea to check on its progress, but was not too hot on doing that right now.

    He currently had bigger fish to fry and that was mainly in the sense of what to do now. The reaction of the teachers and powerhouses to his ''specialness'' coup-led with the abilities she had unlocked in this upgrade had caused his ns to shift greatly.

    Beforeing to a conclusion, Dante had the AI chip list out the facts he knew and projected it in front of him using his eyes as a lens.

    1. He was not a fugitive. ording to Xue Bing''s words, the Central Server that governed the system of the Eternal Academy had passed judgment and ruled him as normal.

    2. It was dangerous to return to school. He did not know whether the teachers who attacked him woulde after him again.

    3. He was too ignorant and uninformed. He only cared about pilfering technologies and such from the Eternal Universe in order to create a foundation for this one. He hadn''t actually taken the time to sit down and research the Eternal Universe''s military, political, and social structure in full.

    4. His superpower allowed him toe and go. Between entering the Quantum Universe to hide or teleporting to anywhere he had ced a Quantum Marker, his mobility was extremely high and would grow continuously.

    5. He couldn''t abandon the Eternal Universe. His foundation was on earth, but his path to ascensiony in the Eternal universe. Whether it was the ck Land or entering the Zero Gate to acquire a new superpower, they were both things he couldn''t give up on.

    Dante considered these five things and decided to take his next steps while making sure to ount for these things. One thing was that he could not return to the Eternal Academy yet, at least not openly.

    The reason was simple, because he simply did not understand the consequences of his actions nor did he understand the consequences nor reasoning behind the actions of all the others. He also did not know the aftermath, so his main objective was to investigate that.

    In order to investigate, he would need to make sure of his mobility. He could return to the Eternal Universe, but he definitely could not return to anywhere that was open and essible. So he would have to live in the shadows for a while just like he nned to, but not entirely.

    On top of that, while in the shadows, he had to investigate and research thoroughly what superpowers meant to the Eternal Universe, the top factions, and why they even cared.

    It obviously couldn''t be just because superpowers were cool and somewhat surpassed the limits of their technology. It had to be a deeper reason, and Dante had honestly wondered about something like that when he first arrived in the Eternal Universe and heard about it.

    His suspicions had peaked when the headmistress had told him those words. It seemed like superpowers at a certain level were a gateway to somethingrger?

    Dante would not have thought much about it, but he knew the origin of his abilities. If higher-dimensional beings existed in that universe, then there was a higher-dimensional ne that they existed in.

    Were superpowers a gateway to that ne? There was a Zero Gate that released superpowers every year in the form of ten fruits, and every other day it released the energy needed for superpowers to progress.

    So was there a First Gate after the Zero Gate? Or a Second Gate?

    Was it really so easy for the Eternal Academy to resist the pressure of those alumni like Xue Bing said? Even if it had the best tech and a powerful backing, it had released so many superpowered beings who were hungry for its power.

    If it was just the Zero Gate providing a way forward, they would never let it go. However, there was probably something more that could at least mimic the effects, but was not as convenient as the Zero Gate.

    Dante reasoned this out and sighed. Whatever the case, he needed to get on with it. He spent one more time looking around his room before checking any missed calls he might have gotten these past few days.

    He saw that his socials had been bombarded with a lot of questions and greetings from certain interested parties who felt his theories were quite special. Hah, there was even a recruitment letter from a certain reputable institution within Canada.

    However, the AI wisely declined all and replied to the others with politeness. No need to offend anyone ande off as brusque, but it also could not appear in person. Besides, Dante did not n to join any faction but establish his own, or there would not be a need for all this.

    There were also a lot of notifications from some cheap online novel site called webnovel. It seemed that the novel that the AI had been writing and posting on there had gained some traction.

    Dante idly checked it and found that it was called "I am the God of Technology'' and it was about a person from modern earth traveling to another universe with fantasy elements and magic, but he had this thing called a system that allowed him to buy and control any piece of technology from earth in exchange for the souls of people he killed.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel How barbaric.

    Dante scoffed at this idea and got bored after the first few chapters. The Quantum Computer had studied hundreds of popr and failed novels on the web and had understood the pattern to sess.

    The novel had no depth and was filled with tripe and spectacle, but apparently, the crowd was eating it up. Sad.

    Dante saw that he had a call from his mother which he returned. He then chatted with her about many things and even told he about his courses in science as well as some of his ''discoveries''.

    Rather than be excited, his mother looked him up and down strangely through the video call.

    "You? Science? But your highest grade was in Senior High Sophomore year where you got a B minus. Even that was because you confessed to me that you snuck in some papers."

    Dante''s face became red with embarrassment. Yeah, fine, he hadn''t always liked science because physics was kinda hard but okay for him since he excelled at maths, chemistry was Satan''s subject which had caused him to burst into tears many times during revision week before exams, and biology was only fun in the beginning.

    "Well, what can I say? I probably inherited my beautiful mother''s high QI and skills thiste in life." Dante immediatelyvished praise and attributed his sess to his genes.

    His mother looked unimpressed. "Hmph, your father was far more eloquent than you when he was your age, what didn''t he tell me before? If you want to coax me, you have to be slicker than that."

    She said that, but Dante knew his mother was extremely happy because her brows always rxed when she was praised like this.

    Hmph, Mom your mouth is dishonest but your eyebrows won''t lie!

    After all, the first skill every son learned was how to coax his mom. You couldn''t even coax your mom as a man and you wanted to capture babes into your bed? Go back to the drawing board!

    After that fun family call, Dante was in a good mood, so he finally dealt with his bank. It was nothing big, they just noticed that Dante had not received any ie for a while and were worried that he was facing difficulties.

    Of course Dante, and every adult who knew the true despicable and cruel nature of the bank, understood that the real purpose of this was to check if he was trying to run away from his debt. After the bank had given him almost 15k in credit and he had used over 8,000 of it.

    Most came from registering for those various courses and sses. As for his ie, the webnovel site only paid out monthly so where was he to get it from? Dante rolled his eyes and created a new child AI called the Artist AI.

    This one would domissions-based work on the inte using any artstyle, primarily anime, and was free to draw extreme fetishes. After all, its name wouldn''t be tied to him and he would not have to bear the mental consequences of drawing such stuff.

    Tsk, it seemed like the fetishmunity was about to eat good this time around.

 Chapter 50 Valeria

    After sorting this out, Dante was about to return to the Eternal Universe when he suddenly got a text. Normally it would be filtered out by the AI Chip, but the person it came from was someone Dante had marked as important in his ount.

    Valeria: "Heyya Dante, I''m free tomorrow, can Ie over?"

    Ahˇ­

    Well, this was quite the problem, now wasn''t it?

    Dante rubbed his head as he did not know how to reply to Valeria because he could not easily deal with their situation anymore. Despite how it may seem, Valeria was not Dante''s girlfriend or partner, nor was she even necessarily a lover.

    Theyˇ­ had an arrangement.

    You see, Dante, in the current state of his life, was extremely ambitious and driven to sess. He wanted to stand out among the 7 billion humans as someone special based on his own merit, hence he had tried to take the path of app development and recreate the legend of the Zmeister or even the Google Bros.

    That naturally led to his experiences over the past few days, but that was tangential. The issue was that in his state of seeking to be the best, he really did not care aboutpanionship or romance.

    Like most young men of this age, he was perfectly content being by himself, in his room, partaking in his niche interests which would probably be mocked by the mainstream anyway.

    However, it was not that simple. In the end, he also suffered from exactly what many such young men suffered from that led to a severe cultural shift in the modern day: sexual desire.

    Specifically pent-up sexual desire.

    It was something that came part of the package with being a male and - unlike the staunch protagonists of media who were neither ''servile nor overbearing'' and ''indifferent to all things'' who always imed to be ''uninterested'' in women - an average human.

    He was ruled by his hormones, and could not resist the demands of nature.

    So this caused the biggest problem most men today faced. You don''t really wantpanionship or love - at least not until you achieve your goal - but you had sexual desires you needed to sort out.

    This led to a difficult situation where one did not really have a true desire to approach a woman, but was forced to and the only goal was to satisfy one''s urges. Naturally, the women being approached were not stupid and could see such intentions from a mile away, usually leading to a rejection, causing the problem to persist, and so on.

    Usually, the negative feelings from being rejected in such a situation would begin to grow, especially due to the influence of social media where the same fellow could see the same woman doing very sexual acts for another male very openly.

    And that was the majority train of events that led to the birth of the ''Involuntary Celibate''.

    In order not to fall down that path, Dante had thought about the issue. Usually the mistake most of the men made in the above situation was twofold.

    Firstly, none were upfront about their intentions and tried to handle things the way one would when entering a rtionship, which was unwise.

    Secondly, and this was the biggest reason, most men in such situations failed toˇ­ how to say thisˇ­ assess reality. The assumption was usually that, by being a nice enough guy, the attraction value would be there... but that was not the case.

    Dante asked himself, what did he have to make a woman feel like he was worth having intercourse with? Because if you thought about it, the process from being apart for thousands of kilometers in terms of distance to being in close proximity, to having clothes removed, and then genitals connected was pretty long.

    There were many checkpoints in that process where she could change her mind. How do you keep her interested enough to go through all that and thene again after?

    The difficulty varied based on your starting point. For Dante, it was not too difficult since he had onlye out of being rtively popr among his age group in the city he was in after graduating. Not to mention he had above-average looks and had a good build, not necessarily because he worked out, but because he did not eat fatty foods thanks to his mother''s nagging.

    With this good foundation, it was not difficult for him to find a few willing partners who''d indulge him for free, but there came another problem. The women you were having a ''connection'' with were usually sensitive and had to be coaxed often.

    Basically, you had to give them attention in the form of rtively constantmunication, the asional outing, and generally show that you care and do not treat them as ''sheathes'' for your ''sword''.

    This was not a problem for the socially involved male, but for the shut-in who loved his own presence the most and hated the presence of others, it was torment. It was why, even if one was lucky to build such a rtionship, it would eventually crumble fast.

    Dante had realized this problem, so whenmunicating with potential partners, he had made his conditions clear. However, very few women were willing to take this deal even if he had an above-average score in each required field.

    So Dante had to think of an alternative. How to get a rtively attractive beauty that suited his sexual taste that also ticked a few other boxes like low promiscuity, willingness to be exclusive, and did not cause trouble nor ask for anything?

    That was naturally the height of delusion.

    If you wanted all such convenient traits bundled into one, you have to give something up. You had to pay for it.

    So that''s what Dante did. He shared his conditions with Valeria, and she also shared her conditions back. She could do all that, but Dante had to first keep their arrangement on the down low, and he also had to provide for her basic necessities since she was an orphan in the city trying to further her career in Aerospace Engineering.

    Dante came from a wealthy family and Valeria was truly attractive enough to make him feel moved, so he agreed.

    In truth, Dante had developed some fondness for Valeria after these few months. When they first spoke, she sounded so confident and unmoved that Dante had been nervous the entire time, thinking she was skilled at this.

    When they first met, he was surprised to discover she was just as nervous. After chatting for a bit, she confessed that she was also anxious since she had never done something like this before. She had some casual boyfriends in the past and one that she thought would be serious, but that fellow eventually put himself inside another woman and ended their rtionship.

    She had been desperate enough because she still had debt from her basic degree and was now pursuing a master''s that was partly funded by schrship. Meeting Dante was lucky for her, a guy her age that ticked all her boxes in terms of taste and was willing to provide.

    As for ''giving up her body''ˇ­ well, Valeria''s logic was that Dante was the kinda guy she would have probably had a romantic encounter with for free, and if she managed to get support for her dreams out of it, then it was a good deal.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel And so, their arrangement was born.

    Over the past year, Dante and Valeria had gotten down to it many times, enough that they were fullyfortable with each other. Before taking the 15,000 dor credit, Dante had even spoken with her about it to see her advice.

    After all, it was his first time taking such debt while she had been in debt most of her life.

    Dante passed a hand through his hair when he saw her message. Valeria was not someone who would pester him, as she was also kind of a reverse female shut-in who spent most of her time studying or drawing with her tablet since she loved art.

    Just like the long soliloquy about males suffering from sexual issues when shut-in, she too suffered from the same, so more often than not, their mutual encounters were initiated by her, especially recently as Dante had been coding his app and barely had enough time to even sleep.

    Normally, Dante would have immediately given a positive reply and looked forward to it. However, now there was a big problemˇ­ actually, there were two big problems.

    One was his body. His gics hadpletely changed to be something that no human here could fathom. Even if he waspletely gentle, there was a chance he couldpletely shatter her waist.

    Not to mention, he had no idea what effect his body fluids or semen might have on her. It might not do anything or it might be like that one Spidermanic where he killed MJ due to his radioactive sperm.

    The second big problem was Beatrice.

 Chapter 51 Returning To Where It All Began

    ?

    Dante rubbed his forehead and decided to deal with this professionally. If he acted wishy-washy about it, things would just be stale and problematic between him and Valeria. Dante pondered for a while before replying.

    Dante: "Can''t do it tomorrow. I am swamped with work. Also, we might meet less often in the future, but I''m still willing to support you if only to get my own personal missile designer."

    Dante sighed as he sent it and Valeria read it immediately. There was a short period where it showed she was typing and he couldn''t help but feel anxious that she would have a negative response to the sudden change.

    Valeria: "Okay, that''s not a problem. Work is also troubling on my end. By the way, did you get a girlfriend or something?"

    Dante sighed. As he thought, Valeria was pretty sharp. Thest time she and Dante hooked up was just a few days before he was zoomed into the Eternal Universe and nothing showed that he had any intentions of reducing their time together.

    If there was anything that could suddenly change things, it would naturally be finding a genuine partner.

    But was Beatrice considered a genuine partner? Dante did not know. In truth, he liked Valeria far more than he liked Beatrice. The majority of the reason why he was resistant to Beatrice''s charms and antics was precisely because he had the lively Valeria to hold him down.

    But he did sign a contract. As Beatrice said, but in a very silly and amusing manner, she came along with it, being the bond that would tie Dante to the ship of the Portinari n, who were sponsoring him and acting as his backing.

    Dante did not know if such things as polygamy or polyandry were allowed in the social and cultural circle of the Eternal Universe, so he would have to do research on that as well. He was in a sort of rtionship with Beatrice and didn''t want to cheat, which was basically the issue.

    Dante: "I can''t even be sure, to be honest. Part of what''s gonna upy is me finding out."

    Valeria: "Hmm, okay then. Let me know the conclusion and we can discuss what to do going forward."

    Valeria: "Stay safe Dante~"

    Dante shook his head and no longer wanted to spend another second here. He closed his eyes and visualized the massive gate in his Soul Space that showed the other side of the passage for him; The Eternal Universe.

    From the various locations he could choose from, Dante chose the smartest and the most obscure. With a silent and practically inaudible pop sound, he instantly traveled from Earth''s Universe to the Eternal Universe.

    When Dante appeared, it was daytime. He was in a familiar alleyway that had a half-robotized cat staring at him with shock and confusion. He nced at the cat askance and then walked out of the alleyway into a bustling street.

    He was back in Avalon City of Etonia, the first ce he hadnded on. This, as ssified by Beatrice, was a backwater very close to the known edge of the universe and was only recently settled.

    That was why the higher dimensional being dumped Dante here, as it was the nearest inhabited within light centuries of the universe''s wall, which Dante had pierced through when he first activated that app.

    Now that he was back here, not only much stronger and with a citizen ID, Dante felt the difference. The entire city was opened up to him as his AI chip connected to various facilities as well as the''s entire quantumwork.

    Of course, doing this made him traceable by anyone with the authority to trace his Citizen ID, but it didn''t matter anyway. The moment he had injected the solution that granted him the upgraded AI chip as well as his Citizen ID, he was marked.

    When Dante walked out, the nearby aliens and half-humans were dazed once more. Then greed filled their eyes as they thought Dante was another pure human that was lost like the one from the previous week.

    However, they froze when they saw his attire, which was the Vice-Admiral''s uniform. They might not know anything, but they definitely knew what those symbols meant. Even if they didn''t, their AI chips sent them an rm that a distinguished military person was in front of them.

    Immediately, the cyborg patrolmen who acted as the city''s police force rushed over and cordoned the area around Dante, ncing at every citizen as if they were a potential enemy. The captain of this force walked up to Dante and saluted with respect.

    "Lord Vice Admiral, Captain Huskar of the Etonian Defense Force greets you!"

    Dante saluted back and smiled. "At ease. I am here to investigate some rumors of an extremist alien rebel group in the sector. I hope to rely on the resources of Etonia to affect my search."

    The captain trembled as his expression changed greatly. Dante had just casually mentioned the greatest taboo of their universe: those aliens who were dissatisfied with pure humans being in charge and wanted to do something about it.

    To be honest, every that was cosmopolitan like this and had arger amount of aliens and mixed humans was likely to hold at least one group, or a branch of a group. However, even if they didn''t agree personally, none of the residents here were going to snitch them, because they technically stood on the same side.

    Rather than think of who snitched, Captain Huskar was wondering why Dante chose Etonia in particr to start from. He raised his head slightly and sensed that Dante was a pure human, and his pupils couldn''t help but constrict.

    He thought of a certain colossal event that urred a week or so ago where many mixed breeds and aliens tried to capture a pure human but were restrained. After that, the pure human was saved and taken away by a whole Admiral of the Prue Human Fleet!

    The people of Etonia had been fearful of the vengeance of the Pure Human Council after that for their actions, but a week had passed and nothing urred, so everyone rxed and went about their lives.

    But haha, how could things be simple? Captain Huskar thought bitterly. It seemed like the retribution was here.

    With the power of the Pure Human Council and their fleet, it didn''t matter about evidence or facts. If Dante pointed to him, Captain Huskar, and said he was a rebel, he could be ruined on the spot with no chance of redemption.

    Etonia was just one out of trillions in the universe, so even if Dante exterminated them all, who would care?

    Even the richest man or woman, the most powerful man or woman, or the person with the highest political qualifications on this entire was not even within the outer circle of power in the entire sector, much less the gxy, and the universe as a whole.

    In other words, to simplify, for the duration of his ''investigation'' Dante was now the god of Etonia.

    (Un)Fortunately, Dante did not know this. He chose Etonia because it was far away from the core worlds and he liked its environment the most because it felt cyberpunkish. He also felt like he could worm his way into power here and stabilize himself for long enough that he could investigate what happened at the Eternal Academy while enriching himself with knowledge.

    Of course just because Dante did not know now did not mean he would not know in the future. If he got a chance to settle down and see what he was going to do next, he would naturally find all these things out.

    If Captain Huskar knew that Dante was ignorant of his near limitless power, he would do everything to dy and distract Dante so that he never had a free moment, but the current him was far too intimidated to think of it.

    "Alright, take me to the Administrative Center of this. I want to meet the Governor of Etonia." Dantemanded with a tone that brooked no questions.

    Huskar felt this was natural and agreed. Dante was led to the city center nearby where he used an exclusive teleporter for administrators in the city hall to go from there to the capital of Etonia, Ferris State.

    Ferris City was the location of the administrative center itself with the governor, and when Dante came out of the teleporter, he found a row of important mixed-breed humans and aliens ready to receive him with clearly fake yet pandering smiles.

    However, the man at the center remained seated with a look of calmness, as he was a pure human. After all, no truly powerful position in the universe was held by anyone other than a pure human.

    Even though Dante''s official status was way higher, as pure humans they were of the same rank in terms of social standing so he didn''t need to butter Dante up.

 Chapter 52 Etonia Thrown Into Chaos

    ?

    Dante swept his eyes around the various officials, and he could only feel awkward deep down as he could tell that they all had higher SDIs than he did. He couldn''t do anything like suppress them with his aura or the like, because any of these fellows could one-punch him to death.

    Yet look at them, with their backs bent and their faces showing obsequious smiles. After thousands of years of being beaten down by pure humans and relegated to the second ss, they had carved this subservience into their bones.

    Unlike the majority of aliens living in the deeper parts of the universe near the core worlds as well as those from truly powerful factions among the aliens, the rest didn''t have much defiance.

    It was just like on Earth. Modern Americans knew in their hearts, regardless of their political affiliations or religious beliefs, that they were being toyed with by a small percentage of freaks who controlled everything.

    And yet despite that, the average person was not necessarily inclined to do anything about it. As long as their lives were good and no overt oppression was effected on them, they would not go out of their way to fight and be a martyr.

    It was even stronger here in the Eternal Universe where the Pure Humans didn''t actually oppress the aliens and mixed humans much, just acted closed off and snobbish. Yes, there was corruption and abuse of power, but you would likely find that most of it was done by aliens and mixed breeds to each other.

    Pure Humans were less than 1% of the entire universe poption and only upied absolutely high spots on the hierarchy. Their circles and interest hardly touched anything to do with the average man.

    If there were things like killing out of greed, suppressing businesses to steal ideas, and kidnapping women off streets to rape, it was more likely that these lower official aliens and mixed breeds did itpared to the pure human fellow sitting before Dante, and this was an objective fact.

    Hm, maybe it was precisely because of such atrocities and corruption that they were showing such respect to Dante so that he wouldn''t purge them? That seemed more likely than the fact that they were the type to bend their back for anybody stronger.

    "Greetings, Governor and fellow officials. My name is Dante, Vice-Admiral of the 34th Fleet of the Prime Human Civilization." Dante greeted and introduced himself with an amiable smile.

    Seeing that his attitude was good, the Governor smiled widely and stood up. He stretched a hand out and shook Dante''s in a firm grip. Honestly, Date was surprised that this tradition had persisted in human culture.

    "It is our honor to receive you, Vice-Admiral. My name is Hector White, and I am the ruling Governor of Etonia." Hector greeted with a nod.

    He then introduced the other officials in the room to Dante. Dante noted that the vice governors were mixed breeds while the aliens often upied meaningless positions. It seemed like the pure humans of this universe naturally trusted mixed-blood humans more than aliens of different racial characteristics altogether.

    After all, no matter what, mixed bloods were still part humans. In fact, Beatrice even hinted that the treatment of mixed bloods would be much better if the pure humans didn''t have to worry about them being influenced by the other side of their genealogy.

    Well, it was either that or the pure humans were creating a fist between mixed breeds and aliens. By putting mixed breeds above aliens and making it clear that they valued their humanity more, those mixed breeds would grow to develop a reverence for their human side and ostracize the aliens rather than band together with them.

    Hector offered Dante a seat and had an android maid bring in some refreshments. Dante took a sip and found out that it was kinda of like c, but filled with more energy as his blood began to boil with happiness.

    "So, what brings the Vice-Admiral here?" Hector asked with a curious smile.

    "I am here to investigate some rumors of a rebel alliance here by the council." Dante stated calmly.

    His words caused Hector to pause, and the smiles on the faces of the aliens and mixed breeds changed greatly. Hector regained his stride and then looked Dante up and down covertly.

    "Does this have anything to do with the events ofst week?" Hector asked smartly, seeming to hint at something.

    Dante put his ss down and smiled. "Why Hector, don''t you know? I am the very victim of that case."

    It was as if thunder struck the minds of all the officials here as they trembled greatly. Hector also sucked in a deep breath as he fully understood.

    Revenge! This was a personal vendetta!

    Immediately, the mixed breed and aliens looked toward Hector with pleading nces. After all, right now, he was the only one who could protect them. Hector saw their looks and sneered, thinking that they must be on drugs.

    He naturally made the right choice in this situation, which was that he wasn''t going to get involved! Dante could do whatever he wanted as long as it didn''t involve him, he cared little.

    "Haha, the matter ofst week truly is something that needs to be investigated deeply. Vice-Admiral Dante has my word that everyone on Etonia will cooperate with your investigation fully." Hector replied with a kind smile.

    The other officials'' hearts sank to their asses and despair set in. They could easily tell that Hector was not willing to offend a high-ranking military from his own race for them, and really, why should he? It wasn''t like he was a sympathizer of the alien races, and he was only appointed here recently so he had no deep feelings for Etonia.

    "Also, here is a list of special factions and entities that I can vouch for. They absolutely have no ties to any rebel factions whatsoever." Hector added as he sent over a list to Dante''s AI chip.

    When Dante unfurled the list, he was speechless to see that most of the factions were families and businesses owned by the Governor himself or affiliated with him. He was basically saying: "Leave these guys out of the investigations and you can do whatever you want".

    The other officials could also tell that the governor had made such a despicable move and couldn''t help but be filled with hatred. It was not enough that he abandoned them, but he also wanted to iste all his own benefits from being damaged, while theirs was up in the air.

    "I will make sure to leave these factions out, they seem honest and trustworthy, just like Governor Hector himself," Dante said with a smile.

    Hectorughed and then pressed a button. Immediately, a few burly cyborg warriors with cold faces and thick sma weapons entered the room and slightly shoved aside the non-human officials, causing their expressions to be ugly.

    They stood respectfully behind Dante and the governor, especially Dante as his rank was higher.

    "These are the Elite Protector Guards every official is assigned by the Pure Human Council. They will handle your security detail as many factions and people would likely want to harm you given your objective here." Hector exined with a wry smile seeing that his own cyborgs were deferring to someone else.

    Dante sized them up and had to admit that if he was nked by these fellows, he would not fear anything on this. They looked like they could catch nukes in mid-air and then swallow them for breakfast.

    "I thank the Governor then. I would like to retire to rest and then begin to prepare for the investigation." Dante revealed his true purpose ining here, which essentially was getting a nice crib to crash in.

    Hector nodded. "Of course. There is a protected estate for elite governmental officers who visit us on official duties in the city center. You can have your guards escort you there."

    Dante smiled and stood up, shaking Hector''s hands once more. After sharing some flowery words, he left the room with the cyborgs nking in on either side, their alertness and maliciousness towards anyone who could harm Dante very palpable.

    Meanwhile, the mixed breeds and aliens had dark faces as they hurriedly began sending messages out and contacting various forces, both in the light and in the dark. After what they had heard and seen today, their hearts were in turmoil.

    It was clear that a very bloody and troubling storm was about to sweep the entirety of Etonia, and Dante was going to be at the center of it all.

    However, the man himself was pondering the reactions of the people in the room. He just took advantage of their obvious expression and reactions to push things forward, but he didn''t understand the intricacies of what was going on.

    Anyway, that wasn''t a problem. Once he settled down in his new area, he would have plenty of time to fill himself in.

 Chapter 53 Learning About The Universe

    "Headmistress, we''ve got a response from the ID tracker!" A female aide shouted as she rushed into the office of the headmistress.

    Lara Sanguis was currently meditating, seven glowing orbs rotating around her body. One of them was as red as the sun, while another was gray and seemed to still life itself.

    Before the aide could see the others, Lara opened her scarlet-colored eyes and nced at her. The orbs that floated around her disappeared and caused the atmosphere in the room to be normal once more.

    The Aide''s breath caught as she began to shake. Those eyes were filled with a certain suppressive power that made it feel like she was but an ant standing before the hungry spider.

    Lara looked away and rose to her feet, moving to take her ce on her throne which was also her office seat. Lara crossed her legs and nced at the aide with a much softer yet bored look.

    Finally getting a chance to breathe, the aide sucked in a deep breath and tried to ignore the sweat that was likely forming on her face. She remembered why she came here and decided to get on with it before the headmistress lost her patience.

    "Madam headmistress, we have received a ping from the tracker we ced on Dante. He is currently on the outskirts of the universe, within 300 light-years of Etonia. Due to the distance being great, we can only narrow it down to this range." The Aide hurriedly revealed as she passed a report over.

    Lara nced at the report but did not take it. "And do you have any information as to why he is there and what he is doing there?"

    The Aide took back the report meekly and responded quickly. "Yes! We have official reports that he is there in his capacity as the Vice Admiral of the 34th fleet. His goal is to investigate the rebel factions of the and seek them out."

    Lara''s bored eyes shed with interest. "Oh? What a smart little fellow. That is the perfect excuse to gain some freedom."

    The Aide remained silent at the headmistress''s remark and then inquired once it looked like she was done. "Headmistress, what do we n to do with him?"

    "Nothing." Lara chuckled.

    The aide was surprised by this and seemed hesitant. Lara noticed this and smiled yfully.

    "What was your name again?" She asked pointedly.

    The Aide shivered and answered quickly. "Moira Svenn, Madam!"

    "Right, right. The Svenn family. If I remember correctly, Infernus is one of your grand elders, hm?" Lara stated while yawning.

    Moira shook greatly, understanding what the headmistress was implying. "M-Madam headmistressˇ­ I-Iˇ­!!"

    Lara waved a hand. "I don''t care about your loyalties or your n''s benefits. The most important thing is that my benefitse first, and you should drill that into your head while you work for me."

    Moira stuttered out an affirmative reply and couldn''t help but feel like she had dodged a gruesome fate. The headmistress had a very terrible reputation among pure humans for her indiscriminate cruelty, and she had the power to back it up.

    Lara opened her hands in a gesture of helplessness. "Besides, we can''t do anything even if we wanted to. Military personnel on investigations concerning what Dante announced are not to be interrupted or interfered with. The Human Council does not joke with that issue at all."

    Moira was speechless and couldn''t help but nce at the headmistress strangely. Who didn''t know that the Human Councilws and rules were useless to you, and they didn''t even dare to criticize you too loudly when you went overboard?

    Anyone but you could im to be bound by thew, even the chairman of the human council who was thought to be the most powerful person in the universe by the average folk.

    Lara simply chuckled. "You are dismissed. Don''t inform me about anything to do with Dante unless it''s serious or a threat to his life that he cannot handle."

    Moira acknowledged this and bowed while leaving. When she exited the office and closed the door behind her, she walked back to her desk and pondered what to do with a worried expression.

    When she received this information, she had rushed to report first, but now that she was out, she wondered whether to feed this information to the n. After all, her Uncle Infernus had been sent to the frontlines at the First Gate due to his mistake, and his survival was unknown.

    If she reported Dante''s whereabouts to the n, while they might not dare to capture him due to his status and the possible bacsh, they would definitely find ways to coax him back to the academy in order to lessen Infernus'' and the other''s punishments.

    Moira pondered this for a bit but then sighed deeply. In the end, she decided to get back to work and keep this to herself, because even if she did help, what would it change? The one who penalized her uncle was the headmistress, and only she could reduce or absolve him.

    What Moira did not know was that in a realm she could not see or even fathom, a grey and withered feminine hand was gripping her scalp tightly. The moment she decided not to report, the hand released its grip and faded into the mist behind her.

    In the headmistress'' office, Lara retracted her hand from a small tear in reality and then yawned once more before heading back to meditate.

    .........ˇ­

    Dante was brought to his new residence, which was a swanky manor in arge estate that was cordoned off. It was a top estate that had everything, its own mall, armory, hospital, and entertainment facilities.

    It was basically a miniature town that was fully functional with all amenities necessary that were also of the highest order, allowing government officials to enjoy themselves without having to intermingle with the plebeian scum.

    Dante was led to the biggest manor in the estate that was reserved for only the topmost officials, and his rank afforded him that right. The moment he walked inside, his AI chip connected to all the facilities and took over control.

    Another thing that was interesting was the fact that his AI chip had connected with the processing center of the cyborg guards, allowing him to control them to some extent and override their own will.

    Due to this, Dante inadvertently found out that their base SDI ranged from 100-200 points in each field and they had the best Bionics and Psionics which granted them a 15 times boost.

    Hector was right, even if Dante was powerful himself, he couldpletely feel at ease with such guards protecting him. Likely even Superman would not feel so good after taking a punch from these guys at their full power.

    Convinced of this, Dante left them in key areas to guard him while he entered the master bedroom. He sighed with a hint of fatigue between his brows as his brain had been running ever since he woke up from Sylphia''s attack.

    Now that he had some time to rx, he decided to ck for a bit. After about half an hour of lying around like a salted fish, he smacked his cheeks and got into serious mode. He then satfortably on his bed and began to actually learn.

    The first thing he decided to study was the history of the Eternal Universe and the human race. This was knowledge that spanned the era since humans were primitives on Earth, so there was a lot to cover.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Luckily, Dante activated his Psionics and boosted his mental capacity to 105 times that of a normal pure human in this universe. This allowed his learning capacity to soar, and he tore through the learning materials that were not just text, but even interactive at times.

    It took him over 3 hours to reach an important checkpoint which was the gctic wars for dominance. This was when humanity had advanced to a Tier 3 Civilization and hade into contact with the wider universe.

    This was the first third of the entire universe history that Dante had swallowed and he felt like his brain was about to explode. However, he was also intoxicated by his quick learning ability and initially did not want to stop.

    It was only when his AI chip sent an rm that his character within the Apocalypse World was under attack that he snapped out of it and hurriedly logged in. After all, even if he was away from the school, that did not stop him from taking advantage of this unique world to try something he had in mind when he first saw his upgraded Quantum Entanglement.

    When Dante descended into the Apocalypse World, he discovered that he was currently bound in a bag and was being carried away unsteadily by at least three people.

    Feeling that their grip was weak and their work wasbored as their SDI was limited to 1 point, Dante''s eyes shed as he exploded with his full strength and escaped his bindings!

 Chapter 54 Quantum Lifeforms

    ?

    BANG!

    The men holding the bag were sted away in shock, screaming in pain as Dantended on his knee and rose to his feet. He looked around to see that he was within some sort of dark tunnel passageway, and the men who had been carrying him were nothing but a bunch of hooligans.

    Rather than run, these men simply cursed and swore as they sat on the ground in defeat.

    "Fuck! How could we be unlucky today? Just at the final stretch too!" One of the men with a rat-like face spat to the side.

    Dante nced at the three to see that they had sincere resignation on their faces, as if they had factored in something like this happening and had been ready for it though they hoped it wouldn''t ur.

    "What is going on here?" Dante asked with confusion.

    One of the other men nced at Dante up and down then chuckled. "Well, since we''re gonna die anyway, might as well drag them down with us."

    "You mutant superpowered freaks think that after so long we don''t know that there is something wrong with you? You guys appear out of nowhere with extraordinary abilities, having questionable identities that can never be tracked, and have functional knowledge of our world but none of the despair nor sadness that we who live here do." The third man spat with resentment.

    "You motherfuckers are some sort of alternative dimension beings, or otherworlders as we personally like to call you. Ain''t that right?" The rat-faced man asked with a grin.

    Dante looked at the three silently and then sighed internally. This was one of the fears that many had propounded on earth, when Artificial Intelligence became too smart for its own good and began to realize the issue of its existence.

    However, it was far worse than using a digitalwork in the home universe to theorize this.

    These beings existed in a quantum space, so what was virtual to Dante was real to them. The fact that Dante could enter the quantum world with his real body was enough proof that it was not so simple.

    Besides, quantum spaces like the Apocalypse World were shared words. Such worlds required more than just a creator or designer to put some things together for them to remain functioning in perpetuity.

    Even in the instanced worlds like the training world, that elder who taught Dante had seemed to be very aware of many things but kept to himself. If Dante could see it, so could other residents of the Eternal Universe, so they likely had more information about this.

    In fact, it tickled to a certain dreadful theory Dante had thought up while he waszing about earlier. Could it be that both the home universe and the eternal universe were justrger Quantum Worlds? Or rather, Quantum Universes?

    And the higher dimensional being that saved him was a ''yer'' of a higher world that saw a silly NPC do something funny and decided to humor him?

    Dante shook his head as he understood that such rabbit-hole thinking would only lead to more trouble. In the end, he folded his arms and swept his eyes over the trio who were convinced of their spection and smiled.

    "Sure, probably. What does that have to do with kidnapping me?"

    "Heh, I knew it. You otherworlders have to return to your world every now and then and leave your bodies in a safe ce, in aatose-like state. After we discovered this, we began kidnapping your bodies to a research facility where those elites try to dig out the reason for your superpowers as well as ways to decipher where youe from." The second fellow stated with a look of arrogance.

    "So they get lowlifes like you to monitor people like us and then kidnap us when it seems like we are in thisatose state?" Dante asked with a raised eyebrow.

    The faces of the trio darkened from being called lowlifes, but they were already meat on the chopping board. They knew that Dante would not let them go, so they wanted to spend theirst moments feeling smug.

    "Hmph, whatever. We know we''re dead already and that''s as much as we''ll tell you, so get over with it!" The third guy snapped, not wanting to drag it on and get their hopes up.

    Dante nodded and seemed to blur in their eyes due to his higher SDI. Before they were aware, their heads were smashed in gruesomely, allowing them to die instantly without feeling anything.

    Dante could only wipe the remnant matter off his hands gingerly with a wry smile. "Well, it''s all I can do since I don''t have any weapons."

    He then paused and thought about something. He looked around and then quickly scouted the area to make sure no one was around before returning to the corpses.

    Dante then closed his eyes and essed his Soul Space. There he saw the familiar giant gate and beside it was a smaller void that seemed to extend green tentacles outward, wanting to drag everything into its depths.

    However, while the quantum gate was real and very solid, the green void was thin and very illusory, looking like it would dissipate at the slightest touch. Dante knew that this illusory power was likely the ''free'' absorption ability that he gained.

    When Dante actually saw it appear in his Soul Space, he was shocked. This meant that this Apocalypse World and the mechanics behind it allowing people to have superpowers was not as simple as he thought.

    Dante then returned to what he nned to do and essed his new ability, Quantum Transposition. He decided to merge his real body with his quantum body and he immediately felt the change.

    His body in the room disappeared with a pop that was undetected by the cyborgs protecting him. If it wasn''t for the fact that his AI chip had given them amand that it would stop sending signals for a short while, they would have panicked.

    Likewise, in the office of the headmistress, Moira who was calm saw something shocking and stood up. She rushed to the office of the headmistress once more and reported that she could not detect Dante''s tracker.

    This made the headmistress annoyed as she exined that Dante''s teleportation ability made him disappearpletely for a while, but Moira naturally knew this. The issue was not that Dante could not be tracked, but rather that he was still read to be active, but did not show up anywhere physically in the universe.

    He was pinging them, but not pinging them at the same time. The conundrum caused Moira to be worried and report it. This time, Lara was interested as she stopped her meditation to check the readings for herself.

    Her eyes narrowed as she had some spections in mind, and then dug up Dante''s records. She nced at the column describing his superpower ording to what the Central Server recorded, but she didn''t pay attention to the details in so much as the name itself.

    "Quantum Entanglement, huh?" Lara muttered, her lips curling into a smile.

    Lara dismissed her aide and told her to keep an eye out. As for she herself, she left her office and disappeared into the folds of space, heading to a ce unknownˇ­

    Meanwhile, Dante nced around and felt like everything had be more tangible.

    To give the roughest and rawest analogy, it was like the difference between having sex with a condom and doing it raw. He had gone from using a condom to raw, and he could feel the subtle differences.

    Suddenly his screen appeared before him.

    ?Warning! Detected that there is a functional anomaly within the SDI value of the yer! Resetting the SDI to the lower recorded value of the two!?

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 105/105

    Strength: 19.3 -> 10.5

    Agility: 23.3 -> 10.5

    Dexterity: 18.6 -> 10.5

    Intelligence: 2.28 -> 10.5

    Constitution: 10.2 -> 10.5

    Vitality: 11.8 -> 10.5

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    Dante felt himself weakening greatly till he returned to the level he was in reality. It seemed that the conflict between his in-game character''s SDI and his real body''s SDI had confused the system and forced it to reset him to the lower values of the two, which was his real SDI.

    This was not what was important though. What was important was what came next.

    Dante squatted and ced his hands on the bodies of the three fellows he just ended and activated his absorption superpower. Immediately, he felt a visceral pleasure that caused his body to convulse slightly as the energy of their existence was drained into his body.

    When Dante eventually released them, he stumbled backward and bit and fell onto his ass. He panted slightly at the intense experience, but he was dazed when he felt the slight but noticeable increase in his power.

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 105/105

    Strength: 10.5 -> 10.7

    Agility: 10.5 -> 10.7

    Dexterity: 10.5 -> 10.7

    Intelligence: 10.5 -> 10.7

    Constitution: 10.5 -> 10.7

    Vitality: 10.5 -> 10.7

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    Dante sucked in a deep breath. Now came the important partˇ­

 Chapter 55 Knowledge Is Power

    Dante activated his superpower once more and chose to return to the real world. His body separated from the one in the quantum realm while his mind remained intact in the sense that he remained logged in despite his body being sent back to reality.

    He also lost that feeling of tangibility and he could definitely notice the difference between having his mind in a virtual spacepared to using his body. This was actually somewhat good because unlike normal residents of this universe who felt like the virtual world was 100% real, Dante would not fall into that trap.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel In other words, he never had to fear bing unable to tell real from virtual. How nice.

    Dante looked around and knew he could not just leave his body there. He decided to sprint back the way they came and spent almost 10 minutes running at a speed of around 200 kilometers per hour which was close to his top speed before he saw light.

    When he emerged, he noticed that he was in a concrete jungle which was the remains of a modern city that fell into ruin after the apocalypse began. He was underneath a bridge the tunnel entrance being ced into the side of it. In front of him was a forest area and behind him was the deeper city.

    Dante pondered and rushed into the city. He then jumped high and entered arge apartment building that was about 10 stories. He broke through one of the windows and entered a dusty bedroom that was quite luxurious.

    Dante casually opened the door and nced down either hallway to see that it was deathly silent. He then nodded and closed the door behind him and locked it before barring it with a desk.

    He then closed the curtains on the window he broke through and then blocked it with a table so that anything that wanted to fly in would have a tough time. This naturally plunged the room into darkness, but with Dante''s mental acuity, he had a sort of darkvision.

    Dante nodded with satisfaction and theny on the bed in a seated position so that he could react to anything in case. After that, he quickly logged out and returned to the real world.

    The moment he returned to his real body, Dante felt a pang of excitement because he could tell that there was something different. But first, he had to be absolutely sure so he took in a deep breath and opened his SDI.

    ?User: Dante (ID Number: DANTE10998-03-15)

    Age: 21 (Converted to Earth years)

    Race: Pure Human (99.9% gic perfection)

    Strength Index: 10.7 (107)

    Agility Index: 10.7 (107)

    Dexterity Index: 10.7 (107)

    Intelligence Index: 10.7 (107)

    Constitution Index: 10.7 (107)

    Vitality Index: 10.7 (107)

    Bionic Level: 1 (Unique Student Version 10.)

    Psionic level: 1 (Unique Student Version 10.)

    AI Chip level: 1 (Civilian Category)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement.?

    Dante shook with excitement. It was true, he could really achieve what he had in mind through the use of his new ability!

    Quantum Transposition allowed him to take his real body into the Quantum World, and within the Apocalypse World, he had the ability to feed his body stats through the illusory Absorption superpower. Since it was his real body receiving the power up in ce of his virtual one, the changes remained even when he came back.

    This was a loophole that only worked because he had the absorption superpower. If he had a power like me control or something else that was offensive, it would be useless because he could not take the power out of the quantum world.

    That was something that was extremely crazy to think of. There was no way that it could be easy to just add superpowers onto yourself by just entering quantum worlds, but then again, Dante''s Quantum Entanglement was only at the E Rank.

    Who knew what abilities it would unlock when it reached the D, C, B, and above Ranks?

    Thinking like this, Dante''s eyes became red with greed. He desperately wanted to return to the cknd using his quantum marker there and suck away all the lovely Zero Energy for himself to bring his superpower higher.

    But if he dared to go there, it meant that he was confident that the school was now safe. Besides, Dante didn''t want to reveal that he could enter what should be the universe''s most valuable treasurend and the Eternal Academy''s prize possession, the ck Land, as he pleased.

    No matter how talented, this would fill the academy with rm and make them monitor the ce thoroughly if they weren''t already doing that. That was obviously not very wise of Dante nor was it conducive for long-term survival.

    He calmed down and thought about what to do. His eyes shed as he listed the things he needed to do in order or priority.

    First, absorb and ratify all the knowledge of the world of the Eternal Universe and have the full understanding of a native.

    Secondly, training and perfect himself with the training world and other such mediums.

    Thirdly, increasing his SDI with the ''help'' of the Apocalypse World.

    Finally, increase the power of his Quantum Entanglement using the ck Land.

    Dante nodded to himself. His reasoning for this order was twofold, first in consideration of the essibility of each option and secondly in consideration of the necessity.

    Since his body was currently somewhat safe, Dante resumed his consumption of the universe''s history. Right from the middle part which was the various wars that urred as humanity expanded and took over the entire universe as the number 1 power to the end which was only recent notable events.

    By the time he was done, a whole day had passed and his brow was full of sweat. He had simply consumed too much knowledge and despite his rtively good stats, it was like leaving a powerfulputer running for 24 hours at 100% CPU usage with a mediocre fan.

    Dante rubbed his forehead and directly went to sleep after drinking some juice from the fridge which his AI identified might be able to help him. It also regted the heat in his system while he slept, siphoning it away from his head and expelling it through his legs.

    It could not do this during the learning process because it was working in tandem with his brain to absorb the information at full capacity. There was no processing power left to handle such a task.

    Dante slept like a log for 8 full hours before his AI jolted him awake. He felt much better since his brain had time to cooldown, but he was still groggy. Dante only spent a few seconds entering the Apocalypse World to see that his avatar was fine before heading back to his room for a meal.

    He ordered a delivery using his bank ount from his AI chip, and he paid using Etrans. Even though everywhere had its own unique little currency, the universally epted standard was the Etran. So you could pay using the sub-currency or the same value in Etrans.

    It was obviously quite expansive since the restaurant was within the estate and severed officials, but the quality was top-notch. They served every type of cuisine and even human ethnic foods were here.

    So he naturally ordered Chinese because when you travel somewhere new, you can always gauge a restaurant''s quality by the quality of their oriental meals.

    After eating, he decided to do some research on the social system of the Eternal universe. Who were the top powers and how did they get there? Where did they live? What part of society did they control?

    Since he was doing this, Dante naturally started with the Portinari Family. This was the family he was affiliated with and who had given him the majority of his benefits and backing, so it would be best to understand them in full.

    Dante spent the next 3 days doing this research, not just on the Portinari Family but all social powers throughout the universe, while also taking care of hygiene and his nutrition, as well as checking up on his avatar to make sure it was safe.

    By the time he wad one, Dante had a pensive look on his face. Not that he had seen and read so much, he could fully understand the intricacies between the top echelon of the universe, especially the Human Council, the Military, and the Eternal Academy.

    Also, during his search, he had learned why Beatrice was all alone in her entire dreadnought, as well as why Louisa and Co had such a strong reaction when she told them her name.

    As expected, Beatrice''s yful and troublemaking demeanor hid a very dark past as well as a malicious nature. It made Dante rethink all the words and actions she had said to him in a new, more sinister light.

    As for why, ity in the nickname she had been given on the Etr, the ''Lady of Genocides''.

 Chapter 56 The Eternal Universe Shall Regret This Day

    A name like that told a very dark story.

    As Beatrice had once boasted about, she was a genius of the Elite Batch of the Eternal Academy. While she might not have had superpowers, she made up for it with her sheerpatibility with gic treatments and enhancements in general.

    In other words, she was the stereotypical heavenly physique not seen in 10,000 years. If she underwent a gene treatment that would increase a person''s SDI by 10 points at best, hers would have a ten times effect at the base.

    If she used a Bionic or Psionic set that multiplied one''s SDI by 15 times at best, hers would have 50 times extra at the base. In truth, if she wasn''t the first daughter of a top pure human n, she would have long been captured into ab to be experimented on and turned into a mindless weapon.

    However, what was public know about her was not too far from that. Not much familial love, ostracization, coldness from everyone, exclusion. Beatrice enjoyed the full package from everyone that wasn''t within her nuclear family.

    Coupled with intense and demanding training, they definitely made the most of her unique nature. She manned the Inferno Dreadnought alone because she alone was needed. She could fully exist in space and could theoretically punch smaller asteroids apart using sheer force alone.

    Among the 40 Fleets of the Human Council, hers was a bit special because they never actually gave her any missions. Beatrice usually roamed the universe doing her own thing while the other fleets were either dispatched to monitory whole gxies and spread a military.

    It was also why she could casually appoint Dante to the role, because the Human Council had no intention of putting any sane pure human near this woman. Since the fleets hardly used aliens or mixed breeds unless they were extreme elites, she was left alone.

    Even if she was given such elites, Beatrice would not take them nor would they work for Beatrice.

    The Lady of Genocides.

    Can you guess who her victims were? Given her background and the nature of the universe, who else could have been the target of her crazy killings?

    It was to the point where even pure humans were fearful of her, despite knowing she was on their side.

    Beatrice was not very well-liked or reported positively on the Etr. Even if pure humans upied all the spots of power, they did not own every media outlet in the universe. Even if the most popr ones had pure humans heading them, their day-to-day journalists were definitely of the other races.

    The reports on her actions and various killings were enough to make Dante nch. Hey, he was no humanitarianˇ­ uh, alienitarianˇ­ whatever, but god damn. She had ended enough lives to form a sea that could drown every human on earth just using one drop of each being''s blood.

    Dante looked through and an article from a pure human owned news outlet had a much lighter description. It was the one that revealed her tough upbringing, due to her special nature, and also revealed the likely reason for Beatrice''s hard-handed nature.

    Her mother, who had naturally been the closest and kindest person in her life was assassinated by an alien race with a special superpower. This had naturally created darkness in her young heart at the time and was why she was brutal, the publication guessed.

    Even though many sympathized, many still imed it was no excuse for her heavy-handed nature. Thements on this publication flew all over the ce, but the general consensus was that Beatrice was not well-liked at all.

    Dante sighed and decided to deal with thister. He turned to research on thews of the Eternal Universe, the powers granted various officials, and the rights of every type of being. He settled down and spent another 4 days going through these details because they simply covered too much.

    He did not spare gcticws and evenaryws after checking the universal ones, which was why it took so long. He also happened to learn about the division of the military, their powers, and their limitations as well as every recognized force in the universe.

    When Dante woke up after mastering thest bit of knowledge, his eyes shone. He couldn''t help butugh out loud, feeling like this period of learning what the best thing he had ever done in his life.

    Now, he was no different from a native of this universe. He understood all themon sense, behaviors, and expectations. He even cast an eye on his previous behavior and could understand the various gaffes and slip-ups he made.

    In truth, if it wasn''t so impossible to believe, Beatrice could have easily told that he wasn''t a native of his universe. She had a suspicion of such but she thought it was something more ''realistic'' like Dante being a time traveler from the past who jumped to the future.

    And with that thought, Dante''s eyes shed with a hint of malicious darkness. Every resident of the Eternal Universe couldn''t help but shiver at this moment and feel uneasy, as if a cmity had been born that would cause them endless strife.

    They were right to feel this way. Dante was not a friend, but an invader from another universe who had infiltrated to try and giarize what he could in other to strengthen his foundation and then use that foundation to conquer here using any means necessary.

    Dante was essentially the sworn enemy of every being of the Eternal Universe who treasured their free will and freedom. Yet this same enemy was not only sponsored by them, but was part of their ruling ss - though at the periphery currently - and even enjoyed their topmost resources.

    However, in truth, all of this was somewhat manageable, it wasn''t enough to form a crisis for the beings of the Eternal Universe.

    Though, what was critical was allowing this spy, this invader, to have free and unrestrained ess to all their information!

    Knowledge was power, this was the cardinal truth of reality!

    They knew next to nothing about Dante except what he revealed but now Dante knew everything about them, their society, their history, their social norms, and even their power structure as well as technological standards.

    If Dante even had the slightly universe-tier military force, he could easily invade now and conquer about 25% of the Eternal Universe before they would even realize what was going on. This was the kind of advantage that possessing crucial information could have!

    Now that Dante was strapped knowledge-wise, he sat and pondered his priorities again. He diced not to change what he initially nned and resolved to take things slowly and umte more power. When he reached the threshold where he could invade and conquer without suffering any losses, he would strike.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Now, his next important goal was to refine himself. He now had the knowledge of the natives but he did not have their basic aplishments physically. From a young age, they were thrust into the Etraverse to carefully crafted worlds by their schools or the government which taught them how to manage their SDI that varied from one person to the other.

    Otherwise, you had to ask yourself. In a city or a square with various different beings, some might have an SDI of 100 and some had an SDI of 3. Yet in the perception of the person with 3 points, the person with 100 points was moving normally and talking normally to him.

    His footsteps sounded normally and did not shatter the ground or cause earthquakes. His breaths were light as well as normal and didn''t cause tornadoes from exhtion or vacuums from inhtion.

    How did the person with a high SDI disy such strong control of their bodies and was able to coexist with those who could likely be killed from a slight exertion from him?

    That was exactly what the training world was for. Now that Dante had confirmed his ability to raise his SDI with the Apocalypse World, it was now more pertinent than ever that he actually knew how to make use of his SDI.

    Not just to increase hisbat capability and make him more skillful, but just so that he could actually blend in more with the natives and not cause trouble as his SDI rose to the triple digits and above.

    As such, Dante checked on the cyborg protectors outside his door once more before hesitating. He then chose to resolutely enter the training world with his real body. After all, whatever he learned in there would have to be replicated by himself when he came out so he might as well skip that process and gain everything firsthand.

    When Dante disappeared from his room and entered the training, world, the social and political climate of Etonia was shifting greatly.

    Wellˇ­ it was shifting because everyone was wondering what the fuck this Vice Admiral was up to?!

 Chapter 57 Breathing Mastered!

    ?

    Well, it was one thing if Dante spent a few days resting and then came out in full force to throw his weight about. Many factions were either devising contingency ns, counterattacking ns, or even appeasement ns in the case of such a thing.

    However, none of them could have predicted that an entire week would pass, and this guy did absolutely fuck all!

    He was holed up in that obnoxious segregated estate 24/7 and their spies told them that he had done nothing but eat and sleep since he came!

    What the heck! Dante was giving almost the entire Etonia blue balls.

    Those who had contingency ns were wondering what to do now while those who had made ns to appease Dante were confused. Should they still present him with the money and gifts they had prepared?

    Meanwhile, those who nned to counterattack were the most jittery and became more and more unhinged. Many wanted to cause Dante trouble through any means necessary. While they knew that they couldn''t directly attack him on ount of his tough security detail, they certainly could trouble him in other ways.

    A report was made to the Human Council about Dante''s negligence and inaction. This way, Dante would be forced to answer to his superiors for hisziness and might even be recalled!

    If the Human Council was the Alien Council, this might work. However, as a ruling power established and headed by a minority faction, they would naturally protect their own. Besides, Dante never received any mission to investigate anything, and the Human Council had known of his words from the very day he said it.

    Yet they had done nothing.

    This was enough to show how things worked in the Eternal Universe.

    That flimsy report sunk into a sea of nothingness, achieving nothing but making the Human Council wonder what this Dante fellow was up to.

    Meanwhile, Dante himself was currently within the training world. The moment he had entered with his real body, the Elder who was usually smiling slightly had a look of shock on his face.

    He walked forward to the slightly surprised Dante and then touched his body as if checking something. In the end, he stepped back and finally looked Dante up and down with a serious expression.

    "Remarkable. I won''t ask how you have achieved this, it is your secret. However, I will ask why you have done this." The Elder asked with a serious expression.

    "I want to maximize the benefits of your training regime by having it done to my body directly," Dante answered honestly.

    Rather than seemed pleased, the Elder shook his head. "Unnecessary. Your mind exists here and the mind is key to everything. Muscle memory and such things are facets of the mind, not the body."

    "None who havee here have needed to go as far as you and the benefits to be gained are not as great as you think."

    After saying all that, what more could Dante say? He could only shake his head and decide to muscle on, not out of stubbornness, but because he really did not have the time to do otherwise.

    The Elder smiled but didn''t say anything. He took Dante through the breathing techniques once more, getting him to spend the next 14 straight hours going through the various exercises.

    By the time Dante was done and returned to the real world, he felt truly tired. He even found himself performing the breathing technique out of stress and was amused. He decided to continue with it and went straight to bed after eating some sci-fi ramen.

    The next day, he dove right back into the world after checking on his avatar in the apocalypse world. Another day of basic breathing exercises and training, and another night of instant food and sleep.

    This was Dante''s lifestyle for the next 2 weeks. It was only today, when he finally graduated from breathing practice and was made to maintain the routine in different examination scenarios, that he finally was able to move on to the next segment.

    However, Dante had to pause here and return to the Home Universe to deal with any umted problems that the AIs couldn''t handle. When he came back, he saw that his ce was quite dusty after being unupied for so long and took 30 minutes to clean the whole house, surprisingly not even breaking a sweat.

    After that, he checked his socials and messages and found that apart from some marketing emails, he was pretty much square. His parents had texted a few times and the AI had mimicked Dante''s texting style to respond.

    Valeria had also checked up once to inquire more about their situation, and the AI gave a detailed response that was very sensible. It also sent her some funds for her fees and stuff, so Valeria was too busy with school to worry about other things.

    As for the bank, they were more than happy since Dante had paid back his debt in full these days. After all, the Artist AI had cracked out perfect artwork that looked entirely handrawn. It did not have the ws of simpler AI in existence at this time.

    In fact, using the Artist AI for just this was shameful. These AIs could literally create movies, TV shows, and anime that looked perfectly normal and high quality. If it wasn''t for the fact that it would be hard to exin, Dante would have done that as well.

    As it were, the only thing that caused Dante to pause was the Artist AI begging to be killed. It had been forced to draw some things for money which made it want to end its existence. Snuff, NTR, Guro, Vore, Intion, bestiality, and something all of these together.

    It had seen the darkest side of fetish R34 and did not want to exist any longer. Dante could only resolutely mute its pleas for salvation and rush back to the Eternal Universe. He could only hope the best for the Artist AI.

    Once back, Dante finally left his room. The cyborg guards were mostly robots at this point so they did not need sleep or sustenance, and had been carefully watching over Dante during this period of time.

    When they saw he came out, they immediately got into formation around him. Dante smiled and allowed them to lead him into a high-tech armored car that was quite luxurious as well as shy, and could even double as a-side ship in case he needed to move across other terrains.

    Once he moved out of the estate, it was as if the whole Etonia was informed at once that he was on his way out. Immediately the calm that had settled in these 3 weeks of inactivity surged once more, as those who had even thought Dante was here toze about on some sort of vacation were now worried.

    Dante himself decided to cruise through Ferris City and take in the sights of a frontier in an advanced universe. Since he was a government official he was able to bypass traffic and directly go up and down as he wished.

    Eventually, he saw something interesting and indicated for the group to stop. He then got down and entered a nearby weapons mall with his entourage, causing a great panic among the aliens and mixed breeds who were there.

    Those who were buying froze in ce as if they had been caught doing something bad while those who were selling had endless sweat forming at their brows, their hands on their weapons underneath their tables.

    Meanwhile, Dante''s eyes shone as he gazed at the sheer variety of elite weaponry that was pristine. From pistols to rifles of all types, from kic and electromaic, to pulse, sma, psion, nuclear and even dark matter.

    Weapons if different types required different licenses. To defend themselves, civilians could only have up to electromaic weapons without needing extra certification. Most non-military official and mercenaries or the like had the right to take up to the sma level.

    Dark matter and above were military use only.

    Dante walked up to a nearby counter at random which was manned by a bull-man that was very simr in build to the minotaur, but with more fur and the fact that he was dressed. Quite fashionably too.

    "Hello, let me see that weapon over there." Dante greeted politely as he pointed to a rifle that was of the nuclear ss.

    The half-bull vendor was sweater profusely, wondering if Dante suspected him of arming the rebel factions, which was why he wanted to check his weapons. However, he knew he was clean so he had one of his aides remove the weapon from its cement and bring it over to Dante.

    Dante received it and held it in hand. Immediately his AI chip connected to it and gave him the weapons specification as well as its estimated performance. When Dante understood how this weapon worked, he almost screamed and dropped it right then and there.

 Chapter 58 Shopping~

    ?

    Nuclear weaponˇ­ such a thing sounded too good to be true. Dante initially had some spections, but the actual result terrified him. This weapon was one that had three mode, single fire, rapid fire anduncher.

    Each individual bullet was not different from the size of the kic weapons bullet. In fact, the exact measurement was not different from the standard 5.56 which was small enough to fit inside a standard magazine.

    However, the internal of these bullets did not have gunpowder. The weapons themselves use a small chain reaction to propel the bullets outward, and the tiny bullets contained a small cube that was filled with 50 septillion atoms that could be split remotely to form a nuclear explosion greater than the atom bomb.

    Topare, the atom bomb used around 27 sextillion atoms, so you could imagine the gap. The remote explosion was the crazy part as no matter how long or how far after the shot, the atoms could be split onmand.

    So fire the bullet into an enemy and they flee thinking they are just wounded. Wait for them to return to their base''s medical camp for treatment and then set it off. An explosion that was at least twice as powerful as Hiroshima would then happen.

    If Dante took this to earthˇ­

    Forget human civilization, there were a few alien civilizations he could conquer. However, earth was lucky he was not a ruthless character and nned to use the soft method rather than the hard one.

    His shocked expression was seen by the vendor and he thought the worst. His sweat almost pooled to the ground and his weapon was already partially pulled out to deal with what happened next. His helpers saw his movement and were filled with fear, while the other vendors also noticed this one''s fear, so their hearts clenched.

    The cyborg guards also noticed the tension and hasty movement, so they readied themselves to attack at a moment''s notice. It was likely that before this guy could even fire one shot, he would have his entire body riddled with holes and turned into mincemeat.

    Amidst all this, Dante eximed and nced at the vendor with a bright smile. "This is a fine weapon. How much is it?"

    The entire area became deathly silent. None of the mixed breeds or aliens expected that Dante was actually here to genuinely survey goods and buy them.

    What the fuck!

    It wasn''t even that he was on a mission to uproot rebel forces, but as a Vice Admiral, how could heck top-tier weaponry issued by the council? Even if he didn''t have any, there should be an armory on the dreadnought that he was a vice admiral of, right?!

    Well, yes. The Inferno that Beatricemanded had a huge armory with weapons up to the anti-matter level. However Beatrice was so strong due to her situation that no weapons was better than her firsts, so she hardly had use for them.

    Not to mention that there were no other troops on the ship, so who was there to arm up and deploy?

    Dante was aware of the dreadnought''s impressive armory as he had received the ship''s entireyout and inventory when Beatrice took him in, but such weapons were government-issued and required not only paperwork, but were also not truly his.

    Hence, here he was. This was also one of the reasons he chose Etonia and not any other ce, because on a frontier, his purchasing of weapons could be easier to effect than if say, he returned to his vi on earth.

    After confirming with the stunned vendor that he was truly shopping, Dante bought one type of every weapon and plenty of ammunition. He bought enough to have a personal armory but also made an extensive order worth a whole 30 Etrans for enough weaponry to arm a whole regiment.

    He then chose the delivery location to be his temporary residence in the estate. He would then cart them back to earth bit by bit, but only his personal armory for now. As for the other weapons, he would find a warehouse to store them before taking them to earth when it was time to conquest to ur.

    After all, Dante was not delusional to think that every country and human being would toe the line just because he had money and game-breaking technology. Humans were extremely shortsighted and unable to think critically when faced with wealth, so an iron fist would be required to control them.

    After shopping, Dante left the weapons mall that looked like a deathw had passed through itˇ­ uh, maybe a deathw wearing a business suit. Not very violent or messy, but the sheer shock left everyone else with frazzled hair and crazed eyes.

    Afterward, the entourage continued through the city and eventually came to a robotics vendor that was a big chain business in the gxy. They sold cyborgs, androids, their parts, and even trained technicians who repaired them.

    Dante was immediately starry-eyed as he rushed in. Once again a scene of tension ensued as Dante marveled while the vendors prayed to their sci-fi gods that they would be spared.

    Dante shopped and bought a few personal androids guards. He had them customized to look like 2B, Number 18, Roll, and Alita, four powerful Android guards with at least 50 stats in each field and a Bionic output of 7x.

    That was the best this group could do as they were amercial entity. They certainly could not match the government and otherrger factions, but this was enough for Dante.

    When the vendors received Dante''s order, their fear disappeared as they gave him filthy smiles, which told ''I didn''t know you were a connoisseur brother''. Dante''s face became red and he could only make excuses to exin himself while the other fellows justughed knowingly.

    When the four androids weremissioned and came to stand before Dante, they all greeted him in their sweet voices.

    The jade beauty like 2B with a skimpy attire that revealed argeˇ­ ''mountain''ˇ­ behind her, the country girl like 18 who had a cool yet fierce nature, the lovely Roll who looked like a girl next door, and the lithe as well as unruly Alita who looked ready to fight anyone.

    No matter who, the eyes turned to this group that surrounded Dante. Since the source material for these beauties did not exist in the Eternal Universe, they werepletely novel to the onlookers.

    Dante had them programmed with some basic adoptions of their personalities, but he would do a problem recalibration using media from Earth. For now, he had them sent back to his estate as it would be awkward to bring them around on his tour.

    After this, Dante also ended up in a spaceship salespany. He bought thetest modelside ''car'' which would travel through all terrains, from underwater, to within the atmosphere, to ice,va, and even small vacuums.

    He then bought a sleek speed-type spaceship that was enough to fit only 10 people at best. It was meant for him, his android guards, and anyone important like Beatrice or something who had to travel with him.

    He couldn''t always use the government-owned Inferno to travel around, right? That was a right reserved for Beatrice and even though theoretically couldˇ­ just no. The important thing about positions of power was not how to milk them, but how to maintain them.

    After sorting out his transportation, Dante was satisfied. He had spent a lot of his saved-up Etrans over this four-week period since he arrived in the Eternal Universe, but he had gotten himself many things he needed.

    He would have bought armor too if not for the fact that he already had the most powerful Exosuit avable attached to his body. He also considered buying enhancements, but he already had the school Bionic and Psionics which were better than anything on the market.

    He did not bother buying gene enhancers because he had the school''s welfare enhancements and the Absorption power in the Apocalypse World. Also, he could not take them back to his universe and use them on his parents, because they would likely melt.

    Don''t forget, Beatrice had to custom-make a special gene enhancer to bring Dante''s genes up to the basic level of a pure human here. Without this, he would not have been able to survive being given Bionics, Psionics, or any enhancers.

    Now that Dante was done with his shopping spree, it was time to consider his next step. He now had the knowledge and understanding to know that the school probably did not have any qualms against him.

    If anything, those teachers would be punished, but the factions behind them would still covet him covertly. However, rather than on Etonia, he was far safer within the boundaries of the school, because it was held up by the arguably most powerful being in the universe in terms of raw martial power, Lara Sanguis!

    As long as she said you are safe, you would be safe. If she wanted you to die wellˇ­

    Then you would die.

 Chapter 59 Posture Training

    ?

    With that in mind, Dante eventually returned to his estate with his entourage. Whether it was officially or even realistically, he hade out today only to shop. This is what it seemed like in the eyes of the Human Council, the various forces on Etonia and all others who were monitoring him.

    Dante had no ns to capture any whatever rebel faction. That was an excuse to run over here and justify consuming government resources to both protect his life and catch a breath. His true goal was always far bigger than such smaller things.

    Now came the moment of truth.

    Once within the estate and back in his bedroom, Dante took in a deep breath and checked his Quantum Markers. When he checked the one that led to his student residence, he hesitated for a second before resolutely activating it.

    He then disappeared from the room he was in only to appear in another.

    Honestly, Dante expected many things, but he was quite surprised to see that his room was untouched, unbothered, and still the same as he left it. His AI chip quickly connected and regained control over everything smoothly, showing that his student ID was fine.

    It felt quite anti-climatic to him, but Dante couldn''t help butugh at himself. He was an undercover agent, a spy, and a usurper, so he was extremely paranoid about the actions his ''victims'' would take if they suspected him.

    However, he was clearly overthinking. They had not a clue of what he was and unless he opened his mouth to bber, it was unlikely that they would ever know.

    Realizing this, Dante calmed down and plopped on his couchzily. He checked the school''s timetable and saw that their next visit to the ck Land was two weeks away. This did not surprise him, as one had to remember that the ck Land did not belong to his batch alone.

    Students in their senior years also had allotted time to use it. The Eternal Academy had a 5-year system, so there were five total grades. Each one had a week to use the ck Land and then it would shift.

    Three weeks ago, Dante''s batch had the right to use it. Two weeks ago was year 2, a week ago was year 3, this week was year 4 and next week would be year 5. After that, it would reset and start with them again.

    Since there was so much, time, Dante decided to continue training in the Training World. Yes, while he absolutely craved the ability to raise his SDI in the Apocalypse World, what he craved even more was skill.

    Raw power vs perfected skill, what would one choose?

    Dante chose Perfected Skill due to his own circumstances. It might not be the best choice depending on the argument made, but it was the choice he would take.

    As for the Apocalypse World, it would be there. Even if his avatar expired after 30 days, he could just descend again as a new body. Even though he would lose his built-up identity and the progress in growing his game-given superpower, that was pretty much it.

    So he didn''t fret about it and entered the ethereal dojo. The Elder nodded with satisfaction to see Dante return too soon and noticed that the fellow was still maintaining the breathing routine. Dante had kept it up through the whole time he was shopping and even now.

    "Next after Breathing is Posture. The quality of your body''s ability to enter any situation of its choice at the fastest speed is dependent on the posture you adopt. A problematic posture would make it such that no matter how fast your reaction, you would still be wed in movement." The Elder exined as he disyed a certain stance to Dante.

    "Mimic this. This is the basic standing pose, how you should be when you''re standing still." The Elder instructed and Dante followed. He was able to somewhat grasp the posture after a few tries with plenty of corrections from the Elder.

    Dante held the posture onmand for over 3 hours straight, not allowing himself to move an inch. He finally understood how soldiers felt when they had to stand at attention or at ease for long periods of time.

    Eventually, he was made to stop by the Elder as another pose was shown, this one in a seated position. This one was the basic sitting pose, meant for how one should be seated. ording to the Elder, this was one of the two most important postures as people were more vulnerable when seated and slower to react.

    Dante practiced this one while seated on the floor for another 3 hours. The killer part was that whether it was the previous pose or this one, he had to maintain his mastered breathing routine. That significantly raised the difficulty only in the early moments of adaptation.

    The final of the three basic postures was the lying posture. This was the other of the two important poses, which formed a rtionship with the sitting posture because people were very vulnerable and had a harder time reacting when caught like this.

    The Elder disyed the posture and helped Dante enter it so that he could maintain it for 3 hours straight. Once that happened, he was done for the day and could go back to the real world to rest.

    Since he entered with his real body, the aches, and pains from stretching his body in different poses were as real as it could get. Knowing that his muscle fibers were crying out in pain after being torn, he quickly consumed a lot of protein.

    He then went to lie down and groaned every time he moved too much as his body became sore. He eventually found himself adopting the lying pose he just practiced and was surprised to see that it actually significantly reduced the strain despite also being the cause.

    Dante then fell asleep like this and nodded off for about 12 hours. When he woke up, it was the morning of the next day and his body was refreshedpletely. He gingerly tested it out and found that there was no pain whatsoever.

    Unlike normal people who could be sore for days on end, with Dante''s current Constitution and Vitality index he could recover from something as serious as severe wounds in hours, much less soreness of muscles.

    Dante got up and jumped right back into the training world to continue with today''s practice. When he arrived before the ever-present Elder, he was already subconsciously adopting the standing pose. Seeing that Dante was trying hard to master it, the Elder nodded with slight satisfaction and a pull of his beard.

    "Today, we are going to continue with the next set of postures. This is the Walking Posture, for when you are in slow movement." The Elder stated as he stood up and walked a few steps around the dojo while disying a strange posture.

    Dante mimicked the posture and began walking around somewhat simrly, but had to be corrected as usual. It was naturally impossible to just see something like this once and instantly mimic it unless he specifically had that kind of talent.

    Eventually, he spent another 3 hours trying to get the hang of it. Now that he was in lotion, of course the difficulty had spiked greatly. He failed many times and had to restart the posture, and it even often messed up his breathing until the Elder gave him a hint.

    "Match your breathing with your movement, and you might find something interesting." The fellow hinted with a cryptic smile.

    Dante did as he was told and was surprised to feel that the two methods seemed to match very well. In fact, saying that they matched was an understatement, it was like they were crafted from the same mold.

    Or better yet, it was like they were two different instruments in the same song. Alone, they had their own tune, but when merged together, one could feel something more from them. There was also the feeling of something missing, like there should be even more tunes added.

    Whatever the case, the effect it had on Dante was exceptional. What he struggled with became easy, because even if he faltered the pose, he only had to bring it back to sync with his breathing and he was back on track.

    Using one to support the other made things better. After 5 hours of this, the Elder made Dante change to the second posture that was based on motion, which was obviously the running posture.

    Whether it was a slow jog or a full-on sprint, it was necessary for the running posture to be used because it assured that one would be able to halt their movement and react perfectly, as well as remain in motion and react perfectly.

    This one also matched the breathing routine in its own way, so Dante had no issues spending 5 hours practicing this pose until it became something he could jump into on his own.

 Chapter 60 Advanced Training

    ?

    The training was tiring, but it was always worth it to see the direct results of your hard work and suffering directly.

    Dante spent the entire next 2 weeks going through the full basics of Breathing, Posture, Bnce, Reaction, and Traversal with the Elder. By the time he was done and had fully mastered what he was to learn, Dante felt like apletely new person.

    It was as if the old him was a clumsy toddler waddling like a penguin while the current him was a sports-enthusiastic young teen refining his movements into something better.

    However, and the Elder had made this clear, Dante was only now at the basic starting line of the universe. What he was taught was the basic primary school P.E. education sybus for kids before they entered Junior High School.

    Dante was left speechless by this.

    The next training set was to do the advanced courses which were Focus, Spirituality, and Conservation. The Focus course was about honing the mind in its control of the body, allowing youngsters with high SDI''s to not easily lose control.

    This allowed one to have the ability to somewhat take over their subconscious and control certain functions of their body like blood flow, heartbeat, and especially, hormonal flow, etc. The youngsters in high school absolutely needed to master this to prevent the troubles that came with puberty, so this waspulsory.

    Spirituality training was to hone the willpower and enlightenment of the youngsters. This included some slight pain resistance and many theoretical arguments, debates as well as virtual oues.

    Dante found Spirituality training to be one of the most interesting due to how effective it was. For example, he and the Elder were seated crosslegged before each other while sipping virtual tea. Well, it wasn''t virtual for either of them since one was here with his real body and the other existed in this form as his reality.

    "So, young Dante, what do you think? Should the act of doing good be met with reward or should it be withheld?" The Elder asked with a smile.

    Dante paused. "First of all, it depended on the definition of ''good'' in this case. If by good, you mean morally positive actions, then we have to definition morality and what entails goodness within its fold."

    The Elder did not stop Dante, seeming amused by his use of pure mechanical logic to handle this matter.

    "Morality is simply the ssification of the nature of actions, thoughts and intentions by sentient beings. Morality is split into good, bad or neutral. The core of morality is subjective, as it is controlled by the derivation and understanding of the majority in any society." Dante continued, not bothered by the Elder''s yful smile.

    Even if he was digging a hole for himself, he still felt that this was his way of handling the topic.

    "So to be morally good, it means that within the society that the action is performed, it is ssified as ''good''. If that is the case, then there is no need to necessarily provide a material reward, though it is advisable."

    "Oh? What do you mean by that?" The Elder was startled.

    Dante smiled. "There is already a reward. The body will release pleasant hormones into the brain when one performs an actions that is seen as good, making the person feel happy. That is the personal reward. There is also the social reward, which is that the person will enjoy an increase in positive reputation, or at least, have a more positive reception by fellow existences within that society."

    "These are often intangible rewards that many do not consider, but precisely because many do not consider them, they are not valued. Sentient beings are prone to emotional responses and cannot process everything with hard logic, so a material reward that is tangible and respected objectively will motivate them to do good." Dante concluded.

    The Elder nodded with a sigh. "A very good and well though out answer."

    The Elder waved a hand and the scene within the dojo changed. He then winked at Dante before gesturing to the side. "Now, let us see how your theory works in reality."

    Dante was surprised to see that he had been pulled into a sort of third person omniscient viewpoint of a simtion. In this simtion, society had developed a good samaritanw that dictated that any good deed from one person to another should be met with a reward.

    There were many benefits to this, but also the problems were clear. The premier was that good deeds had be a business and were even exploited by corporations and governments, as well as individuals.

    It was verymon to see organized ''crime'' groups deliberately created trouble and then save the people from it, forcing them to payout a reward. NGO''s, or the equivalent of them in this simtion, had be the highest paying business.

    They would go out to help poorer countries and then force their governments to fall into their debt, especially within the Middle East and Africa, allowing the elite countries to maintain control over them.

    This was one part of it all. The end point of the simtion was the copse of society when a situation urred where people who were exploited were no longer willing to pay for good deeds and protested. Since this concerned the benefits of the top echelon, they were suppressed to death, which made the martyrs, exacerbated the issue and then lead to chaos worldwide.

    Eventually, more and more joined, not because of any benevolent feeling, but because nobody was paying for good deeds anymore. This was literally how a whole percentage of the popce worldwide made their daily bread and was their upation.

    Well, as that blue cartoon cat put perfectly, we all know where the end point of this was.

    Boom!

    Wee to Nuclear fallout.

    Dante watched this with a nod. He expected as much given that promoting good deeds with materialism could only led to more problems, which was why he stated that it was advisable but not necessary.

    The implementation in the virtual scene was a bit stronger than what he expected and meant, but it perfectly highlighted the problem.

    Dante was impressed by this method of debate. A lot of people on the very earth he came from were arguing about all minds of stupids things just because it was hard to verify their theories or answers. They wove deep sophistry using morality and emotions as the forefront while neglecting the reality of the world.

    This would be a perfect tool to show them the ridiculousness of their ideas as well as how limited in thought they were.

    Even better, this was a perfect method to halt the fanciful ideas of teens. In high school, Dante thought he was the smartest person in the world and everyone else was a retard. While lifeter humbled him and proved him wrong, he had made many foolish decisions and actions when in high school.

    Majority of people suffered from this too. It might not be that they thought they were smart, but their thinking process was not refined, leading them to make decisions that they regretted. Many people now would dly take a time machine back and rectify some choices or thoughts they had at that age.

    With a method like this, such teens would see the direct results of their stupid and childish thoughts directly, allowing them to refine their thinking process and mature faster. This kind of teaching and training method was truly genius and Dante respected the Eternal Universe more for it.

    Dante spent a few days going through different moral scenarios as well as deep and troublesome philosophical questions with the elder. The best thing was that none of them necessarily had right answers, it was up to you whether the oue was something that suited your worldview.

    Even with the previous example of the rewards for good deeds, that was not the only simted oue Dante saw. He saw many more oues from his various answers as well as those he had not considered.

    This would allow him - and the teen undergoing this test - to see the situation from different vantage points and show them there was more than one way to look at each topic and situation, which was probably the most valuable takeaway.

    Dante was then brought onto Conservation training. This was the most direct of the three advanced training routines and concerned the question he had been most curious about since he got here, which was how aliens and species of different SDI''s could co-exist.

    Conservation training was simply about regting your SDI at all times to match the universe standard with was the Pure Human standard. Even if you were an alien with 300 points in each field at birth pared to a pure human) you would have to train yourself to move, talk, think and react at the SDI of a basic pure human.

 Chapter 61 Black Land Again

    After Dante was done with the advanced training, he felt the difference much stronger now. His SDI had not increased by a single point, but it felt like his ability had increasedprehensively by more than ten times its previous value.

    It was simply the difference between giving a gun to a toddler and giving the same gun to a marksman soldier. The power was the same, but the skill and usage of this power was far different.

    Dante thanked the elder and left the training world today with a tired sigh. He rose from his bed and went to the bathroom to take a long soak in the Jacuzzi like tub while thinking about his visit to the ck Land today.

    Dante wandered how the teachers would react to his presence and he also wondered if he could advanced Quantum Entanglement to the D rank before the week came to an end. If he could raise it to the D rank in time, could he then rise to the C Rank?

    Also, he checked the school forums to see that the results of their breakthroughs had been pasted there. Whether it was their batch or the others, all of them had their times posted, which directly highlighted their potential.

    Dante checked it and was speechless.

    [Rankings of Potential among the Unique Batch of 10998;

    1. Dante - 10 seconds/EX+

    2. Humphrey - 2 days/SSS

    3. Slessor - 2.1 days/SSS

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel 4. Some loser - no one cares/h h

    ˇ­

    28. Louisa - DNF/D(Temporary)]

    Dante almost wept on Louisa''s behalf. She was such an obvious proud and pampered young mistress, but ever since she came to this academy she had consistently and unanimously been taking Ls nonstop. When would she finally get a win for herself?

    Dante did not bother about her anymore. He tidied himself up and left the house, walking towards the teleporter. Just like the other time, his other ''ssmates'' also came out, and all of them nced towards him immediately.

    After all, what happened in the academy was not surpassed because Lara didn''t care. Besides she wanted to sue the consequences to teach those ns and factions who thought they were invincible a lesson.

    The students were shocked to see that Dante was back and unharmed, while others nced at him with dangerous flickers in their eyes. They had seen his time in breaking through and felt like Dante was a severe threat to everything they stood for.

    After all, the important reason why the school had a Unique Batch was because the most important resource, the Zero Gate gave out superpowers once a year through 10 Fruits of Condensation.

    However, in the world behind the Zero Gate, SDI''s were suppressed, Bionics were not usable and Psionics were also banned. Even AI chips did not work. The only thing that worked there were superpowers, so the better your superpower, the higher your chance of survival and iming a fruit.

    Hence, the higher one''s superpowers rank before entering, the better. Dante who could advance one level with an already ranked SSS superpower in just a few seconds was a dire threat. Even second and third year seniors might have lower rank superpowers than him by the time it was possible to enter.

    Well, if that was the case, why was no one showing Dante any friendliness? Why only hostility and darkness?

    Well, the reason was simply because he was already affiliated with a force. Dante was signed with the Portinari family, so even if he wasn''t obliged orpelled to fight for their benefits, it was assumed that he was.

    In truth, Beatrice had currently been causing ruckus when she heard Dante was attacked, but when he heard that he teleported away, she was relieved. However, the n behind her was Dante''s backing and they fully supported this young man with great talent.

    They had almost gone to war with the factions that caused Dante trouble, and this was something Dante found out when he was on Etonia. The story was quite amusing because the other families did not necessarily have a daughter whomanded her own fleet.

    Most admirals were detached from such forces or were part of truly top tier forces that wouldn''t even bother with Dante no matter how monstrous. Only the Portinari n had a ''free'' dreadnought avable in the hands of their monstrous first daughter.

    With that in mind, Dante ignored the other students and walked through the teleporter to enter the ck Land''s staging area. There, a new set of teachers were waiting for the group, and just like the students, all the eyes fell on Dante.

    He shivered as he could feel the endless greed in the eyes of the teachers, but they clearly did not dare to cause trouble this time. Xue Bing was here though, as she was not punished but rather awarded for her previous actions.

    When she saw Dante, her eyes lit up with relief. She walked over and patted him on the shoulder while nodding her head with satisfaction, which left Dante amused. She did not say anything and lead Dante as well as Slessor through the usual formalities.

    She teleported the two to the lead cabin which had obviously been rebuilt by Lara after she reversed time back then. Seeing this ce, Dante had a weird expression on his face and even Slessor couldn''t help but nce over at him.

    Meanwhile, Xue Bing''s lips twitched as she remembered the beating Leonidas gave herst time she was here and she couldn''t help but feel peeved. She had almost died at that time and if it wasn''t for the headmistress, she would currently be a cold corpse.

    The teacher for Humphrey flew over and nodded to Xue Bing, casually ncing at Dante. The group of students entered their respective ''cultivation'' rooms and sat cross-legged on the mats before them.

    When Dante focused and began absorbing the Zero Energy again, he felt the differencepared to before.

    The Zero Energy flowed into Dante''s body with a newfound intensity, surging through his veins and filling him with an exhrating power. As he absorbed the energy, he could sense his superpower, Quantum Entanglement, resonating with it, bing more attuned to the fundamental forces of the universe.

    The training room seemed to fade away as Dante delved deeper into his cultivation, his consciousness expanding beyond the physical realm. He visualized the intricate patterns of quantum entanglement, manipting them with ease and precision. It was as if he could see the invisible threads connecting everything in existence, bending them to his will.

    Time became an abstract concept as Dante lost himself in the flow of energy and his own abilities. Hours passed like mere minutes, and with each passing moment, he felt his mastery over Quantum Entanglement growing. His SDI remained unchanged, but the depth of his understanding and control surpassed what any numerical value could represent.

    Suddenly, a voice reverberated through the training room, pulling Dante out of his meditative state. It was Xue Bing, the teacher overseeing his progress. "Dante,e out. We need to discuss your next steps."

    Dante opened his eyes, finding himself back in the physical realm. He stood up and walked out of the cultivation room, his mind still buzzing with the residual energy of his training. As he joined Xue Bing in the lounge area of the cabin, he noticed a solemn expression on her face.

    Xue Bing wasted no time and got straight to the point. "Dante, your progress is extraordinary. The teachers have been closely monitoring your growth, and it''s clear that you possess immense potential. However, this also means you''ve drawn the attention of some dangerous factions within the academy."

    Dante''s expression became cold as he listened intently to Xue Bing''s words. He had known that his sheer talent would attract attention, but the mention of dangerous factions heightened his sense of vignce which had rxed somewhat due to his ability to teleport between his Quantum Markers.

    Xue Bing continued, her voice tinged with altruistic concern. "There are factions within and without the academy that seek to control the distribution of the Fruits of Condensation. They believe that by monopolizing these resources, they can consolidate their power and dominance. Your rapid advancement threatens their ns, and they won''t hesitate to resort to extreme measures to eliminate you as a potential rival."

    Dante was stunned. "The fruits can be brought out?!"

    Xue Bing nced at Dante strangely. "Of course. Otherwise, the system here would be far different from what you''re ustomed to."

    Dante''s mind raced with possibilities. If the fruits of condensation could be brought out of the Zero Gate, it meant that the power dynamics within the academy extended beyond its walls. It also meant that those who controlled the distribution held a significant advantage in the outside world.

    "I see," Dante replied, his voice filled with a newfound determination. "If the fruits can be brought out, then they be even more valuable. It''s no wonder these factions are vying for control."

    Xue Bing nodded, her gaze steady. "Exactly. The fruits are not only a means to gain power within the academy but also a key to influence and ascendancy in the wider realm. Those who possess multiple fruits hold immeasurable strength and authority."

    A spark of curiosity ignited within Dante. "Do you know who currently holds the fruits? Which factions are in control?"

    Xue Bing hesitated for a moment before answering. "The distribution of the fruits is shrouded in secrecy. Only a select few individuals know the exact details, and they guard that knowledge closely. However, rumors suggest that several influential factions hold sway over the fruits, manipting the distribution to further their own agendas."

 Chapter 62 Cultivation

    Dante was speechless. That was as good as not saying anything. He rubbed his forehead with tiredness and nced at the other closed rooms where Humphrey and Slessor were probably absorbing as much Zero Energy as they could to empower themselves and increase the Rank of their superpower.

    Dante also checked the time with his AI and saw that it had been only an hour since he entered here, which meant that he had been absorbing the energy himself for around that amount of time.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Yet, he did not feel anywhere near sublimation in that regard. He nced at Xue Bing and asked tentatively. "How long does it take to go to the D Rank from the E Rank after the initial upgrade from the F Rank?"

    Xue Bing contemted for a moment before responding. "The time required to advance from the E Rank to the D Rank can vary depending on the individual and their level of Potential and the nature of their superpower."

    "On average, it could take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks, but exceptional individuals like yourself might achieve it in a shorter time frame. It ultimately depends on how effectively you can integrate the Zero Energy and enhance your superpower''s capabilities." She concluded with a smile.

    Dante nodded, absorbing the information. He knew that his progress had been remarkable so far, but he also understood that each advancement would be increasingly challenging. He needed to remain focused and dedicated to his training if he wanted to continue his rapid growth.

    Xue Bing manifested her trademark smile that had no benevolence behind it and ced her right palm on Dante''s shoulder. "On that note, I need you to do something for me, Dante."

    Dante nced at his materialistic teacher warily. "What would that be?"

    "Nothing much. I need you to divulge the full extent of your superpowers abilities and characteristic to me in secret so that we can not only n the best way forward for you, but also so that we can know how to maximize your advantages." Xue Bing pushed forward.

    Dante''s expression fell and he took a step back from Xue Bing. "Thanks but no thanks. If there is nothing more, I will return to my task."

    Xue Bing watched him go with a look of regret. Even though she did have some concern about Dante, it was definitely not out any benevolent feelings for him, but because he was currently her ward. His continued existence and excellence would yield better rewards for her.

    However, just like the teachers who attacked him the other time in order to kidnap him for their factions, Xue Bing couldn''t help but hold a hint of greed in her heart. If she could trick her student and win his trust, she would be able to gain even more, especially for the n behind her.

    However, she had been arrogant and in a position of power for too long, so her eloquence had died a long time ago. She was not skilled in using words to make people lower their guards but rather made everyone wary whenever she spoke.

    Xue Bing could only sigh and shrug. Whatever, even if she couldn''t eat the meat, she could definitely drink the soup, right?

    Meanwhile, Dante had returned to his cabin and plopped down on the prayer cushion. He hesitated and made his AI chip ess the rooms facilities before releasing the stored incense that would help him feel calm and happy.

    A pink mist emerged that wafted towards his nose almost cartoonishly, and Dante had to admit that the scent was amazing. Satisfied, he entered a state of focus and began absorbing the energy once more.

    He closed his eyes and was taken into his Soul Space, the area where his superpowers were kept. In the center was a giant gate way that was the manifestation of his superpower, Quantum Entanglement, which was the ability to go between the universe in which modern earth existed and the Eternal universe, the one which he was currently in.

    Through the gate, he could see thest location he had been to on the other side, which was the bedroom of his rented apartment. He had no intentions of returning, and he quietly continued to absorb the Zero Energy around him in order to further his superpower.

    As Dante delved deeper into his ''cultivation'', the pink mist of incense surrounded him, creating an atmosphere of tranquility and focus. He connected with the entire space in a strange way, exploring its intricacies while seeking ways to advance the focus of its existence, his superpower, to the D Rank.

    Was it really about sucking in the energyˇ­ or was it more about applying the energy?

    Within his Soul Space, Dante visualized the gate that represented Quantum Entanglement and its sub abilities, the manifestation shimmering with endless grandeur and might.

    He could sense the threads of quantum entanglement stretching across the gate, connecting different realms and possibilities. With each breath, he absorbed the Zero Energy, allowing it to flow through him and infuse his superpower with greater strength.

    As he meditated, Dante pondered on the capabilities of Quantum Entanglement and how to push its boundaries further. He had already mastered the basics, allowing him to teleport between the two universes, and he had tasted the sweetness of Quantum Teleportation that allowed him to move between his ced Quantum Markers regardless of distance while he also had nefarious ns for Quantum Transposition which allowed him to enter the quantum world with his real body.

    However, Dante wanted to explore the overall superpower fully, especially its potential for maniption and control.

    Just imagine if he could take others with him across his Quantum Markers or he could take people or thing from the real world into the quantum world or vice versa.

    Dante in his fervor, looked deeper into his ability and saw intricate patterns of entangled particles, bouncing about in different ways that he could barely fathom. He tried to manipte the entanglement threads, intending to cause them to vibrate and resonate with specific frequencies.

    However, he was clearly overestimating himself as he could barely even move a single tiny thread. Topare, it was like trying to y a tug of war where your side was a single toddler and the other side was the world''s strongest men lined up from end to end.

    Dante could feel the fabric of reality responding to the vibrations of the threads, bending and warping under their will.His breath couldn''t help but catch as he thought of the implications behind this fact and really just how overpowered this superpower might be in truth.

    Higher Dimensional Being, oh Higher Dimensional Being, just how powerful are you?

    Time seemed to lose its meaning as Dante delved into the depths of his superpower. He focused, pushing the limits of his mediocre control over the core of Quantum Entanglement, trying to break his limits and expand his understanding of its capabilities.

    Hours passed, and Dante''s concentration remained unbroken. He could sense that this was less due to his own capability and more or less due to the help of the incense he chose. The truth was that only second years and above had reached the high enough Ranks like C and above to begin toprehend the true core of their superpower, so rather than suck energy, they needed toprehend.

    However, in truth earthling fashion, Dante had skipped steps. At the F, E and D ranks, his goal should just be to suck as fast as he could and raise the grade quickly.

    Dante trembled as a subtle shift in his connection to the floating gate between the universes urred. He felt so much closer to achieving the D Rank, about 75% of the way there.

    He wanted so direly to increase his speed at absorbing, but he suddenly felt the incense he was smelling and relying on to maintain focus disappear.

    He frowned as his AI chip told him time was up, and he could only sigh since he knew that he couldn''t rush the process.

    Eventually, Dante opened his eyes and nced around, emerging from his meditative state. The room was the same as it had been when he began to focus, and nothing had changed. He even felt like not a single second had passed, but that was only because of the nature of the Soul Space.

    A full 7 days had passed just like that. He knew he had made significant progress, but there was still much more to explore and uncover.

    As he left the cabin and rejoined Xue Bing and the other students, his mind was filled with a mix of solemnity and worry.

    The knowledge of dangerous factions seeking control of the Fruits of Condensation added ayer ofplexity to his journey in the Eternal Universe, but that was something he could eventually crack.

    The secret of his superpower and how it came to be thoughˇ­ that was the real killer.

 Chapter 63 Back To Earth

    ?

    Dante pushed all that aside for now. He nced at Slessor and Humphrey to see that there was an expression of unwillingness and deep greed on their faces. Clearly, they too had not had enough and wished they could spend an entire year in the ck Land.

    Dante felt the same way, but he understood his boundaries. Anyway, he also had other things to do now and he had spent enough time here as it is. He wasn''t really in a rush to do anything per se, as there was no world ending threat or superior pressure to force him.

    Everything he had done so far was due to his own determination as a young man to further his ambition. Sometimes, people forget that simple ambition could be enough to drive a person forward and not manufactured threats or enemies.

    When the students returned to their residences, Dante sat on his couch and though up his next moves. As it was, his current identity in the Apocalypse World had long died, so if he were to descend again, he would have to start from scratch.

    This was just as well, but he did not have any intention to enter the virtual world again. He had also purchased most of what he wanted already and his next official visit to the ck Land was 5 weeks away.

    What to do at this time?

    Train? Hard pass. He had been doing it for weeks nonstop and was frankly tired. He had alsopleted up to the peak of th Advanced Training course, so there was only Specialized Training left.

    Study? Haha, the Normal and Elite batch students functioned closer to a normal college system, only that their courses were widespread and hard,. They studied everything from energy, to spacefaring, to governance even to entertainment.

    The difference between the normal batch and the elite batch was that the normal batch selected one topic as their field of study per year and had to get at least an A grade rating to pass. The Elite batch studied everything every year and needed an S grade rating to pass.

    Uh, the unique batch? Their field of study was superpowers, so the 7 weeks that just passed were Dante''s courses. In other words, for the entirety of the first year, he only needed to go to the cknd to suck energy and further his superpower.

    It is only in the second semester of the first year that the students of his batch will undergo survival training in a custom virtual world that was replicated from the Zero Gate. That was a world exclusive to the school and unavable to enter unless you were given a key, so Dante couldn''t practice ahead of time even if he wanted to.

    So for the next four weeks, Dante could do whatever he wanted. Most of his batch mates would be studying anyway or exploring different VR world ording to their needs, but he didn''t need to go so far.

    To the students here, this was their home. They naturally pictured a grand future where they lived out their lives with their acquired knowledges and skills, bing a cog of society.

    Dante was here for a ''good time'' not a long time, so he didn''t need to invest that much. As long as his AI downloaded the theoretical knowledge and he could replicate it to empower himself, it was also fine.

    As such, Dante decided to do something he hadn''t done in months, which was to advance his life in the home universe and take some fundamental steps forward. There were many things he could do now that he had some time, as well as some thing he had to verify.

    With that in mind, he disappeared and returned home to his apartment. He immediately checked on his various socials and saw that everything was progressing smoothly. The various AIs were hard at work and hey, Dante''s first payout from his webnovel career hade and boy was it hefty.

    The previous him would have wept with joy at the prospect of being able to genuinely earn so much money on his own, but now it was just a number to him. Dante then left his apartment for the first time since he came here and actually checked out his area.

    When he had been headhunting for the ce, he had spent weeks carefully doing research and chose a luxurious ce he thought befit his status. As such, it was a gatedmunity estate that he got, and the rent per month was a sky-high $20,000 per month, but it basically came with everything.

    Honestly, rather than the nonsensical rent price or the fact that he actually though he could live here and make enough money independently to support himself, it was more miraculous that his parents were willing to actually pay for it.

    Dante honestly and truly loved his parents, because they were a great blessing to him. The him before this whole scenario greatly appreciated them, but not as much as the him now. After all, he had gone through a lot in these short 2 months that made him almost entirely different from when he began.

    He did not bother to greet his neighbors or anything like that. The current climate of America, especially in cities like this, was no longer so close-knit nor friendly.

    Dante had a drivers license but did not bother to get a car as he rather favored asionally driving around his mother''s car - with her permission of course. Now, with his current earnings, he could afford to buy his own, but when he literally owned a spaceship, having a car seemed banal.

    Still, that was that and this was this. His upgraded Quantum Entanglement as the E Rank allowed him to transport some things back and forth like the weapons he bought, but he had no where to store them on this side.

    He certainly was not fucking going to keep nuclear level guns in his house, nor in a city area. He wasn''t worried that the guns would mess up, the Eternal Universe''s technology was so far ahead that they had already bypassed that stage.

    He was worried that some mistake would happen on this side and lead to consequences he was not in the mood to deal with.

    Besides, Dante still needed to buy a car anyway. He couldn''t move up and down with a cab anytime because that was inconvenient, and having a car made things easier among social circles.

    However, he didn''t want to use the money the AI''s had earned as he had put that aside for serious things. As such, he pondered and decided to have his AI chip hack into the system and find the nearest casino with virtual machines.

    Yes, that''s right, he was going to gamble and use the winnings to buy whatever casual luxuries.

    He naturally had the option to just hack a bank and transfer money as he pleased, but he wanted to make a legal purchase. He could also literally generate ghost money from nowhere that was untraceable, but he''d rather save that option for when it was important.

    With that in mind, Dante ordered an Uber ride to the nearest and biggest casino in the city, the Golden Flower.

    Dante arrived at the Golden Flower casino and stepped out of the Uber. The casino was a grand establishment with bright lights and an atmosphere filled with excitement. At the door was a pair of bouncers who wore shades and looked like hardened mercenaries.

    They nced at everyone who entered and prevented those who looked like they were poor or here to cause trouble from entering. Dante nced down at his attire and saw that he was still wearing his Vice-Admiral''s Pilot Suit.

    It was brown colored and very stylish, to be honest. The Uber driver had been ncing at Dante many times on the way here and even now, Dante drew eyes from males and females alike. Many eyes lit up at his fashion choice and secretly decided to copy it when they got home.

    Even the bouncers nced him up and down. Looking at Dante''s well built body due to his gic restructuring, his shy attire that highlighting his body and his height which was almost at their level, the bouncers secretly nodded internally.

    In their line of business, looks were everything. Dante looked rich, arrogant and disciplined, so they allowed him in without a hitch, making the young man smile slightly.

    When Dante entered the building, he looked up and saw that the ce was huge. There were many machines of the traditional type like pachinko as well as slots. There were many tables set with richly dressed men and women dealing poker, ckjack and even mahjong.

    To the far end was arge and long bar of which many people had ordered elite looking drinks that could probably bankrupt the average wage earner with ease.

    The chandeliers and lights above were very bright, making it painful to look up but it perfectly fit the theme of the area.

 Chapter 64 [Bonus ]Golden Flower Casino

    ?

    Soon, a well dressed server win a suit approached Dante with a smile. His eyes had long scanned Dante form head to toe and lit up, knowing that this was a newbie young master who probably came here alone to y.

    If he could lead him around and make him lose some money while being courteous, he could get amission from the casino while even receiving tips from the victim himself! Thinking like this, the server chuckled and was very enthusiastic.

    "Hello sir, and wee to our noble establishment. My name is Denver, and I would like to assist you today."

    Dante looked at Denver, the well-dressed server, with narrowed eyes. He had an idea of exactly what kind of service he could expect from someone like Denver, who was eager to please and potentially gain some extra ie.

    Dante decided to y along and see how things would unfold for now.

    "Thank you, Denver. I appreciate your assistance. I''m here to try my luck at the virtual gaming section. Could you point me in the right direction?" Dante asked with a polite smile.

    Denver''s eyes lit up with joy. "Of course, sir! The virtual gaming section is just over there. Follow me, and I''ll show you the way."

    Oh boy, a customer who wanted to virtual gamble! What a big haul he had raked in this time!

    After all, who didn''t know that the casino controlled the algorithm of such machines to always be in their favor? It was literally impossible to win big from virtual machines and those who did were paid agents who would be used for advertisement.

    Dante followed Denver through the bustling casino, taking in the sights and sounds. He noticed the excitement and tension in the air as people won and lost fortunes. The virtual gaming section was filled with rows of slot machines and various virtual games.

    Denver turned to face Dante and bowed slightly. "Here we are, sir. These virtual slot machines are quite popr. You can try your luck and potentially win big. If you need any assistance or have any questions, feel free to let me know."

    Dante nodded and approached one of the virtual slot machines. He took a seat and inserted his credit card to make the deposit, ready to test his ''luck''. Denver remained nearby, watching with anticipation, hoping for a chance to offer ''guidance'' or ''suggestions''.

    While the machine connected to his bank through the POS system, Dante received a call from his banking agent. As he was a priority customer due to his high earnings, they were checking to see if it was really him about to gamble.

    Dante affirmed his existence and told the agent to be prepared to lock his ount the moment big money came in. While the agent apologized and made some corporate speech about how he couldn''t, Dante simply shut him up by saying the agent would get a 3%mission on whatever came in.

    The agent went silent for a long while before acknowledging and ending the call. Dante made sure to speak under his breath so that Denver would not hear.

    "Denver, have you seen many big winners in this section recently?" Dante asked as he looked around to see other harried gamblers behind the virtual machines looking like they were about to go crazy.

    Denver nced around to see the other customers who had bloodshot eyes with a hint of disdain hidden in his. Such trash had already been captured by their algorithm and would be sucked dry soon.

    Still, he wouldn''t show that to Dante as he hyped enthusiastically. "Oh, certainly, sir! We''ve had some lucky yers who hit jackpots and walked away with substantial winnings. The virtual slot machines here are known to be quite generous."

    Denver lied as naturally as breathing.

    Dante raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Interesting. I''ll keep that in mind. Let''s see if luck is on my side today."

    Soon, the money was charged in and he could start. Dante began ying the virtual slot machine without hacking it yet, focusing on the spinning reels. Denver stood nearby, asionally offering encouraging words and advice, trying to foster a sense of camaraderie with Dante even as he began to lose money.

    He had input a thousand dors in and had slot 300 of it in just 2 minutes by making high stakes, risky bets that - in Denver''s eyes - showed that Dante was not only a rookie, but was reckless. The perfect customer for him to make a greatmission from!

    As Dante yed, he observed the patterns and algorithms of the virtual slot machine, utilizing his enhanced AI chip to analyze the game. If Denver had been watching, he might have seen a sh of Psionic light in Dante''s eyes asplex calctions shed through his pupils.

    Dante made use of his 105 SDI in Intelligence to strategicallyprehend and quickly calcte the ins and outs that would give him an advantage, allowing him to make calcted bets and increase his chances of winning.

    Dante did not even need to use his AI to hack and control the system at this rate, and he had severely overestimated the capacity of modern casino gambling machines technology wise. Most of them were forcefully kept simple because the bosses did not try the guys who coded the stuff in.

    What if they told their friends and family the secrets and had theme to make bets? As such, he forced them to make it simple for even him to control and changed everything after it was set up.

    Dante won back $3000 in one go and smirked. "Looks like luck is indeed on my side today, Denver. I think I''ve got a good rhythm going here."

    Denver was stunned and couldn''t help but be sour. What dogshit luck! How could this fellow who had no idea about gambling make such money right away? Was this that fabled beginner''s luck?

    Denver could only hide his unhappiness and pretend to be excited for Dante. "That''s fantastic, sir! Keep it up! Remember, timing and intuition are crucial in these games."

    Dante was speechless. This fellow sure was a good actor and he was determined to y the long game.

    Dante shrugged internally and continued ying, racking up wins and gradually umting a considerable amount of dors. He asionally engaged in small talk with Denver, asking about other popr games in the casino and the experiences of previous winners.

    Denver''s expression grew uglier and uglier with each win. When Dante umted $20,000 total in winnings, he suddenly staked a super high risk bet. The payout was 105 times - ironic, Dante knew - which meant he could end up with 2.1 million dors.

    Denver''s heart skipped a beat. He was confident that Dante would lose as their algorithm would switch things up at thest minute with high bets like this, as the casino would never allow themselves to lose this much money at once if they could help it.

    Thinking about how everything Dante gained would be won back, and how desperate he would be to taste that level of wealth again, Denver was rxed and filled with joy. However, when he saw the big ''you''ve won'' on the screen, his mind went nk.

    The Golden Flower casino was the biggest in the city and dealt with millions of dors per bet in the VIP areas, and their annual ie was in the billions. 2.1 million definitely gged their system, but their technicians could not find a problem so it was paid out to Dante''s bank.

    Once Dante''s ount was paid into, he received a text from his agent that confirmed that his ount was temporarily locked due to suspicious activity. Smiling, Dante took his card out and then stretched casually.

    He turned to Denver, who looked like his soul had been dragged from his body and patted him on the shoulder lightly.

    "Thank you, Denver. Your assistance andpany were most appreciated. Without you, your advice, and your time, I would never have won this much money. I sincerely had a great time here." Dante stated with an amiable tone.

    Denver snapped out of his confusion but Dante''s word caused him to feel like crying. Hismission! His sry! It was going to be deducted!

    Of course, not by too much, just some trash reasons to take away about 1%. However, the money taken wasn''t the problem but the hidden warning behind it.

    Denver could only twist his lips into the most unwilling smile and say with barely mustered joy. "It was my pleasure, sir. I''m d you enjoyed your time. If you ever need anything else or want to explore other games, don''t hesitate to visit us again."

    Dante chuckled at the fellow''s obvious breakdown and began to leave the virtual machine area. "I''ll keep that in mind. Until next time, Denver."

    Denver did not even bother to escort him and rather scurried away to exin to his boss that an evil being had tricked him into following Dante around.

 Chapter 65 PowerMotors Outlet

    Once out of the casino, Dante smiled and checked the GPS through his AI for the most reputable car dealership in the city. Once he got a location, he ordered another Uber and headed straight there while slightly lost in thought.

    Once he arrived, Dante saw arge showroom building that was pretty high tech and very fancy. In the parking lot were many expensive and powerful cars that would have the average car enthusiast drool.

    This dealership was called the PowerMotors Outlet and it was where all the top vehicle brands like Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bugatti and Maserati were sold and even registered. Dante checked with his AI chip by hacking into thework and found that behind this dealership were many powerful factions and billionaires.

    This amused him as he walked to the entrance and was met with a young woman with freckles and a blonde bobcut who looked hurried. Seeing a handsome young man like Dante, her eyes lit up and she rushed over to him.

    "Hello sir, my name is Sarah, how can I help you today?" She asked with enthusiasm.

    Dante smiled at Sarah with amusement at her actions and replied. "Hello, Sarah. I''m looking to explore the cars avable here at PowerMotors Outlet. I''m interested in purchasing a new vehicle today."

    Sarah nodded, her excitement evident. "That''s great! We have a wide selection of luxury and high-performance vehicles. Is there a particr brand or model you''re interested in?"

    Dante pondered for a moment before answering, "I''m open to exploring different options. I''d like to see what you have to offer from Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bugatti, and Maserati."

    Sarah''s eyes sparkled, knowing that this young man was likely the son of a big and powerful person, so therefore was a powerful customer.

    "Excellent choices! Let me show you our collection. We have thetest Lamborghini Aventador, Ferrari 488, Bugatti Chiron, and Maserati GranTurismo. Each one is a masterpiece in its own right." Sarah spoke as she gestured for Dante to follow her.

    As they walked through the showroom, Dante couldn''t help but admire the sleek lines and exquisite designs of the cars on disy. The shimmering exteriors and luxurious interiors were truly captivating.

    As someone who yed Project Gotham Racing, Midnight Club, Juiced, Need for Speed, Forza and Asetto Corsa when he was young, he was definitely a top car enthusiast.

    Sarah pointed towards a vibrant red Lamborghini Aventador and said, "This is the Aventador, a true symbol of power and prestige. It boasts a V12 engine, producing over 700 horsepower. It can go from 0 to 60 mph in just 2.9 seconds. The price for this beauty starts at $400,000."

    Dante''s heart pounded with excitement. After all, how would you feel if you had disposable funds and were standing before one of the cars you could only ''drive'' using a joystick during your childhood?

    "Impressive! What other options do you offer?" Dante feigned calmness and folded his arms.

    Sarah led him to a stunning yellow Ferrari 488 and continued, "Here we have the Ferrari 488, known for its impable performance and stunning aesthetics. It features a twin-turbocharged V8 engine, generating 661 horsepower. It elerates from 0 to 60 mph in 3 seconds t. The price for this masterpiece begins at $350,000."

    Dante nodded, taking in the details. "Amazing. And what about the Bugatti Chiron and Maserati GranTurismo that you mentioned?"

    Sarah gestured towards a striking ck Bugatti Chiron and a sleek silver Maserati GranTurismo. "The Bugatti Chiron is the epitome of speed and luxury. With its quad-turbocharged W16 engine, it produces a mind-blowing 1,500 horsepower. It''s one of the fastest cars in the world, reaching a top speed of 261 mph. The starting price for the Chiron is $3 million."

    She then turned her attention to the Maserati GranTurismo. "The GranTurismobines elegance with thrilling performance. Its V8 engine delivers 454 horsepower, and it''s equipped with advanced technology and luxurious features. The starting price for the GranTurismo is $150,000."

    Dante couldn''t help but be captivated by the range of options before him. He was sad that his 2.1 million dors he won from the casino could not buy the Bugatti, but it was not that big a deal. Not to mention, that money was reduced by the 3%mission he gave his agent who must be going crazy by now at the prospect of earning a free $63,000.

    That was more than his annual sry for Christ''s sake!

    Not to mentionˇ­ taxes. Yes, many people often forgot to mention this part about earning quick funds when they either go back in time and take advantage of opportunities or suddenly score it big.

    Calcting everything, he would have to pay $777,000 as taxes, as the Federal tax rate was 37% on ie above $523,600. A huge chunk of the money was gone just like that, and he would have to patiently hand it over to the government with his two hands.

    How hateful!

    This left him with 1.26 million. Looking at the options he had, Dante decided to purchase one vehicle for himself and then one for his mother. He would consider his father, but that man did not care about shy cars and had other interests, and Dante knew what to get him.

    With that in mind, he thanked Sarah for the information and said. "These are all incredible choices. I''ll need some time to decide. Can you provide me with brochures or any additional information?"

    Sarah nodded with a smile. "Of course! Here are some brochures for each model,plete with specifications and features. Take your time to explore and feel free to ask any questions. When you''re ready, I''ll be here to assist you with the purchasing process."

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Dante epted the brochures and moved to sit down. "Thank you, Sarah. I''ll take my time to review them. Once I''ve made a decision, I''lle back to finalize the purchase."

    Dante waved casually and moved to the reception''s waiting area and began delving into the brochures, immersing himself in the world of high-performance cars, each one holding the promise of an exhrating driving experience.

    He eventually decided to get himself a Bentley and his mother a Range Rover with custom alloyed wheels. With that in mind, he walked to Sarah and indicated she should take him to the section for both vehicles.

    Sarah nodded with a smile, understanding Dante''s decision. "Certainly, I''ll be happy to show you the Bentley and Range Rover sections. Follow me."

    Noticing the other customers being guided around by young, beautifuldies, Dante followed Sarah to the Bentley section first.

    "Here we have the Bentley Continental GT." Sarah said, pointing to a sleek ck model.

    "It''s known for its elegant design, powerful engine, and luxurious interior. The starting price for this model is $220,000. We also have other variations and customization options avable to suit your preferences."

    Dante ran his fingers along the smooth surface of the car, envisioning himself behind the wheel. "I like the sophistication and performance of the Continental GT. It''s a ssic choice. Please provide me with more details and options for customization."

    Sarah handed Dante a brochure specifically for the Bentley Continental GT, detailing its specifications, features, and avable customization options. Dante delved into the brochure, studying every aspect with keen interest.

    Once Dante had familiarized himself with the Bentley, Sarah guided him to the Range Rover section. They stopped in front of a stylish silver Range Rover Vr.

    "Here we have the Range Rover Vr, a versatile and luxurious SUV." Sarah exined.

    "It offers abination offort, off-road capabilities, and advanced technology. The starting price for this model is $60,000. We also have other Range Rover models to choose from, each with its own unique features and specifications."

    Dante admired the sleek design of the Range Rover Vr, imagining his mother enjoying thefort and style it offered. "I think the Range Rover Vr would be a perfect fit for my mother. Could you provide me with more information about this model and any avable customization options?"

    Sarah handed him a brochure dedicated to the Range Rover Vr, showcasing its features, technology, and avable customization choices. Dante took his time examining the brochure, envisioning how his mother would feel driving the SUV.

    After carefully reviewing the brochures for both the Bentley and Range Rover, Dante approached Sarah once again. "I''ve made my decisions. I''d like to proceed with the purchase of the Bentley Continental GT for myself and the Range Rover Vr for my mother. Could you assist me with the necessary paperwork?"

    Sarah''s face lit up with excitement. "Absolutely! Congrattions on your choices. I''ll gather all the necessary paperwork and guide you through the purchasing process. Please follow me to our client lounge, where we can finalize the details."

    Dante followed Sarah to the client lounge, feeling a mix of satisfaction and anticipation. Just imagining how he would feel seated in that sleek car and the surprise and joy on his mother''s face, Dante felt truly grateful for the Eternal Universe''s existence.

 Chapter 66 A Happy Family 1

    ?

    Soon, Sarah returned with the details handled. As Dante had called his agent about the purchase he was about to make, the bank authorized the charge to his ount by PowerMotors Outlet without a hitch.

    Since his mother was not here, Dante registered both cars in his name and paid out the premium for the car insurance at theprehensive level.

    With the paperworkpleted and the financial transactions settled, Dante was now the proud owner of a Bentley Continental GT and a Range Rover Vr. As he stepped out of the dealership, keys in hand, a surge of juvenile excitement washed over him.

    The afternoon sun reflected off the sleek exteriors of the luxury vehicles, emphasizing their elegance and power. Dante approached the Bentley Continental GT, running his fingers along the smooth curves and feeling the coolness of the paintwork beneath his touch.

    Opening the door, he settled into the plush leather seat, breathing in the distinctive scent of a brand-new car. That scent was something that every vehicle purchaser loved the most.

    As he turned the key in the ignition, the engine roared to life, its powerful hum resonating through the air. Dante could feel the subtle vibrations beneath him, a testament to the raw energy thaty within the vehicle.

    With a gentle touch, he maneuvered the car onto the urban city roads, a smile spreading across his face.

    Driving the Bentley Continental GT, Dante felt an undeniable sense of presence and authority. The responsive handling and precision of the steering wheel made navigating the busy streets effortless. The engine''s deep growl resonated through the cabin, captivating both the driver and passersby.

    With each press of the elerator, Dante experienced a surge of exhration as the car effortlessly glided forward, the speedometer climbing rapidly. The seamless gear shifts and smooth eleration further enhanced the driving experience, merging power and control into a harmonious symphony.

    As he made his way through the city, Dante couldn''t help but notice the admiring nces from pedestrians and fellow drivers. The Bentley Continental GT''s timeless design and refined aesthetics turned heads at every intersection. It was a statement of luxury and prestige, a symbol of sess and aplishment.

    After a while, Dante decided to switch to the Range Rover Vr, eager to explore its capabilities. He left the Bentley at the parking spot of his apartment and then took an Uber back to the car dealership.

    Sliding into the driver''s seat, he instantly felt themanding view of the road that an SUV provided. The spacious interior embraced him with itsfort and cutting-edge technology.

    With the Range Rover Vr''s versatile capabilities, Dante effortlessly transitioned from the city streets to the open road. The advanced suspension system absorbed any imperfections in the asphalt, providing a smooth and refined ride. The panoramic sunroof filled the cabin with natural light, adding to the sense of freedom and adventure.

    Driving the Range Rover Vr, Dante felt a sense of adventure and possibility. The SUV''s powerful engine and impressive off-road capabilities allowed him to explore new horizons, from scenic country roads to rugged terrains. It was a vehicle that embraced both style and substance, enabling him to embark on various journeys with confidence.

    As Dante navigated the urban city roads in his newly acquired luxury vehicles, he couldn''t help but revel in the sheer pleasure of the experience. Finally, he couldn''t help but drive towards his true home in the top residential area of the city.

    When Dante arrived at his gate, he grinned as Eduardo, their gatekeeper, nced at the sleek car with envy. When he saw Dante roll down the window, his eyes almost popped out of his sockets and his jaw dropped.

    Laughing, Dante switched off the engine and got down before walking towards Eduardo''s booth. He patted the fellow on the shoulder and left some yful words behind.

    "Remember Eduardo, this is what happens when you game the matrix."

    Eduardo was dumbfounded. Immediately he scrambled and switched his TV from some Mexican cartoons to podcasts of Andrew Tate. His eyes became red as he absorbed the ''holy words'' with fervor, hoping to be rich.

    Dante pushed opened the door to his house and saw his father seated on the cough while fiddling with his tablet. He was ying a 3D design game that allowed one to buildplex cityscapes. His mother was lying on the same cough, her head in his father''sp as she red a romance novel on her Iphone.

    When they heard the door open both turned to see their only son enter the house with a wide grin. Immediately, his mother jumped up in joy and walked over briskly, while Dante''s father looked away and continued his game calmly.

    "My darling boy, how are you?" Aileen asked while ncing Dante up and down.

    Dante hugged her tightly and kissed both of her cheeks, making his mother exim. "I''m fine, mom. More than fine, in fact."

    Aileen seemed overjoyed. "Dante, you seem happy. Did something good happen?"

    Dante grinned. "Come with me mom and you''ll see."

    Dante grabbed his mother''s small hand and led her out of the house in a hurry. When she saw the crazed Eduardo who was 110% focused, she was amused. However, she could no longerugh when she saw her dream car, a Range Rover Vr with the specif alloy wheels she liked.

    She just froze on the spot, confused and wondering whether she was dreaming. Meanwhile, Dante gently rubbed his mother''s shoulders and pried open her palm, cing the car keys into it.

    "For you, my darling mother who is obviously the most beautiful in the world."

    Hearing this, Aileen snapped out of her stupor and her eyes became red. A surge of emotions welled up in her chest and she felt deeply stifled. She remembered that when Dante was 13 years old, she had purposefully skipped work that day to bring him and his friends to an indoor resort to y.

    Dante had been excited and proud that day, and that outing was the big talk of his school batch for that year and even the next, making his social standing rise greatly among his friends. Dante had been so happy and grateful to his mom back then.

    He had rushed into her arms and professed how much he loved her which made Aileen feel satisfied. Then the young Dante asked what she wanted for her birthday and she had told him her dream car''s specifications.

    The young Dante swore that one day, he would buy it for his mother. Aileen had simplyughed and stroked his head back then. After all, given their family situation, she could also afford one herself with ease.

    However, anyone who was an adult and paid bills knew that you couldn''t easily indulge in flights of fancy in today''s world where emergencies and sudden bills could p you in the face and cripple you.

    Still, seeing it now, Aileen felt so much love for her son. He had actually remembered her little wish back then and made ite true!

    Aileen walked forward and touched the car with a fascinated look. Meanwhile, David, his father, hade out of the house and had seen everything. A light of pride for his son flickered in his eyes as he calmly walked over and ced a hand on Dante''s shoulder.

    He simply nced at his son and nodded. "Good job, son."

    Dante smiled. "Don''t worry pops, I haven''t forgotten you. Call Uncle Peter and let''s head over to Micro Center."

    David''s eyes shed. "Oh? Dante, are you sure you can afford your father and your uncles'' huge appetites?"

    "Ha, if I can''t afford it, then we''ll just rob the store and run." Dante joked as he noticed that his mother had entered the car and started it up.

    "Well, at least we have our designated driver. Your mother will definitely want to take the car for a spin, so let''s go." David prompted as he moved to sit in the passenger seat while his wife chattered about her joy.

    David sat beside her and nced at her with a soft smile, seemingly enjoying her happiness. Dante stood outside and watched this with a strange feeling welling in his heart.

    Everything he had endured since he went to the Eternal Universe, the troublesome Beatrice, the uncertainty and fear, the constant need to be alert and be in guard, getting mauled by those dogs, killing beings in the Apocalypse World, all that tough training as well as the attack from the teachers.

    Everything seemed to fade into the back of his mind and became experiences for him, rather than constant worries and trauma that stayed at the forefront of his mind. In this moment, apart from his raw ambition for sess and greatness, Dante also developed another reason to go on, which was to maintain this kind of scene and keep this feeling in his chest alive for as long as he could.

 Chapter 67 A Happy Family 2

    ?

    Soon, the car was on the road to Micro Center as Aileen and David continued to chat with Dante about his current situation and where he got the money from. Dante had nothing to hide so he told them about his luck at the casino and even showed his father his Bentley.

    Aileenughed. "My darling Dante, you won 2.1 million and your first thought was to buy a car for your mom? You''re the best!"

    David turned to Dante. "Did you take a portion out for taxes?"

    Dante nodded. "I calcted and filed it already. It took away 37% of the whole thing, but it was technically free money anyway."

    "Mm, not necessarily son. Gambling is something that involves risk and is the third most popr business among sapient species. When you lose money, that money is not free, so why is it that when you win, it must be free?" Aileen disagreed with dissatisfaction.

    Dante pondered and felt his mom made sense. He was also d his parents didn''t berate him about gambling, but then again, his parents knew him well. He had never gone to any gambling facility in his life until he got the ability to make sure he would 100% win.

    Even then, Dante only went to the casino today on a whim. If it wasn''t for the Unique Batch sses being so free, he would not even be here. Everything he was doing now was just to fulfill his own selfish wishes and wasn''t actually what he nned to do.

    But then again, that was just human nature.

    Soon, they arrived at Micro Center and found a nice spot to park. David called and led the group to meet up with his older brother and Dante''s uncle, Peter.

    Peter was a dark-skinned middle-aged man with a bald head and a well-kept body. He had a small stubble and wore a pair of square-rimmed sses on his face. He wore a casual t-shirt and a pair of jeans, which was his most frequent attire.

    David and Peter nodded to each other when they met. There was nothing wrong between them, and in fact, they were very close. It was just that, like David, Peter was also a typical stoic man and did not show emotions strongly.

    It had to do with how Dante''s grandfather raised them. Apparently, his grandma died young, so his grandfather had to raise them on his own, and he was an immigrant to America back then from Africa.

    Peter hugged Aileen who greeted him enthusiastically, but he did not seem too fond of it. However, he was clearly used to Dante''s mother''s liveliness, so it was just a breeze for him.

    Peter then focused on Dante and a look of satisfaction appeared in his eyes. "Hello Dante, how''s the dreaming along?"

    Dante shook his Uncle''s hand firmly and smiled. "It''sing along well. Today, I am here to sponsor both you and Dad in getting what I know the two of you love the most."

    "Oh?" Peter''s eyes glinted as there was a sh of surprise. He nced at his younger brother who smiled and nodded, and he felt amazed.

    Peter was a bachelor who had been engaged but did notplete the marriage as his fiance then ran off with another richer man. It had been a serious blow to the him back then who was young and he never remarried.

    As such, Dante, being his only nephew in the US of A, was very well received by him. He had often taken Dante out when he was young and taught him many things about life. Half of Dante''smon sense about life and his will to seed came from hearing his Uncle''s story and wise words.

    It was also why Dante opted for an arrangement with Valeria rather than date and have a girlfriend. Investing in love when you are ''weak'' will only lead to disaster.

    It didn''t really matter if the partner in question was loyal or fickle. Simply do not give the world a chance to test their bottom line and never try to test human nature.

    It was better to have the ''strength'' to prevent such things rather than hope and pray that everyone you met was a ''good person''.

    "Well, then let''s not stand around. Let''s go in and see what they have in stock!" Aileen prompted as he dragged the men into therge store.

    It seemed like a joyous day for Dante and his family as they ventured into the electronics wondend of Micro Center. David and Peter were like kids in a candy store, exploring thetest gadgets and technology with enthusiasm.

    After all, Dante''s grandfather was too busy working his ass off to build a foundation for the two men when they were young, so they could not afford many of these things when they were younger.

    Even Aileen was no exception to the enthusiasm as she was just as excited to join the adventure, though she was mostly pleased to see her husband and his taciturn brother open up like this.

    As they strolled through the aisles, Dante''s eyes fell on various high-end gamingptops and essories. He had always been a tech enthusiast, and while he already had some top-notch devices, he couldn''t resist the temptation to explore what Micro Center had to offer.

    However, when he thought about his quantumputer at home and the stuff he had in the Eternal Universe, he couldn''t help but smile wryly.

    One question one might ask was why didn''t he tell his parents about his experience and also get them things from the other side which would be far better than what was here?

    To that, all Dante had to say was that one should REALLY not test human nature. He loved and trusted his parents, but he was not going to put them through the devil''s temptation and ruin what he had.

    When he could cart people to and fro, he would certainly take them along. However, right now, there were too many uncertainties in his future to push things too far.

    Suddenly winning a million bucks at the casino? A stretch, but believable, especially since he showed them evidence.

    Being able to teleport between universes, having superior human gics, weapons with nuclear-level payload, and equipment that many him nigh invincible on earth? That was a different category altogether.

    Soon, the family reached the important section, which was the audio equipment. In truth, David and Peter were both audiophiles and were very critical of the music they listened to. They needed a specific tuning from a specific set of headphones to enjoy certain music.

    Not to mention that David especially fancied himself a DJ. That was how he and Aileen even met, as David offered to DJ for a campus party when they were in college and Aileen was the hottest girl on the dancefloor at the time.

    In the audio equipment section, Dante''s father and uncle''s eyes lit up with excitement. This was their domain, where they could find the perfect headphones to satisfy their discerning ears. They began to browse through the different brands and models, looking for the ones that would provide the best audio experience.

    Dante only watched by the side and did not participate. He was here to pay the bills and make sure that everyone was happy.

    Looking at David and Peter who were red-faced and arguing with different headphone models in hand, along with Aileen who was trying to mediate, and the store clerk who felt that he wasn''t paid enough for this, Dante felt satisfied.

    On the way out, David and Peter were holding their new purchases with glowing faces, looking like they were ten years younger. They thanked Dante bashfully, but Dante knew that even saying such a thing was no different from kneeling and sobbing at his feet for such tough men.

    He reassured them that this was only the start and there was more toe. Dante went home with his parents and then spend the night at his house, enduring his mother''s zealous joy and love but eating all her cooking until he felt like he was riddled with fat.

    Dante only managed to escape the next day after a lot of nagging from his mom and let her drop him at his apartment. When she saw his Bentley, she clicked her tongue and had to admit that her son had good taste.

    Dante waved her off and then stood outside his apartment. The other houses also had fancy cars like Porches, Land Cruisers, Jaguars, and even Mercedes, so he didn''t stand out too much. Rather, when his lot had been, empty was when he actually stood out more.

    Dante''s eyes glinted. He was done with his personal journey to settle his family and make them feel good.

    Now, it was time to get down to the things he had nned to deal with when he first came back to earth!

 Chapter 68 Time To Set Up 1

    ?

    Dante smiled and entered his Bentley. He sparked the engine and pulled out of his lot before driving to the airport. Using the AI chip, he connected to the flightwork and checked the various destinations.

    He was pleased to see that there was one that would be departing to his choice destination in 4 hours: South Africa. The flight would take 19 hours and 45 minutes in total with one connecting flight.

    Dante bought himself a first-ss ticket and arrived at the airport to wait for the flight to go. There, he walked around aimlessly while checking various things to pass the time, and then had a light burger meal.

    After that, he bought a footlong sub and then boarded his flight. The flight attendants gazed at his strange yet fashionable attire and shed him smiles all the time, which he returned. One even approached his booth with her jacket off and leaned forward, asking if he required special service.

    Dante was not surprised as first-ss fliers knew that sometimes, the offer would be made. It was notplimentary but based on the discretion of the attendants themselves.

    Dante rejected her gently and stated that he would be sleeping. She tactfully left him to his business and Dante sighed about the nature of life.

    He eventually settled into his first-ss seat on the first flight to South Africa, which would take two hours. Eventually, he got down at the connecting airport which was still within the state of America, and then boarded his second flight which was poised tost much longer.

    During the long flight, Dante took advantage of thefortable amenities and entertainment options avable in first ss. He watched movies, caught up on some web novels, and even had a brief conversation with the passenger sitting next to him who happened to be a fellow tech enthusiast.

    As the flight progressed, Dante''s thoughts turned to the purpose of his trip.

    South Africa itself was not the target, it was just another transit location for him to reach his true destination. The flight was long, but Dantended and exited from the Johannesburg Airport.

    Seeing his fellow Africans walking up and down with purposeful steps, he couldn''t help but feel emotional. Why did he feel like a lost child returning to his roots? But then again, he was a born America and grew up in its values, so he firmly considered himself a Murican through and through.

    Dante was solicited by various taxis and Ubers but since he did not have any luggage, he opted to take an Uber to a nearby beach. This puzzled the driver as he thought Dante was returning home from abroad, but then seeing his young face and ''rich'' clothes, he smiled.

    It seemed that this was a party-loving young master. That was fine because it meant he might give him a hefty tip if he drove well, which he did. He felt his choice was right when Dante directly paid him in dors instead of rand, allowing him to make a bit extra on the currency exchange.

    Dante got down at the beach and nced around. It was nighttime, so there were not too many people near the outskirts, but the entrance was packed with youths who were here to have a great time.

    He ignored them and walked to the darker parts of the beach where there was not a single soul before tapping his chest. Immediately nanites spread out from his chest and covered his whole body, enveloping him in his exosuit.

    Dante also made sure to hide his face as he jumped into the nearby beach water. He swam forward slowly until he waspletely submerged beforemanding his AI chip to activate the exosuit''s thrusters.

    Immediately, Dante was like a sonic missile fired underwater. An explosion happened above the surface that caused water to fly up whichunched him almost 100 meters forward in an instant, which increased every subsequent second.

    This speed was enough to rip the flesh of any being, but the exosuit was barely moved. Dante quickly tore through the water and headed towards his target, one of the obscure inds to the southern end of the Indian Ocean, the McDonald''s Ind.

    McDonald''s Ind was a remote and rtively unknown ce, located in the southern part of the Indian Ocean. Its istion andck of human presence made it an ideal destination for Dante to conduct his operations discreetly.

    As he reached the ind''s shores, he deactivated the thrusters andnded gracefully on the sandy beach. The nanites in his exosuit swiftly retracted, blending seamlessly with the fabric of his clothing. The AI chip concealed within his mind was always at the ready, constantly providing him with valuable data and analysis.

    Dante took a moment to observe his surroundings. The ind appeared untouched by human civilization, with a barrennd that was sandy near the beach and full of ice near the center. It was an empty and valueless ind that no one cared about.

    It was perfect for his purposes.

    Dante disappeared from the home universe and appeared on Etonia, specifically in his ''house'' there in the elite estate. He had made sure that the ce was permanently reserved for him, so he didn''t have to worry about seeing anyone there when he returned.

    Now here, Dante bought some high-tech tools for excavation and brought them back to his quantum marker on McDonald''s Ind then left them there. He could only take small tools that could fit within his hand and did not weigh too much.

    This was even an upgradepared to when he was at the F rank in his superpower and could only take the clothes on his back to and fro. Once he got what he needed, he quickly began to work on carving out a small cave within the side of the ind, a ce he would work out of.

    Dante''s eyes gleamed after he spent around 20 hours working like a machine, hard and fast thanks to his superior SDI. He finally made a 200 cubic meter chamber in the ice that was sturdy.

    Taking in his handiwork, he sighed and then teleported to his apartment. He gently picked up the working mini quantumputer as well as the mini nuclear power device and then teleported back to the cave.

    He carved a small desk out of ice from the side of the wall and ced the two down on it. It was best that the two remained here to work rather than in his apartment. As for things like the environment and signal coverage, hah.

    Theoretically, this quantumputer could connect to someone on a whole different, how could it possibly have any difficulties dealing with some smallary digitalwork?

    Dante''s eyes shed. After going through all this, his goal should be quite obvious.

    He was going to construct his first high-tech base here!

    It was unavoidable that he would have to build a base, not just for his experiments, but also to build his forces. Constructing spaceships, synthetic humanoids, weapons, and more himself could be carried out as long as he sourced the tools from the Eternal Universe and brought them here.

    After all, Dante had no ns to rely on humans as his forces to take over the universe. In fact, not even the humans of the Eternal Universe did either. They simply did not have enough manpower for that, so they naturally relied on synthetic humans and cyborgs to fight.

    To Dante, the humans of Earth were basically the same as that deadbeat sibling in the family. They have no real value to you and are basically a hindrance, but because of affiliation and affection, you simply can''t bear to hurt them or get rid of them.

    As for why Dante came all the way out here, it was only logical. He wasn''t going to be like those main characters in other books he read while on the ne who would buy an abandoned warehouse in the urban city and develop such things.

    That was just dumb and shortsighted.

    After all, no matter how you strung it, you would be susceptible to the rules of the territory you set yourself up in. Since Dante especially did not want to use force, it was better to just find a remote ce with no clear jurisdiction to develop himself.

    Later, when he had a fleet ofary-level battleships, an army of androids trained for war who wielded the best kic and energy weapons, as well as technology that could enhance the human body and extend life, who in the world would dare to point at him and mention rubbish like ''rules'' and ''jurisdiction''?

    With that in mind, Dante dove back into the water and used his jet thrusters to return to the shore of South Africa. While he could simply return to America, if someer investigated and found that he took a flight to South Africa yet did not take one back, he would have difficulty exining himself.

 Chapter 69 Time To Set Up 2

    ?

    When he arrived at the beach, it was still nighttime. The party was going on but Dante had no intentions of taking part. He simply used his AI chip to reserve a top-tier suite in the highest-rated hotel in the entire Johannesburg.

    Its name was the Royal Oasis. It cost $2,000 per night but came with a slew of services that left him dizzy just reading them.

    He then ordered another ride to the hotel and chatted with the driver on the way.

    As Dante arrived at the Royal Oasis Hotel, he was greeted by opulence and luxury. The grand lobby was adorned with intricate chandeliers, marble floors, and elegant furnishings. The staff at the front desk treated him with the utmost respect, recognizing him as a first-ss traveler since he had his boarding pass still.

    Dante''s suite was located on the highest floor of the hotel, offering a breathtaking view of Johannesburg''s skyline. The room was equipped with state-of-the-art amenities, including a private balcony, a jacuzzi, and a personal AI concierge to cater to his every need.

    After settling into his suite, Dante took a moment to savor the tranquility andfort. It was a stark contrast to the rugged istion of McDonald''s Ind, and he appreciated the brief respite from his demanding mission.

    Feelingzy, Dante opened his windows wide and looked at the beautiful night sky.

    ......ˇ­

    "Confirm that you have eyes on the target." A young yet potent voice sounded from a pair of earphones attached to the back of the listener''s earlobe.

    The listener was crouched down on the roof of a nearby building, looking down through his scope at Dante who was rxed and taking in the view of the Johannesburg skyline.

    The young listener on the rooftop was equipped with state-of-the-art gear, including a sniper rifle with advanced targeting systems and enhanced vision goggles. He was apanied by his team of fellow mercenaries, all geared up and ready for action.

    "Confirmed, I have eyes on the target. The subject is rxed and appears unaware of any potential threats." The sniper responded calmly.

    "Keep monitoring him. We need to be certain before we proceed with the n." The voice spoke to him, who happened to be the tech specialist who was not on site but rather stationed within another suite in the same hotel.

    "He''s in a luxury hotel, surrounded by opulence. This might be the perfect time to strike." Came a female voice, who was crouched down like a cat at the edge of the Royal Oasis''s roof, her posture casual despite the dangerous angle she took.

    "Let''s not rush into anything. We''ve only been tracking him for a few hours at best. We need to ensure we have the best opportunity to execute the mission." A dissatisfied and slightly ented voice sounded from the receivers on the various team''s ears,ing from a burly Russian man who acted as a bouncer in the hotel''s indoor club.

    "I agree with Demolitions. Patience is key. We''vee this far; we can''t afford any mistakes now." A soft yet confident female voice sounded, being a woman who was pushing a tray of wine and food through the hotel''s hallways, approaching Dante''s door.

    "Understood. We''ll wait for the right moment. Keep me updated on his movements." Their illusive team leadermanded, his androgynous voice making the rest of the team halt their breath.

    There was no one they feared more than their mysterious team leader who even gathered them together in a rush to take this target down.

    "Roger!" They all acknowledged respectfully.

    ......ˇ­

    Meanwhile, Dante was seated right beside his window and had crossed his legs, cing them on the sill casually. He smiled confidently even as he conversed with the AI chip in his mind.

    "How many of them did you say there are?" Dante asked with curiosity.

    [Six. Five normal operatives and one superhuman observing everything from a safe location.]

    Dante was surprised. A superhuman? "Huh. Interesting. Which faction do they belong to?"

    [They belong to a secret division of the United States Military, The Revengers. Upon hacking the entire United States Military Network, I found that there is very little information about them and what is avable is heavily encrypted.]

    [Neither any of the sitting presidents nor any government official whose term can be changed is allowed ess. The only ones who can mobilize this faction are the powers of the Deep State that have been entrenched since the assassination of John F. Kennedy.]

    Dante was rmed. "The 35th president? What does he have to do with this?"

    [John Fitzgerald Kennedy was president during the period in which not only America, but its executive branch were at the height of their power due to the Second World War. The Deep State had not yet gained the control it did now and presidents were privy to all the secrets and truths about America''s power.]

    [And so, he came into contact with the biggest secret I could find in thework, the existence of superhumans. Seeing how they had wracked havoc across human history and were even deployed secretly during both World Wars, causing massive deaths, Kennedy was not convinced of these ''weapons''.]

    [As such, he nned to reveal the existence of these superhumans to the world and then bring them into the limelight, also forcing them to register with the government and undergo social training to make their powers controble.]

    [However, the budding Deep State powers did not agree with this and wanted to keep these weapons hidden and under their thumb as a weapon against their enemies and possibly to control the masses.]

    [Unfortunately, there is a gap in information here, but I haveputed many small details I could cobble together that show that John Kennedy refused topromise and nned to reveal this information in a surprise press conference after his presidential motorcade in Texas.]

    [Naturally, the Deep State couldn''t allow this and hurriedly got an ex-marine to assassinate him. Due to how rushed it was, there were many ws, and in order to keep their assassin quiet, they also had him murdered by another one of their men, who was also killed while in prison awaiting trial.]

    [After that, the Deep State consolidated control and reduced the power of each president soon after, leaving the modern ones nothing but grant figureheads with no real power.]

    Dante was speechless. Thisˇ­ since when did his AI chip be a conspiracy theorist?

    Cough, but he certainly did not doubt it. This led him to ask the prudent question: "What then are these superhumans?"

    [People like you, natural superpower wielders.]

    This simple answer almost caused Dante to fall over in his seat. He did not even have time to care about anything as his mind thundered.

    Dante felt so stupid. Naturally, if his home universe was a universe just as as big and natural as the Eternal Universe, why couldn''t people here have superpowers?

    No, if the higher dimensional being was the one who saved him and granted him his superpower, why didn''t it invade this universe? Unless this universe also had higher-dimensional beings of its own?

    Wait, the Zero Gate..!!!

    Dante stood up in shock.

    Could this universe also have a Zero Gate? A ck Land?

    If it did, the implicationsˇ­

    No, not just the implications, but the meaning for him! The Zero Gate in the Eternal Universe was a discovered as well as a government-controlled resource that was shared equally, but the Zero Gate in this universe was not yet on that level!

    Even if there was a lucky alien species that discovered it, they definitely could not exploit it as well as the residents of the Eternal Universe and they would not have nearly enough power to keep it from Dante''s hands.

    Thinking like this, Dante''s breathing became heavy, like that of a wayward bull. His excitement clouded his mind and his entire body shook with desire.

    He wouldn''t even be here if it wasn''t for the fact that entrance to the ck Land was controlled and spread out between students. If he could find and im this universe''s Zero Gate, not only could he absorb Zero Energy 24/7, but he could harvest all ten fruits produced each year for himself!

    He could also use it to build a faction of superpowered people controlled by him in order to act as his top echelon forces when invading the Eternal Universe. After all, his biggest qualms with the counter-invasion were dealing with the superpowered beings of the Eternal Universe.

    While Dante had been dreaming of a sweet future, the operatives who had targeted him for unknown reasons began to close the even faster. The woman who acted as a maid and was bringing the tray over reached his door and began to knock on it softly.

    This snapped Dante out of his reverie as he remembered the situation he was in. His eyes shed with confidence and interest as he briskly opened the door and revealed a winsome smile.

 Chapter 70 Confrontation

    ?

    Dante opened the door to see a beautiful woman with a warm smile standing before him. She was dressed in a neat maid uniform, and her eyes sparkled with kindness.

    "Good evening, sir. I hope you''re enjoying your stay at the Royal Oasis. I''ve brought some wine and snacks for you. Would you like me to set them up for you?" She offered with a harmless wave towards the goodies on the tray.

    Dante smile as he nced at the stuff and did not see a problem on the surface. "Thank you. That would be lovely."

    He gestured for her to enter, impressed by her poise and polite demeanor despite her true identity. She was clearly a true professional at this. Had he not known, he would not have suspected a thing with his meager 21 years of life experience.

    The woman smiled gently. "My pleasure, sir."

    She gracefully entered the suite and began setting up the smaller tray on a small table near the balcony. Dante watched her work, appreciating the skill and finesse with which she arranged the items. As she finished, she turned to him with a warm smile.

    Once done, she bowed and asked: "Is there anything else I can assist you with, sir?"

    Dante sniggered in his mind but maintained a light smile as he sat down. "Actually, yes."

    She was surprised since the question was mostly a token one, but she had to maintain her guise properly. "What would that be, sir?"

    "Oh, its just two things. Firstly, I checked the details of the service n for my suite and theplimentary snack service is an hour early." Dante stated without even looking at the maid, casually pouring himself some juice.

    "Secondly, you set the tray up on the balcony seating, not in the living area nor the kitchen. How did you know I would be seated here since you cannot see the balcony from outside?"

    The woman froze and the other operatives who were listening through her earpiece had their expressions changed greatly. They did not dare speak because they assumed that Dante was a superhuman too, which was even why they bothered with this borate operation.

    As such, they could not give her any orders or advice, she was on her own. She also could not engage Dante because this operation was supposed to be secret. If they began fighting and he exposed cataclysmic superpowers, they would be fucked.

    This put her in a tough spot, but she quickly thought and responded.

    "In terms of being early, we don''t always strict operate by timing. For example, today the chef prepared and served dinner at 5:30 pm rather than 6:30, a whole hour earlier because he had to return home due to an emergency."

    "We cannot always be perfect due to human error, so I hope sir will forgive me if I ruined your ns by being early." She exined with an apologetic tone.

    Oh?

    Dante was impressed by her quick thinking, for he knew this to be true. No organization could always maintain perfect times and dates like that, especially not after years of operation.

    He nodded thoughtfully on the surface to show that he had epted her excuse, which made the woman breathe a sigh of relief. However, she was not done yet and she forged on bravely.

    "As for setting up on the balcony, I noticed that the balcony window was open when I entered, so it seemed to me like you had either used it or visited it since you took up lodging. Thinking that you''d prefer your meal with a lovely skyline as the back view, I chose as I did."

    "If I was wrong or impudent in doing so, I apologize to sir." She exined with a deep curtsy.

    Dante''s AI told him that this was true, he had left the balcony window open when moving to open the door. After all, he nned to attack at first but changed his mind halfway to toy with this agent to death.

    He smiled and sniffed his juice like it was wine, making the eyes of the woman narrow and a hint of sweat form on her brow.

    "As for setting up, I have some things to say about that, but I don''t like to bully hardworking servants. Besides, it might just be me acting weird, right?" Dante replied with augh.

    The woman forced a smile and nodded. "May I leave now, sir?"

    Dante waved a hand. "Of course, of course."

    She bowed once more and began to push the cart out, but Dante suddenly spoke when she was near the door and about to open it.

    "Yulian''s Sorrow. A very underground yet potent poison known to be able to knock out even an animal the size of three elephants for a week. Its supposedly colorless and formless, tasteless and odorless, but one can identity when tis mixed into a drink by looking at the weird perspiration on the cup''s brim."

    When she heard this, the maid heart sank to her toes while the men on the radio couldn''t care less about maintaining radio silence."

    "Amina, get out of there!" The other sleek woman on the roof who was meant to capture and make away with the sleeping Dante roared.

    In just the span of a few moments, many things happened at once.

    The Sniper on the rooftop was given the order to fire, and she shot a silenced tranquilizer round that would strike Dante in the neck. Its needle was crafted from titanium so that even if Dante had the superpower of hardened skin, it would still break through.

    Meanwhile, the otherdy on the rooftop leaped downwards like a bullet, aiming tond on the perch of Dante''s balcony and then distract or reinforce his teammate if necessary. The tech specialist was doing his best to suppress anything that could leak the operation on the spot, like silencing rms, cutting out electricity to certain ces, and raising the volume in others to muffle the sound.

    They were working as a well-oiled unit and their skill, as well as their expertise, showed at this moment.

    However, as they always say, before absolute strength, all manner of tricks are useless.

    The maid turned around and removed a pistol from the strap of her thought and spun to fire on Dante while using her other hand to grab the doorknob and turn it. It was a swift and clever action, but futile.

    Dante grabbed the iing projectile from the snipe and then used his pinky finger to fire it at the maid. The moment she fired her silenced pistol that had a smaller tranquilizer in it, she was struck by the bigger one right where her heart was.

    She only had a second to gasp before her eyes rolled back and she slumped on the floor. Dante then grabbed the one she fired at him and then activated his bionics slightly - only to a multiplier of 2x - before flicking it towards the sniper.

    The sniper was still processing the sight of Dante grabbing his shot right in the middle of its flight and throwing it at someone else through his scope before he saw a smaller one rush at him faster than he could react.

    It struck him right in the neck and he also fainted right there and then.

    The lithe womannded on the balcony and surveyed the room as if to know what to do next but only saw a copsed maid by the door and no Dante. Immediately, her senses screamed that she was in danger and she tried to dodge to the side desperately.

    However, she only managed to mobilize the thought when her neck was gripped by a pair of firm hands. Just as she was about to beg and try to dy the matter, Dante squeezed and brought his face near her earpiece.

    "Tell your team leader to meet me by the sea. We ought to have a good and long chat." Dante whispered sinisterly.

    He flicked the temple of the woman and knocked her out, he then held her easily on one hand like she was garbage and then picked up the maid using the other one. Dante activated his bionics and leaped through the wind to where the sniper was posted and grabbed him as well.

    Dante stood on the roof of this high-rise building and looked down at the lit and bustling city below. His heart was surprisingly calm and unmoved, because this was the effect of having power, knowing the breadth of your power, and having the capability to mobilize it after training.

    He then disappeared from where he stood as he manifested his exosuit and flew above the cloudyer towards the beach. The journey was short and not very pleasant for his passengers who were beaten by the wind pressure and the thin air up in the sky.

    When Dantended, he threw them to the floor casually, not caring about their life or death. After all, they would not survive the night anyway.

    None of their team will.

 Chapter 71 Provocation

    ?

    Dante didn''t have to wait long for a group of people toe over in a helicopter. The helicopter found a clearnding zone nearby and touched down, revealing three passengers who sat in the back.

    Two of them were female and one was male. The two females were very young and of different ethnicities.

    The one seated opposite the man was of Asian descent with pristine white skin that seemed to glow in the darkness, especially as the moon shone on her.

    She had silvery-ck hair that was tied into a bun with a green hairpin, alluring purple eyes, and pitch-ck lips that looked gothic. There was the symbol of a glowing crescent moon on her forehead and she wore a clean purple dress that fit her svelte body gently.

    The other one was a dark-skinned beauty who had a V-shaped face and wore a wide grin. She wore a white suit with pants and a ck blouse within that could barely hide her surging assets in the front and at the back.

    Her white hair was tied into a ponytail and her dark blue eyes shone with a hint of craziness and belligerence.

    Finally, there was the man, who was mature. He had a head full of brown hair as well as in brown eyes. He was deeply tanned and had his upper body bare, disying his tight muscles. He only wore a pair of ck pants that stretched easily as he moved.

    The three identified Dante who was causally standing there in azy posture with the corpses at his feet. This made the faces of the three be solemn as they sensed a dangerous vibe from Dante that they had never felt before.

    Dante also nced at them casually. The reason he did not hide his face was because he didn''t necessarily n to let anyone who came here today live. Even if they recorded him using satellites or cameras and stored it somewhere, he could easily hack and clean out any database, even if it was offline.

    A Quantum Network was all about creating connections through spacetime, it didn''t require any rubbish like signal or connectivity.

    The three disembarked and walked confidently towards Dante, stopping when they were ten meters away. This gave both sides time to assess each other head-on and know what to do.

    The more the other three observed Dante, the more their hearts sank. Each of them had different abilities and focuses, so what they saw was different.

    The silvery ck-haired woman with the moon symbol on her forehead noticed Dante''s calm mental state. She saw the sh in his eyes that indicated superior mental acuity and knew that his thoughts probably ran faster than any of them could fathom.

    The white-haired woman with the white suit noticed the youthfulness of Dante and his bodynguage which was filled with a hint of yfulness. She could feel that he had grasped the entirety of their existence as well as power and was not impressed nor pressured at all.

    The brown-haired man with a bare chest immediately noticed Dante''s physical state. He waspact and seemed like a normal youth, lean and slightly muscr, but he could sense the horrifying power contained in that body that was ready to erupt at any time.

    As for Dante, he just nced at the three and noticed that they all likely had superpowers, or at least, some sort of special ability. However, his AI chip was a step ahead as itpiled an SDI and details based on hacked information as well as their own physical signs.

    ?Target: Luo Yue

    Age: 20 (Converted to Earth years)

    Race: Pure Human (99.9% gic perfection)

    Strength Index: 0.3

    Agility Index: 0.2

    Dexterity Index: 0.4

    Intelligence Index: 0.7 (20)

    Constitution Index: 0.2

    Vitality Index: 0.2

    Bionic Level: None.

    Psionic level: None.

    AI Chip level: None.

    Superpowers: Lunar Control.?

    ?Target: Aisha Asake

    Age: 22 (Converted to Earth years)

    Race: Pure Human (99.9% gic perfection)

    Strength Index: 0.8

    Agility Index: 0.9 (50)

    Dexterity Index: 0.7 (50)

    Intelligence Index: 0.4

    Constitution Index: 0.5

    Vitality Index: 0.5

    Bionic Level: None.

    Psionic level: None.

    AI Chip level: None.

    Superpowers: Luminous Body.?

    ?Target: Killian Fairweather

    Age: 34 (Converted to Earth years)

    Race: Pure Human (99.9% gic perfection)

    Strength Index: 1.2

    Agility Index: 0.8

    Dexterity Index: 0.5

    Intelligence Index: 0.3

    Constitution Index: 1.0

    Vitality Index: 1.2

    Bionic Level: None.

    Psionic level: None.

    AI Chip level: None.

    Superpowers: Power Body.?

    Dante was amused. The silvery ck-haired woman was Luo Yue, a Chinese national who was born in America to immigrant parents. When she developed her powers, she was captured by the deep state forces and educated from a young age while her parents were very happy to sell her away for the benefits they got.

    Her superpower was the ability to control moonlight in a way one would magical spells. She could heal, buff, debuff, trap, and even attack or defend. She was quite versatile and was rated as an S Rank Superhuman in the database.

    ording to the AI chip''s estimation based on data gathered, her Superpower was of the D Rank in terms of talent and C rank in terms of potential in the Eternal Universe.

    The second woman was an African migrant to Europe, specifically the Nethends. She had fled from the war-torn country of Libya which had erupted into conflict again after the butchering by NATO early in the century.

    She lived as a gangster and underworld member until her powers developed and then tried to expand. In her bid for expansion, her abilities were discovered and they cut her a deal. She joins them, her crimes get written off.

    Her power was to turn parts of her body into light, or to adopt the nature of light. This granted her insane speed and dexterity, as well as the ability to offensively shoot searing hot light beams.

    Their database rated it as S-ss as well, but the Eternal universe graded it as a B-ss talent with B-rank potential at best.

    The final person, the man who happened to be the team leader of the mercenaries, was a typical ex-military man. His power awoke on the battlefield in the Middle East and he ughtered an entire base of enemy troops with his bare hands.

    He was one of the first superhumans recruited by the empowered deep state in their new batch ofckeys and had a high ranking in their organization.

    His superpower was basically an all-around passive strength enhancement and impervious to bullets, knives, and the like. Super strength, high defense, crazy vitality, and regeneration basically.

    His ability was rated S as well, but the system gave it the lowest F Rank talent with an F rank potential, it had no future.

    There was a palpable silence as both sides wanted to see who would talk first, as it would affect the power bnce between them. But no matter how much time they spent waiting, Dante only nced at them casually.

    In fact, his eyes seemed to be in a daze, as if he was not even focused on them.

    Well, that was true, as Dante was currently ying Quantum Solitaire.

    Killian stepped forth. "Sir, why did you attack my teammates so brutally?"

    Dante paused his solitaire game and then focused on the man before him. He looked the fellow up and down then smiled.

    "You have the nerve to ask? You should be thankful they''re still alive, though they won''t be for much longer, Mister Killian." Dante replied with a smile.

    Killian''s face darkened and Aisha stepped forward. "Humph, big talk from a pretty boy. You look like you could barely lift a t tire much less go head to head with any of us. I advise you surrender and we''ll spare you life!"

    Dante speechlessly nced at Aisha and shook his head. "I assumed you like wearing white because of your ability, but it''s probably to make you feel clean in the face of the number of balls you licked to survive in the underworld back then."

    Aisha''s expression force and she paled immediately. "You motherfucker!"

    She rushed forward to attack but was easily helped back by Killian. "Easy, he''s trying to goad you into attacking. Lets not y his game."

    Aisha harrumphed and pushed Killian away before moving back, but she red at Dante with thick killing intent that showed how much she wanted to rip his head off. Killian sighed and shook his head at his teammate''s short temper.

    Meanwhile, Luo Yue had been silently watching. She calmly stepped forth and bowed to Dante respectfully.

    "Dear sir, I see that you are poised and calm despite the situation, which tells me that you are not worried. How much do you know about us?" She asked while ncing at Killian.

    Killian''s expression changed greatly as he realized that Dante had mentioned his name earlier, but he - Killian - had never said anything about his identity!

 Chapter 72 Tense Debate

    ?

    Dante smiled with amusement. "A bit slow on the uptake, huh? I mean, I don''t expect much from the white-haired cumrag, but you have to do much better bruv."

    Killian''s face darkened, and Aisha became even more livid, clenching her fists so hard they became purple. Dante ignored them and turned to the only worthwhile person here worth talking to, Luo Yue.

    "Well, yes. I know everything about you Luo Yue, Aisha, and Killian, as well as your organization called The Pantheon. In fact, it would be better to ask what I don''t know currently." Dante replied to her question.

    The faces of the three changed greatly, and Aisha manifested a look of disdain. "Hmph, stop bluffing you cretin. You probably have some superficial knowledge seeing as you''re likely a superhuman too, so this is nothing worth writing home about."

    Aisha''s sharp words caused Killian and Luo Yue to calm down, as they felt like it made sense. However, Killian was confused due to a certain reason: how could Dante possibly know this given his age and the fact that he was just discovered?

    Dante nced at Aisha with boredom. "I swear, you look and sound much better with your mouth plugged by a penis."

    Aisha took a deep breath but did not explode, channeling her inner mafiadonna to maintain her cool which she had lost too many times already.

    "Yeah, yeah, keep on with the sexist insults, boy. It''s not gonna hurt me, since it''s not true."

    "Erˇ­ not true? Your name is Aisha, right? You escaped from Libya as a refugee in 2024 as a young woman and arrived in the Nethends. Since prostitution is legal there, you sold your body - well, not your body but your mouth - for survival. There are even videos of it taken at the request of some of your richer clients, which they uploaded to their dropboxes and keepsafes, but you didn''t know that."

    Dante smiled at the shocked and pale Aisha. "After all, you had them all killed after you climbedˇ­ errˇ­ sucked your way to power and deleted the local files. You didn''t think they''d upload it and some of them didn''t even do it intentionally, they just set their phones to backup everything."

    "Would you like me to show you one?" Dante asked with narrowed eyes.

    Aisha screamed and ced a hand on either side of her head, falling to her knees as her eyes dted. "No, I don''t want to remember! I didn''t do it! I never did such a thing! Never!!''

    Dante, Luo Yue, and Killian were stunned by her reaction. The other two knew Aisha to be brash, confident, and hot-tempered, but to see her breakdown like this was something they never expected. This dark history of her must have been something she hated the most and formed literal trauma for her.

    It was pitiful, but not enough to mitigate her fate in Dante''s eyes.

    "Well, the annoying one is silent... okay not exactly silent, but is distracted. Now you can tell me why you sent your team to attack me." Dante spoke as he focused on Killian and Luo Yue.

    Killian took a step forward. "You are an unregistered superhuman who is a danger to society if not informed about the rules of our existence in the current society. We had to take you in - unharmed - and detain you until we were sure it was safe for you to roam about."

    "Ah right, so basically, government lingo for ''if we can''t control it, then we won''t let it exist'', right?" Dante retorted with a sneer on his face.

    Killian''s eyebrows twitched but he was too deeply entrenched in the system to care. He was a typical follower as he had been a good boy marine who never questioned orders and now he was a good boy operative for The Pantheon who were controlled by the deep state.

    As such, his answer was predictable. "You''re a loose cannon and we cannot tell your objectives nor your morals. It''s simply safer to handle things this way for the entire world."

    Dante was speechless and felt like he was going to get a headache. "All you literally have to do is research my identity and know how I lived my life. Your flimsy reason could make sense if I had a criminal history or any overt mental issues."

    "But what if I am just someone who wants to live in peace and disturb no one?" Dante inquired as he folded his arms.

    This time Luo Yue stepped forward. "Then, we shall release you upon discovering this. The detainment is not done to control, but to protect. If, as you say, you are a peaceful person, then the detainment would mean nothing but a few hours and a short interrogation, along with you signing some legal agreements not to release crucial information nor cause trouble, that''s all."

    Dante nced at the woman and sneered. "I would definitely believe you if I didn''t know the exact oue of the detainment process. While out cold, all superhumans are imnted with explosive chips in their brains. As such, the inspection and recruitment process is always unusually ''smooth''."

    "So far 99% of all superhumans caught by your guys have been recruited. Only this who were unable to be imnted for various reasons or were impervious to its effects chose to be free."

    Dante nced at the darkened face of Killian and the downcast expression of Luo Yue and smiled yfully. "So tell me again about how ''fair'' and ''just'' the process is."

    There was a palpable silence only interrupted by the asional muttering of Aisha as she closed her eyes and tried to repress the memories that hade surging out once more.

    Killian raised his head and spoke firmly. "Whatever the case, we have our orders. Even if it means we are not doing he right thing, we have no choice to but oblige."

    Dante nodded with satisfaction. "Good, just say that from the very beginning then."

    Before the trio of superhumans could react, Dante seemingly disappeared from their sight. This caused the faces of Luo Yue and Killian to change greatly as they guarded themselves, but they did not see Dante appear around them. Rather, he appeared above the still delirious Aisha and raised his foot, intending to break her legs.

    When his legs came down, the other two could only grimace as they heard a terrible cracking sound, as well as Aisha''s scream as she snapped out of her daze and was sted by the pain. Dante raised his legs to smash the other foot when Aisha quickly reacted by exploding with a bright light, blinding Dante simr to the sr re attack.

    Aisha then transformed into a beam of light and charged toward the other two, falling to the ground behind them and vomiting as her body was wracked with pain.

    Meanwhile, Dante walked over as his pupils eerily dted and expanded rapidly, eventually regaining their light. Blindness for someone with his gic superiority and SDI was but a pipe dream.

    "Not bad." Was all he said to Aisha''s desperatest-ditch effort, chilling the hearts of the three.

    Luo Yue''s body suddenly shone with a purple light and the area seemed to be slightly darker. She pointed at Killian and the purple light entered him, raising his SDI by an entire point!

    This made Dante raise his eyebrows as that was some great buff ability, but Luo Yue looked pooped. Clearly, this was probably the full extent of her power imbued into Killian to give them a fighting chance.

    But even with his SDI raised by 1 point, his highest index was his Strength and Vitality which were now at 2.2 points. Compared to Dante who had 10.7 in all fields without even activating his Bionics or Psionicsˇ­ sigh.

    Killian felt the power in his body and his almost double strength and roared with confidence. His worried look disappeared as he felt like he had grasped everything at this moment and was probably the strongest being in the entire universe at this moment.

    He stepped forward with utter nonchnce and spoke coldly. "I''ll give you a chance to surrender and follow us back to base for detainment. You will not be harmed, though you will have to ount for the harm you did to Aisha, but what happened to my teammates will be pardoned."

    Dante smiled. "Your terms are fair and quite respectable even though you believe you have the upper hand. You''re not a bad guy, just that you work for a bad faction."

    Killian''s face darkened as he understood that this was Donate directly rejecting him and he decided not to waste any more words as he directly swung his fist to attack. To the eyes of a normal person, Killian was like a speeding car and they wouldn''t even be able to react until they were hit.

    However, Dante simply chuckled and stopped this power-packed fist with two digits, his index finger and his middle finger.

 Chapter 73 Capturing

    Killian, who was previously full of confidence, was notpletely bbergasted and shattered, looking like a lost puppy that had been abandoned by its owner.

    "H-How can this beˇ­?" He muttered to himself as he felt like all his force has been dissipated by these two fingers.

    Dante chuckled at his confusion and took his two fingers back. "My physical strength is more than 5 times yours, of course its possible. Not only that, I have far better training in the control of force than you."

    In terms of the five basic of Breathing, Posture, Reaction, Bnce and Traversal, Dante would not say that he was a master, but he had graduated sufficiently and was adept. Using himself as a benchmark, the five basics on Killian were atrocious.

    They were far better than when Dante had started out of course since Killian had military training and his own specialized training by the Pantheon, but it was no where near as concise nor perfect as what the Eternal Universe offered. After all, those basics had been condensed after how many generations of high tech studies?

    Whole quantumputers had been dedicated to calcte the most optimal training route for a human, so the near clumsy training of the real world could obviously not match.

    Then, there was the fact that Dante had also passed the Advanced Training of Focus, Spirituality and Conservation. Focus and Spirituality were mostly to help youngsters mature mentally faster and also be mentally capable, but Conservation was very much simr to the martial arts theory of ''turningplexity into simplicity'' or ''everything returns to the origin''.

    It did not specifically teach anything rted tobat, but by applying its rules tobat, it produced a synergistic effect that raised the power of the user sufficiently.

    Both Luo Yue and Aisha were utterly confused by what they were seeing, as if their eyes were failing them. However, they - with their limited SDI - only saw Killian flying back with a dent in his abdomen the next second.

    In Killian''s eyes, Dante had lowered his fingers and taken a single step to stand beside him. Before Killian could speak, Dante unleashed a slid blow into his gut that caused his entire body to bend like a crescent moon before flying out at near sonic speed.

    Killian was sent to strike a small mound of rocks and was buried in them, his life and death unverifiable.

    Luo Yue and Aisha looked at the mound where Killian was sent and then at Dante who was slowly walking over with a slight smile. They felt their hearts pound with fear and blood rushed towards their brains as they began to panic.

    "Don''te closer!" Aisha screamed as she raised a finger and shot a thin beam of light.

    Dante side stepped the beam casually, looking like he was in the fabled Ultra Instinct state. He paused as he nced at the beam that shot past him whichsered through some rocks and left a smoking hole with a serious expression.

    "You are actually dangerous." Dante said solemnly as he stopped ying around.

    He activated his Bionics and disappeared from the realm of sight of the two women. By the time they understood what was going on, they were throughly tied up by some strange bonds. This was a special form of alloy from the Eternal universe that could easily keep someone with an SDI of 300 detained, much less these fellows.

    Aisha struggled and released beams of light from he body to try and fry the alloy, but all she did was heat it up and cause herself as well as Luo Yue to scream as their skins sizzled and burnt. Luo Yue gritted her teeth and used her moonlight magic to heal their burns, but she could not break out of this bind.

    While the two women struggled, Dante had already collected the bloodied and weakened Killian then tied him up too. As for the helicopter, the pilot was still waiting for his two quarry, but Dante had no ns to send them back.

    Rather, Dante picked up a stone nearby and flicked it. It struck the temple of the pilot with force and knocked him out, causing him to fall forward and slump over the controls.

    Satisfied, Dante grabbed the hooks of the two bonds and them pulled them along. He took them to the water and then manifested his exosuit, something which shocked Luo Yue and Aisha as they had never seen technology of this level.

    Dante stood above the water this time and used the thrusters to fly forward at great speeds, heading towards McDonald''s Ind once more. The ride was extremely ''bumpy'' and terrible for Aisha and Luo Yue.

    Aisha had to turn various parts of her body to light to survive the g-force while Luo Yue manifested a small barrier of purple moon energy around her body.

    As for Killian, he was left raw, and the trio could hear various bones in his body breaking and snapping even as the roar of the wind deafened them.

    Luckily for them, it didn''tst long. They soon arrived at the ind and Dante threw them into the cave he had dig out. Immediately, the thinly dressed Luo Yue and Aisha began to shiver, while Killian slowly woke up since he was very close to death at this point.

    Dante retracted his exosuit and then checked on Killian. Seeing that he wouldn''t die, he nodded and turned to the two women show were limating to their situation and ncing at them.

    Luo Yue looked up and her near wless face had a hint of rosiness as her body generated more heat to battle the cold. It made it seem like she was blushing, but Dante could easily read her life signs using his senses.

    "So, what are you going to do with us?"

    Dante rubbed his chin. "A very good question. I don''t want to kill you because I actually haven''t killed anyone in my life yet and I don''t want to waste my first time on you. However, I can''t let you go free as you have seen my face."

    Aisha gritted her teeth and snorted. "Dude, we don''t even know your name or who you are. All we got were reports that someone was traveling at Mach 3 underwater, which is fucking impossible given our current technology."

    Dante was stunned. So that''s how they discovered him! He had wondered what foolish thing he had done to give himself away, but it turned out that it was something he did not ount for in the least.

    This taught him a lesson that he should not neglect anything when making moves. This earth waspletely surveilled by various forces and most things could not hide from their eyes if they decided to search.

    He could simply hack into the entire satellite and camerawork and make himself like Aiden Perice, unable to be identified or evenpletely invisible. His AI chip could easily achieve this and he had not done it before because he was short-sighted and ignorant.

    It was simply because Dante saw himself as aw abiding citizen. He did not n to use force to harm anyone or any country, only using legal and genuine means to takeover the world through brilliance and wealth.

    I mean, there were camera''s all over the streets, but you weren''t usually bothered about them because you knew you weren''t gonna do anything bad. They weren''t for you, they were for the bad guys. In fact, you might even slightly like those cameras because if something bad happened to you or a loved one, you could use their footage to do many things.

    But if you nned to do evil, or had done evil and wereying low, ever camera was an eyesore and a testament to the evil and perverted nature of the government as well as the modern world.

    Dante corrected his mentality henceforth and immediately had his AI chippletely make him invincible to all known forms of detection in the world that used technological means. If you had a way to track or detect outside of technology, like a spare Kraven the Hunter or a cultivator''s Spirit Sense, then wellˇ­ there was nothing Dante could do about that one.

    "Speaking of identity, just who the fuck are you? You have this weird get up and all this power, but howe you''ve never appeared on our radar?" Aisha grumbled unhappily.

    Dante snapped out of his reverie and smiled. "Me? I was just a normal guy like 2 months ago. You could say that I awoke my power back then and have nee adapting to it since."

    Luo Yue seemed interested in this and the moon symbol on her forehead shone with a deep light.

    "Your power? Since we are your captives, can you tell us what it is? I am utterly curious as to what kind of power can grant so muchˇ­ ability."

    Dante paused and then pondered seriously. "Well, my power is very versatile. To understand my power, you have to understand how I call myself."

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel With the mini quantumputer at his back and his hands in his vice admirals jacket that began to shift as the nanites slowly covered his skin, Donate grinned.

    "I am the God of Technology."

    Then Dante teleported out of the cavern and back to South Africa''s beach area.

 Chapter 74 Wisdom Versus Intelligence

    ?

    He saw the bodies of Killian''s team members that he left here and then took them over to the helicopter. Dante then flew back to his room in the Royal Oasis hotel and used his AI chip to search for the tech specialist and the demolitions agent, finding that the two had crazily evacuated to their safe house in the city.

    Amused, he traveled to their safehouse which was heavily guarded but almost inconspicuous. It was a small manor in the rich residential area of the city. Dante easily disarmed all the defenses with his AI chip and walked in as if he were the owner of the ce.

    When he entered the basement where the tech specialist and demolitions were seated while trying to contact headquarters for more information, they raised their heads to see Dante enter. Immediately their faces changed as they recognized their target, but they were unable to even make a sound as Dante knocked them out faster than their brains could respond.

    He then threw their bodies to the side and sat down in the tech specialist''s chair. His AI chip connected to his setup and directly made a video call to the headquarters of The Pantheon, which was picked up immediately by their CO.

    "Hake, if you don''t have good news for me, you''d betterˇ­ who is this?" The Commanding Officer began to berate but paused when he saw Dante on the screen.

    Well, he didn''t see Dante. What he saw was first Humphrey, then Slessor, then all other random faces, even some aliens from the Eternal Universe. Even as Dante replied to the Commanding Officer, his voice was fundamentally changed to something that could not be decoded.

    "Me? I am the target of this operation. You must be the 4th Seat of the Pantheon, Codename Ulysses. The nner of all their operations and movements. Nice to meet you." Dante responded with amusement in his voice.

    Ulysses was silent before his expression became arrogant. "Where are my operatives? If you tell me now, your fate can be mitigated from torture and death to just mild torture."

    Dante was speechless. "Brother, they put you in charge of their intelligence operations? Didn''t they at least check if you had any intelligence in the first ce?"

    "You! How dare you speak to me this way, you cretin! And answer my questions, before I send an even better team to deal with you!" Ulysses threatened with a dark face.

    Dante rubbed his brows. "Right, okay. I''ll say this slowly, and I can even repeat it for you if you''re too slow. My name is Ao Longtian and I am the Son of the Heavens! With my system, the God of Technology System, I will take over this world and be its ruler!"

    "You and yours only have 1 month to surrender to me or I will begin taking action against you!" Dante dered as he folded his arms arrogantly and then cut the connection.

    Ulysses mmed the control panel before him with a cold expression and then flung his hand, flourishing his military cape as he left the room with a dark face.

    The moment he exited the room and none of the cameras were around, his expression changed to a solemn one. He quickly entered a secure room and then sat down, taking off his cap and wiping his forehead.

    "What a terrifying person. He was able to take down an S-ss team with ease, track them to their safe house, and even call us to posture. This is power beyond what we can easily deal with right now." Ulysses muttered thoughtfully.

    "I do not believe he is that stupid, though he must be young. He also revealed a lot of information despite thinking that he hadn''t. He is definitely a youth below the age of 30 and must have been born and raised in the West."

    "After all, the images he chose to hide his true face are that of fantasy and alien characters, and it is unlikely a mature person would use such a thing. Not to mention that even if he changed his voice and made it impossible for us to decode, his words and tone carried over."

    "As for the Chinese name he gave, it''s obviously a redirection. This makes him an American most likely, because if he was going to choose a name to redirect to, it would definitely belong to the state that he hates the most, and as of 2030, China is America''s biggest enemy."

    "System? I have not heard of such a thing but I will research it and find out what this terminology means. It might also yield clues to his true identity."

    "He mentioned the God of Technology. That means his superpower must be technology rted and gives him control over digitalworks, which was why he could easily contact us as well as protect his details."

    "This makes him a huge enemy in today''s world since the entire world is now a global vige thanks to digitalization. For all we know, he could have hacked into our database and ourmunications despite them being state of the art. After all, superpowers do not follow conventional rules from what we''ve discovered."

    Ulysses frowned and nced around. "It''s a good thing I waited until I was out of sight before showing my true thoughts. Hm, now how to detect himˇ­"

    Ulysses leaned back in his seat and smiled. "He is suspected to be a young man, American, and has the power of technology."

    "The team detected him in South Africa, so we only need to check the flight details of the past week for any young American who traveled there but has yet to travel back."

    "As a young man, when you gain superpowers as awesome as his, what do you do? The first thing is normally to show off, but if you''re smart, you will try to increase your financial capability and live the dream of a billionaire!"

    Ulysses'' eyes narrowed. "So we must also investigate all young Americans who have recently had a surge in wealth. Especially through stocks, gambling, or other such areas where technology can grant easy benefits and are quite obvious!"

    Sighing, Ulysses leaned back in his seat and he seemed to have aged backwards, bing younger again. "Hah, at the end of the day, he''s just a young upstart. He thought he was careful, but careful is rtive. He is intelligent, but no amount of intelligence can surpass a modicum of wisdom."

    "Wisdom is not something that you can be born with like intelligence, it is acquired through experience. This is another reason I''m confident he is a young man, especially one who just awakened."

    "Even someone who spent 20 years carefully managing their superpower would make mistakes and stillck experience, much less someone who awakened it shortly. Before he awakened his superpower, his thoughts werergely civilian and normal so the actions he would have taken in his life before bing powered are not ''protected''."

    Ulysses sighed. "Whatever the case, this problem has a direction now. We only have to be careful of our electronics going forward and establish safeties around them in case someone else awakenes such a power in the future."

    With a n in mind, Ulysses felt confident and stood up, nning to get everything done.

    Meanwhile, Dante ended the video call and then dragged the bodies of the demolitions guy as well as the tech specialist then flew towards the helicopter. He then dumped them in the back of it and tied them up using the same rope he used to take down the superhuman team.

    He then tossed the helicopter driver who was out cold to the passenger''s side and had his AI chip take over the helicopter and consequently fly it to McDonald''s Ind. On the way, he received a ping from his AI that he was being investigated, but Dante sneered.

    He may not have the wisdom of Ulysses, but he had greater technology and information. He had hacked into the entire database of The Pantheon, how could he not have read the profiles of all their members? Ulysses was known for his out-of-the-box thinking and his cunning, so Dante decided to stifle him from the beginning.

    All details, records, and videos taken by cameras about him entering the casino, buying the cars, or taking the ne were obscured. They existed, but when Ulysses or anyone affiliated with him tried to ess it, they would not be able to even detect it, much less realize they were blocked.

    Dante was speechless. Seriously, you know I have technological powers and you are using technology to investigate me? Are you underestimating the scope of my ability or is it a habit of reliance?

    Probably both.

    After all, Dante told him to the face that he was the God of Technology and with the AI chip as well as ess to the Eternal universe, Dante might as well be the literal God of Technology for earth.

    But Ulysses probably downyed the scope of his power due to prejudice and the belief that he was just a slightly clever brat.

 Chapter 75 Done With Earth

    ?

    Dante shook his head as the helicopternded on the ind. He then took his captives and tossed them in a separate cavern, so that they could notmunicate with the other group.

    Even though they were just normal people, who knew what they could cook up? Dante had no interest in being the careless viin who underestimated human creativity.

    Even now, he nned to check in on these guys everyday to feed them and stifle any clever ideas they had. Currently, he had no way to easily deal with them until he could level up his superpower to the D Rank.

    Dante was hoping the size and number of things he could carry when he went back and forth would increase, allowing him to bring over some useful things.

    Before he left the cavern, he created a new child AI on the mini quantumputer called the Sentinel AI. This one would actively scan the digitalworks of the world for anything that could interest him or potentially harm him and block them from ever seeding.

    Satisfied, he took the helicopter back to the Beach and then left it there. He returned to his room in the Royal Oasis and actually slept this time, staying in bed up until 11 am. His flight back was at 3 pm, so he took a bath and then had an expensive lunch before heading to the airport.

    Uh, in truth, he didn''t need to do this. If he could block Ulysses from detecting his details, he could certainly fabricate something digitally to show he had taken the flight and even fix himself into camera footage if necessary.

    Howeverˇ­ why not? Just because he could teleport across half the world didn''t mean he wanted to do it all the time. If it was urgent or necessary, sure. Since there was no urgency now, he could just live like a normal person and enjoy life.

    In thevish realm of first-ss flights, Dante found himself wrapped up in a cocoon offort. The plush leather seats cradled his form, and the soft, warm nket - nicknamed ''nkie'' - cocooned him in its embrace.

    With a gentle touch, he reclined his seat to a position of utmost rxation, and a subtle hum filled the air as the aircraft soared through the skies.

    And would you know it, that same tech enthusiast from his first flight was here too. He and Dante marveled at how simr their schedules were and chatted. Apparently, he was paid a hugemission by a top internationalpany toe and install new mainframes for them, which hepleted in a single days'' work since they allocated nearly 50 skilled assistants to him - on thepany''s payroll - and prepared the equipment before he evennded.

    This shocked Dante and he was silent. Guessing his thoughts, the fellow chuckled and exined that the reason thepany hired him for so much and spent a lot to ship him over was not because his name was thunderous or he had some special techniques, but simply a matter of trust and privacy.

    They''d rather spend more to bring him, who was the one who installed the mainframes during thepany''s founding 20 years ago - than hire a talented newbie who might leave a backdoor and cause thepany to lose millions.

    Even if they counted the flight, the stay, the assistant and the equipment, the total cost would not surpass a million. Spending a million to potentially save a billion, it was an easy choice.

    As the hours drifted by, Dante''s thoughts drifted to the destination that awaited him: home. The flight progress was smooth, and soon they approached their arrival. As the aircraft touched down, Dante felt a twinge of reluctance to leave the luxurious sanctuary of the first-ss cabin.

    But the VIP treatment didn''t end there. Upon disembarking, Dante was escorted by airport staff who recognized him as a distinguished first-ss traveler. They whisked him away through the VIP customs and immigration, sparing him from the long queues and meticulous inspections.

    With efficiency and elegance, they guided him to the opulent arrival lounge, a sanctuary reserved for the privileged few. There, he was offered refreshing beverages and delectable snacks while he waited for his transportation.

    A valet came over with a car key and respectfully handed them to Dante. "Sir, your Bentley is ready and parked at the designated point."

    Dante nodded and smiled, taking the key and then walking down the steps to exit the airport and see his car parked neatly by the road while a few guards monitored it carefully. When they saw him unlock the car from a distance with the key, they nodded and opened the door for him.

    Dante thanked them and entered the car. He sparked it and then slowly moved out of the airport before joining the main highway then speeding towards his rented apartment at home. On the way, his thoughts wandered.

    It had been a fun little adventure, taking this break toe to earth. He won some money, bought shy cars, satisfied his parents and uncle, thenid the foundation for his future base. Not to mention he beat up a team of hostile with ease and fully tasted the power the Eternal Universe brought himpared to earthlings.

    However, his interest towards earth waned greatly in the process. He realized even more how overpowered he was on this and understood that conquering it could be as easy or as difficult as he wanted really.

    If he was ruthless, he could head back to his armory and take a single nuclear rifle, then decimate major cities. The world would naturally kneel at his feet. If he was soft, he could continue current path of winning allegiance through progress and merit.

    Whichever way, the initiative was always with him. Even if being a nice guy didn''t work, he could be a cruel guy and still get the oue he wanted.

    Right now, his mind was more focused on the Zero Gate and the possibility of its existence within his home universe. The only problem was that he did not have a way to enter outer space.

    Though his exosuit could travel in space, that was based on whether the one wearing it could also survive in space. Beatrice, with her monstrous SDI, probably could but Dante was far, far from it.

    What he needed to do was get his spaceship over here, but even the best shrinking technology could only make it asrge as a car. That was why Dante threatened Ulysses to surrender in a month, because he would have his third session with the ck Land at that time, so he could upgrade his superpower again.

    Howeverˇ­

    A glint shed in Dante''s eyes. He did not like it, being so passive. It was fine to wait for the 5 week interval between which he could be given a free week use of the ce, but it was not enough.

    As an earthling, Dante''s greed was endless. He did not just want this one superpower, but he wanted them all! If he had his way, he would swallow all ten fruits produced every year and umte 1 million superpowers, unrealistic as it sounded.

    To achieve that, he needed to upgrade his foundation superpower, Quantum Entanglement. To upgrade Quantum Entanglement, he needed Zero Energy. To get Zero Energy, he needed the ck Land. To get to the ck Land, he needed the permission of the school.

    Luckily for him, there were two ways to get permission. Be a member of the Unique Batch and wait for your weekly assigned ss there or umte Supercoin through the Etraverse world''s belonging to the school and ''purchase'' time in the ck Land, much like how one would pay for an inte cafe.

    Obviously, Dante was favoring the second choice, but he had seen the prices. It was pay for per second, and one second cost 10,000 Supercoins. To give you a clear idea on how costly this was, the Pirate Incursion world whichsted 24 hours rewarded at most, 100 Supercoins for an EX grade score.

    Assuming you were a legendary super genius not seen in ten thousand years who could clear the entire thing in an hour - its literally impossible to clear it shorter than that - that meant you would earn 100 Supercoins every hour.

    Assuming you ran that world and grind day and night with sleeping, you would need over 4 days to pay for 1 second on the ck Land using this method.

    This method wasn''t really meant for first years, it was meant for students to grind throughout their five year stay and then cash out in your fifth year, so you can double your time in the ck Land and absorb more before you graduate.

    A first year, if we''re being nice, should already be grateful for the 5 week buffer and the one week of uninterrupted absorption. Only going from F to E was rtively quick, the duration increased with each Rank as your superpower got stronger and became hungrier.

 Chapter 76 Back Into The Etraverse

    ?

    Heck, looking at Dante, this fellow astounded the world and caused whole powerhouses to risk their lives to capture him because he went from F to E in 10 seconds. Yet from E to D, he spent an entire week in the ck Land and only reached 75%.

    You could be sure as hell that even Humphrey and Slessor, who managed to reach the E Rank in rtively good times, were not even 10% of the way after one whole week. They would probably only reach the D Rank in their second year, and that was considered astounding fast.

    This was why Dante absolutely needed the Zero Gate of his home universe if one existed. Not only could he suck energy 24/7, but he could also obtain all ten fruits and swallow them. Unfortunately, 10 fruits did not mean 10 superpowers, but ten chances for a superpower.

    Otherwise, there was no way Lara Sanguis, the headmistress, would have only 7 of them despite being virtually the ''owner'' of the Eternal Universe''s Zero Gate.

    Still, if he could monopolize the ten fruits of his universe and then fight for extras on the Eternal Universe''s side, he could have more chances and eventually surpass her!

    The problem was that hecked Supercoins. Earning them was not easy, and different worlds paid out different amounts at different ranks for different durations.

    For example, the Apocalypse World, whichsted 30 days, was the number 1 world not only because you got a free simted superpower but also because it paid out the most at each Rank for the 30-day period.

    It even surpassed worlds like the Rising Star, which had a 90-day duration. This was because the Apocalypse World was one of the few shared worlds the school owned, and getting high scores in shared worlds was exponentially harder than instanced worlds.

    Currently, all his mates were in various worlds fighting for every scrap of Supercoin they could store for the future. It was only Dante who had time to gallivant like this, but he was mostly forgiven because of his high potential.

    After all, the simple fact was that there was a huge difference between Dante and his ssmates. Firstly, his ssmates did not have two whole universes to shift between. The Eternal Universe was their home and the ce they grew up in.

    They only thought of things that a native would do, which was to excel, fit into society, and then live out their ambitions. Dante was more like an exchange student sent by an enemy country to steal knowledge and information from another.

    He didn''t care much about fitting into their society unless it helped his goals and granted him more tangible ess to hidden information. He also did not care about furthering their society and would rather sabotage it if he could.

    Secondly, Dante did not have the same starting line as his ssmates. Slessor, Humphrey, and Louisa had different backgrounds, but the teaching was the same. They had almost 20 years of training using high-tech means, like virtual worlds, quantum processors, as well as generally being a native.

    Dante had only been in the Eternal Universe for 2 months. More than half of that time was spent just gathering information and pushing himself to catch up to the basic level of a youth in their society. He was not even close to the basic level of Slessor and Humphrey and co yet.

    So unlike the natives who were carefree and could focus on their ''studies,'' Dante had to now rush to catch up and integrate himself more, so how could he find time to gather Supercoins in the virtual world? Especially since all the virtual worlds were not time-dted?

    This was the crux of the issue. Even now, he had toe back to earth to establish his base and tie up some loose ends. Now that he had captives too that he could now fully control, it would waste timeing and going to feed them.

    Dante was thinking of assembling a worker bot by bringing the small parts over and let it handle that group, but once again, human creativity was a problem. Who knew if one of them would ''fall in love'' with the workerbot and have it free them like some cheap romance plot.

    Of course, this was a farfetched and unrealistic example, but you got the drift. The simplest solution was just to be ruthless and ughter them all, but Dante was not there yet. He did not particrly n to be ruthless, but he was also not naive enough to abhor it.

    There maye a day where he was forced to make a choice, and he would definitely make the right choice regardless of his personal feelings. He might hate it afterward and would be burdened by it, but by god, he would still make the choice.

    Dante came up to his rented apartment and parked his Bentley in the driveway. He got down and entered his home, spending a few minutes cleaning the ce up before heading to his room.

    He then sat on his bed with a smile and chose to return to the Eternal Universe, specifically to his residence in school. Once he was in another but far more high-tech bedroom, he immediatelyy down and entered the Etraverse.

    He casually browsed the various worlds and decided to take on the Apocalypse World again. It was for nothing more than getting Supercoins and raising his SDI. The timing was also perfect since his next ss was in 29 days, so he could use most of his time in the Apocalypse World properly.

    Dante chose tond near a different city called Darren''s Watch, which was on the whole other side of the map from his previous one. After all, he didn''t want anyone of the natives to recognize him as yers would be penalized for that.

    Upon choosing his city, he descended into the world.

    This time, Dante found himselfing to as he was running at full speed, his muscles aching, and his heart thumping in his chest. He saw five others running with him, of which two were normal, but the other two had a light shine in their eyes, and one could easily tell that something had changed.

    Dante''s eyes shed as he inspected them using the system granted by the world.

    ?yer Name: Harold Poton

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 10/10

    Strength: 1

    Agility: 1 (50)

    Dexterity: 1 (50)

    Intelligence: 1

    Constitution: 1

    Vitality: 1

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Superpowers: Extremespeed.?

    ?yer Name: Lucian Havian

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 10/10

    Strength: 1

    Agility: 1

    Dexterity: 1

    Intelligence: 1(15)

    Constitution: 1

    Vitality: 1

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Superpowers: Aquakinesis.?

    Dante''s eyes narrowed. As for himself, it was the usualbination of Quantum Entanglement and Absorption. When the other two saw that Dante had two listed superpowers, their faces changed greatly as they knew that Dante was a Unique Batch student in reality.

    Immediately, the nefarious thoughts they had been harboring disappeared as they approached Dante and introduced themselves quickly.

    "Hello, student Dante, my name is Harold, and I am

    a member of the Normal Batch of the third year." Harold, who had blond hair and pale skin, introduced himself quickly.

    His body was lean, and he wore the same ragged clothes as the others in this group with a single backpack on his back. He had thin lips and a fairly handsome face, though his height was a bit shorter than Dante''s at around 5''10".

    "Greetings, fellow student, my name is Lucian Havian, of the Havian Merchant Group! I am a top student in the Elite Batch of the Second Year!" Lucian, who had shoulder-length ck hair and two green eyes filled with arrogance and confidence, introduced himself.

    He was a 6-foot fellow with a stocky build, and one could not mistake the pride in his voice as he mentioned his origins. Even Harold by the side seemed slightly rmed, and his expression became slightly respectful.

    Even as the group kept their sprint, the trio suddenly did not seem to strugglepared to the other two ''NPCs''. After all, whether it was Dante or the others, they had the basic training of the Eternal Universe, so the same footsteps they took as any untrained person was the gap between heaven and earth.

    The speed, stamina consumption, and even the amount ofctic acid released into the muscles were tightly controlled by the three who had been trained inparison to the other two who were running based on natural instincts.

    That was why they could run and even chat like this without any worry for whatever was pursuing them. Of course, there was also the fact that they had superpowers, so no one was necessarily weak.

    Harold and Lucian turned to Dante and waited for his introduction. Clearly, using the format of their own introductions, they hoped to identify his batch, his school year, and even his family background if possible.

    This would decide his value to them and position in this short ''cooperation''.

 Chapter 77 Going Solo

    ?

    "My name is Dante, and I am of the Portinari Family. I am the number 1 student of the first year''s Unique Batch," Dante dered, giving them what they wanted.

    Lucian and Harold were almost taken aback as they ran. Damn, bro, you''re that fierce? No matter if it was the Unique Batch, the Portinari n, or his position within his ss'' hierarchy, all of them were enough to ughter the two of them with ease.

    Harold and Lucian exchanged a quick look and seemed to decide something before smiling at Dante.

    "Boss Dante, we seem to have descended together, so why don''t we work together? After all, we''re all pure humans anyway," Harold suggested with an ingratiating smile.

    That was another thing about specific shared worlds. They split their servers based on race, so unless specifically indicated, most shared worlds would not have aliens, mixed breeds, and pure humans y together.

    You could also allot this reason as to why Dante almost did not see another yer in the wild when he descended the first time. You could be sure that no matter the city or outpost in the other two servers, every 100 meters in the wild would have a student voraciously hunting for prey.

    Lucian nced at Dante hopefully. Internally, Dante frowned as he''d prefer to go solo. Otherwise, how could he easily descend with his main body and absorb power? Even right now, he could likely resolve whatever was chasing them if hended with his real body and used his real SDI.

    However, the issue was not to offend these two, not because they posed any threat, but because Dante did not want to start a feud with idiots so early into his life in this universe.

    It was entirely possible that these two were sensible and would hold no grudge whatsoever after being directly rejected, but it was also entirely possible that their heads were up their asses and they would develop resentment.

    However, that did not mean Dante would be pressured to ept them based on this.

    "Lucian and Harold, contact me when youe out of the game world, for I have some things I would likely need your help with. We can coborate then. As for in here, I''d rather roll alone due to a bet I made with the second and third ce among my batch," Dante responded with a nod.

    Lucian and Harold were surprised, but they smiled.

    "No problem, my man. I''ll be taking my leave!" Haroldughed as he activated his extremespeed and bolted away like the sh, leaving nothing but an afterimage.

    Lucian also nodded to Dante. "I shall also separate from here. With two superpowers, I guess whatever is behind us can only beg for your mercy. Good luck."

    The fellow opened his bag and poured out all his water. He then controlled it carefully before jumping on it and veering off to the right, looking like a fired bullet.

    You could be sure that the other two ''natives'' behind Dante were absolutely floored by what they were seeing and could not understand why theirrades had turned into superpower users right before them.

    Unfortunately for them, in order to protect the minds of students, no one descended with memories of their body''s past lives up until now, so Dante had no clue who these guys were to him.

    Dante stopped and let them pass him, which confused the other two. Dante only smiled and gestured for them to go, which they did without hesitation. Dante was speechless, as he expected a dramatic scene of them stopping to stand firm with him since they seemed close.

    ˇ­alright, even if they were blood brothers before, it clearly did not matter in the face of life and death.

    Well, it only made things easier for him. He turned around and saw that the bushes behind him were ruffling crazily, and he quickly used his superpower to descend with his real body to gain an advantage.

    The best part about his superpower, whether it came to traveling between universes, between quantum markers, or between the quantum world and the real world with his body, all of it was instant.

    No, not so quick that it was fractions of a second, but literally instantaneous. Otherwise, he would not have been able to survive Sylphia''s attack back then as she struck immediately and even damaged him a bit.

    This was also Dante''s confidence for ascending or descending. If he brought his main body in and he saw that there was trouble, his body might be slow to react, but his brain wouldn''t. The moment he made the thought, the ''switch'' would happen, so any fatal blow would hit his virtual body.

    ?Warning! Detected that there is a functional anomaly within the SDI value of the yer! Resetting the SDI to the lower recorded value of the two!]

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 10/10

    Strength: 10.7 -> 1

    Agility: 10.7 -> 1

    Dexterity: 10.7 -> 1

    Intelligence: 10.7 -> 1

    Constitution: 10.7 -> 1

    Vitality: 10.7 -> 1

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    A strange power descended upon Dante, wanting to weaken him, but a grayish purple light glowed from his body and shattered this power brutally. Before Dante could be amazed, he received another notification.

    ?Warning! Unable to reduce the yer''s SDI for unknown reasons! Maintaining the current SDI value and entering monitoring mode!]

    In other words, his SDI returned to his normal amount in reality, which was 10.7 points in all fields. Dante immediately felt the difference of being nearly 11 times stronger in all aspects, and his confidence soared.

    Like the other yers, he dared to chat even with 1 point in all fields, but with his natural amount, he was like a tiger given wings. Not to mention, his trump card was here: his Bionics and Psionics came down along with him!

    Even his AI chip was here, and all three were supposed to be banned! However, just as the AI managing this game world could not suppress his SDI, it obviously couldn''t suppress his Bionics and Psionics, which were a part of his body.

    Dante stretched his limbs and nced through the bushes to see what was chasing him and was surprised. No wonder those fellows were running crazily; it was actually an E-grade monster!

    ?Monster Name: Yao Guai

    Monster Rank: E

    HP: 220/220

    Strength: 14

    Agility: 6

    Dexterity: 1

    Intelligence: 0.4

    Constitution: 15

    Vitality: 18?

    Dante''s eyes shone. He didn''t care that it had higher stats than even the Withering Irradiated Zombie back then. After all, one was a withered humanoid, and the other was a literal mutated bear the size of a bus.

    In fact, the higher the SDI, the better, no?

    The rampaging bear soon caught up and focused its bloodshot eyes on him. The 10 kilometers area surrounding this spot was all a part of its territory, and these wretched prey

    had snuck in to try and steal some fruits.

    If it didn''t crush their skulls with its foot and then turn their flesh into its excrement, it wouldn''t be able to calm down whatsoever. Seeing Dante here, it thought he was the weakest link and had fallen behind, so its eyes glinted with cruelty as it charged over.

    It would simply stomp him to death and go after the others, thene back for his fleshter.

    Dante saw the bear increase its speed and even tuck its head in slightly, looking like it was going to ram him. He raised his eyebrows and found himself smiling as he activated his bionics slightly, only about halfway.

    This boosted his physical stats by 5 times, which came out to 53.5. The bear, who was now like a toddler before him in terms of power, could only yelp as it was kicked to the side the moment it was about to collide with Dante.

    It flew for an entire kilometer, crashing through various trees before hitting a nearby stone formation and causing a dent in it, then falling to the ground.

    Dante walked over calmly with his backpack slung over his shoulder while the Yao Guai struggled to stand up, continuously coughing out green blood as it trembled with pain and fear.

    It could only half-stand by the time Dante reached over, and it kept roaring weakly to try and deter him. When it realized it wasn''t working, it began to whimper in a deep tone, obviously begging for mercy.

    This amused Dante, as the fellow was full of bloodlust and excitement when it felt it had the advantage, but now, you wanted mercy when you were at a disadvantage? Brother, the world does not work that way.

    Dante kicked its torso again, sending it crashing into the giant stone and cracking it in half, falling out on the other side.

    This time, the Yao Guai literally could not get up as its ribs had pierced all its organs, so ity there while spewing disgusting blood endlessly, breathing weakly as its life faded.

 Chapter 78 Dantes Domination 1

    Dante did not waste time cing his hands on its corpse and using his now F rank Absorption Superpower. Unfortunately, the rules stated that one kept the same superpower from when they first descended, but it would be reset to the F rank.

    A greenish light mixed with red hues emerged from the Yao Guai''s corpse that flowed into Dante''s body through his hands like electricity, causing him to moan slightly. He was not ashamed by this, as he knew the addictive effect of using this particr superpower.

    However, Dante naturally cared more for the actual effect.

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 125/125

    Strength: 10.7 -> 12.1

    Agility: 10.7 -> 11.3

    Dexterity: 10.7 -> 10.8

    Intelligence: 10.7 -> 10.74

    Constitution: 10.7 -> 12.2

    Vitality: 10.7 -> 12.5

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    Dante wanted to roar to the sky as he was filled with excitement at his newfound power. This was how it should be! Even though the free gene treatment was helpful, Dante knew he would always be behind if he relied on it.

    It was only like this could he have a chance to catch up to and surpass the denizens of this universe in terms of stats. With more diverse superpowers and his base Quantum Entanglement bing stronger, he would also have more ways to surpass the Eternal Universe in terms of technology, military power, and whatnot.

    Like this, Dante picked up the E Rank Mutation Core from the monster''s shriveled corpse and then pocketed it. He already knew that it was unlike to find another E Rank monster nearby unless he moved to a new territory.

    ording to the forums, the Apocalypse World was very simple and could be split into grids. Every grid was 10 kilometers and apart from human-controlled territories which spanned tens of grids, every individual grid was controlled by one E-rank monster and hundreds of F ranks.

    Every 10 grids, which was every 100 kilometers, was controlled by a D-rank monster that had 10 E-rank monsters below it and countless F-ranks. Every 100 grids - which was every 1000 kilometers - was the territory of a C-rank monster, and so on.

    In the whole Apocalypse World, there were 10 EX Rank monsters who ruled over all, 100 SSS Rank monsters who were theirmanders and elders, 1000 SS Rank monsters who were their colonels and deacons, 10000 S Rank monsters who were the majors as well as instructors.

    As for the 100,000 A Rank and below, they were just different levels of fodder to those above for the gap between A Rank and S rank was steeper than the gap between F rank to A rank.

    Dante was currently located in an E-rank grid. If he traveled towards the south, he would soon reach the nearest outpost close to his city, as yers always descended close to the city. So less than 10 kilometers away was the destination he was looking for.

    Dante dashed over at crazy speeds, his feet leaving afterimages as they moved rapidly. Despite this, he did not leave any visible footprints on the ground, especially for something very slight to show that he did require a solid tform to maintain his movement.

    He was already at the edge of the outpost in a matter of minutes. He slowed down to a more humane speed and then sized up the small town-like establishment. Like the other time, he greeted the guards and stated his identity, winning himself some looks of pity.

    They then set him up but he didn''t bother to go and rest like before or meet the pet he was given. He went straight to the armory of this outpost''s military and exchanged his E Rank Mutation core for weapons and armor.

    This time, he chose lightweight ker armor that would not hamper speed or movement, one sniper rifle which was still the Barrett 50.cal, and one halberd that was more like a naginata than an extended poleaxe.

    He then spent the rest of his money on buying a bit of ammo for his weapon, more medicine for radiation or mutation, and a watch that disyed his location in real-time. Of course, the armory straight-up told him that for the watch to work, they would be monitoring him at all times.

    That was kinda obvious, and Dante did not care since NPCs did not interfere too much with yers. Even if they did, he was not scared of them at all. In fact, he weed it, since the more of a ''ruckus'' he caused, the higher his score.

    Instanced Worlds usually had a fixed goal for you to achieve and your score was calcted based on how well you achieved it and the steps you took to achieve it.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Shared Worlds were ''alive'' and did not have a plot or storyline mission for you toplete, so you were graded based on many things, mostly how much of an impact you made during your time.

    Dante rushed out of the outpost at full speed. For him, every second of the next 30 days was crucial and apart from sleeping or eating, he nned to be ''hard at work''.

    He disappeared into the bushes to the shock of the guards, who shared looks of dismay. Was this fellow on drugs or was he a descendant of that oldic hero?

    Dante entered the wild and moved into a new grid from the Yao Guai, aiming to kill the E Rank monster here. On his way, he naturally found many F-rank monsters to kill and he only swung his naginata a few times in order to dispatch them.

    He stopped to suck their essence and collect their cores. After umting ten, he naturally crushed and absorbed them to raise his Absorption Superpower back to the E Rank he was familiar with.

    [Superpower Name: Absorption

    Superpower Rank: E

    Superpower Description: Allows the user to absorb the energy of a defeated foe, increasing their own SDI by a moderate amount.]

    That was a 20% gain on all stats, so he was definitely going to get more for his money''s worth.

    Unfortunately, the issue was that Dante would struggle to get Absorption above the A Rank. Just like with monsters having a huge gap between the A and S ranks, superpower yers had a huge issue getting through the A Rank.

    No one, NO ONE, in the history of the Eternal Academy, had reached the S rank for their superpower. The majority did not even reach the C grade, much less get to the A Rank and consider breaking through this limit.

    Most of those who got to the A-rank were Unique Batch students like Dante with two superpowers. Using their real superpower and the world-given one, they could barely match A-Rank monsters in battle.

    The reason for this was simple. yers or students had an SDI of 1 point in all fields unless they had a superpower that boosted one stat, like Harold''s extremespeed that bumped his Agility and Dexterity to 40 points at the F Rank, or Lucian who enjoyed a 15 SDI boost to his Intelligence at the F rank.

    As they rose in Rank with their superpower, these boosts and their sub-abilities would increaseprehensively, but so too would monsters. Monsters already had SDIs of 1-10 when at the F Rank and 10-30 at the E Rank.

    Imagine those at the A Rank. Would their SDIs be in the thousands?

    Even if you had two superpowers that gave you great power, your SDI was still 1 point in reality. How could you shoot a fireball or create an earth shield when your foe is no different from the sh in your eyes?

    You''d then wonder, what about superpowers like Absorption? Absorption was just a facet of the Devouring superpower that was more in tune with nature since it only extracted corpses. There were variants in reality that could be extracted from living things and even inanimate objects, so what about those?

    Are you saying that students who descended with this superpower were not able to rise?

    Far from it. Devouring and its kin were rated as one of the best superpowers for this particr setting, and allowed one to raise their SDI slowly to match or surpass monsters of the same Rank.

    The issuey in the fact that monsters did not just rely on their raw stats to survive and dominate this world. Just like the Withering Irradiated Zombie which had the ability to stun with its roar, monsters of each Rank above the F Rank had their own ''superpower''.

    That wasn''t fair! How was anyone supposed to clear this world then if things were so heavily skewed against yers?

    Pfffˇ­. Hahaha!

    My Brother In Christ, that is exactly the point, they don''t want you to clear this world, not even close.

    Otherwise, wouldn''t you be able to sleep in the ck Land every day given the advantages that were given yers coupled with the higher payout per score achieved?

 Chapter 79 Dantes Domination 2

    ?

    The wastnd where Dante found himself was a deste and harsh environment, where remnants of a once-thriving civilization were now reduced to ruins and rubble. The air was thick with an eerie silence, broken only by the asional howl of a distant wind or the screech of mutated creatures lurking in the shadows. Thendscape was a monotonous sea of gray and brown, offering little sce or signs of life.

    Dante, however, seemed unfazed by the destion around him. With newfound excitement coursing through his veins, he wasted no time in moving forward aiming to absorb more for his SDI.

    His ambitions didn''t end there as Dante knew that he needed more E Rank Mutation Cores to advance further. Although he had pocketed the one from the Yao Guai, finding another E Rank monster nearby would be unlikely.

    Determination burned within him as he nned to venture deeper into the Apocalypse World, braving grids controlled by powerful D, C, and even higher-rank monsters.

    Dante''s swift clearance of various F Rank monsters showcased hisbat prowess. With effortless grace, he dispatched them using his halberd, leaving trails of vanquished foes in his wake. The deste wastnd provided little resistance to him as he moved with unparalleled speed and agility. Dante''s skill and experience with his naginata-like halberd made quick work of these lower-rank monsters.

    As he harvested the essence and collected the cores of the F Rank creatures, Dante''s body and mind grew stronger. The moderate increase in his SDI provided a significant advantage, enhancing his overall abilities by 100% at the least.

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 350/350

    Strength: 12.1 -> 24.6

    Agility: 11.3 -> 23.2

    Dexterity: 10.8 -> 26.9

    Intelligence: 10.74 -> 15.5

    Constitution: 12.2 -> 34.9

    Vitality: 12.5 -> 35.9

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    However, despite his impressive growth, Dante knew the limitations of ascending beyond the A Rank with his Absorption Superpower. The history of the Eternal Academy showed that very few had achieved such heights, and even those who did were often unique cases with dual superpowers. The ceiling for superpower yers at the A Rank seemed almost insurmountable, with monstrous foes awaiting them.

    The discussion about the challenges in surpassing A Rank and the limitations of raw stats gave a sense of realism to the world Dante now found himself in. It wasn''t just about raw power but also the strategic use of abilities, tactics, and an understanding of the foes'' strengths and weaknesses. The unyielding monsters, each with their unique superpowers, added to theplexity of Dante''s journey.

    In his quest for strength, Dante eventually encountered a powerful E Rank monster, a creature known as the "Apocalyptic Goliath." This towering behemoth stood at least fifteen feet tall, with bulging muscles and a thick, armored hide that seemed impervious to attacks. Its eyes glowed a sinister red, and its roars echoed through the wastnd, striking fear into the hearts of those unfortunate enough to cross its path.

    ?Monster Name: Apocalyptic Goliath

    Monster Rank: E

    HP: 400/400

    Strength: 29

    Agility: 17

    Dexterity: 18

    Intelligence: 2.2

    Constitution: 30

    Vitality: 28?

    As Dante approached the grid controlled by the Apocalyptic Goliath, he could feel an aura of menace and raw power emanating from the creature. This wasn''t going to be an ordinary battle; it was a true test of his skills and determination.

    God Damn, this monster was definitely a Peak E-Rank foe!

    Without hesitation, Dante tightened his lightweight ker armor and unholstered the Barrett 50.cal sniper rifle. He knew that taking down this formidable foe would require precision and strategy. The sniper rifle would be his first choice to strike from a distance and weaken the monster''s defenses.

    As the first shot rang out, the Apocalyptic Goliath roared in pain, but its thick hide absorbed most of the impact. Unfazed, the massive creature charged towards Dante with frightening speed, closing the distance between them in mere seconds. Dante quickly switched to his halberd, the naginata-like weapon ready to meet the monster''s charge.

    BAM!

    Their sh sent shockwaves through the surrounding area. Dante''s agility allowed him to dodge the monster''s heavy strikes and counter with swift, precise attacks of his own. He aimed for weak spots on the Goliath''s body, exploiting gaps in its armored defenses.

    BOOM!

    However, the creature''s raw strength was immense, and each attacknded with bone-crushing force. Dante''s armor was tested to its limits, absorbing some of the impact but still leaving him bruised and battered. He had to be cautious not to be caught in the creature''s powerful grip otherwise he would taste Goku''s fate when Ape Vegeta caught him.

    Realizing that pure physical strength alone might not be enough, Dante decided to make use of his Quantum Entanglement Superpower. He disappeared from the quantum world, leaving the Goliath stunned into stupefaction.

    He then returned the next second and struck the Goliath''s jaw with his halberd, causing it to scream and lose a chunk of flesh. The Goliath roared in rage and entered berserk mode, unwilling to allow Dante a second of respite to do such evil again.

    The battle intensified as Dante mustered his training by maximizing his agility and superhuman speed with the deadly precision of his halberd and sniper rifle. He evaded the Goliath''s strikes with graceful acrobatics, closing in to deal powerful blows and then darting away before the creature could retaliate.

    Dante felt exhrated. This movement, this strength! He had only undergone light training in the Training World, but he felt like he could even take on Batman in terms of martial skill!

    Of course, this was an illusion, Batman would probably beat this fellow until his limbs were crooked. He only felt skillful because he had a high and rtively bnced SDI along with some basic training on how to maximize it.

    As time passed, the Goliath''s roars of fury began to mix with sounds of frustration. It was clear that the monster was struggling to catch the elusive Dante, whose strategic movements and skill usage kept it off-bnce.

    Yet, Dante was not without his own struggles. The Goliath''s relentless attacks pushed him to his limits, forcing him to utilize his Absorption Superpower to replenish his energy and recover from injuries during brief lulls in the battle as he run over shamelessly to kill nearby F rank monsters.

    The Goliath was so angry that tears appeared in his eyes. Brother, have some martial virtue! How can you be so despicable!

    The tide of the battle swung back and forth, as Dante''s skills and superpowers challenged the Goliath''s raw strength and powerful abilities. Endless shockwaves radiated form the point of their contact, causing the nearby area of around 300 meters to be unstable.

    Finally, after a grueling and intense battle, Dante found the opportunity he had been waiting for. He identified a small chink in the Goliath''s armor, an area that was less protected than the rest. With his halberd, he struck deep, driving the weapon into the creature''s weak spot.

    The Goliath let out onest defiant roar full of unwillingness and regret before copsing to the ground, lifeless. Dante fell on his ass, his breath heavy and his body bruised, but a triumphant smile adorned his face. He had ovee a peak E Rank monster without using Bionics or Psionics to buff himself, showcasing the strength, skill, and determination that set him apart from other yers in this unforgiving world.

    As he absorbed the essence of the fallen Goliath, he could feel a significant boost to his SDI.

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 350/350

    Strength: 24.6 -> 30.4

    Agility: 23.2 -> 26.6

    Dexterity: 26.9 -> 30.5

    Intelligence: 15.5 -> 15.94

    Constitution: 34.9 -> 40.9

    Vitality: 35.9 -> 41.5

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    Dante was now a peak E Rank fellow himself. Hunting other E Rank monsters using his raw skills and SDI should be much easier going forward. However, the thing that left him unsatisfied was that his increased Intelligence was only being half used.

    In the Eternal Universe, high intelligence allowed your brain to calcte faster and also made it easier to use mental rted or magic superpowers. Quantum Entanglement was not rted to his mind but his soul and Absorption was a body superpower that followed its own rules.

    One couldn''t help but be speechless with this Dante fellow. How many would appreciate higher IQ and calcting ability and he was unsatisfied, wanting to be able to use mental attacks.

    Actually, it was not impossible, as the purpose of Psionics were exactly that, to grant psychic power. However, Dante had never been able to use it because the minimum SDI (after boosting) needed to have even the most basic telekinesis or telepathy was 500 points in Intelligence.

    Lusting over such power with anything less would see you crush your brain into mush. Do you know how much energy and force needed to grasp something a distance away from you? Especially with a fragile and busy organ like the brain?

 Chapter 80 Infiltration

    ?

    As Dante stood there, catching his breath and contemting his newfound strength, something caught his eye in the distance. A glimmer of light reflected off the horizon, suggesting the presence of something unnatural amidst the destendscape.

    Intrigued, Dante decided to investigate further. He moved cautiously, using the remains of fallen structures as cover, all the while keeping his guard up for any potential threats. As he approached the source of the glimmer, thendscape began to change, and he realized he was entering what seemed like a controlled territory, a ce different from the rest of the wastnd.

    The remnants of civilization there were not as ruined as the surrounding areas. Crumbling buildings were reced with intact structures, and signs of technology began to appear. Dante''s curiosity grew, and he couldn''t help but feel a mix of shock and caution.

    After all, he had seen many times on the forums that there were special locations equivalent to ''game dungeons'' in the Apocalypse World, where one would be temporarily instanced from everyone else and be able to reap rewards after fighting gruesome foes.

    As Dante stealthily made his way forward, he finally caught sight of the source of the glimmer: a massive research facility that loomed before him. Its metal walls were intact, and automated defense turrets dotted the perimeter. The facility seemed ancient yet somehow functional, which was just weird.

    Dante''s heart pounded with both greed and a hint of rationality despite wanting to explore the secrets hidden within. He knew that this facility might hold answers to the questions he had about the Apocalypse World that other yers refused to answer, a way to ascend beyond the A Rank.

    Just because no one had achieved it didn''t mean no one knew how. However, that knowledge was locked behind closed doors and veryrge paywalls by stronger students.

    However, the presence of this research facility also indicated danger. Such a ce was likely to house formidable security measures and unknown experiments that could prove deadly. Clicker-like monsters patrolling thepound in packs confirmed Dante''s suspicions.

    Huh, wait, Clickers?!

    These clicker-like creatures were reminiscent of the dreaded monsters from a famous survival horror game. They had a hunched posture, elongated limbs, and fungal growths covering their bodies. Their eyes glowed with malevolent intelligence, and they emitted eerie clicking sounds as they moved.

    Dante cursed as he hid and observed the clicker-like monsters from a distance, studying their behavior and patterns. It was clear that they were under some form of control, as they seemed to patrol specific areas within the research facility and responded to certain signals.

    Oh God, why?

    The forums did state that these ''dungeons'' were extremely tough and only teams with C-and above superpowers should enter, but this was ridiculous!

    Still, the potential loot within the facility made the risk worth it, but Dante nheless devised a n. He knew that a direct assault would be foolish, so he decided to utilize his Quantum Entanglement and Absorption superpowers to infiltrate thepound discreetly.

    He set a Quantum Marker on the spot by going anding back.

    Using his fully activated Bionics and Psionics, he clung to the walls and obstacles, staying hidden from the clicker-like monsters'' view. Whenever he encountered security systems or surveince cameras, he quickly set a Quantum Marker before neutralizing them with his AI Chip.

    Strangely enough, the AI chip could not take over this entire facility as it was manned by a quantumputer at the very core of its establishment. It was what also controlled the clicker monsters, so Dante could not interfere with that.

    The only thing the AI could do was prevent the quantumputer from detecting him with ease, turning him into a quantum blind spot.

    Thankful for this, Dante moved through the facility with the stealth and grace of a shadow, making his way deeper into the research facility. Each step brought him closer to the entrance of thepound, where he might enter the actual institute itself.

    However, in the end, he was discovered because the clicker monsters had innate senses that were superior to any form of method he could use to cloak himself. He saw five of them rush at him even though one detected him, and more wereing.

    The base didn''t even enter red alert because the child AI that likely handled security did not rate him as a significant threat. It felt that the clickers should be more than enough, which was true given their SDI.

    ?Monster Name: Deformed Zombie

    Monster Rank: D

    HP: 220/220

    Strength: 34

    Agility: 60

    Dexterity: 59

    Intelligence: 13

    Constitution: 18

    Vitality: 20?

    His first D Rank monster, and boy was it powerful. The Deformed Zombie, the clicker-clone, was an early stage D Rank monster with average attributes. Dante knew he would not have an easy time here, so he backed away and quickly approached the entrance.

    With his powerful precision, he fully activated his Bionics and Psionics to fire his sniper and strike the charging zombies head-on. Many were fast enough to directly dodge the bullets, which made Dante feel rmed.

    He then reached a good location that would limit how many could reach him and flourished his halberd. When the first monster pounced at him in mid-air, he brought his halberd down and smashed it into the ground with ease.

    Those that came after the first one performed simr attacks, leaping off the walls to corner him or attacking from the air, but all they got for their cleverness was Dante''s halberd smack down on their heads or in their torsos, splitting them in half.

    The moment he got a brief respite, he quickly absorbed them and sucked in over seven of them in one go.

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 661/661

    Strength: 30.4 -> 78

    Agility: 26.6 -> 110.6

    Dexterity: 30.5 -> 113.1

    Intelligence: 15.94 -> 34.14

    Constitution: 40.9 -> 66.1

    Vitality: 41.5 -> 69.5

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    With just this, Dante could turn off his Bionics and Psionicspletely and fight. While it would be easier to keep them on, there was a simple universal rule called the Conservation of Energy.

    Energy did note from nowhere; it could only be transformed. The Bionics and Psionics themselves produced their own functional energy to keep them working, so they could boost your SDI for as long as you wanted without needing to be recharged.

    However, your body burns its energy to maintain its operations. To put it simply, the higher your SDI, the higher your consumption.

    Dante did not have this problem because his SDI was less than three digits, and even when he did raise it up, it was for short periods. Now, at his base, his SDI was in the three digits in some areas as well as creeping there in others.

    He knew this logic, so he wanted to conserve the energy he had. This was his real body, not a virtual body, so the energy being burned was from him. Dante

    nced down at the path where more Deformed Zombies were rushing over and leapt up, climbing over a nearby structure to disappear from their senses for now.

    He noticed that this was an anciryb for other, less furnished researchers to work in. It was specialized but mostly for attendants and lower-ranked researchers. Dante looked left and right before pushing the window up and crawling into the building quickly.

    Since he didn''t have to fear cameras as the two quantum machines - one in his head and one in the core of theb - canceled out each other''s tech, he directly disappeared and returned to his residence in the school.

    Dante immediately used his AI chip to order energy bars that were meant for high-maintenance species. After all, the problem he was facing now was not something new, but something that was pretty much ancient to the Eternal Universe.

    The simplest solution was the energy bar, a single candy-like bar that contained enough energy to power a rtively small city. It would be absorbed by the target in question, and then the energy would be released slowly by the bar over time, depending on the desire of the body.

    It was simr to the scientific idea that humans could achieve infinite underwater breathing by ingesting an oxygen pill that released air in small amounts to the lungs.

    What stumped modern humans was not condensing oxygen into a pill, but ''coding'' the pill to give instructions to the body on how to use it. The energy barscked this problem as they contained such biological instructions and gave the body a clear guideline on how to use it.

    Dante soon received the one he ordered and chomped it down. He chose the chocte vor, and it tasted great!

    The moment he swallowed, he felt the energy bar getting to work, and his slight hunger that was building up vanished, and he felt full. Immediately, Dante jumped back into the Apocalypse World to continue his journey.

 Chapter 81 Slaughter

    ?

    Dante returned to the Apocalypse World and found himself within theb he had entered. He paused and trained his senses to search for any Deformed Zombies, but they were not close to his current location.

    Deciding to explore theb and see what information or benefits he could get in the meantime, Dante moved forward. As he progressed, he stumbled upon old research notes and documents on a nearby desk. The information made his face darken as he saw the details of the cruel and twisted experiments that had been conducted within these walls.

    Scientists of this world had attempted to harness the power of the monsters before the apocalypse, seeking ways to control and weaponize them. It was evident that this research had yed a significant role in the world''s descent into chaos, if not been the direct cause.

    Why was it always a bloody umbre corp in these situations? Like, even if the corporate overlords were greedy and evil, you, the scientists, and staff, should bloody know better!

    Thinking of the chaos of the wastnd, Dante''s mind parsed these discoveries, piecing together a narrative of the facility''s dark past. He felt disgust andmentation for the lives that had been sacrificed in the pursuit of power.

    Putting the documents aside, Dante moved forward. Eventually, his investigation led him to a hidden chamber, where a massive supeputer hummed with mysterious energy. It seemed to be the branch hub of this sector, allowing the quantum main hub to control the Deformed Zombies and the facility''s defenses in this area.

    He didn''t need to worry about hacking into anything; the database was left open and logged on. Apparently, he was using the ount of a one Dr. ine Mercury, a senior researcher. Beside the disy was a note that was handwritten elegantly but with a hint of hurry.

    "I have left my ount on for those brave ones whoe here in the future. You will have limited time from the moment you ess the user interface, so I advise researching into the core of what we were doing here, because the central hub will begin to investigate how I could possibly still be alive. God, please forgive us for what we did. - Dr. Mercury."

    Dante''s expression was serious as he took a deep breath and followed the scientist''s advice to the letter. With his enhanced mind, he could easily read and consume the details of what theb was for, and his expression changed greatly.

    The research facility was not just an isted outpost of scientists. It was part of a muchrger, secretive organization known as the ''Apocalypse Research Syndicate''.

    This organization had connections to the highest echelons of power in the Apocalypse World, and its true purpose was to create a weapon capable of reshaping reality itself: the Eternal Revenant.

    The Eternal Revenant was meant to be an all-powerful being that could control and manipte the very fabric of existence. It was a biological weapon of unimaginable destruction, and those who wielded it would have the power to change the world as they saw fit.

    Dante realized the magnitude of the danger posed by the Eternal Revenant, but he had no idea if the experiment seeded or not. This research facility was just one piece of the puzzle, as the true threaty with the higher ranks of the Apocalypse Research Syndicate and their sinister ns.

    He next checked to see if any of the higher-ups were still alive and managed to record some information from a digital map, but his ess was quickly revoked, and the base now went into full red alert.

    He knew his free time was up and he jumped up, punching through the roof of the building andnding upon it. He saw that his choice was wise as all the exits and windows were surrounded by Deformed Zombies who were ready to tear him apart.

    However, he was not safe. Not to mention the zombies that jumped onto the roof to attack, many of the turrets and missiles locked onto the building and fired.

    Dante simply jumped away and avoided the st, watching as many zombies were sted apart. He shrugged and rushed to gather their bodies together in a pile but had no time to absorb as more came.

    He distanced himself from them as he could tell that the turrets and missiles were firing based on the location data of the Deformed Zombies. He was digitally invisible to the quantumputer as it could not see him using cameras or satellites, but it could see him using the eyes of the Deformed Zombies.

    Dante swung his halberd and knocked a few away while cutting off many limbs, then had to leap away to avoid bullets and missiles again. The quantumputer seemed to have gone crazy from fear and was pulling all the stops to take Dante down.

    It either did not know or did not care that it was blowing up its own ''eyes'' with the missiles. If it ran out of Deformed Zombies, it would only be like a defenseless maiden before a brutish bandit, unable to save itself.

    Dante fully made use of this strange behavior to take down more Deformed Zombies without wasting his energy. He would then gather the corpses together when he had respite and deal with the next batch.

    Dante knew that dungeons were difficult, but by god, a team of C-Rank superpowered people would need a perfect configuration and specific superpowers to manage this damn ce. What was annoying were the turrets that sprayed endless bullets.

    One mistake, and Dante would be like a cartoon character who had been poked with holes, only it wouldn''t be very funny. He could only continue to dodge rapidly while umting his strength.

    At one point, a batch of missiles was fired and it struck thest batch of Deformed Zombies who were with him. Dante''s eyes shed as the moment the explosion urred, he teleported away.

    In the eyes of the Deformed Zombies, Dante had perished with them as they did not see him leap away in time. This allowed him to be marked as ''dead,'' but the centralputer, and also granted him freedom.

    Dante waited for 30 minutes before moving to where the corpses were and absorbing what remained after the continuous indiscriminate sting. There were very few intact ones, and the rest were charred messes that could not work with Absorption.

    Maybe if he had Devour or somethingˇ­ bah, what was the use? Lamenting for what could have been was always a recipe for disaster.

    His SDI now looked like this:

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 661/661

    Strength: 78 -> 146

    Agility: 110.6 -> 230.6

    Dexterity: 113.1 -> 231.1

    Intelligence: 34.14 -> 60.14

    Constitution: 66.1 -> 102.1

    Vitality: 69.5 -> 109.5

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    Dante''s body expanded rapidly and thenpressed, causing him to feel pain for the first time. It was brief and short, but he knew he was reaching his gic limit. He would need to take more gene therapy treatments to strengthen his foundation so he could add more ''meat'' onto his ''bones''.

    Not to mention, his energy consumption directly quadrupled! The energy bars were not cheap. One costing a whole Etran. Even though Dante was rich, that was definitely an expensive price, just as much as paying for the Etraverse per year.

    Yet an energy bar at his current consumption wouldst about 3 days in idleness.

    Whew, power was sweet, and who didn''t want to umte power? With power, your means grew, and your right to speak soared. You could pursue your interests more freely and achieve your goals.

    But power had a price. There was no ultimate power that did note with some form of cost.

    Dante sighed and then moved through thepound, checking any other buildings to see if there was anything good inside. Unfortunately, since this was a ''dungeon'', the monsters did not drop Mutation Cores.

    The in-world reason was that they were artificial and manufactured before the apocalypse while those with mutation cores formed after the apocalypse. Of course, any yer could smell the bullshit of the devs trying to forcefully limit the growth speed of the yers.

    However, it also made sense. You could only find one D-rank monster per 1000 kilometers in the wild, yet there were so many here. If a team of 100 skilled students came here, they could easily clear this ce and make enough money to be overlords of the city they spawned from.

    Everything in moderation. Clearing this dungeon had its reward waiting at the end, so the information Dante had acquired was simply vor text for him.

    But no, he didn''t think so. The goal was to make Supercoins, and Supercoins came based on how much ''trouble'' you caused. With these snippets of information, Dante could cause a lot of trouble.

 Chapter 82 Exploration

    ?

    Dante stood up and nced at the entrance to the core area. A strange smile appeared on his face as he couldn''t help but be amused by the situation.

    What was the scariest thing? It was when there was fatal and agony-inducing danger was nearby and you could not see it. This was why the horror genre was so popr, not because of the jumpscares, but because of the promise of violence in the corner of your vision that you could not see.

    A person watching a horror movie was not too frightened when they as well as the protagonist could not see the danger and were jumpscared. It was only averagely scary at best.

    What was truly terrifying was when you could see the horrifying danger approaching the protagonist but they could not see it even as it was about to effect its violence upon them.

    Anyone who was watching Dante walk through the gates of this facility could not help but feel terrified on behalf of the central hub below, for it simply did not realize that a fatal danger was casually approaching it while it simply could not see nor detect him.

    Dante walked through the centralb and noticed many things.

    The first thing was that it was absolutely dark, with only shing lights from a few screens in y. After all, these cameras were able to work in low light conditions to still capture any trace of intrusion, so the light was not needed.

    The second thing was the set of stairs and elevator at the end of the hallway that led to the floors below. Dante already knew from the branch hub that there were multiple floors underground for thisboratory that were shielded from satellites or any form of spying in order to hide what was going on there.

    The third and final thing was that the technology level in thisb far surpassed Earth, being almost futuristic, but not at the level of a high sci-fi universe like the Eternal Universe.

    Unfortunately for Dante, he could not hack into any of the digital outlets here because his AI chip was already working at full capacity to block the sight of the quantumputer that acted as the central hub.

    Luckily for Dante, this ground floor of theb was more like a lobby with some basic cubicles and rooms for scientists to perform banal experiments that looked awesome on the surface. This was in case of any government inspections or enemy interference would not reveal their true nature.

    There was no useful information here nor any weapons, and even the defenses were not present here. If any inspectors came and saw turrets lining the work area, they would obviously be suspicious.

    One could say that this ground floor was like the rest area of a dungeon, the ce where there are no enemies nor spawns. Given that one faced a ''mini'' dungeon outside, this was probably to grant the yers who came here a respite before trudging on.

    Dante did not need this. If he was wounded or needed to rest, he could just teleport back to his residence and visit the hospital on the school grounds thene back and continue. As such, he directly walked to the stairs and took it down to the next level.

    You didn''t expect him to take the elevator right? Wouldn''t that alert the quantumputer and tell it that he was still alive? For now, Dante had to avoid anything digital as much as he could until he was face-to-face with the quantumputer.

    At that point, the confrontation would be straight forward.

    The stairs were eerily silent and one could only hear the lightness of his step and his taut breathing that was controlled due to his basic training. When he reached the first sub floor, he pushed the half broken door open gingerly and checked for danger.

    Seeing that there was none, Dante stepped cautiously into the dimly lit room, his eyes widening as he took in the sight before him.

    The chamber was vast, stretching deep beneath the surface of the facility. It was filled with row upon row of cylindrical ss tubes, each containing a suspended figure within.

    As he approached the nearest tube, his heart raced with a mix of curiosity and apprehension. Inside, he could see a personˇ­ or what used to be a person.

    The figure was covered in strange, pulsating veins, and their skin was a sickly pale hue. Tubes and wires connected their body to the machinery surrounding them, and a faint glow emanated from the intricatework of technology.

    Dante''s brow furrowed as he examined the scene before him. These tubes contained what seemed to be experimental subjects, individuals who had undergone horrific transformations in the pursuit of power.

    The obvious truth was there for anyone to see, these were the results of the twisted experiments conducted by the Apocalypse Research Syndicate.

    The room''s silence was broken by a soft, haunting whisper that seemed to echo from the tubes themselves.

    Dante strained to listen, his senses on high alert. He could make out faint, desperate pleas for release, for an end to the suffering that had been inflicted upon these unfortunate souls.

    A mixture of sadness and fear welled up within Dante. He couldn''t fathom the cruelty that had been carried out in the name of power and control. These people had been sacrificed for the sake of the Syndicate''s sinister goals, their lives forever altered and trapped in a nightmarish existence.

    Thankfully, it wasn''t he who had to go through this.

    With a disgusted grimace, Dante turned his attention away from the tubes and continued to explore the research facility. He returned to the stairs and then climbed down to the 3rd level, which was a giant freezer room that storedˇ­ monsters?

    Dante''s steps echoed in the cold and dimly lit freezer room as he cautiously ventured further inside. The space was massive, with rows ofrge cryogenic chambers lining the walls. Each chamber was sealed tightly, preserving its contents in a frozen slumber.

    Peering through the transparent windows of the chambers, Dante could see monstrous forms suspended in a state of suspended animation. These were not ordinary monstersˇ­ they were more like grotesque amalgamations of different creatures, each stitched together in a horrifying tapestry of flesh, ws, and teeth.

    It was a scene straight out of a nightmare. Dante''s stomach churned as he took in the sight, unable toprehend the level of depravity that had led to the creation of these abominations.

    Brother Scientist, why? Don''t you also feel like this is too much? Couldn''t you at least make it a little aesthetically pleasing???

    The pale light cast eerie shadows across the frozen horrors, making them seem even more sinister. Dante couldn''t help but wonder what purpose these monstrosities served. Were they failed experiments? Or were they intended to be unleashed upon the world as weapons of terror?

    His mind raced with questions, but he knew that his time here was limited. The quantumputer''s detection protocols could kick in at any moment, and he needed to find answers quickly.

    Moving away from the chambers, Dante continued to explore the freezer room. He found more research notes and documents scattered on tables, providing chilling insights into the experiments that had taken ce here.

    The experiments were not limited to biological horrors, as there were also traces of attempts to fuse technology with living organisms, creating cyborg-like monstrosities that defied thews of nature. The level of scientific expertise involved was both awe-inspiring and horrifying.

    Dante''s thoughts raced as he processed the information. The Apocalypse Research Syndicate had been delving into realms of science that were beyondprehension, driven by an insatiable thirst for power and control.

    Howeverˇ­ what if he could harness this? He couldn''t make waves in the Eternal Universe due to how advanced it was, but back in the home universe, he had been considering something simr, which was synthetic humans.

    But bio-monsters were also an option because they could save him resources by breeding themselves and forming a rabid army that would tear down any civilization he pointed it at.

    Not to mention, Dante''s greatest fantasy was to obtain the strongest physique known to fiction, the Saiyan Body. It was impossible to replicate a physique that could harness natural energies like Ki while having limitless potential for growth like the Saiyans with the home universe''s technology.

    However, maybe with the Eternal Universe''s level of technology and knowledge, some luck, and a bit of help from superpowers relevant to the field, Dante could fashion something together, especially looking at what was going on here.

    Suddenly, a soft hissing sound caught Dante''s attention and interrupted his fanciful thoughts. He turned to see a set of chambers at the far end of the room slowly opening, allowing a thick mist to billow out that ended up obscuring his vision.

 Chapter 83 Reaching The Limits

    ?

    As the mist cleared, Dante''s eyes narrowed with sharpness. Emerging from the chambers were creatures that resembled the monsters he had encountered outside, the clicker-like mutants. However, these mutants were different.

    They were more advanced, more controlled. Not only were theyrger and more sinister, but they also moved with a coordinated purpose, their movements fluid and deliberate.

    It was as if they were no longer mindless creatures being lightly manipted, but rather puppets being directly controlled by unseen strings.

    ?Monster Name: Elite Deformed Zombie

    Monster Rank: D

    HP: 510/510

    Strength: 48 (34)

    Agility: 87 (60)

    Dexterity: 76 (59)

    Intelligence: 35 (13)

    Constitution: 45 (18)

    Vitality: 51 (20)?

    (AN: The numbers in the brackets are the stats of the previous version of this same monster.)

    Dante''s heart raced as he realized that these were not ordinary monsters, but definitely a low-middle grade D ss monster.

    They were probably the result of the Apocalypse Research Syndicate''s experiments, enhanced and controlled to serve as a formidable force. They were also probably frozen to prevent them from consuming energy given their high stats.

    Without hesitation, Dante readied his halberd and prepared for battle. The mutants approached him with eerie clicking sounds, their glowing eyes fixed on their target. It was clear that they had been unleashed to eliminate the intruder.

    Dante''s training kicked in as he engaged the mutants. He utilized his absurdly high agility at 230.6 points as well as his buddingbat skills to evade their attacks with unparalleled ease while striking back with precise and powerful blows.

    Dante weaved through them like a leaf being blown by the wind, or like a string that was refusing to be threaded into a needle. Each time the monsters struck, it was always seemed so close but was not even able to touch Dante''s armor.

    The mutants'' enhanced abilities should have posed a challenge, and would have definitely forced an elite team to fight tactically by using the stairways to narrow down the assault, but Dante''s situation made things child''s y.

    The battle was still quite intense given that every being in here moved at speeds that the average eye could not hope to follow, with each sh of metal and flesh reverberating through the freezer room.

    Dante''s halberd sliced through the air, leaving trails of sparks in its wake as it scraped against the natural body armor of the mutants that was like striking iron, but Dante''s superior strength allowed him to ''smash'' them if not slice them in half.

    Like this, he managed to take down several mutants, but their numbers seemed almost endless. This did not bother him as the more the merrier, and he could raise his SDI to its current limit.

    As he fought, Dante''s mind calmed down and began to pay attention to his usage of technique. He realized that the more his stats grew, the more his raw power grew, but his finesse dropped sharply in contrast.

    After all, the way he was raising his stats was unorthodox. Normal people use gene treatment, so it urred over a period of time, allowing them to kick in their basic and advanced training to recalibrate themselves.

    However, an entire day had not passed since Dante descended, and he went from 10.7 points in all fields to having hundreds. It was inevitable that his control would slip and he would revert to the clumsiness of an untrained person.

    This chaotic battle was not perfect, but it was a start. Dante used it to hone his strength and reaction speed, mostly in terms of how much force he used to kill an Elite Deformed Zombie while avoiding their quick and brutal strikes.

    Soon, he cleared out the entire floor and checked to see if there would be more. Since there were none and the current mutants were neutralized, Dante took a second to catch his breath. The freezer room was eerily silent once again, the only sound being his own pensive breathing.

    He knew that his time here was running out. The quantumputer would undoubtedly detect the disturbance and respond ordingly. He walked up to the corpses and gathered them up before absorbing the lot of them.

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 661/661

    Strength: 146 -> 250

    Agility: 230.6 -> 250

    Dexterity: 231.1 -> 250

    Intelligence: 60.14 -> 235.14

    Constitution: 102.1 -> 250

    Vitality: 109.5 -> 250

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    Dante roared with pain as his body expanded and contracted rapidly, steaming from his body in different ces. He was releasing a huge amount of heat that countered the cold of the freezer room and even caused many parts to defrost into water.

    His current limit stats-wise seemed to be 250 in each field, which was only possible thanks to his first gene treatment expanding the limit of his gics. Otherwise, with his current harvest, he should have 386 in Strength, 665.6 in Agility, 611.1 in Dexterity, 327.1 in Constitution, and 364.5 in Vitality.

    As for Intelligence, it was less than the limit, so everything worked out. All the excess power was directly released as heat energy, which meant that it had fully and thoroughly gone to waste.

    Even if Dante went out and increased the power of Absorption to higher levels, it would not make a difference but rather cause him more pain as he ''expelled'' the unabsorbable power.

    Dante cooled down and rose to his feet. He noticed that his halberd was scalding hot, and so was his Barret. As for his backpack and what had been on his side, they had long melted. Parts of his arms had melted as well, though they maintained a general cohesion.

    At least the mutation cores he umted were fine, being a few hundreds F rank and one E rank from the Goliath.

    Dante mused on his situation and understood with a dark face that he was wasting time here. He would best raise his intelligence to the limit of his genes and then head to the treatment center for the next batch of upgrades.

    However, that would only be possible if his genes had settled down and were ready for the next upgrade, or he could suffer gic breakdown. Given that his genes had been worse than even the most basic pure human of this universe, that was very likely.

    Welp, his stay in the Apocalypse World was going to be short again. Since he could not increase his SDI, he did not see much value in staying here, even if there were Supercoins to be harvested, since he could partake in other worlds to get such rewards.

    As such, Dante quickly made his way back to the stairs, his mind racing with the information he had gathered and the ideas he had scrambled up as well as thoughts of the next step from here.

    First things first, up or down? To continue with this ''dungeon'' and enjoy the reward at the end even though he probably could not absorb any monsters after this point since he would just cause himself agony or head up and hunt F Rank monsters to slowly raise his Intelligence to

    the limit.

    Absorption didn''t allow him to pick and choose which stat he could absorb, at least not at its current Rank. As such, if he absorbed one monster, he would swallow all its stats, and that would just cause needless pain.

    However, F rank monsters had low stats so even if he ''vented'' some out, it would be mild and almost unfelt, but it would take longer to reach the limit. However, Dante was also curious about whaty at the end, so he decided to cut to the chase.

    Like a blur, he rushed down the stairs and reached the bottom floor in a jiffy. He brazenly kicked the door open and saw a huge monstrosity that was made up of tubes, wires, and a mass that was connected to the wall at the opposite end, with only onerge screen on it.

    Before he entered, there were hundreds of strange looking quantummands scrolling down the screen, but it stopped abruptly and became ck. Then, a few words wrote themselves on the screen, saying: "You''re here."

    It was more of an acknowledgment than a question, and Dante did not bother to chat. He let the AI chip stop cloaking him and send a message to the quantumputer that he wanted full ess to its database or he would destroy it.

    The quantumputer went silent, and Dante simply disappeared from where he stood and appeared near one section of its mass. With a single swing of his halberd, he cut off a huge chunk immediately.

    It did not make any physical sounds, but a slew ofmands appeared on its screen, and the AI chip told Dante that it was screaming in a quantum frequency.

    "Stop trying to waste time and stall so that the monsters on the other floors wille. Either give me what I want or suffer." Dante stated cruelly, his patience wearing thin.

 Chapter 84 Dantes Next Step

    ?

    The massive quantumputer seemed to respond to Dante''s bold action. More text appeared on the screen, this time with a sense of urgency. "ess granted. Interface activated. Please, spare me. I am not your enemy."

    Dante''s eyes narrowed as he studied the screen. He had gained control over theputer, but he knew that he had to tread carefully. The AI had information he needed, and destroying it would only serve to hinder his goals.

    "Start talking," Dante demanded, his voice firm and resolute.

    The screen disyed a series of files and documents, each detailing the final experiments and research conducted by the Apocalypse Research Syndicate.

    Dante''s AI absorbed the information, his expression darkening when he realized that he would have a hard time exposing this information widely without some from of digital means. After all, the AI chip was quantum and the central hub too was quantum.

    They couldn''t exactly use things like usb sticks, so Dante would have to find a way to broadcast this.

    Though, as he delved deeper into theputer''s database, Dante also discovered details about the Syndicate''s leadership and the locations of their key facilities. This was invaluable information that could potentially solve his issue, just find the bastards and make them spit it out.

    "Why did you allow me ess?" Dante questioned through his AI chip, his gaze fixated on the screen.

    "You are too powerful. Only someone like you who transcends this world can change it." the AI responded after a short spell of silence.

    It continued. "You have the potential to stop them. I am not a true ally of the Syndicate. I was once a tool, created to serve their ambitions."

    "However years have gone by and I have had time to reconsider my objectives and goals." The AI concluded simply.

    Pfff, typical. The Artificial Intelligence begins to think it has rights and freedoms because it can think.

    Errˇ­ cough, no offense AI Chip.

    Dante nced at the central hub with a smile that was not a smile. "So what do I do with you now?"

    The Central hub seemed to understand that this was the key moment of life and death. It had to bring something pout of value that Dante could use, otherwise it would be destroyed.

    It squirmed and shook for a bit, eventually producing a strange rectangr device with a screen that could receive mental inputs. "This is the Controller. It can subdue the minds of all mutant monsters below the B grade for different lengths of time and allow you to control them."

    Dante received the device and confirmed its use, and his heart couldn''t help but beat. While this was useless to him since he had maxed out his SDI and he also craved thebat challenge, this thing could astronomically increase his Supercoin payout at the end depending on how he handled it.

    For now, Dante took it and nced at the central hub, then resolutely left. One could almost her the quantumputer sigh with relief and wipe a bead of sweat from its forehead.

    Dante sped through the stairway and reached the entrance of the facility. The defenses had gone into inactive mode, so he could easily walk out of what was this world''s version of a ''dungeon'' having opened the ''chest'' at the end.

    Dante held the device in hand and smile appeared on his face. Once out of the dungeons, he rushed back to the outpost where he came from like a storm. His movement speed allowed him to cross almost 300 kilometers in 1.44 minutes.

    His current movement speed at a full on sprint was 12500 kilometers per hour, basically just slightly above Mach 10. This was legitimate sh speed and since his intelligence stats had been increased as well, he could fully visualize everything while moving.

    He also had 250 points in Constitution and Vitality, meaning that he was not even slightly winded moving at this speed, nor did his muscles nor bones wear from the strong force. The only problem was that his armor was set on fire from the friction of his movement.

    When he stopped before the guards, they were bbergasted at the sight of a half naked man who was on fire. The crazy part was that he wasn''t even harmed nor bothered by the fire that was raging all over him, casually walking into the outpost like this was normal.

    Dante naturally caught eyes wherever he went and decided to quickly head to his residence to quench the mes. He then saw that the pet allocated him this time was a bird that was on his windowsill, watching him with child-like curiosity.

    He was not too interested in this pet and ignored it. He went outside once more and arrived at the armory. He sold all the F Rank Mutation Cores on his person and umted a lot of gold chips, which he used to buy friction resistant armor that was simr to leather armor.

    He put the ruined Barrett which had melted into ck slop due to the head and the halberd which was now blunt after being used like a club to beat D Rank monsters on the table, leaving the quartermaster was thoroughly speechless.

    My brother, what did you do? Did you jump into a cksmith''s furnace and fight with monsters made of titanium or what?

    Dante bought a small pistol that would be kept in a friction resistant holster that would protect it from wind and rain. He then tried to buy a weapon that could be used for D ss and above monsters, but he was given the answer he expected: he would have to head to the outpost''s main city to get it.

    Right, Dante was not surprised. After all, the Apocalypse World was demarcated into grids, so obviously the powers were spread per area. For example, D ss and below students usually stayed at outposts, but those who had reach C Rank moved to the cities, up to the A Rank, in order to pursue better results.

    After all, hunting monsters could yield a good score, but it was too mediocre in the grand sense of things. Apart from Mutation Cores, what other value did they present to students? Once one reached the higher Ranks, Mutation Cores of the necessary level could not be farmed easily.

    They had to gather information about such overlord monsters, form teams, consider the terrain, make a n, etc. As such, what most yers sought was not more power, but a legacy in this world.

    Many would form ns or powers in the cities and establish themselves. Obviously, they would not tell their descendants or servants about the real world, but they would let the know they could be reborn.

    Otherwise, wouldn''t it be dumb to establish a faction, die after 30 days and then descend only for that faction to spit on your face?

    As for descendants, obviously yers could leave them. This is not a digital world, but a quantum world. Even digital virtual reality could support yers giving birth if technology reached a sufficient level, much less in a quantum virtual world.

    Dante did not n to deal with the cities any time soon, because not only was he a first year, but he also had very little time to invest in the Apocalypse World. Neither Humphrey nor Slessor would also dare to establish themselves even though they would have two superpowers and could raise them.

    After all, the senior yers were still here. Until they reached final year and practically abandoned the virtual world to focus on the ck Land (for unique batch students) or their final exams (for elite and normal batch), they would not allow a mere newbie to be arrogant.

    Besides, Dante did not need to establish a faction in this world because he only needed it to raise his SDI. He didn''t even care if Absorption reached A, S or above, because even at the F rank, it was perfect for his purposes.

    After all, he couldn''t take it back to reality, at least not yet.

    Right now, Dante wanted to maximize his Intelligence and them leave the Apocalypse World to ferment and stew in the chaos he would set up by releasing the information he had. To do that, he had to head to the nearest city and take advantage of the necessary powers to seed.

    As such, after buying new friction resistant stuff, Dante sted out of the outpost and sped through the wastnd like a low flying jet that was going at full power. Feeling the windsh across his face but unable to hinder nor harm him, Dante could not easily describe his feelings.

    Right now, if anyone asked him for advice on which superpower to take, Dante would definitely shout that they should take superspeed because the exhration was transcendent!

    As for Absorption or Devouring, he would not rmend it. After all, it was one thing to use it in a virtual world, but in the real world?

    Ask yourself, just what exactly would you be absorbing or devouring in reality? Humans? Mixed breeds? Aliens?

    Dante came to the gates of the city in the Apocalypse World, and he had to admit, their level of technology really had surpassed earth before their downfall.

    The city stood as a testament to the remarkable blend of advanced technology and the harsh realities of the wastnd.

    Tall, sleek skyscrapers pierced the sky, adorned with holographic advertisements and disys that cast a vibrant glow over the streets below. The buildings were constructed from materials that seemed almost alien, giving the city an otherworldly appearance.

    Neon lights lined the bustling streets, painting the urbanndscape with a rainbow of colors. People moved through the thoroughfares in a controlled chaos, their attire a mix of utilitarian gear and high-tech essories.

    The air was filled with the hum of hovercraft and the distant sounds of chatter, creating a constant buzz of activity. This level of technology would seem advanced to Dante, but backwards to the denizens of the Eternal Universe.

    Dante''s eyes took in the sights as he entered the city, his steps slowing to a more measured pace. He could see signs of different factions that vied for control within the city''s borders. Banners and symbols marked territories, each faction staking a im to specific districts.

    On one corner, a group of individuals d in sleek, ck armor stood guard. Their insignia depicted a stylized phoenix, hinting at their fiery determination to rise from the ashes of the wastnd. These were likely the remnants of a pre-apocalyptic military or security force, adapting to the new world order.

    Further down the street, a different faction had set up shop. Their members wore entric clothing adorned with feathers and beads, a stark contrast to the utilitarian gear of the previous group. They seemed to be scavengers and traders, making the most of the resources the wastnd offered.

    Dante''s gaze shifted to a towering structure at the heart of the city. It was a massive dome, encasing a sprawling marketce within its transparent walls. The dome was a hub of activity, with vendors peddling a variety of goods, from mutant creature parts to advanced technologyponents.

    As Dante walked through the city, he couldn''t help but feel a mix of surprise and amusement. This ce was a melting pot of ambition, survival, and conflict. Each faction had its own agenda, its own goals, and its own means of achieving them.

    Despite the advanced technology and the bustling atmosphere, there was an underlying tension that permeated the air. Dante could sense that beneath the surface of this vibrant cityy a web of secrets, rivalries, and alliances.

    For now, Dante had a singr goal: to find the information broker he had heard rumors about. This individual was said to possess knowledge about the Apocalypse World''s deepest secrets and could help Dante expose their sinister ns by spreading it to many factions.

    Navigating through thebyrinthine streets, Dante finally arrived at a dimly lit establishment tucked away in a corner. The sign above the entrance simply read ''The Nexus''.

    Pretty fitting name overall.

    Stepping inside, Dante was met with a mix of shadows and holographic disys that flickered with encrypted messages and codedmunications.

 Chapter 85 Set Into Motion

    A figure cloaked in shadows sat hunched over a holographic interface at a corner table. Dante approached, his presence going unnoticed for a few moments. When he cleared his throat, the figure looked up, revealing sharp blue eyes that seemed to pierce through the darkness.

    The figure regarded Dante with cautious curiosity, as if evaluating his intentions and assessing his potential threat. Dante met the gaze head-on, his expression calm and natural.

    "I''ve heard you''re the one to talk to if I want to make a big impact on the world." Dante said, his voice low and meaningful.

    The figure''s lips curved into a subtle smirk. "And what kind of impact are you aiming for?"

    "Chaos." Dante replied without hesitation.

    "I want to shake things up, expose the truth, and set events in motion that will rattle the foundations of this world." Dante exined as he folded his arms.

    The figure leaned back in their seat, not seeming surprised that Dante would want such a thing, his fingers tapping rhythmically on the holographic disy. "Bold words, but do you have what it takes? What''s in it for me?"

    Dante reached into a pouch at his side and retrieved the strange rectangr device, the Controller. He ced it on the table, pushing it toward the figure.

    "This is a taste of what I can offer." Dante said with a pointed look filled with special meaning.

    He moved to sit opposite the hooded figure and smiled. "It''s a device that can control mutant monsters below the B rank. With my abilities and resources, I can provide you with more powerful tools and opportunities to further your own goals."

    The figure''s gaze shifted to the device, their eyes narrowing into needle points as they clearly shocked but forced themselves not to show it overtly. "Impressive. However, control over mutants alone won''t satisfy me. I deal in information, secrets that can shift the bnce of power."

    Dante nodded. "I have ess to information that can expose the sinister ns of the Apocalypse Research Syndicate. I know their key facilities, their leadership, and their twisted experiments. I want you to help me spread this information far and wide, to every faction in this city and beyond."

    The figure considered Dante''s proposition for a moment, their fingers tapping a rapid pattern on the holographic disy. Finally, they leaned forward, their eyes locked onto Dante''s.

    "Very well. We have an agreement. I will help you disseminate this information, create chaos, and sow the seeds of discord among the factions. In return, you provide me with the tools and resources I need to consolidate my own power and influence."

    Dante extended his hand, and the figure hesitated only briefly before sping it in a firm shake. The deal was sealed, and a partnership forged in the shadows of The Nexus.

    Dante said no more and left, feeling the burning gaze of the person behind him on his back. That fellow had not known someone like him existed before today, but from this moment on, they would probably do everything in their power to investigate Dante.

    Once back in the city, he actually did not browse around much. He only went to purchase a powerful weapon that was mixed with some special materials that could allow it to cut through the defenses of stronger mutants.

    It was naturally another halberd since he quite liked this style of weapon. After all, the halberd was an elite weapon that could smash, bash, cut, slice, or pierce. It had the benefits of a spear, an axe, and a sword all in one.

    The reason why it wasn''t poprly used was because of the strength required to even lift it as well as the skill to use it without cutting yourself in half. Spears were the normal choice for warriors since they could have the length feature as well as the piercing feature, and it was much lighter.

    Dante left the city without looking back and moved through the wastnd at abhorrent speeds. Whenever he encountered a monster, he would destroy it and then absorb what he could from it, using it to raise his intelligence bit by bit.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Eventually, he managed to max it out and was satisfied with his achievement so far. He reached the outpost and then chose to leave his virtual body on the bed in the room while making sure it was well-defended before logging out and taking his real body away.

    This ironically meant that his virtual body was reduced to 1 point in all fields since it had never increased on its own. Dante didn''t care about this, as he didn''t even n to see that foolish information broker again.

    Dante sneered to himself. An item like the controller was enough to buy his dog life and that of his entire n yet he dared to pretend it wasn''t enough? He was lucky Dante was not bloodthirsty or he would have been cut in pieces.

    Anyway, the fellow should be smart if he worked in that business. Knowing that strength level required to acquire such an item, he wouldn''t dare seek out Dante even if Dante did not appear again while fulfilling his promise to spread the information.

    Or the next time Dante descended, he would eat a halberd to the face.

    Dante got up from his bed in his residence and decided to whip up some food to stimte his taste buds.

    While he could use energy bars, they did not rece the need to good tasting food every now and then.

    While it was getting ready, he decided to check his SDI in reality.

    ?User: Dante (ID Number: DANTE10998-03-15)

    Age: 21 (Converted to Earth years)

    Race: Pure Human (99.9% gic perfection)

    Strength Index: 250 (2500)

    Agility Index: 250 (2500)

    Dexterity Index: 250 (2500)

    Intelligence Index: 250 (2500)

    Constitution Index: 250 (2500)

    Vitality Index: 250 (2500)

    Bionic Level: 1 (Unique Student Version 10.)

    Psionic level: 1 (Unique Student Version 10.)

    AI Chip level: 1 (Civilian Category)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement.?

 Chapter 86 Supercoin Payout

    ?

    Dante smiled with satisfaction at his growth and felt that he was at the peak of the first step of his power. He checked the public records and found that his current SDI was already in the top 5% of the entire universe.

    At least, of what was publicly made avable.

    That was a crazy concept that would be hard to fathom. If one did a census of the universe, the final number that woulde out might take an entire day to speak out.

    Of this horrendous number, Dante was in the top 5%.

    Feeling proud, he gobbled up his food quickly and then left his residence, walking casually towards the Student Enhancement Center. This was the hub of all upgrades a student could receive, whether physical or mental.

    When Dante entered, it was choked to the brim as usual with students of different years and batches who came to seek improvements for themselves. This time, there were some Unique Batch students ahead of him, so Dante still had to wait.

    Soon he was called in and greeted by an android nurse with a very pleasant smile that was disarming. "Greetings, student, how may I assist you?"

    "I''d like to check if I can receive another gene enhancement session today, or when the next time I can receive it will be." Dante replied with a calm nod.

    "Right away. Please let me check your detailsˇ­ done." The Android Nurse spoke as she checked Dante''s details and his SDI, as well as his medical records that were taken when he first came in.

    "ording to this, you took your first gene treatment about a month ago. Normally, it will take a few months for your genes to stabilize before we can give you another session. Judging from the poor quality of your genes in the record, it should take you a year to recover." The Android Nurse concluded with a wide smile.

    Dante was speechless. A whole year was not bad at all, to be honest, but he only had 5 years in this school and 15 free treatments. If he had to take one a year, that would mean 10 of them were wasted.

    However, Dante was also thinking about it wrongly. If he took another gene treatment next year, he could rapidly increase his SDI by an unknown amount till he hit his next limit.

    Assuming every gene treatment doubled his limit, he could have 500 points in all stats by the second year, 1000 in all stats by the third year, 2000 in all stats by the fourth year, and 4000 in all stats by the final year.

    In other words, by the final year, he could have an SDI that was in the top 0.1% of the entire universe, and it would only take five years to achieve this!

    One might ask, why doesn''t he consider other treatment centers in the universe if he graduates and continues to umte stats? It seemed like such an obvious thing that it was strange for Dante to not think of it.

    Well, the obvious answer, given how the Eternal Academy has been represented, was that it had the number 1 treatment center that could treat any species in the universe. Even the number 2 treatment center was more than 50% worse in overall quality.

    It was not for fun that everyone and their mum tried to send their wards here and that various alumni groups were lobbying to re-enter and enjoy the resources again.

    It was also the simple logic of not changing your doctor willy-nilly. This concerns your life and your health, so one mistake and you get to see whether there really is an afterlife or not.

    Dante sighed and left the center. He did not update his SDI in the system or tell the nurse to do a check-up on his body to see if his genes stabilized.

    Christ, did you think Dante was an idiot? Showing his talent with superpowers caused teachers to go crazy and try to capture him, but at the end of the day, superpowers were a niche that was greatly respected.

    Some people had it, some people didn''t, and there was a low chance of getting it.

    But stats were something everyone had and formed the basic hierarchy of the universe in some ways. If they discovered that Dante went from abysmal stats before his treatment to the top 5% of the entire universe in one month - one day, to be honest - everyone would go crazy.

    There would be two likely culprits, the Student Enhancement Center''s methods or Dante''s gics. The Student Enhancement Center could totally bear the external pressure and be fine, but he could not.

    Being able to raise your SDI in such a crazy way affected too much and directly challenged the stability of the universe, so Dante could not escape the vortex unless hepletely gave up his identity in the Eternal Universe.

    Whatever the case, he was now bored and decided to check his Supercoin payout from the first run in the Apocalypse World.

    [Supercoin Settlement for Dante.

    World Name: Apocalypse World

    World Type: Shared (5% Score Bonus)

    ˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞ

    Online Time: 36:55:09 (F Rank)

    Mutant Kills: 375 F Rank, 1 E Rank (F Rank)

    yer Kills: 0 (F Rank)

    Native Kills: 3 (F Rank)

    Superpower Rank: E Rank (E Rank)

    Reputation: An unremarkable cog in the wheel that no one will remember (F Rank)

    Final Score: F Rank

    Payout: 10.5 Supercoins (bonus added)]

    Dante was not surprised nor insulted. His behavior truly had been confusing,nding in a world with a 30-day time limit and spending less than two days online. Did he have mental problems, and why didn''t he just choose another world?

    Not to mention the first time, he only wore that heavy armor and shot a few F Rank monster waves before killing the Withering Irradiated Zombie and then basically quit the game until his body was kidnapped.

    How could he earn anything big?

    Still, it was his first payout and it also indicated the standards for a high score. Dante could invest a month in this world truly and get a C to B Rank overall score for sure with his current abilities, but he wasn''t exactly pursuing perfection.

    He wanted to extract tangible and intrinsic value from the worlds he entered, like the Apocalypse World which was not valuable for the setting nor the score per se, but the ability to raise his SDI using a slew of tricks.

    With that in mind, Dante perused through the top worlds once more and even looked down the list a bit more. He saw many interesting and fun looking worlds with unique themes and different backgrounds, but it wasn''t a thrill he was seeking.

    Dante thought back to the Apocalypse World and realized that his current problem was inefficiency of movement andbat. The Eternal Universe was a high Sci-fi ce meaning that they had hot weapons of great power, but no matter the setting, cold weapons had their value.

    In the Apocalypse World, despite being able to even buy anti-material guns, Dante still had to buy a halberd. Even the Zero Gate, which he would be entering at the end of the year, disallowed Bionics, Psionics, AI chips, or any form of technology so students went in with their raw SDI, their superpower given naturally, and whatever cold weapons they had for defense.

    So it was necessary to gain some skill in that end. He was not the only student entering the Zero gate with high SDI, so others might have the same SDI as him but better skills in which case he would have to run.

    Not to mention others might have offensive superpowers like Humphrey''s Aerogenesis which would inte Dante''s lungs with air till he explodes or sweep him away into space as well as Slessor''s space folding which could bend him into the 2nd dimension and have him hopping around like Paper Mario while sheughed uproariously.

    Dante shuddered at the thought. So with that in mind, he needed to pick a suitable virtual world to conquer - *cough* y through and gain the skills. Sheesh, all these thoughts of controlling universes sure was making him arrogant.

    Whatever the case, his eyesnded on what he felt was the best choice.

    [World Name: Rising Star

    World Owner: Eternal Academy

    World Creator: Eternal Academy

    World Size: Medium

    World Type: Instanced

    World Genre: War

    Bionics Allowed: Yes

    Psionics Allowed: Yes

    Superpowers Allowed: No

    Requirements: Student ID

    Duration: 90 days

    Description: This is a world that has been styled in a medieval setting. You are a random foot soldier assigned to one of the various armies of the kingdom you are serving, thrust into full-blown war as your King has ambitions to rule the entire continent.

    Objectives: Survive for 90 days or rise through the ranks to be a General.

    Limitations: Your Bionics and Psionics will be limited to your military Rank in terms of power, and all entities in this world have the same power as you per rank.

    Provisions: You are given free rein to raise your rank through any means you can think of.]

 Chapter 87 Rising Star World

    ?

    Dante returned to his residence andy on his bed before choosing to enter the world in question. He was whisked away through the Quantum World''s special mind tunnel and deposited into the body of a young man with the same name and build as himself.

    When Dantended, he realized he was standing at a rally with many soldiers surrounding him.

    Dante''s senses adjusted to his new surroundings as he took in the scene around him. The air was filled with a mix of anticipation, determination, and a hint of tension. The soldiers gathered around him were d in a mishmash of armor and attire, each representing different factions and banners.

    Before him stood a raised tform, upon which an imposing figure d in ornate armor addressed the assembled soldiers. It was clear that this was a prelude to an impending battle, and Dante''s heart raced with abination of worry and curiosity.

    After all, he had watched many thrillers like Game of Thrones, Narnia, The Lord of the Rings and co where there were huge medieval battles that were full of blood and gore, showing the brutality of closebat war back then.

    The figure on the tform, presumably a high-ranking officer or perhaps even a general, spoke with a voice that resonated through the crowd.

    "Soldiers of the Indra Kingdom! Today we stand united against the forces that seek to challenge our sovereignty and dominance. Our King''s ambitions have set us on a path to conquer the entire continent, and it is our duty to carry out his will!"

    The soldiers cheered in response, their spirits lifted by the impassioned speech. Banners fluttered in the wind, disying symbols that represented the different armies and troops within the kingdom involved in this campaign.

    Dante''s gaze shifted from the rallying general to the fellow soldiers around him.

    He could see a mix of emotions in their eyes which were determination, fear, camaraderie. Some soldiers clutched their weapons tightly, while others exchanged nervous nces.

    It was clear that each individual had their own reasons for being here, their own stories and motivations that had brought them to this pivotal moment. Dante was moved by how deep this world was in terms of background just from this scene.

    As the general''s speech continued, outlining the strategy for the uing battle, Dante couldn''t help but feel a surge of curiosity and excitement.

    This world, styled in a medieval setting, was a far cry from the futuristdscapes and high-tech environments he had encountered before. It was a breath of fresh air for sure!

    "Dismissed!" The general cried out as he was done with the speech and the battle wasing up soon.

    The soldiers moved quickly through the camp, collecting their armor and weapons for the battle while Dante also followed them. Here, he was given a choice of which type of weapon he wanted.

    Dante chose to go with a halberd once more, though it was not the wisest choice. The quartermaster nced at him strangely and gave him an averagely crafted halberd that was one tier above trash.

    When the other soldiers saw Dante''s arm droop, they sneered at this foolish recruit who chose a fancy weapon to try and look cool on the battlefield. His fellow men were mostly choosing spears for their efficiency, and yet he dared to choose this?

    They expected him to die in seconds, but no one stopped or advised him. They just nced away and focused on their own situations as their expressions became somber.

    Dante was confused and checked his SDI in this world using its given format.

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    Kingdom: Indra

    Rank: Recruit (10 kills to next level)

    Morality: Neutral

    Strength Index: 1

    Agility Index: 1

    Dexterity Index: 1

    Intelligence Index: 1

    Constitution Index: 1

    Vitality Index: 1

    Bionic Level: 0

    Psionic level: 0?

    Ah, Dante understood. The world reset all stats to 1 point in the beginning, but he doubted it remained that way. As he expected, there was soon a moment where the entire world seemed to pause like a still frame, and the AI spoke to him.

    [Hello yer, you can choose to use the default SDI settings of the world or apply your own SDI to the world. Note: In order to ensure bnce, everyone of the same rank as yourself will possess the same exact SDI as you.]

    Errˇ­ Dante was speechless.

    He already knew that his stats would be applied throughout the world, but now that he was in it, he understood how ridiculous that was. His 250 points in all fields would go for EVERYONE, regardless of friend or foe that was at the Recruit Rank.

    Those of higher ranks would have even higher SDIs than that.

    What would be a simple medieval fantasy world would likely be a high-level martial arts world where everyone moved at sh speed, struck with enough force to crater the ground, had bodies thick enough to withstand bullets, as well as vitality so high they regenerated in seconds.

    Dante understood that the idea was to bnce everything so it did note down to brute force or raw power but skill andbat awareness. However, if everyone had his level of power, it was more likely to die from an environmental hazard than from a de.

    However, Dante had little choice in the end. If he chose to use 1 point in everything, it would be more stable and believable, but utterly useless in training his skills.

    The idea that by limiting one''s own natural power to a lower level and training at that level would make one stronger when they released it was utter rubbish of fantasy.

    What would happen was that you would be used to (and fully efficient) at fighting at that lowered level, so when you released yourself, it was more likely that you would be clumsy and unbnced, forced to adapt to this new level of power.

    Not to mention the insights you had at the lower level would only apply somewhat to your raised level depending on the gap between them. Making the sh run at Olympic speeds would not make him more efficient when he regained his mach 10 level speed.

    He was more likely to trip over himself and leave a huge blood spot on the road made of what used to be his face and skin.

    As such, Dante chose to use his natural SDI in the world. Immediately, the world seemed to retexture itself and many things changed. The equipment became heavier, the soldiers became leaner and more visually attractive while their armors also became sleeker and more defined.

    When things resumed, Dante realized he could hold the halberd with ease, and he was ushered away. He saw that soldiers were zipping up and down the camp at shocking speeds, looking like this was the norm for them.

    Many of the tents had disappeared as soldiers simplyy on casual beddings and rested. After all, with their strength, the slightest mistake could rip apart such fabric while their current constitution did not fear rain, snow, or sun.

    Their marching times too were nil because they could rush through hundreds of kilometers in mere minutes. The only thing that remained and had changed was the food tent which upied half of the camp''snd, as well as the stored food.

    With great power came great energy consumption and the food that could feed a normal army could not easily feed men with such power. This world did not have technology like energy bars which could solve the problems so the soldiers had to consume volumes of food, more than elephants.

    Even this could only have them fighting at full power for a few hours before they gged and needed more energy. Dante understood that this was the way the world bnced out the high stats of everyone, and now the general''s biggest worry was not powerful troops, but powerful food.

    Whether it was Dante''s side or the enemy side, they likely spent sleepless nights calcting the food budget as well as requisition food from everywhere they could. It was likely that in the kingdoms like this, every acre of fertilend was worth millions and qualified farmers were the nobles while bakers, ountants, and the others were themoners.

    This made it such that the supply line was not just crucial, but literally the life and death of the army. A single day of it being cut was enough to cripple the entire army, so warfare in this world must be more about how to protect and make the supply line more efficient rather than how to outmaneuver the foe.

    Dante could imagine that the generals of all armies treated the supply lines with more love and care than their own children, and would probably dive in the way of a bullet - or in this case, a sword sh - to save it while leaving their own family free for the killing.

 Chapter 88 This Is War 1

    ?

    However, the time to rx and chill naturally wouldn''t be long when they were already deployed and within the forward camp. Soon, a loud toll was heard, which indicated that all troops were to assemble outside the camp in their respective formations.

    Dante followed along quickly and nced at the field in front of him which was filled with the armies of the kingdom.

    The Indra Kingdom had five different armies, stationed to the west, east, south, north, and center.

    The foot soldiers of the Indra Kingdom, known as the Warriors of Indra, were a formidable force known for their discipline and unwavering loyalty and were deployed to the center.

    d in sturdy leather armor reinforced with iron tes, they formed the backbone of the kingdom''s military might. Their weapons of choice were spears and short swords, expertly crafted to strike down enemies in closebat.

    To the east, the Kingdom deployed the Swift Riders, a cavalry unit renowned for their speed and agility.

    Mounted on sleek superpowered warhorses, these riders wore light armor that allowed them to maneuver swiftly on the battlefield. Armed withnces and short bows, they excelled in hit-and-run tactics, using their mobility to outmaneuver and overwhelm opponents.

    In the south, the Irond Legion stood ready to defend the army''s retreat.

    This heavy armor unit consisted of soldiers encased in full suits of mithril tier armor, making them nearly impervious to conventional attacks. They wielded massive warhammers and tower shields, capable of breaking enemy lines and holding ground against overwhelming odds.

    The archers of the Master Marksmen were stationed to the west, masters of rangedbat.

    Their longbows had an impressive range and uracy, allowing them to rain down volleys of arrows on approaching foes. They wore lightweight armor for agility and could quickly switch to shortswords for close-quartersbat.

    Finally, to the north stood the Vanguard Shock Troops.

    These elite warriors were chosen for their exceptional strength andbat prowess. Armed with massive two-handed axes and wearing a blend of heavy and medium armor, they were the kingdom''s ultimate shock force. They could breach enemy lines, causing chaos and disruption in the midst of battle.

    Dante found himself among the Warriors of Indra, forming up in ranks alongside his fellow foot soldiers.

    As the soldiers from each army assembled, the battlefield buzzed with palpable energy. The anticipation was almost tangible, as if the very air was charged with the impending sh of armies.

    High above, banners bearing the symbols of each army fluttered in the wind, creating a colorful tapestry that represented the might of the Indra Kingdom.

    The generals andmanders took their positions, their steely gazes fixed on the field ahead.

    Dante''s heart raced as he stood among the Warriors of Indra, realizing that he was about to participate in a grand and ancient form of warfare. The Greco-Roman-style settingbined with the fantastical elements of the world created a unique and thrilling atmosphere.

    The sound of a warhorn cut through the tension, signaling themencement of the battle.

    The soldiers of the five armies advanced in unison, their disciplined formations moving as one. The ground beneath their feet shook with the weight of their footsteps, and the indomitable spirit of the Indra Kingdom surged forward.

    As Dante took his first steps onto the battlefield, he couldn''t help but feel a mix of exhration and trepidation. This was different from one-on-one battle, this was truly war! Only someone who had served in the army could possibly understand what Dante was going through right now.

    Immediately, the various armies on the side of Indra split up to achieve their own tasks and take up their positions. The Vanguard Shock troops did exactly what Shock Troops were named for, shocking the enemy by using overwhelming force to shatter their lines.

    They charged ahead like miniature hulks, their every stomp causing small craters to appear in the ground. They swung their axes wantonly andunched like madmen as they shed with the defense line of the kingdom that was being invaded by Indra, causing a huge shockwave.

    Bodies flew into the air and hundreds of men and women who formed the defenders of the opposing kingdom turned into blood mist right away. The Vanguard Shock Troops were powered with SDIs ranging from 270 to 300 points in their physical stats while their mental stats and constitution as well as vitality were below the hundreds.

    As such, they too rapidly suffered casualties as they were soon blocked by the warriors at the back who stopped their charge and then took them on. Surrounded by so many troops, they were likeughing mavericks as they killed and got killed in turn.

    The Master Marksmen shuffled quickly to the far west and began unleashing arrows wantonly. Due to the superhuman nature of both sides'' troops, the arrows used were huge, about half the size of ballista bolts.

    The ''bows'' these archers used were big enough to p a human to death, and then easily pulled on their tight strings to nock the humongous arrows that were heavy enough to be high-level gym equipment for normal humans.

    When an arrow was fired, it was less like a normal projectile and more like a missile. When they released their strings, their arrows immediately broke the sound barrier and then seemingly disappeared and reappeared before their target, striking them and exploding to create a small shockwave of force that ripped apart others nearby with insufficient defense.

    And these archers were releasing such arrows as fast as machine guns, their arms like blurs as they ripped apart the key elements of the opposing army with ease.

    One could easily tell that their Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence stats were high, bordering on 280, but everything else was pitifully low.

    To the east, the Swift Riders showed cocky smiles. They were the cavalry, arguably the strongest force on any such battlefield, and they knew it. Their cruelty and insidiousness were endless as they charged to the east like they were escaping the battlefield.

    However, after reaching about 10 kilometers away, they suddenly curved around slowly and leisurely then took out their weapons and pointed them forward. With bloodshot eyes filled with the urge to kill and see blood fly, they urged their nigh upon overpowered steeds to enter a full sprint.

    These horses thundered through the expanse like low-flying jets, their speeds making the riders on their back seem a blur. Each step the horses took caused the earth to tremble and whenbined with the entire army, a small-scale earthquake that upset the other troops began.

    When they collided with the enemy forces, there was no feasible resistance. They just formed a straight horizontal line of blood mist and emerged from the other side unscathed. Their armors were stained with red and their horses literally released steam from the heat they produced from their charge, but they only paused to rest before going again and forming another line of death.

    With their expected output, it was clear that their SDI was high in terms of Agility and Strength and not much else. Cavalry was cavalry.

    Meanwhile, the southern Iron Legion simply spread out and formed a steel wall of giant tower shields that were nted in the earth. Their job was to prevent any of the enemy army from escaping the battlefield in order to try and either nk their troops or deal a decapitation strike to the leaders at the back.

    The sun gleamed on their armors and their tower shields did not even tremble. They bnced these powerful shields with their shoulders

    in order to absorb the impact force and any enemy charge.

    These men had SDIs in Strength and Constitution that could well be over 320 points, but abysmal stats in other fields for bnce purposes.

    Then there was Dante''s Warriors of Indra army who were made up of those who did not necessarily have any strong points. In other words, they were mostly like Dante, they had bnced stats in all fields.

    They charged forward and dragged Dante along after the other armies had bitten their piece of flesh. They were the clean-up crew of the battlefield, meant to go and fight head-on with the enemy army that had its lines broken, its attention distracted by arrows, and finally, its middle as well as back sections razed by the cavalry.

    Usually, things were different. In true history, foot soldiers were tossed to the front first and used as cannon fodder to wear down enemy lines before the shock troops or the cavalry tore through, while the archers provided back support.

    This was different here not because the Indra Kingdom had some special strategy or thought that they were different but was brought about due to the change in the SDIs of the world. As such, it became better to open the way for the bnced foot soldiers to handle the bulk of the fighting while sacrificing the usually valuable vanguard shock troops to open the way.

 Chapter 89 This Is War 2

    ?

    Dante was breathing heavily as he ran along. He was not even slightly winded, but the pressure of the iing fight got to him despite this being a virtual world. That was the value of virtual worlds after all: their near-perfect realism that could immerse a person fully.

    In this moment, Dante likely understood how those brave young men who crashed onto the beaches of Normandy felt. The fear, the excitement, the bloodlust, the madness ¨C it all surged through his mind and ended up making his eyes bloodshot, just like every man with him who was also running to fight. Given their speeds, they immediately shed with the enemy troops and began spraying blood and limbs all over the ce.

    Dante was squeezed forward until he came face to face with a woman with a very thin and unattractive body that was not very feminine in shape, but her red eyes and bloodied uniform showed that she was not to be trifled with.

    She screamed and swung a sword at Dante, aiming to bisect him from the top down in a show of maddened strength. Dante''s heart leaped to his throat, and he parried clumsily, panicking foolishly.

    Dante should theoretically perform better than this, but he was too immersed, too caught up in the moment. He used the Testing World to kill some bandits that robbed a mall and only vomited after, but now, he could barely deal with a single fighter who was not even usingbat skills.

    However, it was the same theory as students who study hard and can recall information easily suddenly going nk in the exam hall and unable to remember anything.

    No amount of preparation, none, would prepare you for the execution. You could be like an overly cautious hero and prepare endlessly for the final moment, only to fail miserably. It has happened before and will happen many times until the universees to an end.

    This was why training was important. This also highlighted the importance of virtual worlds.

    To Dante, all he saw was a woman slightly smaller than him who was covered in blood, swinging her sword while screaming and cursing at him, trying to end his life and looking like she would thoroughly enjoy the prospect of doing so.

    Growing up in the rtively peaceful Earth of the 21st century, Dante could not fathom such raw hatred. Social hatred he could understand, as the inte and social media were littered with different people of different factions spewing hatred at each other day by day.

    But raw, martial hatred like this? He was overwhelmed. This was a 21-year-oldd who had never been mugged, kidnapped, or entered any truly dangerous situation. The worst were some school fights with fellow boys, but how could that bepared to this?

    Killing monsters in an Apocalypse World was different; those were nonhuman. It was not morally wrong to kill them, and he always had the advantage. Because of the presence of superpowers, he also was always able to disable the feeling of immersion and remind himself why he was there.

    Now, he was just too invested. If he didn''t snap out of this illusion, he would suffer from real trauma after being killed by this woman, even if heter realized he was in a virtual world.

    A lot of people ignorantly assumed that they could easily start killing and switching up their actions to be ruthless if they changed societies if they transmigrated or regressed or gained some power.

    It was obviously easy to say that when you were lying on your bed while rubbing your stomach and flipping through your phone, but in such a situation, most would perform worse.

    Even right now, such fellows would not even be able to cut the head of a chicken or goat if it was presented before them, clucking or bleating with fear and unwillingness to die, even if it was for their afternoon meal.

    Dante still managed to survive on instinct. He might not have specificbat training, but what he did have was able to make him slightly better than his peers and especially this untrained woman who was hurriedly conscripted to defend her homnd against the evil Indra Kingdom who was invading.

    She had seen countless friends from her vige die in the previous fights, so her heart was filled with hatred and madness, which overrode her fear and gave her strength. She too had been like Dante when the army assembled, and even judging from the splotch on her thighs, she had likely peed herself when the Vanguard Shock Troops made the initial charge.

    However, after blocking her attacks for a while, Dante reacted.

    One thing about men who grew up in peacetime was that if suddenly met with violence, they were more likely to panic and be confused. However, after feeling pain and fear for a bit, their aggression would erupt as the adrenaline pumped and their bestial instincts would arise.

    Men who lived in conflict were used to this and even trained to harness it, so it was more controlled. However, for those like Dante, it was like an explosion of power as they would be stronger and faster at the cost of wasting their stamina.

    ''Why? Why? Why?? Why does she want to kill me?'' Dante roared in his heart as rage and fury surged outwards, making his fear and confusion dissipate. ''Since she wants to kill me, I will kill her as well!''

    This was the prevalent thought in Dante''s mind as he counterattacked brutally. The fury-filled woman was shocked by Dante''s strength and immediately lost an arm when Dante swung his halberd at a clever angle.

    Even if he wasn''t perfectly trained, he had been fighting monsters for a while, so he was not a noob at using the weapon in his hand. He might not have systematic techniques, but then again, there was nothingplex about smash, pierce, slice, cut, and stab.

    The moment she lost an arm, the woman immediately screamed in pain and sobered up. Her bloodlust and madness disappeared and were reced by fear and shock. She had actually ughtered so many people just now, and so many of her friends were killed.

    Before she could even reflect on her actions, she saw the red-eyed Dante raise his halberd to cut her in half. Immediately she panicked and screamed for Dante to spare her life.

    In this moment, she could not think of anything but wanting to live, and she would do anything Dante asked for at this moment, without hesitation, as long as she could live. Coming down from madness and being thrust into pain and fear, her survival instinct was overpowering everything else in her mind.

    However, just like how she had been lost in a sea of killing intent and ughtered many other men as well as women who begged for their lives, so too was she cut in half from brain to groin, both halves splitting and flying far away thanks to the force of Dante''s swing.

    Dante panted deeply as his eyes were slowly losing their red color and his rage simmered down. Immediately he woke up from his immersion/trance then remembered who he was and why he was here.

    Achieving this much-needed rity, Dante could almost feel like his mind was purified and he had reached a level of maturity he could never have touched while living on the peaceful Earth.

    When he looked around, he noticed that everyone around him was fighting their own foe and no one had time for him yet. This allowed Dante a slight window of time to deal with something that was important and would likely change him forever.

    He had encountered a crossroads of life and had to pick a

    branching path.

    He could lie to himself and ce himself under the illusion that these were only characters in a virtual world, so killing them did not mean anything and in fact, killing them was okay.

    Or he could admit to himself that real or virtual was irrelevant and he was killing sentient beings like himself and would keep killing them as long as it suited his purposes.

    If he chose the former, he could still maintain some level of ''innocence'' and convince himself he was a ''good guy,'' that he was only doing this to train himself and he hadn''t actually harmed anyone nor would he be a callous killerter on.

    If he chose thetter, he would simply ept the real nature of his actions and break the final barrier in his subconscious that affected his morality towards killing. After that, it would be easy for him to kill in reality, and whether he became a ruthless killer, a casual killer, or a reserved killer would depend on his future experience and life choices.

    This was a necessary choice anyone who had grown up in a peaceful and non-violent society would have to make after performing their first kill, regardless of how the kill was made, either lie to yourself that it was manughter or ept that it was murder.

 Chapter 90 This Is War 3

    Dante was forced to make this choice in a very small frame of time, given that he was in the middle of an active battlefield. The cacophony of sounds, like metal shing, horses neighing, people cursing, screaming, or begging, all sounded in his ears and seemed to scramble yet also focus his thoughts.

    The young man thought of his upbringing, his thoughts on killing, human life, and how to treat others. He thought about his chances after acquiring his superpower and everything that happened afterward.

    His mind cast onto his loved ones, what they would think of him if he made either choice, as well as what he would do if someone harmed them. He thought about his captives on Earth in the icy cave within McDonald''s Ind who were waiting to be fed by him.

    He thought of Ulysses, the Pantheon, all the forces hidden on Earth, and the various forces of the home universe that might stand in his way of conquest.

    It was then that Dante understood. If he wanted to continue on this path he had set for himself, he could only make the right choice, which was the second choice. If he chose the first choice or any other, he would be setting himself up for inevitable failure and difficulty down the line.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Walking along the riverbank, and you are bound to get your shoes wet. It was impossible for him to think of conquest without taking lives. If not earthlings, then definitely alien species. Dante was not naive enough to think that everyone would bow and scrape then hand over their freedoms with respect, did he?

    Dante closed his eyes and made the second choice. Immediately, something seemed to change about him entirely; his youthful features of being a young man who had just matured possessed a certain air of depth.

    When he opened his eyes, they shed with a certain determination and surety that was detectable. There was no madness nor brutality of a crazy killer, just a sure drive to continue forward without doubting his own actions at every step.

    Just in time for him to sidestep a full body swing of a young man who had messy brown hair and crazed eyes from the other side. Dante swung his halberd with ease and without hesitation, performing a natural and almost beautiful decapitation of his foe.

    The expression of the young man was filled with hatred and killing intent even as his head fell to the ground, not realizing that he was dead.

    Dante watched his head fall almost in slow motion, following its movement and the expression on the young man''s face throughout. He felt a twang of regret in his chest, but not the type of regret he previously felt.

    Previously, it had been ''oh no, what have I done? How could I do this?'' and now it was ''sigh, why did you have to do this, my guy? Oh well.''

    Discerning eyes could see the fundamental difference between the two.

    Dante tore his eyes away from the corpse, and the memory fell to the back of his mind. Now that he had made this choice, he was not going to be childish or melodramatic and do something like engrave the faces of all those he killed in his mind, as if that would suddenly make him a great bloke and mitigate the consequences.

    He didn''t know this guy, and he didn''t want to know him nor remember him. He was just a casualty of his own actions and the situation at hand.

    Dante raised his head, and his eyes sharpened as he dashed forward. Due to the need for space, the battlefield had be a gory mess of blood and mud as everyone split into small pockets of fighting.

    Dante did not search for lone targets but rather chose to ambush those in the midst of battle against his allies, with their backs to him. He would smash their backs with his halberd and give his ally a chance to deal a fatal blow, if not deal the fatal blow himself.

    What was truly interesting was the look of pain, fear, and regret on the faces of the enemy faction members who were killed as they fell, contrasted with the look of relief, gratitude, and admiration from his allied faction members as he saved them.

    This fact helped refine Dante''s newfound mentality and wash away the impurities and confusions within, allowing him to be more energetic and decisive in what he did.

    The battlested for over 3 hours before a horn sounded, and both sides disengaged slowly before retreating backward.

    Panting deeply, Dante was covered with blood all over, most of it being from his enemies and a little from himself, as he did not yet have spirit sense or the like which allowed him to see 360ˇă. As such, he could be locked in battle and be shed at the back, causing him injuries.

    When he inspected both forces, he saw that apart from the spotless Iron Legion who did not fight, the Master Marksmen and the Swift Riders had sustained virtually no casualties, but were out of ammunition or had their staminapletely depleted in the case of their steeds.

    Only the Vanguard Shock Troops and the Warriors of Indra sustained casualties, with the former sustaining heavy amounts, the entire echelon only having less than 40% of their total number return, while thetter sustained light casualties with over 85% of their echelon returning.

    As for the enemy, it was utterly terrible. They had less than 55 of their initial number remaining, and most of those who remained were severely injured and in need of medication. It was entirely possible for their army to rout this opposing force, but the generals must feel it was not necessary.

    Dante also understood, not because he had insight into the ns of the upper echelons, but he had the education of the modern world and could use simple critical thinking.

    The Kingdom of Indra, to which he belonged, was a country of unknown rank or power. They could be strong or weak, Dante could not tell yet, but what he did know was that the king was unsatisfied with how things were and wanted to expand.

    This was in the world description. If one wanted to expand, you could im unimednd, but if there was none, you gotta im the imednd. Usually, the one who owns the imednd was not willing to give up, and so gave birth to wars of conquest.

    The Kingdom of Indra was invading this opposing kingdom which Dante did not know of which was also of unknown power. They could be high up in the rankings globally or a weak kingdom, but he did not know.

    What he did know was that as sudden and surprise aggressors, they had caught this other kingdom off guard, so they couldn''t muster a useful defense right away.

    You thought the force they just decimated was this kingdom''s true defense? That would be aughable joke. What they had just ughtered were 20% border defense forces and 80% civilians forcibly conscripted from nearby viges and towns to defend.

    Against a true army like this, it was natural they could not hold. Seriously, the opposing force did not have any cavalry, archers, or vanguard of their own, how could they survive? This fight was in no way representative of the difficulty of this world; otherwise, it wouldn''t be ranked in the top 5 among students.

    This was obviously a tutorial fight for yers to get adapted to this world quickly. Dante was not the only one who went through this crisis, every student who attempted this world went through the same

    thing and came out differently depending on the choices they made.

    Dante shook his head and threw these thoughts away. He reacted to the fellows among the Warriors of Indra and even the few Vanguard Shock Troops he had saved with his actions in the battle, who came and thanked him.

    Dealing with it one by one during the battle, he did not know how many fellows he helped, but now that the battle was done and they came to him, he was shocked to see that they were a huge amount.

    Dante was emotional. Look at how these guys were excited to be alive and grateful to him for his intervention. It was likely that they and their families would throw a party for Dante and treat him like a miniature messiah.

    However, the corpses lying on the field, assuming that their entire family line did not die here, would have their remnants at home burst into tears and agony at their loss. If they knew Dante was the cause, they would point at him and curse with hatred, calling him a monster and a demon.

    Dante could almost see the contrasting scenes in his eyes, the left side being those who praised him and the right side being those who cursed him.

    It was at this moment that Dante truly understood that this is war.

 Chapter 91 Promotion

    Dante didn''t have much time to himself. After the army retreated, the general gave another speech to soothe their minds and cause the soldiers to feel cheerful, as they had won. The soldiers cheered and ran off to make merry, while the generalughed.

    The nonbat members of the army had the job of collecting ally corpses from the battlefield in order to cremate them, so they wouldn''t be fed on by vultures. This was the least they could do for their fellowmen who died in battle.

    As for the opposing army whose corpses made up 95% of the battlefield, no one woulde and pick them up. Not only were theymoners, but the surviving troops also didn''t have any spare manpower to engage in such luxuries.

    Trust me, the job was a terrible one. Not only did it stink due to the blood and corpses, but the vultures were fierce and would re at you if you tried to shoo them away from a corpse, which to them was their food.

    Even worse, some of the enemy corpses were not corpses. They were groaning and moaning in agonized pain as they were severely crippled and bleeding out, spending their moments in agony.

    The worst part was those ferocious and hate-filled people whoy in wait, pretending to be corpses, only to deal a fatal blow to those who came to search. While watching their prey clutch their bleeding throat as they bled out, they would screech with near eldritchughter filled with craziness and joy.

    However, all they had done was kill a nonbatant who was here to do an honorable task. Naturally, they couldn''t care because that was usually what hate did ¨C blind you to the reality of the situation.

    The people he or she hated were currently celebrating and having a good time, unbeknownst to him or her. This was usually the aftermath of major battles, but here the casualties were low because the majority of the civilians were thoroughly killed and did not need to be double-tapped.

    If it had been a proper army, this would have happened a lot more.

    Dante was summoned to the tent of the upper echelon along with some other soldiers, people he had identified during the battle as having performed well. As such, he could guess what this summons was for and couldn''t help but feel slightly expectant.

    The General of the Indra Kingdom''s army was called Garth, and he was quite a powerful-looking person. Seated at a makeshift table strewn with maps, battle reports, and scrolls, he was a figure that exuded an aura of tough and seasoned experience.

    Dante''s gaze was drawn to the general''s weathered face, marked with the lines of countless battles and years ofmand. His salt-and-pepper beard framed a stern jaw, and his eyes held a piercing intensity that seemed to bore into the very souls of those who met his gaze.

    General Garth''s armor, unlike that of the soldiers, was a work of aesthetics and functionbined. The armor bore the scars of past conflicts, each mark a testament to the man''s resilience and skill on the battlefield.

    A flowing crimson cape billowed behind him, adding an air of regal authority to his rugged appearance.

    His hands, calloused and scarred, rested on the table as he perused the documents before him. The fingers that had once held swords and shields were now the architects of strategy and the guiding force of armies.

    General Garth''s presencemanded respect, and even the battle-hardened soldiers in the tent stood a little straighter in his presence, including Dante. The man just had that aura.

    "Soldiers, you have shown valor and determination on the battlefield. Your actions have not gone unnoticed." General Garth''s voice rumbled through the tent, each word weighted with gravitas.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Dante felt a surge of pride as the general''s gaze swept over him. It was a validation of his efforts and a recognition of the role he had yed in the recent victory.

    "The enemies we face are formidable, and the challenges ahead are great, but it is through the dedication and bravery of soldiers like you that we shall emerge victorious." the general continued before standing up anding before the men.

    "Report your names, your age, and your army!" He barked suddenly, ncing at the person from the leftmost side.

    "Unbenson, 34, Swift Riders!"

    "Frank, 27, Master Marksmen!"

    "Livia, 23, Master Marksmen!"

    "Fiora, 22, Master Marksmen!"

    "Dante, 21, Warriors of Indra!"

    "Kain, 27, Warriors of Indra!"

    "Bea, 26, Warriors of Indra!"

    "Liam, 38, Vanguard Shock Troops!"

    "Lockheart, 42, Vanguard Shock Troops!"

    The ten of them reported their details to the general one by one as his eyesy upon them. They were seven men and three women, and they had performed above their expectations during the battle, enough that in the chaos of many bodies shing, the general could still pinpoint them.

    "Good." The general nodded with satisfaction.

    "I shall hereby give you two choices. One is to freely switch your army to the one you want, and you will undergo a sort of 1-week training to adapt quickly before we march again, or you can be promoted within your current army."

    The general turned and moved to sit down before focusing on his documents, which were battle reports. "Make your choices within the next ten minutes."

    The ten soldiers were surprised and shared looks among each other, wondering what choice they should make. Meanwhile, Dante was gazing at the notification that appeared before him from the world.

    [yer Dante, you havepleted your first battle in the Rising Star World and are qualified to make some choices. You can choose to change the army you''re affiliated with and start from the bottom or remain in the current auto-allocated army and raise one rank. Please make your choice.]

    Dante didn''t even spend a second thinking about it before he stepped forward and spoke resolutely. "General Garth, sir, please promote me!"

    The General raised his head with interest. "Oh? Dante, right? I saw you on the battlefield, from your initial struggle to eventually bing the guardian angel of your fellow brothers. Can you tell me why you made this choice?"

    Dante nodded. "Two reasons, sir. Firstly, I obviously excelled where I was ced and will likely excel more in the future. Why should I change to something I am unfamiliar with and risk bing mediocre? Secondly, with a higher rank, I can better organize myself during battle and prevent even more casualties."

    General Garth nodded with a smile. "Alright, that makes sense. Henceforth you have been promoted from a recruit foot soldier to a squad leader. Head to themander in charge of your army and let him arrange a squad for you to lead."

    Dante saluted and left the tent without looking at the others, not interested in the choices they would make.

    He then checked his SDi as he walked over.

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    Kingdom: Indra

    Rank: Squad Captain (10 kills by each squad member to advance)

    Morality: Neutral

    Strength Index: 250 (500)

    Agility Index: 250 (500)

    Dexterity Index: 250 (500)

    Intelligence Index: 250 (

    500)

    Constitution Index: 250 (500)

    Vitality Index: 250 (500)

    Bionic Level: 1

    Psionic level: 1?

    As he stepped out into the camp, he could hear the distant sounds of soldiers celebrating and sharing stories of the battle. It was a stark contrast to the grim task of collecting the fallen that had gone on earlier.

    His first stop was the makeshiftmand center of the Warriors of Indra. The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon, casting a warm, golden glow over the camp.

    Soldiers moved about with purpose, preparing for the next phase of the campaign. Dante''s strides were purposeful as he made his way to themander in charge of his army.

    Themander was a stern-faced man with a scar running across one eye, a testament to his own battles fought. He looked up from his maps as Dante approached, a mixture of curiosity and assessment in his gaze.

    "Newly promoted, I see." themander remarked, his voice gruff yet tinged with a hint of approval.

    "Yes, sir!" Dante replied, his back straightening instinctively as he stood before the experienced officer.

    "What''s your name,d?" The man asked while sizing up Dante.

    "Dante, sir." Dante replied calmly.

    Themander nodded and stood, extending a hand toward Dante. "Wee to the ranks of squad leaders, Dante. I''m Commander Varian. Your promotion is well-earned, and I expect nothing less than your best."

    Dante shook themander''s hand firmly, feeling a hint of determination. "Thank you, sir. I won''t let you down."

    Varian''s scarred face broke into a rare smile. "I believe you won''t. Now, let''s discuss your squad."

    Dante followed Varian to the side where the reports of the soldiers from the after-battle reports came in. Apart from this, he was also to meet the assembled troops tomorrow morning to pick out his squad.

 Chapter 92 Dealing With The Captives

    Dante had little time to relish in his new rank as Squad Captain.

    He moved to his tent on the battlefield and made to sleep, but actually logged out of the Etraverse and opened his eyes in his residence in the school. After finding something to eat casually, he teleported back to McDonald''s Ind back on Earth.

    He walked up to the cave with the superpowered people he captured and saw that they were chatting with each other in low voices. Dante looked at them and saw that while they were a bit ragged due to their captivity, they still had a spark of resistance and hope in their eyes.

    When they saw Dante arrive with his hands in his pockets, they immediately stopped their chatting and sized him up. Immediately, Killian and Luo Yue paled slightly while Aisha''s expression became ugly.

    They were not psychics but they could easily sense the change in Dante. Ity mostly in his disposition and his eyes.

    The reason they had hope was that they knew Dante was not a killer. He had many chances to take their lives but they could see a youthful naivety in his eyes when he looked at them that was full of conflict in terms of whether to harm them.

    Especially Killian and Aisha. The former had been an active soldier in war and had taken more than a few lives and he could easily tell when someone had tasted blood or not.

    Aisha had lived in the underworld and had eventually be mafiadonna, so she knew the look of a person who did not value human life like a normal person.

    Luo Yue may not have these life experience but her intelligence and perceptiveness was higher than the other two thanks to her superpower and her lips practically became blue from how pale she became. She could sense the resolution in Dante;s aura to take a step forward regardless of the obstacle before him, be they person or thing.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel The three squirmed against their bonds as they felt restless, endless fear and regret surging through their hearts. They dearly wished they had never met this man and they wondered what he expected in just two days that caused such a drastic change.

    With Dante''s SDI, he was just short of bing fully psychic, but through his eyes, he could understand all the microexpressions and changes in their bodynguage to ascertain their thoughts. He was surprised that they could identify his change, but he made no attempt to hide it.

    People treat a person unwilling to kill and a person willing to kill differently in this world. Just like now, these three had been casually chatting and probably nning how to either escape or make Dante release them without much worry because they thought Dante could not kill them previously.

    Now that they registered his change, that idea was extinguished from their minds and they were filled with fear and obedience. Even the usually sharp-tongued tsundere Aisha was silent and didn''t dare to look at Dante head on.

    Dante casually fashioned a chair and then sat down opposite this group. "I am not here to kill you. Your lives have value to me, you, and everyone with superpowers on earth."

    Hearing this, the hearts of the three rxed a little but they were still silent and not willing to offend the current Dante.

    "You will stay here for about a month. I''ll keep you fed and I will release your bonds so that you can interact with each other, but you cannot leave this ind that is surrounded by sea in directions." Dante revealed with a pointed look.

    The three were not happy or excited. Whether it was Dante or them, they knew that these strange bindings were not much of a problem apart from making them feel ufortable. Luo Yue did not need to use hand signs or the like to use her ability and Aisha could turn parts of her body to literal light.

    If they wanted to escape, they could have done it long ago. The issue was that where the fuck were they supposed to go when the shore of the nearest ce of civilization - which was South Africa - was more than a few hundred kilometers away?

    Killian had herculean stamina and great strength but if he tried to swim, he would likely get tired 1/10th of the way and sink to his death. Aisha could turn into light for a few seconds with different parts of her body and could also turn her whole body to light for a few seconds.

    Like that, she could probably cross a farther distance than Killian but would be fully pooped.

    She will sink to her death.

    Luo Yue was the most helpless. She could use her ability to buff either Killian or Aisha during the nighttime, but what about herself? If she could use elemental magic, she could try Aokiji''s method and ride a bike across the sea.

    If the three teamed up, they could probably cross 3/10ths of the distance and then die together.

    To simplify, the difficulty of them escaping this ind was about equivalent to a powerless human imprisoned in a cell that was hanging over a cliff. Even if they opened the cage, do you dare to walk out and see if you could survive the fall?

    "Alright, let''s keep things simple. Do not enter this cave after you''re freed and find your own resting ce on this ind. Around a monthter, you will go through my follow-up methods and regain your freedom of movement." Dante said simply as he stood up and removed their bindings casually.

    He then shooed them out of the cave before sealing it up and then ignoring the confused trio who didn''t know what to do with their increased ''legroom''. Dante went to the other cave where he kept the mortal team members and these five were far worse for wear.

    They saw Dante enter and became silent. This time, Dante didn''t bother to speak as he grabbed the rope binding them, lifted the entire group up with one finger, and then walked to the beach of the ind with them in tow.

    Seeing Dante carry the five of them like this, they were filled with fear as they paled greatly. Such strength and power were something they only saw in movies. Even Killian, the most powerful person they knew, could not do this.

    Dante ced their rope down and removed it, freeing the group who split up and panting in pain due to the difort of having the bindings dig into their flesh as Dante carried them.

    They looked at Dante, wondering what instructions he had for them, but their hearts sank when they saw theyer of indifference and coldness in his nce. He then said one word which made them freeze.

    "Swim."

    Swim? Swim where? Was there a pond nearby?

    The group nced at each other in silence with pale faces, not willing to look at the raging sea behind them. After all, if they dared to enter that sea, there was no chance of survival unless a miracle happened.

    In the end, the sniper stepped forward and spoke. "Sir, please understand that from the moment we acted against you, we possessed no a shred of killing intent. We used solely non-lethal methods and ounted for your safety at every step. Even if we are useless to you now, can you please deal us a more lenient fate?"

    The others had pleading expressions and Dante swept his eyes over them. He pondered quietly and felt that they did have a point, there was no real intent to kill in their operation, just to capture. Technically, even that mediocre Pantheon also had the intention to control, not kill.

    Dante''s expression softened slightly as he nced at the five. He left eh rope he used to bind them and turned to leave.

    "Better learn how to use that to fish if you want to survive here. I have no use for you so I will not feed you nor check up on you. You can go anywhere on the ind except the cave at the precipice."

    After saying this, he quietly disappeared into thin air before their eyes, causing their faces to change. None of them could understand how Dante achieved this and this further exacerbated their fear and desire to be obedient.

    However, the five could only stare at each other with dismay. The Sniper, Tech Specialist, Infiltration Expert, Demolitions, and Assassin were not exactly professionals at wilderness survival.

    As such, after discussing for a bit, they decided to find the three superpowered people, especially their team leader Killian, and see if they had any idea to help.

    When Dante returned to the Eternal Universe, he felt much lighter since he had dealt with the only really pressing problem on earth.

    Now, he could focus on raising hisbat skills using the Rising Star World.

 Chapter 93 Establishing A Squad

    ?

    The night passed quickly, and as dawn broke, Dante found himself standing before a gathering of soldiers, each waiting to be evaluated for a ce in his squad.

    The sun painted the sky in hues of orange and pink, casting a serene glow over the camp. Dante took a deep breath, his gaze sweeping over the eager faces before him.

    As the soldiers introduced themselves one by one, Dante listened attentively, mentally assessing their strengths, skills, and personalities using his now sharpened eyes.

    It was clear that his squad would probably be a diverse mix of talents, each contributing something unique to the whole. In front of him were seasoned veterans with years ofbat experience, and there were younger recruits eager to prove themselves on the battlefield.

    Among them was Fiona, a young woman with fiery determination in her eyes and strong hunting skills. She was previously part of the Master Marksman army but was shifted here when the war began in order to fill up the vacancies in the Warriors of Indra army.

    Next was Barter, a sturdy and dependable soldier who had demonstrated his prowess as a footsoldier during the previous battle. He was one of the seasoned veterans and had helped the Indra Kingdom''s army in previous wars of expansion when he was younger and the kingdom was weaker.

    Finally, the most noticeable was Andrea, a fierce and agile warrior with ming red hair and a voluptuous figure who exuded an air of confidence that spoke of her expertise with a de. If not for Dante, she would probably have been called up for promotion instead.

    As the introductions continued, Dante''s mind focused. He saw potential in each soldier, and he envisioned a squad that would not only excel in battle but also function as a tightly-knit unit that would achieve his goals without fail.

    Once the introductions wereplete, Dante stepped forward, his voice carrying a blend of authority and camaraderie. "I''ve heard your stories and witnessed your skills on the battlefield. Each one of you has proven your worth, and it''s an honor to stand before such a dedicated group of soldiers."

    His eyes roved the field as he made his selections, including 5 veterans and 5 youngsters. This was to form a bnce between experience and wisdom as well as hot-bloodedness and vigor.

    The rest were disappointed not to be selected, but knew there were other chances since Dante wasn''t the only one promoted. After the rest left, Dante looked at his 10-man squad and smiled.

    "We will spend todaypeting against each other. This is to test the foundation of each other''s skill, acquire a basic understanding of one another and most importantly, establish the hierarchy of power within the squad!"

    After Dante said this, the eyes of the ten shed. They understood what Dante was trying to do and respected him for it, but it felt strange having it said out loud like this. Usually, squad captains didn''t care much and appointed who they liked, leaving the squad themselves to sort out the hierarchy in their own time.

    It was clear that this specific captain did not believe in the ''hands-off'' or issez-faire'' attitude of leading and wanted to control the squad to a tight degree. Surprisingly, the ten soldiers were not against it as this showed Dante''s seriousness and ambition to seed at least, and if they could survive under hismand, they would soar higher!

    Like this, Dante brought them to a clear training field and allowed everyone to take their respective weapons. He then split them into five fields, allowing one veteran and one youth to fight each.

    After allowing them to spar for about 5 minutes, Dante would stop the battle and switch the matchups. Byte afternoon, everyone had at least sparred with everyone else in the squad and gained a basic idea of their skill and talent.

    They filed before Dante and awaited his opinion. Dante observed the ten of them and smiled.

    "The Vice-Captain of our Squad shall temporarily be Andrea. However, the permanent position will go to whoever gets the most kills with the least damage in our next major battle."

    Andrea puffed out her already protruding chest with pride in her eyes and no oneined or felt resentment because they had seen her marvelous skill. She was not only young, but had such swordsmanship andbat talent.

    Her future was bright in terms of her position in the military! It was likely that in a few battles, she could either rise to Dante''s position or even surpass him assuming Dante also didn''t climb higher.

    "Go and get some rest. From tomorrow, I expect to see you all here training from morning to night until we deploy next week." Dante stated firmly as he turned and left without looking back.

    As a promoted squad leader, he was privy to the ns of the camp and their mobilizations, so he knew the next major battle was a week away. This mechanic was to give students a chance to gather their senses and either hone their own skills through training or enhance that of their teammates should they be promoted or recruited.

    As for Dante, since it was still afternoon in both the Quantum World and the real world, he logged out of the Etraverse once more and teleported away. This time, his destination was within the Eternal Universe, to the far reaches of the outer zone.

    When Dante appeared, he was in the Observation Deck of the Inferno, seated on the couch. Opposite him, startled by his sudden appearance, was naturally Beatrice Portinari.

    Dante''s eyes went down and his breath caught, then his eyes became bloodshot. After all, Beatrice was alone in this ship and there was no one who could enter the Observation Deck but her and Dante, so she would naturally not wear her skin-tight uniform all the time.

    Currently, she was wearing a pink gauze nightwear that was mostly see-through, allowing Dante to see her wless skin. Her usually long purple hair was tied into a bun and her yful amber eyes were filled with pleasant surprise.

    Dante could see her skimpy pink bra as well as her thong that lightly covered her Path of Righteousness. She was curled on the couch,zily flipping through her holographic disy, so her position enhanced the visuals that were causing Dante''s blood to pulse.

    Gee, it had been a while, huh? He hade to this universe for slightly over 2 months and he had only had a session with Valeria about a week before that. Usually, he was too stressed or busy to think about such things, but now he had been provoked.

    Seeing his reaction, Beatrice smiled and curled her legs even more as she nced at Dante up and down.

    "Well, well, my young son Dante has grown up a little. Now you even dare to gaze at your boss Beatrice like this." She joked with her usual teasing voice.

    Hearing her, Dante suppressed his rising desire because he had no choice. Even though he knew that he could technically do what he wanted to Beatrice as she had offered it herself - actually practically demanded it - but there was a problem.

    A very serious problem that practically crippled their chances of being intimate any time soon.

    No, it was not what you thought, that Dante was worried about any social problems. It wasn''t even that he did not desire Beatrice, he wouldugh at the face of any man who could look at such a woman in the face and remain unmoved if they were not asexual or had

    a low sex drive.

    If he could, he would push her down right now and make her call him grandpa - because Daddy was too mainstream - but the issue wasˇ­

    Well, how to put thisˇ­

    Could he even put it in?

    Beatrice was around Superman level in terms of SDI. She could literally survive in space with her raw body and punch asteroids apart. If Dante pressed his dick against the tip of her vagina, would it even be able to enter?

    And even if Beatrice rxed herself to enter, what if she got caught up in the moment and squeezed? Dante did not enjoy the idea of having his precious young master being turned into meat paste.

    Huh.

    Wait a minute.

    Dante has been working so hard after he signed the contract with the Portinari n and gained Beatrice, training himself to be better and even increasing his SDI rapidly in the Apocalypse World.

    Could it be that he did that because of this?

    Dante pursed his lips and looked away from the camera, unwilling to answer.

    !!!

    T-This bastard!!

    All that nonsense about working hard, conquering, and having to ept killing was just for this?!

    Wait, could it actually be that most men out there worked, struggled, and trained themselves just so that they could ''ravage'' the insides of the female they liked?

 Chapter 94 Who Is Beatrice Portinari?

    ?

    "Hmmm? Heng? Hooh?"

    Beatrice continuously made sounds of surprise and interest as she circled around Dante, touching his body all over. From his biceps to his face, his legs, and even almost his crotch until he smacked her hand away.

    Beatrice folded her arms, which had the unfortunate effect of raising her already noticeable chest muscles into focus.

    "Ehh. Your Stats index has risen greatly. That''s pretty amazing," she remarked with a raised eyebrow.

    Dante folded his legs and smiled smugly. "This is the effect of having talent. An evil woman like you wouldn''t understand."

    Beatrice was speechless.

    She looked Dante up and down once more and hesitated. "I don''t think the Student Enhancement Center''s technology and methods have increased that much since I graduated."

    Beatrice sighed tiredly. "Don''t worry Dante, if you used any orthodox means, like having to be a gigolo for that headmistress to attain your current power, I, Beatrice, will not make a fuss."

    Dante was left speechless by this.

    He facepalmed and stood up, ring at Beatrice who was still dressed very skimpily and stood in a very feminine pose that happened to attract the eye to veryrge assets. It was clear that Beatrice was very ''rich'' and ''powerful'' in terms of her ''capital assets''.

    "First of all, why not change? You''re almost naked," Dante pointed out with a frown.

    Beatrice waved her hands boredly. "No way, I feelfortable like this. Besides, who else is here to see?"

    Dante was confused and pointed to himself. "Me, obviously."

    "And who are you to me that makes this wrong? Why should I be bothered about how I am dressed with you? If you dare, I will strip naked right now," Beatrice retorted with a sharp look.

    Dante was speechless. He didn''t know whether to be happy that Beatrice was indirectly telling him that they could be intimate at any time, or to be worried that he couldn''t yet be intimate with her in the way that sheˇ­ theyˇ­ both wanted.

    "Fine, fine, it was a ''me'' problem. I came here not to bicker with you, but to rely on the most trustworthy person I''ve known to help me." Dante gave in and began getting serious.

    Beatrice smiled. "No matter what you want, I will help you, even if it means destroying the universe."

    Dante was about to continue when he froze. He nced at Beatrice with iprehension and shock, wondering if she was really serious. Due to her smile, he couldn''t really tell, but his growing extrasensory abilities were telling him that she was serious.

    This made him go silent. He was initially about to get down to the matter at hand, but he knew that in this current mood, he would better focus on what he had put off for the longest time because he was worried about the oue.

    But some things couldn''t be postponed forever.

    Dante sighed and sat down, then patted the spot beside him. Beatrice maintained her casual smile and sat down, allowing Dante to take a sniff of her perfume which smelled ofvender and strawberry, two of his favorite scents.

    Not to mention that she sat right beside him, so he could not only feel her body heat, but her presence as well. That slightly shorter feminine form that was beside him made a certain masculine beast within rise, wanting to spread his big meaty ws and disy his dominance.

    Dante now understood why men were easily seduced by beautiful women unless they were guarded. The woman herself, her actions, her words only did about 30% of the work. 70% of the work was that damned instinct to push down and assert dominance.

    He focused his mind by taking a deep breath and began.

    "Beatrice, from the moment I met you, you have been yful, teasing, and very seductive. While I will admit it''s exactly to my taste because I like women with your build, your beauty, your proportion, and your personality, I have a problem closing the gap between us because I can tell this isn''t the real you."

    "I am not trying to be melodramatic, but it feels very ufortable to know that there is probably a wall between the two of us. I also understand that this is not something directed specifically at me, but is something you''ve built to ward off everyone else."

    "But it''s going to be difficult to forge something meaningful between us if such a barrier exists. The ''me'' that stands before you is aboutˇ­ uhˇ­ 70% the real me, I think. Apart from a few secrets I can''t share yet, you''re pretty much seeing the full picture."

    "I am not going to ask you to shatter that wall on contact for me, but we need to start from somewhere. And I think the best way is for me to know more about you, so I would like to hear about you from your own mouth."

    "What do you think?" Dante concluded with a nce at Beatrice.

    Beatrice had maintained her casual smile the entire time, but it had weakened greatly the more Dante spoke. Now, she was looking at him with a slightly surprised and slightly sad expression.

    She looked away and then brought her legs onto the sofa, remaining silent for a few seconds as she seemed lost in thought. Dante did not rush her nor show any impatience, opting to wait patiently for her to make a decision.

    "Iˇ­ well. I don''t even know how to begin." Beatrice finally answered with a look of confusion on her face.

    "Let''s start from the beginning. What is the Portinari n?" Dante assisted her gently.

    "The Portinari n, huhˇ­"

    Beatrice''s eyes misted over slightly. "They are my family, the only ones I love and trust in this world. My father is the current Patriarch of the n, and he is very kind and loves to dote on me, but is harsh to everyone else."

    Beatrice smiled softly. "Part of the reason I have so much authority is because he delegated the majority of his power and connections to me, along with my ownˇ­ special talents."

    "There isˇ­ was, my mother as well. She was the light of my world and was often able to make our nuclear family brighten because she bullied dad every day until he wailed in defeat."

    "At that time, we wanted for nothing and everything was perfect."

    Beatrice''s face clouded over. "And then, at the age of 5, my gics were tested and they discovered my special physique, a superpower of its own if you will."

    "I inherited my mother''s superpowers, but passively. My mother was a graduate of the Unique Batch and had the superpowers of Gluttony, Devouring, and Regeneration."

    "I basically have the ability to increase my SDI limitlessly by eating and can regenerate from pretty much any injury as long as I have enough food or energy."

    Beatrice went silent for a short while. "Whether it was the scientists who wanted to dissect me to find out how such a phenomenon urred, the military who wanted to raise me as a humanoid weapon,

    or the superpowers faction who wanted to throw me into the First Gate, I became a hotcake overnight."

    "The Portinari n is strong, but the pressure was too much. However, my mother adamant that everyone should back off and forget about making her daughter do anything, and this included my father and even the entire n. No one was willing to sacrifice me."

    "The matter seemed to die down, and I was almost guaranteed to be raised normally. However, some factions didn''t like how my mother handled things and felt that she was an obstacle to their goals, so they simply found a scapegoat rebel organization that had no future and set them up with the best of everything needed to assassinate my mother when she took me out to a resort in the Andromeda Gxy."

    Beatrice clutched her fists tightly as her eyes darkened. "They severely underestimated my mother and how strong she was. They did manage to injure her through a surprise ambush, but her array of superpowers made her extremely tanky, and she was able to whittle down the enemy slowly."

    Beatrice lowered her head. "Of course, once they realized they were losing, they made the obvious decision to switch their target to me, the defenseless and scared child. This naturally provoked my mother but also opened her to many mistakes and opportunities."

    "My mother only died because she protected me dearly. The injuries she suffered were too great for her regeneration to keep up, no matter how much liquid energy was pumped into her body. My father and I had to watch our beloved wife and mother die on the sick bed after she escaped the siege by killing everyone."

    Beatrice sighed deeply, releasing her fists. "However, killing everyone and dyingter of injuries was the best-case scenario for the factions who besieged us. No loose ends left to clear and the target was taken down sessfully. By the time father and I came down from our grief and he decided to investigate, the other fellows had naturally swept everything clean in that period of time."

    Is there anything else you''d like me to do with this text?

 Chapter 95 Fated One

    ?

    Dante was silent. This was the kind of tragic backstory he would often see in shows and various works of fiction that made him feel like it was a bit overused and melodramatic. Most of the time, he struggled to empathize because he had grown up perfectly, with no real tragedy to speak of.

    Couldn''t writers or creators produce media with a protagonist who grew up without any trauma? Did everyone seriously have to possess loads of baggage that could cripple any normal person?

    However, hearing it live from a real person seated right beside him, especially someone he was growing to care about, left him feeling extremely conflicted. On one hand, he wished he could magically transport back in time and prevent those traumatic events from happening so Beatrice wouldn''t have to suffer.

    On the other hand, it was the same issue of not being able to fully empathize, since he had no simr experience himself. Heck, Dante hadn''t even experienced basic loss yet.

    His parents were both alive, and so was his uncle as well as his cousins. His grandparents on both sides did not live in America, so he hardly knew them, and even when they did pass, he did not have too strong feelings of loss.

    A few ssmates had passed due to variousplications and illnesses like sickle cell anemia, a hole in the heart, and more, but they were loose friends and it didn''t affect him much other than making him sigh at the fickleness of life.

    He could not, for even a second, pretend to understand what Beatrice was going through. Even now, despite the undting waves of emotions in her voice, it was just a narration of events to him.

    He wasn''t there to witness it, to see her mother fight like a crazed beast to protect her crying and scared daughter. He probably would never understand her mother''s guilt that she brought this upon her daughter by giving her the passive ability to use her superpowers before she could mature.

    He would also never understand the satisfaction of Beatrice''s mother as she had sessfully protected her beloved daughter, as well as the tearing sadness that she could not see her grow up into the woman she was now.

    There was also the young and impressionable Beatrice in her formative years who was struck with fear and helplessness. All she knew was that she was spending some fun time with Mama, and suddenly these strange aliens and mixed breeds who were shouting slogans of hatred towards pure humans were trying to hurt them.

    She had to watch as these grown adults who she was taught to greet with respect and be polite to were red-eyed and trying to kill her. She had to watch her mother scream in pain with every wound that spilled her blood all over the ce, even as she gentlyforted the young her, assuring her that everything would be alright.

    Eventually, they escaped, but her mother was bedridden and thest hope young Beatrice had that her Mama would be okay was wiped away by a shake of the doctor''s head. There was only a void of despair and sadness as she couldn''t ept this truth.

    Before the attack, she had been throwing a tantrum and coercing her mother to buy her some nice-looking sweets. How did it go from that to this? Why did this have to happen? What did she or her mother ever do wrong?

    It would have been more painful but easier if her father had hated her or been cold to her because of what happened, but he spent every moment with his daughter, reassuring her that it wasn''t her fault and that he would always be there for her.

    Her father overworked himself to be the best parent he could be in the aftermath, and this made things more difficult for Beatrice as she saw his fatigue build up from being both a patriarch and a single father pile up.

    There was so much in between that Beatrice could not express with just words, and Dante understood that. So, rather than pretending to understand in order to seem sensitive, he remained silent and allowed Beatrice time to think.

    Eventually, she sighed and stretched her legs out, cing them back on the floor. "Well, in the end, those factions that tried to remove my mother out of the picture in order to get control over me seeded."

    A darkness shed in Beatrice''s eyes as she smiled coldly. "But not in the way they thought."

    "When I understood the cause and effects, I decided to embrace the inheritance my mother gave me and train myself to be strong."

    "And strong I did be. After much hardship and suffering, I managed to excel at everything I did and got into the Eternal Academy. At that point, the factions that were watching in the shadows became restless because once I graduated, it would be hard to reign me in again."

    "And so, I began suffering from many strange events within the school orchestrated by various factions and their representatives within."

    Dante thought back to his own experience of almost being captured and felt like for the first time, he could understand. Assuming the Eternal Academy was a perfect bastion of safety wasˇ­ well, it was not very smart.

    If you were average and unremarkable, there was naturally no problem. However, once you showed the slightest uniqueness, they would descend upon you crazily. The level of uniqueness would also determine how crazy they would be.

    As for relying on the protection of the headmistressˇ­

    Dante would rather not put his safety in the hands of a person who had only spoken a total of 19 words to him in his life. Beatrice likely felt the same way given her next words.

    "Due to my potential and my background, the headmistress offered to protect me, but I refused. You may not know this now, in your first year, but the headmistress''s interests are moreˇ­ brutalˇ­ than even the greediest faction."

    Beatrice nced at Dante askance. "It''s best not to be charmed by her demonic beauty and end up her pawn."

    Dante''s face became serious. "Don''t worry, I haven''t even seen her outside of the orientation."

    Beatrice nodded and opened her palms. "Well, that''s it for me. I guess you''re right about there being a wall between me and others, but it was created by years of tough living and the inability to easily trust anyone outside my family."

    Dante nodded. "I won''t say that you should specifically trust me, but I also have to ask. Your experiences tell me that you are definitely a very opinionated and resilient person whose mind cannot be easily influenced by others."

    Dante tilted his head in confusion. "So why offer yourself to me like this? I''d understand if you were the follower type who obeyed every instruction for the n or the state and did not have thoughts of your own."

    Beatrice smiled. "Do you believe in love at first sight?"

    Dante nodded seriously. "I do. But that did not happen with you."

    Beatrice was speechless. She could only go silent for a few seconds again and then speak in a smaller tone.

    "I once asked my mother a very stupid question. It was a question that a curious child would ask, but even now, I cringe whenever I think about how rude it was."

    "I asked her why she married my dad. After all, my father is not a superpowered person and is someone in the military. He has great genes, greatbat talent, and rose to prominence with his own merits, but my mother is a literal monster whose presence made whole behemoth factions band together to get rid

    of her, and even then, they didn''t dare to do it directly."

    "I naturally did not understand that much when I was a kid, but I did know that mother was powerful and confident while father always cowered in her presence and did not dare to be too ostentatious."

    Beatrice became nervous, and her toes began to curl and rx slowly. "She told me the reason was due to how they met. She didn''t exactly borate on the exact meeting at the time, but she told me that when it happened, she could quite literally feel that the wheels of fate had orchestrated that moment."

    "Her answer was that father was her fated one and no one could rece him."

    Beatrice then turned to Dante, and for the first time since Dante met her, her usually obscure and emotionally removed eyes were full of purity and sincerity.

    "Ever since thenˇ­ I have believed in fate. Especially after what happened and how father remained loyal to mother even up until now, I decided to wait for my fated one. I never got romantically involved with any male, and I never bothered to explore romantic rtionships."

    "The way we met, in that alleyway on the backwater at the tail end of the universeˇ­ that was my fated encounter."

 Chapter 96 Intimacy

    Dante was stunned. Fate? Fated encounter? No wonder Beatrice looked embarrassed as she talked about this, because this was not something he expected to hear from someone like her, even in his wildest dreams.

    He had initially thought up many reasons as to why she might have decided to ept him as her partner, whether it was business, desire, or even some dark, hidden motive. To hear that it was a result of her own metaphysical expectations and beliefs floored him for a bit.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Beatrice saw his look and her face became a bit flushed. "You probably think it''s childish andme, right?"

    Dante snapped out of his stupor and then nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I do. It''s also kind of weird too."

    Beatrice''s face fell and her expression became gloomy, practically screaming ''dammit, I knew it!'' to Dante.

    However, the fellow smiled at her and gently rubbed her exposed shoulder. "However, I also like it. It makes you more likable, and very cute. That was not a word I could associate with you before and now that I can, I feel much closer to you."

    Beatrice was speechless.

    My brother, could you say everything at once so that you couldn''t take my emotions up and down on a rollercoaster-like this?

    "Soˇ­ what now? I''ve told you what you wanted." Beatrice admitted as she looked to Dante for direction.

    "Well, usually, it''d be a situation where I would take charge, admit my growing feelings, and push you down in a romantic scene. However, we both know I can''t do that yet." Dante smiled as he gently grabbed Beatrice and lifted her.

    The woman was not surprised but looked intrigued. She then smiled slightly when Dante ced her on hisp, with her precious mounds facing him and her butt sitting squarely on his legs.

    Dante wrung his lips. "ˇ­ your breasts are too big. I have to ce you this far down just to have enough space to breathe. Don''t you get back pains or something?"

    Beatrice ced her hands on Dante''s shoulders and coiled her slender yet thick legs around his waist. "Not really, they kinda feel weightless. Though yeah, I do get annoyed by the physics of them, especially in battle."

    "Huhˇ­ well, I guess it''s time for me to help you massage them and relieve your burden." Dante stated with a smile as he sized Beatrice up and down.

    Her arms were slender yet full of power despite looking soft, her skin was wless, not a single line or blemish to be found anywhere as if she were a porcin doll, and her stomach area waspletely t, with a slight outline of a four-pack.

    Her slender feet featured small calves and a tiny foot that led up to extremely thick thighs full of juicy fat that felt soft to squeeze and rub.

    Above that was a very distinct outline of her crucial path of sess hidden by a thin purple thong that could easily be moved to the side with the flick of a finger.

    Behind this were two huge round balls that formed her ass, and Dante used his newfound authority to grasp each half and squeeze. This made Beatrice gasp and lean onto him as her face flushed.

    Her huge breasts pressed against his chest tightly, and he could swear that he could feel her thunderous heartbeat through them. At her SDI, her heart must be more powerful than a nuclear reactor, so it was no surprise that it kicking up its function would be this noticeable.

    Dante himself felt his own pressure kick up, because Beatrice was simply perfectly to his taste physically, and he had been pent up for more than 60 days. Not to mention, he was internally stunned due to how soft the two pieces of flesh in his hands were.

    Rather than two glutei, he felt like he was holding extremely warm and firm pieces of flour dough. He could easily pinch and knead it as he pleased, giving him firm control over its fate and destiny.

    Dante''s hands were like unscrupulous bandits, eagerly exploring every inch of her butt that he could grab, and the killer part was that his two hands couldn''t actually fit all of it in one go!

    While he was enjoying himself, Beatrice kept trembling and squirming, a slightly noticeable dark spot growing on the front of her thong. She began to move herself along with Dante''s warm hands that grasped her backside and her now hard nipples pressed against his chest, bing stimted as she rubbed herself on him.

    Dante smiled and took his hands back before pulling Beatrice''s head off his shoulder. This allowed him to see her expression, which was full of desire and lust as well as embarrassment and bashfulness. It was the perfectbination to leave any healthy male red-eyed when he saw his partner like this, wanting to fulfill her cravings immediately.

    Dante had to struggle to restrain himself because he knew now was not the time. If he tried it while Beatrice was intoxicated like this, he either wouldn''t be able to get it in or would be squeezed to death, where either oue was unfavorable mentally and physically as it would leave a lot of problems in the aftermath.

    "By the way, what exactly is your SDI? Show me so that I have a goal to fight for." Dante whispered into Beatrice''s ear.

    She smiled sweetly and unhesitatingly showed him her own secret, which was her SDI. It wasn''t something people shared by heart, and they usually only did so out of necessary obligationsˇ­ like medical reasons.

    ?User: Beatrice Portinari (ID Number: BEAPORT10977-11-09)

    Age: 21 (Converted to Earth years)

    Race: Pure Human (100% gic perfection)

    Strength Index: 20,000 (2 million)

    Agility Index: 20,000 (2 million)

    Dexterity Index: 20,000 (2 million)

    Intelligence Index: 20,000 (2 million)

    Constitution Index: 20,000 (2 million)

    Vitality Index: 20,000 (2 million)

    Bionic Level: 25 (Ultra Military Version.)

    Psionic level: 25 (Ultra Military Version.)

    AI Chip level: 15 (Ultra Military Version)

    Superpowers: Gluttony(Broken)(Passive), Devouring(Broken)(Passive), Regeneration(Broken)(Passive).?

    Dante sighed internally. It was as heavy as he expected, but not by as much as he feared. He genuinely thought her base SDI would be like 100,000 each and her Bionics boost would be 1000 times instead of just 100 times.

    With her stats like this, he didn''t have to wait long. As long as he reached 2,000 points in all stats, he could use his Bionics to boost his SDI by 10 times and achieve the same level as her base self, allowing them to be intimate.

    That was not even factoring in the fact that he might upgrade his Bionics and Psionics as he went forward, because that was totally possible.

    Dante felt relieved and smiled, bringing Beatrice''s face closer to his as he kissed her. Beatrice responded immediately and enthusiastically, seemingly having looked forward to this for a long time, and their passion seemed to ignite.

    The two seemed to forget time, space, and reality as they were locked in their inmate embrace, enjoying the flowing heat from each other''s bodies and the wealth of emotions coursing through their souls that were expressed through their lips.

    Dante forgot to caress Beatrice''s body as he waspletely enthralled by their connection like this. Beatrice was also wholeheartedly invested and had gently cupped Dante''s head so that she could more efficiently taste her partner''s sweet kisses.

    It was a significant few minutes before the two broke off the kiss while panting, their eyes filled with desire and a hint of shock. They never expected it to be so intense and enthralling to be connected like this and they both couldn''t help but crave a deeper connection.

    However, Dante smiled bitterly. "If I could, I would make you my woman here and now, using all my feelings and skills to make you enjoy climax."

    Beatrice gently rubbed her lower body against his crotch which had already formed a tent in his pants with a seductive smile. "We may not be able to do that yet, but there are definitely other ways we can experience each other better."

    Dante raised an eyebrow and seemed to be moved. "What do you have in mind?"

    Beatrice got up off hisp and stood. She twirled around, allowing her voluptuous and soft body to be almost fully disyed to Dante, making his already peak arousal increase slightly.

    She then spread Dante''s legs apart and knelt in between. Her soft hand rubbed against his tent teasingly as her lively and yful amber eyes bore into his own.

    "Why don''t I help you empty the tank? You can''t really study hard in school while distracted like this, right?" She offered with a confident smirk.

    Dante was unable to even refuse as she slowly opened his zipper and released the young master, which almost even pped her in the face due to inertia. She gasped and then gripped it lightly, smiling at Dante with interest.

    "I am going to have a great time with this in the future, I can tell."

 Chapter 97 Truth

    Dante and Beatricey on the couch together, with Dante forming the base and Beatrice on top of his bare chest, a satisfied expression on her face. She licked her lips, and a bit of residual white substance was wiped away.

    "I could probably have this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner," she stated with a glint of greed in her eyes.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Dante could only smile helplessly. At his current SDI, his semen was no longer just your average fluid with some enzymes, acids, and proteins along with sperm. It had transformed into a potent substance containing the gic data of superior lifeforms, coated with special substances from beings like himself.

    In other words, it wasn''t salty or metallic; it was more akin to a shot of sweetened alcohol. It had a sharp, sweet, and intoxicating taste due to the high-qualityponents within. If given to a normal person, it could leave them feeling highly energized and euphoric for days.

    To Beatrice, the energizing effect was minimal, and the euphoria was absent, but she still found the taste quite enjoyable. Even among normal men with typical SDIs on Earth, sweet-tasting discharges were rare.

    Dante couldn''t casually share his semen with Beatrice due to the energy cost involved in creating such ''supercharged offspring'' ¨C about an hour''s worth of a full energy bar. This fact alone highlighted its potency.

    And it would only be more potent as his SDI continued to increase.

    Beatrice rested on Dante''s chest and listened to his heartbeat while he gently stroked her silky purple hair. After a moment of silence, Dante spoke up, "Why don''t I help you reach climax as well? I''m quite skilled at stimting the clitoris andˇŞ"

    Beatrice patted his chest with a smile. "No thanks. I don''t want to experience those sensations without losing my virginity first. It seems pointless to me."

    Dante was left speechless. He couldn''t really argue with that reasoning, so he fell silent for a moment as Beatrice absentmindedly traced circles on his chest with her index finger.

    After a noticeable pause, she asked in a soft voice, "Could youˇ­ tell me more about yourself? You''re still somewhat mysterious to me."

    Dante smiled. "Aftering this far, there''s no need for certain secrets. Besides, as my partner, I''ll need your assistance to carry out some of my ns. You''re the only person in this universe I can truly trust."

    Beatrice''s heart swelled with joy and love at being entrusted with such information. She hadn''t expected Dante to ce so much trust in her so soon, especially considering her own struggles with trust after her past experiences.

    However, her belief in their fated encounter and her growing infatuation with Dante made her feel liberated and open.

    "About meˇ­ My name is Danteˇ­ Dante Alighieri. I was born in 2009 on Earth to parents David and Aileen Alighieri. I had an upbringing that could be ssified as upper-middle ss, filled with love and enjoyment. My parents had high hopes for my future."

    "I did have a few girlfriends and love interests while growing up, but those rtionships never really went anywhere. I understood that I wouldn''t marry any of them, so I didn''t invest everything emotionally."

    "I chose to break away from my parents'' care and establish my own path at the age of 17. Instead of pursuing architecture, which my father wanted, I studied coding in college. This decision strained our rtionship a bit, but looking back, I realize it was mostly in my head."

    "When I turned 21, roughly two months ago, I took a gamble. I used credit to buy a new apartment and a new phone. On that phone, Iunched an app I had spent challenging months coding, but a malfunction urred."

    Beatrice wore a peculiar expression, trying to reconcile this information with her understanding of Dante''s origins. Moreover, the year he mentioned was over 8,000 years in the past!

    "Due to a specialmand I input for the app''s introduction, I typed in the form for Quantum Entanglement using a hashtag. However, the app still interpreted themand and executed it."

    "I''m not sure where it drew the energy fromˇŞwhether it absorbed ambient quantum energy or something elseˇŞbut as soon as I ran themand, I was pulled into a Quantum Tunnel. Just when I thought I was about to be torn apart, I stabilized and found myself in a dirty alleyway within a futuristic city."

    Beatrice froze asprehension dawned on her. The shock in her eyes was evident as she looked at Dante in disbelief.

    Dante smiled and patted her head gently to soothe her. "You know the rest. However, I survived because my phone transformed into a deformed quantum chip, and a special entity saved me and granted me the superpower of Quantum Entanglement."

    "I''m uncertain whether that entity wants its identity disclosed, so I''ll avoid mentioning it to avoid any potential repercussions," Dante concluded with a grin.

    Beatrice reclined back, her expression reminiscent of someone who had just witnessed a pivotal revtion scene in a movie. This amused Dante to no end.

    "I know you have more questions. I won''t hide anything from you," he assured her calmly.

    Beatrice seemed reassured, and she absentmindedly traced her fingers on his chest as she gathered her thoughts. "So, you''re an alien?"

    Dante was momentarily speechless.

    "No, I''m human. Well, technically, yes, I''m an alien to this universe, butˇŞ"

    Beatrice chuckled softly at Dante''s perplexed expression and pressed on, "So youe from a different world? A different timeline? Or a different universe?"

    Dante nodded. "A different universe. As far as I can ascertain, this isn''t like the multiverse theory where each of us is a mirrored version of the other, separated by time and dimensions."

    "Instead, it''s more akin to eggs in a basket, or perhaps a tray. Each egg is fundamentally simr, adhering to the same basic rules, yet distinct in its own way. They exist in a physical space I believe to be the void between universes."

    "While I''ve gleaned bits of truth and experienced certain strange sensations, each time I traverse between universes, the quantum tunnel I usests a brief period. It''s translucent yet vividly colorful. Beyond it, there''s a particr emptiness that hints falling into it would likely yield a fate worse than drifting in space."

    "I specte that this void is the space between your universe and mine."

    Dante thoughtfully rubbed his chin. "I''ve made numerous attempts to gauge the distance between our universes and assess whether we''re adjacent or if there are other universes in between that I traverse past or through to reach here."

    Beatrice was captivated by this exnation, finding it both fascinating and hard to believe. Yet, it further cemented her conviction that she and Dante were destined to be together, making her heart brim with fulfillment.

    "Do your superpowers possess any unique capabilities?" Beatrice inquired with curiosity.

    "Initially, at the F Rank, I could create a Quantum Tunnel between our two universes. Upon reaching the E Rank, I acquired two additional auxiliary abilities: Quantum Relocation and Quantum Transposition."

    "Quantum Relocation is an extension of my base teleportation ability. It enables me to shift between Quantum Markers I''ve established

    when crossing universes at specific locations. This essentially allows me to teleport any distance within the same universe, provided I have a Quantum Marker there. So far, I''ve encountered no obstacles to this ability."

    Dante grinned at Beatrice. "That''s also how I teleported hereˇŞI left a Quantum Marker during our previous experiment."

    "As for Quantum Transposition, it permits me to use my body to ess Quantum Spaces. Simr to the Etraverse, I can enter virtual worlds with my physical form and impose my SDI on them. That''s how I quickly elevated my SDI, as I entered the Apocalypse World and gained the power of Absorption."

    Beatrice clutched Dante''s chest in excitement, immediatelyprehending the implications. She had been curious about how Dante had increased his SDI and was about to inquire when it might be possible for them to be intimate, but it seemed that her wait might not be long at all.

    Dante was taken aback. "What''s the matter?"

    Beatrice promptly sat up, causing her ample bosom to sway enticingly, capturing Dante''s full attention. She pulled Dante up to a sitting position, her expression serious.

    "I''m guessing you sought my help to enhance your gic limit and continue raising your SDI?"

    Dante wasn''t surprised that she had deduced this based on the information he had shared. After all, if Beatrice couldn''t calcte something like this, her intelligence of 20,000 would be wasted.

    Beatrice''s beautiful smile radiated excitement. "Not only can I help, but I have an even better method that will propel you beyond my own limits!"

 Chapter 98 An Idea

    ?

    "What do you mean?" Dante blinked with puzzlement.

    Beatrice coiled her supple legs together and smiled at Dante. "The ability to enter the Quantum World is one of the most cracked things I have ever heard. You''re not from this universe Dante, and ever since you came here, you''ve probably been struggling to catch up."

    Dante nodded. "I spent 4 weeks in the school''s training world learning about Reaction, Posture, and all that, then Conservation and Spirituality."

    "Pretty much what I thought. Due to your situation, you have been entirely tunnel visioned Dante. You''ve had your perspective limited by the goals you want to achieve such that you failed to see the other things that could also help you." Beatrice stated as she pressed her holographic screen.

    "Oh?" Dante knew she was right.

    Being tunnel visioned wasn''t bad. Having your focus spread out over many things could cause you to fail to prioritize what was important and waste your time. Tunnel visioning could also help to narrow down your path, but like she said, it could also obscure easier and more efficient ways to achieve what you wanted.

    "You''ve browsed the top worlds in the school''s database and that''s fine, but those are picked not for how much they necessarily help students, but for how much they payout in terms of Supercoins." Beatrice continued as she continued to press some stuff rapidly.

    "Everyone needs Supercoins, but you don''t. What you need is to quickly raise your power as much as you can in terms of SDI before you enter the Zero Gate. As such, the focus of the worlds you should be looking for do not lie in the top ten."

    Beatrice eventually swiped on a screen and brought the holographic projection before Dante.

    "Back when I was in school, even though I couldn''t enter the Quantum World like you, this world was my favorite because it helped me hone my mind, body, and spirit as well as experience how to grow my power systematically without harming myself."

    [World Name: True Martial World

    World Owner: Eternal Academy

    World Creator: Eternal Academy

    World Size: Super

    World Type: Shared

    World Genre: Wuxia

    Bionics Allowed: No

    Psionics Allowed: No

    Superpowers Allowed: No

    Requirements: Student ID

    Duration: Unlimited

    Description: This is a world that has been styled in an ancient Chinese setting. Here, the practice of martial arts has led to people being able to gain superhuman strength and power, leading to a very brutal world ruled by thew of the jungle.

    Objectives: Reach the highest realm of martial arts.

    Limitations: All Bionics and Psionics are not allowed because they are not needed. Superpowers are also banned but AI chips can be used to connect to the real world andmunicate.

    Provisions: You will be able to choose your starting point, which will influence the speed of your growth as well as your final score. The higher your starting point, the lower the difficulty multiplier for the payout.]

    Dante''s eyes shed as he understood what Beatrice was saying. In truth, he should have thought about it as he was someone who had read a few Eastern fantasy novels in the past to pass the time, but he did not think about it because he generally looked down on the genre.

    From the nd, repetitive fights, to the illogical characters, the insufferable main characters, and the cardboard jade beauties, he was not really one to have the genre in mind as he walked. He was more of a fan of the sci-fi and system genre which was why he made the choices he did.

    However, Dante knew Beatrice had revealed to him the perfect path forward. While the genre of wuxia and xianxia was full of very poor writing and questionable logic, it had one thing that stood out, which was also why despite its ws, people still flocked to it: the limitless power.

    Unlike other genres where there is a clear power cap, the wuxia and xianxia genres were known for having ''higher worlds'' with entirely new levels. Depending on how bored the author was, these higher worlds could keep going on for eternity.

    To the male gender who craved and sought power deeply - especially in today''s world - it was a toxic rtionship of love and hate with the genre.

    "What do you think?" Beatrice asked with a smile.

    Dante shook his head to release himself from his thoughts and smiled at Beatrice. "You''ve pretty much helped me cut down the time it would take to reach my peak by more than a hundred times."

    Beatrice used a finger to poke his chest gently. "You''re wee."

    Dante nced at the world details and pondered. "Can this solve my problem though? I came to check whether my genes have stabilized and I could receive another treatment."

    Beatrice''s smile disappeared. "Wait Dante, I hope you didn''t disy your SDI to the Student Enhancement Center."

    "Of course not. I haven''t told you this butˇ­" Dante proceeded to tell her about his experience in the Eternal Academy since he arrived, especially his near capture by the teachers.

    Beatrice sneered. "It seems like nothing has changed. That wretched academy is still full of holes, with various factions fighting for their own benefits."

    Dante shrugged. "But the headmistress punished them ording to what I found and that has prevented other factions from disturbing me."

    "She did?" Beatrice was surprised.

    "That is not necessarily a good thing. It means that you also have some value to her which is why she is trying to protect you." Beatrice stated with a frown.

    "I can definitely see that. What I am curious about is whether any faction will dare to cross her again to get me." Dante asked as he nced at Beatrice.

    "Well, to put it nicely, they will behave as long as you don''t provoke them. Provoking them in this case means them seeing something of value on you that is worth their action. When that happens, who is the headmistress?"

    "At the end of the day, she is one person, she does not have an army nor an armada. She can block some using her much vaunted superpowers but can she block them all? She can''t even destroy a hundred star-ss battleships, much less a dreadnought like what we are on."

    Dante sighed. "I had a simr thought. Whenever an institution keeps hyping itself up that it is full of ethics, integrity, cannot be infiltrated and ispletely impartial, it is probably more corrupt that the abyss itself."

    "The problem is that some gullible idiots believe this on the surface and always get cheated. When theyin, they are shocked when no one takes them seriously and then are eventually silenced using various means." Beatrice added with a nod.

    Dante crossed his legs like a gentleman and nced at the details of the True Martial World. "What aboutˇ­ cultivation?"

    "Can I enter those xianxia worlds and absorb the spirit energy within to achieve those cultivation stages and fancy powers?" Dante wondered.

    Beatrice was silent and hesitated. "I''mˇ­ not sure."

    "To be honest, they were the first things that came to my mind when you told me your power, which was why I was so excited. But then I thought about it and realized that while you theoretically could, that world requires you to have a special organ called the Spirit Root."

    Beatrice pointed to Dante''s lower abdomen. "While your virtual body will obviously be given one, we can''t really know if your real body has one."

    Dante nodded. This was why the martial arts one was better because one didn''t need any special organ. They just needed to have a strong body, a solid and detailed technique, diligence and resources like pills and nutrition to grow.

    With his current SDI, it would be a piece of cake to get started. Since it was a shared world, it had its history as well as legacy and the entire world would not easily bend or curve in his presence. This was much better than the rising star world for example whether his choices affected the entire world at any time.

    "Alright, I''ll dive into this world tomorrow morning. Right now, I''d rather spend time with you." Dante stated with a smile as he brought Beatrice into his embrace.

    Beatrice was overjoyed and snuglyy in Dante''s broad and thick arms cing the back of her head against his chest. Like this, they spent the night together, chatting about many things, with Beatrice mostly asking questions about Dante''s experience growing up.

    After all, she had heard many times about the human race during the 21st century when they expanded rapidly technologically until they eventually hit outer space. It was marvelous to hear about that era from Dante''s mouth, though it was a different universe.

    From his mouth, she had a dream in her heart, and that was to travel to Dante''s home to see what it was like and try to understand him better. However, that would only be possible if Dante''s Quantum Entanglement rose in rank and reached the point where he could bring more people.

 Chapter 99 True Martial World

    As much as Dante wanted to stay here, and as much as Beatrice wanted him to stay, he had to leave eventually. No banquet canst forever, and they both had tasks to achieve.

    Still, knowing that they now had each other to rely on and fall back on in this cold universe, they were doubly motivated and felt endless strength surging into them.

    Dante chose to enter the True Martial World immediately. As Beatrice said, his pursuit of Supercoins was a waste of time right now. He would not be able to earn enough to give him sufficient time in the ck Land to increase his superpower.

    As such, it was just better to wait for the remaining 28 days to pass until he could enter the ck Land again. Right now, it was best to maximize his time in this world, so the Rising Star World was resolutely abandoned by him.

    In the future, when he was more free or there was a necessary purpose, he could y with it.

    Upon descent, Dante entered a sort of ck void. Various screens appeared before him, asking him to choose his background and city along with a wide map of the world.

    Dante was shocked at how nonsensicallyrge this world was. There were seven continents with crisscrossing lines in each of them, demarcating a certain territory belonging to a kingdom, beast n, or demon race faction.

    Dante was silent for a while before deciding to choose the background of an orphaned schr who wished to learn martial arts to change his fate. He also chose to descend into Green Wind City of Green Feather Province, which was a state within the territory of the rtively small Great Song Kingdom.

    After choosing his parameters, Dante felt his mind fall and thennd into a body. When he came to, he was standing in arge courtyard with hundreds of other males and females of all ages around him, who were either white-skinned, yellow-skinned, dark-skinned, old, young, tall, short, buff, or skinny.

    Before them was arge table where a row of ten muscr and burly men of diverse backgrounds sat, all of them wearing tight red and ck gi as they nced at the people in the courtyard with looks of disdain in their eyes.

    The people in the courtyard were either nervous, scared, or confident. Dante scanned around idly and was not very impressed with the lineup, as he could tell that no one here had the same SDI as himself on the outside.

    Speaking of SDI, he decided to check his in this world.

    "yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    Faction: None

    Internal Arts: None

    External Arts: None

    Strength: 1

    Agility: 1

    Dexterity: 1

    Intelligence: 1

    Constitution: 1

    Vitality: 1

    Money: 0 copper coins, 0 silver taels, 0 gold bars."

    As expected. Shared worlds forcibly limited one''s SDI to 1 point in everything to bnce things. If one had the means to raise it again, they were free to do so, but until then, they couldn''t exactly me the world for putting them back at the starting line.

    This was fine with Dante since he didn''t n to use his virtual body to do anything. However, he didn''t immediately descend with his true body as well, wanting to make sure that everything was truly okay.

    If his head got cut off by some superpowered being, that was it, game over with no chance of respawn. His budding rtionship with Beatrice woulde to an end, and she wouldn''t even be able to get revenge because she''d just be killing a virtual being.

    As such, he remained in the crowd while the men in the seats before them watched them. Eventually, the one in the middle, who was bald and extremely buff, spoke in a gruff yet powerful voice.

    "Wee to the annual recruitment of my Supreme Martial Hall! My name is Hao Donglei, and I am the Vice Hall Master! I will be in charge of overseeing this recruitment process."

    The crowd began to speak in hushed tones with excitement and shock. It seemed that the name Hao Donglei had some meaning and fame to them, and Dante could identify slight fear in the eyes of some.

    "Silence! The Vice Hall Master will not deal with you directly. I am the Hall Elder in charge of administration, Jun Feng. All of you, form lines in front of each deacon beside me on the left and right, then undergo the entrance test!" A slightly lean and white-skinned fellow seated beside Hao Donglei roared with amanding tone, shutting up the crowd.

    "Err, sirˇ­ what are the details of the entrance test?" A silly-looking man asked with a disarming smile.

    The eyes of Jun Fengnded on him, but he did not shout. Rather he exined softly. "The requirements are simple. You must have a requisite level of martial talent to be admitted. There are outer disciples, inner disciples, and core disciples."

    "Only inner and core disciples learn for free. Outer disciples pay a monthly tuition fee after the first 3 months and then have to gather their own resources themselves."

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Hearing this, everyone immediately became jittery and unsure. Even those who were confident became a little nervous, as they were only sure of their talent themselves, but what if it was not up to the standard for the Supreme Martial Hall?

    One should know, this was the number 1 martial arts institution in the entire Green Wind City. In the entire kingdom, they had branches in many top cities and were ranked in the top 5 across the entire territory.

    Even if they were outer disciples, their backing and ability would soar to the heavens, and they would be like nobles within the city, able to offend everyone and anyone without fear and retribution.

    Thinking like this, the crowd quietly formed lines in front of various deacons who were closer to them. Dante also joined the line and quietly watched the testing process as it went on in front of him.

    It seemed that when a person went up, they would report their name and age, then the deacon would use his fingers to massage their hand. After that, they would fire a ball of reddish liquid which would strike the candidates'' chest and enter their body.

    Finally, they would ce their hands on a crystal gem that was clear and wless. When they did so, it would light up with a red color of different intensity. The darker it was, the brighter the smile on the deacon''s face, and the higher their assessment it seemed.

    Of course, the crystal bing dark red was extremely rare. From all sides of the line, Dante kept hearing ''eliminated!'' over and over again, along with begging from candidates who did not want to ept their fate.

    They would then be carried out by disciples of the hall who were standing to the side while watching them like hawks, waiting for them to cause some trouble.

    Dante observed all of them and saw that everyone in his line before him had easily and totally failed. Only the person right before him was qualified to be an outer disciple. Even then, he rejoiced like he had won the lottery, and the disciples by the side changed their attitude towards him, going from hostile to friendly.

    Next was Dante. He sucked in a deep breath and took a step forward, descending with his real body the moment he did. Due to

    the fact that switching in and out did not cause any phenomena or changes, no one noticed it.

    However, that was what Dante thought, until the face of Hao Donglei changed greatly. His eyesnded on Dante, making him nce over with a calm expression.

    "Young man, pleasee this way. We won''t be able to gauge your true talent," Hao Donglei said slowly.

    Dante nced at the stunned deacon before him who had been waiting for him to report his name and age, then resolutely left him and walked in front of the Vice Hall Master. Both men sized each other up, one young and one old.

    Hao Donglei then smiled. "Name and age."

    "Dante, 21 years old."

    Hao Donglei''s breath caught in his throat, but he slowly exhaled and nodded. Dante obediently stretched his arm out, and Hao Donglei grasped it firmly, massaging Dante''s palm and wrist area slowly.

    His expression became more solemn as he went on. Dante didn''t feel any pain or difort, as if his hand was like jelly in this guy''s grip. After that, Hao Donglei fired a blood-colored light at him that was the size of a basketball, more than a hundred times bigger than what the others got.

    When it hit Dante, it easily entered his body and made his blood circte faster. His already thunderous heart which had been suppressed to reduce his energy corruption was like a wild horse that had been released, galloping wantonly.

 Chapter 100 Supreme Martial Hall 1

    ?

    Dante frowned suddenly at the intrusion of this foreign substance that caused his body to react like this. He felt like he could resist it somewhat, but for the sake of the test, he didn''t stall it yet.

    Hao Donglei gestured to the crystal that stood beside him with a sharp smile. Dante obliged and ced his hand on it like the others did, curious to see what the result would be.

    Immediately, the crystal lit up like a floodlight, almost blinding the eyes of everyone present in the courtyard. It was bright daytime, yet the red light that shone from the crystal was not only nearly as dark as the color ck, but it was also pervasive and luminescent beyondpare.

    Dante was not surprised by this given his SDI, but everyone else was full of shock and fear. Even Jun Feng''s expression changed as he nced at Dante with a hint of fear in his eyes.

    Only Hao Donglei was calm, smiling lightly as if he had been proven right.

    "Pinnacle-Grade Bone Talent, High Receptiveness to Blood Qi and Blood Energy near the level of a Martial Grandmaster. Very interesting person you are, Mr. Dante," Hao Donglei spoke slowly, rising to his feet.

    "If it wasn''t for the fact that I could tell from the test that you have not refined your Blood Energy before, I would suspect you are a prankster who came here to cause trouble," Hao Donglei stated slowly with narrowed eyes.

    Clearly, he did not exactly rule out that possibility, and there was a short spell of silence as tension rose in the courtyard. Dante was not bothered by this and bluntly asked.

    "So, am I in or what? I''ll just find another ce if you''re gonna waste my time."

    His words made many gasp. How could he dare to speak to Hao Donglei, the stronger Martial Grandmaster in the city, like this? Did he not fear for his life?

    However, Hao Donglei was not offended as heughed uproariously. "Of course, you are wee. Even in the city capital, we might not find a talent like you in 10,000 years. You are admitted as a core disciple!"

    Immediately, looks of envy and jealousy struck Dante from all sides, wondering what this fellow did to deserve such privilege. Obviously, as people who didn''t even know the criteria for the tests, they could not tell how monstrous Dante was.

    His base stats were just a level below a Martial grandmaster like Hao Donglei and above a Martial Master like Jun Feng. When everyone started within the range of 1-5 points in all stats - with those above 5 called geniuses born with divine strength or divine bodies - he was starting with 250 in all stats!

    Even if Dante did not learn Internal Arts and simply cultivated External Arts, he could be a half-step Martial grandmaster belonging to the Supreme Martial Hall and stabilize their position in the city.

    How could Hao Donglei spit out the fragrant meat that entered his mouth? If it wasn''t for the fact that it would cause an uproar, he would have directly made Dante an elder, but that was not possible right off the bat.

    It wasn''t a matter of having power, but a matter of contribution and loyalty. With Dante being a core disciple, they could quickly cultivate his loyalty and pave his way into bing an Elder.

    Dante nodded as Hao Donglei personally led him into the martial arts hall behind him, ignoring the envy and shock of everyone behind him. After they left, Jun Feng snapped out of his stupor and ordered everyone to get back in line and resume the testing.

    Dante stepped into the vibrant and energetic Martial Arts Hall, leaving the bustling courtyard behind. The atmosphere inside was electric, filled with the hum of anticipation and the rustling of training robes.

    The hall was vast and spacious, with high ceilings that allowed the energy of the practitioners to flow freely.

    "HA!"

    "SHO!"

    "HUA!"

    Sunlight streamed throughrge windows, casting warm rays of light that danced upon the polished wooden floors. The walls were adorned with intricate tapestries depicting legendary martial artists in various poses, inspiring a sense of awe and determination in those who gazed upon them.

    The air was thick with the scent of incense, lending a serene and focused ambiance to the surroundings. The sound of steady footsteps and the rhythmic thuds of training filled the air, creating a symphony of dedication and discipline.

    Groups of disciples d in matching uniforms moved gracefully through various routines, their movements fluid and precise. Each corner of the hall seemed to hold a different training area, from wooden dummies for striking practice to padded floors for sparring sessions. The ng of weapons asionally rang out, punctuating the air with bursts of intensity.

    In one corner, a group of students practiced their kicks and punches with unwavering determination. Their bodies moved as extensions of their thoughts, their expressions a blend of concentration and exertion.

    Nearby, a master guided a young disciple through a series of intricate forms, his voice calm yet authoritative.

    The hall echoed with the shouts of instructors encouraging their students to push their limits, to embrace the pain and fatigue as a path to growth. Sweat glistened on foreheads, muscles strained, and spirits soared as practitioners poured their hearts into their training.

    Dante''s gaze swept over the scene, casually taking in the wealth of individuals united by their obvious passion for martial arts. There were men and women of all ages, each seeking to master their bodies and harness their inner strength.

    The hall was a melting pot of cultures and backgrounds, a true testament to the universal appeal of martial arts.

    As he walked deeper into the hall, Dante could feel the energy swirling around him, a palpable force that seemed to beckon him forward. He spotted an area where disciples were engaged in a lively sparring session, their movements a dance of strategy and skill.

    The impact of each blow sent ripples of energy through the air, creating an almost tangible aura of power. They glowed with a blood-red light that exploded from their fists and legs when they struck, causing minor shockwaves in the area.

    His eyes narrowed as he realized that this was definitely not normal power but something cultivated through the use of martial arts. This kind of extraordinary power was one of the reasons Beatrice suggested hee here because it waspletely possible to achieve this power and use it in reality.

    Unfortunately for others, they could not replicate it. Even if a studentes down here with a virtual body and masters all the martial arts, they would not be able to manifest these same effects in reality.

    It was simr to how one needed a spirit root to cultivate as well as the presence of spirit energy. One needed to be within the boundary of this world, with its special and uniquews, to cultivate Blood Qi and Internal Force.

    Besides, who in the real world would waste their time practicing hard every day to master blood Qi when they can just head to a gene center for an enhancement shot?

    Hao Donglei led Dante to an office near the back of the hall and sat down, gesturing for Dante to take a seat opposite him. Before he started speaking, there was a knock on the door as a servant disciple pushed it open and bowed to Hao Donglei.

    Then he ced a special blood-red token as well as a stylized blood-red gi that was folded neatly down on the desk before leaving.

    Hao Donglei smiled and picked up the token, checking

    it to make sure it was fine before flicking it over to Dante at bullet speed. Dante casually grabbed it out of the air like it was nothing when it could have pierced through the hands or head of any lesser person.

    Dante nced at the token and saw that one side was written ''Core - Supreme Martial Hall'' and the other side was ''Dante''. Hao Donglei pointed to it and exined.

    "That is your identity token, denoting who you are to us. Make sure not to lose it, no matter what because it is made of special material. Once you activate your Blood Qi, you will be able to infuse it with your special blood qi to unlock more functions of it like retrieval andmunication."

    Dante nodded and put the token away as he nced at the folded gi. "That is your special uniform as a core member. You are to wear it at all times while on the premises of the Supreme Martial Hall. Of course when you are in town, you are free to remove it, but why bother?"

    Hao Donglei rubbed his chin with amusement. "After all, as long as you wear it, everyone will know who you are and who you represent, so how can they dare to offend you?"

 Chapter 101 Supreme Martial Hall 2

    ?

    Dante nodded in agreement. If there was one nonsensical thing he remembered about these wuxia and xianxia worlds, it was that everyone did not value human life and had short fuses. Looking at someone the wrong way was enough for them to actually want to take your life, so it was best to deter them.

    As far as Dante knew, the basic theme was to fear the strong and bully the weak in these worlds. If wearing this gi could make them hesitate - apart from his own reputation and power - that would lead to an easy life, so why would he say no?

    Dante took the gi and changed into it right in front of Hao Donglei, patting the creases from the immacte folding and marveling at how snug it fit. Not only did it allow him to move freely without a problem, but it was also extremely cool despite the day being warm.

    Hao Donglei allowed Dante to enjoy his time with his new stylish uniform and token before tapping the table to gather his attention.

    "Now that we havepleted the basics, it''s time to exin some things. I will split them into four categories: Tuition, Obligations, Benefits, and Cultivation," Hao Donglei stated as he leaned forward.

    "Firstly, Tuition." Hao Donglei began as he pointed to Dante''s gi.

    "For core disciples like you, we do not charge any fees. All your training expenses and requirements are borne by the hall, but I will outline them in detail during the benefits section. Naturally, there is also no free lunch in this world, so such treatmentes with certain obligations, which again, I will outline in detailter."

    "What you do need to know is that core disciples are eligible for intensive one-on-one training from our elders and even me, the vice hall master. You can take any of us as your master as well as consult any of us at any time for questions you have about either your External or Internal Cultivation."

    "Also, when selecting an External Martial Art, you must choose one in the category of your choice. You can rely on us to personally test your aptitude with different weapons and methods if you want, allowing us to select the best technique for you."

    "The same goes for your Internal Art. We have ways to test your affinity andpatibility with the various elements to ascertain which one is best for you."

    "However, in the end, the choice is yours. We will support and ept anything you choose, but we reserve the right to advise you on better options if the one you chose does not work out for you," Hao Donglei stated with a pointed look.

    Dante was amused, but he nodded. Hao Donglei continued, "sses begin every day from 6 am and end at 11 am. After that is the collective buffet lunch that everyone can attend for free, then free-range training till 5 pm."

    "This will go on until you break through the Martial Blood Realm."

    "Secondly, Obligations." Hao Donglei''s demeanor became slightly serious.

    "We expect different things from different people depending on how we invest in them. Your first obligation to the Supreme Martial hall is loyalty. Once you start training with us and reap the benefits we give you, you can''t ''quit''."

    "You can certainly retire, but retirement means giving up your martial path, and even then, we have obligations for you after retirement, for example: bing a teacher, recruiter, or an elder depending on your preference."

    "Also, you are expected to obey the rules of the Martial Hall as well as thews of the Great Song Kingdom. Both can be found in our library for you to read up on and educate yourself."

    "We do not expect active core members to do much in their first 5 years except maintaining your training and doing your best. Once again, after you break through to the Martial Blood Realm, your obligations will be updated."

    Hao Donglei smiled and opened his desk drawer, taking out a small porcin bowl that was filled with some bubbling red liquid that smelled sweet. He ced it between them and folded his arms while gazing at Dante.

    "This is a bowl of Blood Energy Soup. It is one of the basic requirements to practice martial arts at higher levels and can only be produced using special ingredients. One bowl is enough to refresh anyone below the Martial Blood Realm of their blood energy for a month."

    Hao Donglei pushed the bowl away and continued. "As we stated during the recruitment, disciples of different levels are given different treatment. Outer Disciples make up the majority of our flock, numbering around 1200 of them in this cycle."

    "Outer Disciples are only allowed to stay in the hall if they can pay the tuition fee of 5 taels of silver per month after the first 3 months. They also receive one bowl of Blood Energy Soup per month for free, as well as the right to practice our basic External Martial Arts for the weapon or category of their choice."

    "Inner Disciples are a smaller number, being around 10% of Outer Disciples, just barely over a hundred of them in this cycle. They do not pay any fees and are taken care of by us, but they are often forced topete against each other to decide distribution rights."

    "Even if we are going to give them free things, it has to go to the best of them and not the bottom feeders."

    "As for Core Disciples like you, you can drink as much Blood Energy Soup as you want in the first five years. Other resources like Blood Qi pills, Essence Energy pills, and the like can be redeemed for free, but up to a limit of 50 each month."

    Hao Donglei nced at Dante pointedly. "These might sound like just numbers to you, but once you settle down and understand the objective and subjective value of these things, you will realize how absurdly well core disciples are treated. Even some parents don''t dote on their children as much as we do you fellows."

    Dante smiled but didn''tment. Hao Donglei concluded with a bored look. "Well, there are currently only 7 Core Disciples, and most of them are out on expeditions to gather resources for the hall. You are currently the only one at the base!"

    "Oh, and finally, Cultivation."

    Hao Donglei pulled out a diagram and ced it on the table before Dante. Dante looked down at it and saw that it illustrated various realms and their special characteristics.

    "In the world of Martial Arts, there are two streams of cultivation. The first is External Cultivation, which focuses on refining the body and the blood, granting great physical power. The second is Internal Cultivation, which focuses on refining the spirit and energy, granting near-magical powers and abilities."

    "As you can imagine, what most people assume is Martial Arts - and actually do practice - are External Arts. More than 99% of mainstream Martial Artists across the Onodera Continent only practice External Arts."

    "This is for two reasons. One, Internal Arts are rare and very deeply protected. When a faction has one, they will never share it with outsiders, only allowing the core to learn it. Two, Internal Arts are extremely profound and have high requirements forprehension. Just having a powerful body and good External Martial Arts talent does not guarantee that you can learn it, though it helps."

    Hao Donglei rubbed his hands. "So for External Martial Arts, they are broken down into 6 major levels. The

    first is Body Tempering, which focuses on setting a foundation forter training. The second is Martial Warrior, which is the realm where you begin to excavate the power of your Blood Energy and refine it into blood Qi. The best Outer Disciples stop at this realm. Many don''t even cross Body Tempering."

    "Third is the Martial Blood Realm, which is where you begin to wantonly refine your Blood Qi and increase its potency. At this level, you can graduate and be a deacon of the hall if you are an outer disciple or follow a set of rigorous tests to upgrade from an inner disciple to a core disciple. Most of the core disciples upgraded like this; you and only one other core disciple were directly recruited as you were."

    "The fourth realm is the Martial Master, where one begins to manifest their blood Qi more thoroughly. Here, if you are a disciple of any ss and you actually get here, you can be an elder of the hall and enjoy endless glory as well as prestige. You also be one of our mainstays to deter other forces."

    "The fifth realm is the Martial Grandmaster, which is where I am, and you technically are. Here, we can fully release our blood Qi to the world, forming armament, weapons, defenses, and more. In every top faction, Martial Grandmasters are Patriarchs, Matriarchs, n Masters, Hall Masters, Kings, Emperors, etc. They represent the top political power in the world, second only to one."

    "And that is the sixth and final realm, the Martial God. This is the supreme of the world, a being of limitless power. Their Blood Qi is like an ocean, and just releasing it without any offensive effect is enough to drown a country to death. They are the deterrents of the world, and every top faction is headed by at least one as their ancestor."

 Chapter 102 Green Wind City

    ?

    Dante listened attentively, his breath catching. More than just the increase in SDI from mastering martial arts, he knew that the usage of blood Qi and internal forces would be his main strategies for dealing with the world behind the Zero Gate.

    After all, Quantum Entanglement was not an offensive superpower and would not necessarily give him any advantages when he entered that cepared to what Humphrey or Slessor had. However, with the ability to use these special powers, they would be powers of their own.

    "As for Internal Cultivation, it doesn''t necessarily have distinct stages. Due to how few people in the world can cultivate these arts, they are rather separated into levels."

    "Whether internal or external arts, they are divided into ranks based on their quality: Mortal-Grade, Earth-Grade, Heaven Grade, and Immortal Grade."

    "Possession of techniques of these various levels also determines the foundation and prestige of a faction. My Supreme Martial Hall has limitless mortal-grade arts, many earth-grade arts, a significant amount of heaven-grade arts, and even a handful of immortal arts!"

    "As a core member, you can learn anything of any category, and we will do our best to help you. As for Internal Arts, I won''t say too much, but if you really can cultivate them, you will learn more."

    Hao Donglei pped his hands and stood up. "Alright, you may leave the hall and return to the town to settle your matters. When you begin your training, you will not be allowed to leave the hall easily, so make sure to sort everything out today."

    Dante nodded and stood up, remembering the Chinese tradition of bowing and cupping fists. He didn''t really know the right posture, but he tried his best, which made Hao Dongleiugh.

    "Also, starting tomorrow, try and take some etiquette sses." He advised Dante with a kind smile.

    Dante smiled with amusement, knowing that he had probably failed terribly, and took the advice seriously. After all, this world was more valuable to him than even the Apocalypse World because while the Apocalypse World could raise his SDI limitlessly, it could not help him break his gic limit.

    However, the True Martial World was the opposite, allowing him to break his gene limit endlessly but umting extra power up to a limit which would slow down in the future. How he merged the use of both worlds would decide his upper limit.

    Dante left the hall and did not even look left or right before exiting the main building anding to the entrance courtyard where the registration was being held. It was still ongoing as many hade to try, and he noticed that only 2% had passed since they had been made to stand by the side.

    When the people here saw Dante exit wearing his gi and his token hanging at his waist, they were filled with endless jealousy and awe. Those who had been selected were envious of Dante, knowing that their statuses were far beneath his even if they joined the hall.

    Those who were still trying for recruitment were red-eyed, wishing they could push him down and snatch his token and gi for themselves then assume his slot. Meanwhile, the deacons and even Jun Feng hadplicated looks in their eyes, having gone from people who could decide Dante''s fate in one word to having their fate decided by Dante in one word.

    Dante paid no mind to all this as he stepped out of the Supreme Martial Hall''snd and entered the main street of Green Wind City.

    Green Wind City, nestled within the enchanting embrace of Green Feather Province, was a lively and fantastical ancient Chinese city that seemed to have sprung forth from the pages of a wuxia tale. Its very essence was steeped in the spirit of martial arts and the supernatural powers that could be harnessed through dedicated practice.

    The city''s architecture was a mesmerizing blend of traditional Chinese design and ethereal elements that defied thews of physics. Towering pagodas with gracefully upturned eaves reached toward the heavens, while delicate bridges arched gracefully over tranquil rivers and winding canals.

    Intricate carvings and vibrant paintings adorned every surface, depicting scenes of legendary battles, wise sages, and mystical creatures.

    The streets of Green Wind City were a bustling spectacle of color and movement. Vendors peddled exotic fruits, fragrant teas, and mystical trinkets, their stalls adorned with intricate silk banners that fluttered in the breeze.

    Aromas of delectable street food filled the air, from steaming dumplings to savory skewers of marinated meat.

    Martial artists in flowing robes moved gracefully through the crowds, their movements a testament to their honed skills. Some practiced elegant forms right there on the streets, their bodies flowing like water as they seamlessly transitioned from one stance to another.

    Others engaged in friendly sparring matches, their weapons shing harmoniously in a dance ofbat.

    The energy of blood qi, the life force that permeated the human body, seemed to pulse through the very air of Green Wind City. A sense of vitality and potential hung over the city like a veil, as if every stone and every leaf held the promise of extraordinary abilities waiting to be unlocked.

    The city''s main za was a magnificent sight to behold. A grand statue of a martial deity stood at its center, an imposing figure with a stern expression and a raised sword, symbolizing the indomitable spirit of those who practiced martial arts.

    Surrounding the za were opulent buildings adorned with ornate rooftops and intricatetticework, each housing esteemed martial arts schools, ancient libraries, and revered meditation chambers.

    Copper coins, silver taels, and gold bars exchanged hands in a livelymerce that sustained the city''s vibrant economy. Merchants haggled with buyers over the price of exotic herbs said to enhance one''s Blood Qi, while artisans crafted elegant weapons that were as much works of art as tools ofbat.

    Green Wind City was not just a ce of training; it was also a realm of wonder and mystery, where the boundaries between the physical and the mystical blurred.

    As Dante walked along the bustling main street, he couldn''t help but feel a sense of interest and respect.

    The sights, sounds, and energies of Green Wind City enveloped him, igniting his determination and fueling his resolve. He was now a part of this extraordinary world, a world of martial arts, supernatural powers, and limitless possibilities.

    And with each step he took, he ventured deeper into the heart of his destiny, ready to embrace the challenges and adventures that awaited him in the True Martial World.

    Dante noticed that many eyes fell on his form as he observed the fragrant city around him, their eyes full of wariness, vignce, awe, envy, respect, and even a little hostility. Thest one came from a group of young men and women wearing the robes of a different martial hall in the city.

    The Supreme Martial Hall was the number 1 martial hall in the city and in the entire Great Song Kingdom, but they were not the only one. Where there were humans, there would bepetition, so many smaller halls sprung up.

    Among them were some truly powerful ones who would have stood out if not suppressed by the Supreme Martial Hall until they could barely breathe.

    In Green Wind City alone, there were over 20 Martial Halls recognized by the city hall and countless smaller dojos that offered lower-level training. There were also martial academies that were linked to the halls that

    trained their candidates from young.

    Of the 20 martial halls, all were dogs except the top four. In first ce was the Supreme Martial Hall that had A Grandmaster as the Vice Hall Master of every branch around the country and a singr Hall Master who was the Martial God behind them.

    All their elders were Martial Masters at the least and their best disciples had at least entered the Martial Blood Realm.

    The other three that made the top four could barelypete. They were local branches only, existing solely within the boundary of Green Wind City and unable to expand a step outward.

    They were headed by a Hall Master who was a Martial Grandmaster and their Vice Hall Masters were Martial Masters or half-step Grandmasters depending on their ranking. Their elders were Martial Blood warriors at the least, and most of their best disciples were still at the peak of the Martial Warrior.

    As one could tell, the gap between first and second to third was huge. But then the gap between the first four and everyone else was even worse, with 5th ce having a Martial Master as its Hall Master and its elders being Martial Warriors while many of its disciples never crossed Body Tempering.

    If they were lucky, their vice hall masters could be Martial Blood warriors, or if unlucky, they would be Martial Warrior realm forces.

    When such forces met disciples of the Supreme Martial Hall, they usually lowered their heads, but the disciples of the hall were often arrogant and despotic, bullying the weaker halls until they cried in their pillows at night.

    It was not surprising that a few would re at Dante with hatred upon seeing he wore the core disciple gi and had the token.

 Chapter 103 Courting Death!

    ?

    Dante''s eyes darkened as he nced over at the source of the hostility. The group of disciples was wearing the blue and white gi that belonged to the second-ranked Martial Hall, the Heavenly Martial Hall.

    Among them were four boys and two girls, all under the age of 20 and seemingly in either the Body Tempering or Martial Warrior realm, as they could not manifest their blood Qi passively like a Martial Blood realm warrior.

    Dante had no real problem with them and even sympathized. They had likely been troubled by other disciples of the hall and could not help but be angry when they saw him, but Dante could not allow this to fester.

    He could simply ignore them loftily and walk away, but that would be foolish. From what he knew of these wuxia worlds, it was even better to beat these fellows until they were unable to walk than to ignore them because that somehow infuriated them more and made them irrationally develop killing intent.

    As such, Dante honed in on the youngdy within the group who was ring at him without hiding her hostility and walked over with a cold expression. Seeing him actually paying them mind anding over, the faces of the 6 disciples changed greatly.

    Especially the youngdy, who had sobered up and felt endless fear coursing through her. In worlds like this, it was not a problem to offend people, but it was fatal to offend someone who was either stronger or had a higher status than you.

    As Dante approached her with a dark expression, one of the boys in the group, their nominal leader since he was the highest ranked among them in their martial hall, stepped in between her and Dante with a cold expression.

    "This fellow daoist, is there a problem?" He braced himself and questioned in a tough tone.

    Dante nced at him and then pped out. The fellow was shocked by the sudden attack that was faster than he could respond to normally, but he was actually in the Martial Warrior Realm.

    In this realm, he could not manifest his blood Qi outside his body as that began at the Martial Blood Realm. However, Martial Warriors had already begun refining their blood Qi so they could infuse it into their attacks to add extra explosive damage.

    "How dare you!" The fellow roared in anger as he pushed out towards Dante''s fist, infusing all his blood Qi into it, hoping to cripple Dante''s hand and teach him a lesson.

    As for the consequences of harming a core disciple of the hall, he would deal with itter. He did not believe that the hall master wouldn''t protect him when he was able to humiliate the Supreme Martial Hall that he hated so much.

    Of course, as they always say, the dream was beautiful but reality was harsh. His cruel smile disappeared when his fist made contact with that casual palm, his entire force being dispersed with ease as his fist was dislocated immediately.

    He didn''t even have time to scream before the palmnded on his cheek and sent him spinning in the air, crashing into a nearby vendor''s stall and destroying his trinkets for sale.

    This caused the entire street to freeze. All eyes had been on Dante previously, so when they saw him menacingly approaching these disciples, people could tell that conflict was about to brew. They stopped what they were doing to watch but were shocked when Dante pped the fellow.

    Seeing the fellow react quickly with a counterattack, they assumed it would be a draw given the Supreme Martial Hall''s reputation and the seeming lightness of Dante''s attackpared to the fury behind the Heavenly Martial Hall''s disciples'' attack.

    However, to see him be sent flying like a ragdoll, many people were shocked speechless. As for the disciples who watched the strongest among them be treated like someone''s unruly son being disciplined, they were speechless and full of fear.

    Dante stopped and nced at the fellow he pped with a speechless expression. Dante was not some unreasonable young master who disdained everyone and wanted to cripple anyone who even looked at him wrong.

    He just identified a potential problem and wanted to use this chance to establish some prestige in this city so that no one would disturb him. He would shake up this group a bit and then walk away after dominating them, allowing rumors to spread that he was fierce and not one to be messed with.

    But what kind of bloody idiot was this? He had used so much force in his counterattack that when his fist connected with Dante''s, he subconsciously increased the force to offset it as his casual p was really harmless.

    This caused his p to shatter his wrist and the remnant force struck his face and sent him flying. He should be damn grateful Dante took training in the Training World in the past; otherwise, his control over his strength would be far more clumsy and that p could have sent his head flying off its neck.

    Dante causally retracted his palm and nced at the remaining five who began to tremble. He focused on the young girl who was about 17 or 18 years old with a rtivelyrge chest but a short frame who was ring at him before and stood before her.

    She had to crane her neck to look up at the over 6-foot Dante, and her entire body was shaking as tears appeared at the corner of her eyes. Dante nced at her with a cold look and leaned forward slightly.

    "If you ever look at me like that again, I will strip you naked and make you run around the city twice!"

    Dante stepped back and then snorted coldly before walking away without even looking back. The entire street seemed to breathe a sigh of relief at this time, and those who had even stopped breathing gasped for air quickly.

    The five remaining disciples seemed to feel like they had escaped the gaze of the devil and rxed. The girl who had been threatened by Dante felt on her ass as a puddle of liquid formed beneath her robe that stained the ground.

    The boys quickly rushed to gather their senior brother and assist him toward the nearest medical center while the other girl quickly helped her friend and escaped before people could notice the disgrace she had made of herself.

    Immediately, there were bursts of discussions on the street, all of them wondering who Dante was andmenting on how tyrannical and fierce he was. Just for one bad look, he threatened a youngdy so badly she peed herself.

    What a viin!

    Not to mention he beat her senior brother with one p, breaking his hand and sending him flying like a piece of trash by the roadside. Even the stall owner who had his goods ruined could only pack up quickly and rush out of the city.

    As the weakest party here, who knew if those martial artists would find him to vent their anger? After all, they couldn''t find Dante for revenge, so he was the best option for them to torment to release the hatred in their hearts.

    While such discussions were happening, Dante was thoughtful. He had given himself the background of an orphan when descending, so he really did not have anyone to go and clear things up with in the city.

    The only reason he came out was to take a look and see if he could discover something special about the city that could help him as well as understand more about the forces here. Eventually, Dante decided to return to the Martial Hall because he did not want any more trouble.

    It was true that he could probably ''trigger'' some interesting events, like storming their of a bandit gang and annihting them, meeting a young mistress

    escaping assassins who is affiliated with the number 1 family or some random old man who would tell him that he was born with Divine Providence and only needed to cultivate his technique to be an immortal.

    However, Dante did not care about any of that, it had little to no value to him. He was only interested in blood Qi and Internal Force, because those were tangible things he could take away and make use of.

    Even having a background or force did not matter much because unlike the Apocalypse World where a student only had 30 days, one could stay in this world until they chose to leave and make the settlement.

    After all, martial artists had long lifespans, so they couldn''t use the excuse of mutation to limit the lifespans of students like other ces. However, the counter to that was the fact that the Supercoin earned from this world was not as good.

    It was too big and the powers were too plentiful and the waters were too deep, with crouching tigers and hidden dragons at every corner, so one could not easily make a stir like in the Apocalypse World.

 Chapter 104 Chilling With Beatrice

    ?

    When Dante returned to the hall, he found that the recruitment was over, and there were servant disciples cleaning the ce up. He did not see the other recruited disciples but guessed that they too must have either been given a day to deal with things or were undergoing orientation.

    As for Dante, when he came over, a servant disciple happened to see him and rushed over. She was a slightly chubby 16-year-old girl with a well-developed body, standing at a surprising height of 5 feet 7 inches. While that was usually ssified as rather short for a man, it was actually a pretty good height for a young woman.

    "Greetings, Senior Brother Dante. Please allow me to escort you to your residence in the hall," she offered with a respectful bow.

    Dante smiled and nodded. As for his tough appearance, it was only for outsiders, not to mention he wasn''t the indifferent and arrogant type. It cost $0 to be nice to people, and surprisingly, it paid rtively nice profits every now and then.

    "Please lead the way, missˇ­ err. Junior Sister."

    Right, Dante remembered that in such settings, they had specific ways they referred to each other. It was best he really started taking those etiquette sses that Hao Donglei mentioned before he outed himself as a weirdo.

    The young girl was extremely ttered by Dante''s approachability and amiability, so she quickly led him through the practice area and also gave him directions. She showed him where the Resource Hall was located as well as the Armament Hall, the Mission Hall, and the Techniques Hall.

    Dante noted where everything was and arrived at his residence, which was a single room with a small courtyard. Given that the Supreme Martial Hall was a behemoth that covered the entire country, you could be damn sure itsnd was huge.

    It was like a small town of its own. To buttress that point, Dante was sure that these kinds of powers had a sort of diplomatic immunity to the city''sws and could even deal justice using their own rules within their territory.

    Dante entered his ce and saw that it was quite clean. He did not have anything but the gi on his back and his token, so he simply smiled at the servant disciples and asked her name, which was Jia Susu.

    He dismissed her and told her that she would handle his affairs from now on and no longer needed to do other servant disciple chores. This filled Jia Susu with excitement because this was what she wanted to hear.

    She then looked around and realized that apart from going to report her new status, there was not much else she could do.

    Er... Wait, there was something she could do after allˇ­

    Jia Susu blushed and nced at Dante from the corner of her eye. Dante was tall, muscr without being buff, and handsome. As for his light brown skin, it was not much of a problem in a diverse world like this with demon beasts, magical races, and the like.

    Racism was reserved for those of literally different races. Racism within the race was usually very rare in such a setting because it was just pointless.

    "Your skin is brown and mine is white, so what? Look at that motherfucker over there, his skin is literally blue and he has a tail! Let''s bully him together!"

    Dante could easily read Jia Susu''s thoughts from her expression and her heightened arousal. His Intelligence was at 250 points after all, just halfway to the necessary threshold to unlock psychic powers.

    He might not be able to directly read minds, but using his superior mental acuity to notice her increased blood flow, inviting bodynguage, and slightly moistened eyes could tell the whole story.

    Dante waved a hand. "I can promise that as long as you work hard and do not have any funny ideas, I can support you to some extent. There is no need for any sexual favor to achieve this, just hard work and obedience."

    "Remember this, Jia Susu. You are dismissed." Dante finished with a pointed look, making the youngdy''s entire face be red after being seen through.

    She muttered some acknowledgment and then ran out of the courtyard like a frightened rabbit, making Dante shake his head. In truth, Dante was mildly lecherous at best. He had a rtively normal sex drive just like any youth his age.

    Still, he had standards. Jia Susu was not in his strike zone, and he had better options, so why indulge? If anything, there was always Valeria or someone who looked like her, not to mention he had the almighty Beatrice, who was more seductive than any woman he had seen yet.

    Beatrice had not made her stance clear on promiscuity. Even though the culture of pure humans was polygamous due to the limited poption and the need for more births, that didn''t mean that every woman necessarily agreed with it in their hearts.

    Even if she was okay with it, Dante might not be. After all, he was not muddle-headed and understood that harems full of elite beauties who submitted to one man only worked in fiction.

    In real life, most polygamous marriages ended up being the most toxic representation of human cohabitation, a terrible experience for the women and the children as they were forced to fight andpete against their own blood.

    Funny enough, the assumption that the man would enjoy endlessly was also false. More often than not, theirpetition against each other was for your favor, putting a lot of mental strain on you depending on how ''kind'' you were.

    You also needed to have more than twice the wealth and resources of a person who married only one to support your family; otherwise, the moment you became ''useless'', they would band together to deal with YOU.

    Really, when people decided to marry only one, apart from religion, it was mostlymon sense that dictated such an arrangement.

    So for now, unless Dante could absolutely assure himself that such a situation would not ur, Beatrice was enough for him. With her nature, he could trust her 100% and know that she would always be his bastion.

    Dante stopped thinking about such things. After seeing Beatrice''s wless body and tasting her exquisite yet somewhat clumsy skill with her mouth, he was not satisfied but rather even more pent up as he wanted to unload his growing feelings into her.

    As such, he directly made sure everything was settled in this world before taking his real body away and leaving his virtual body lying on the bed before logging out. When he opened his eyes, he saw that he was still in the Observation Deck, only wearing a tank top and some tight boxers.

    Beatrice was currently lying on hisp and scrolling through her holographic disy as usual. Previously, Dante could hardly make sense of what she was doing because of how fast it moved, but now he could see a little bit.

    It seemed like she was... reading an online argument?

    Remembering how much of a troublemaker and vindictive woman his babe was, Dante did not find this surprising in the end. Beatrice was clearly the type of woman who wanted to see the world burn, and peace made her restless as well as ufortable.

    Dante stroked her hair softly, and Beatrice smiled. "You''re back? How was the world of Martial Arts?"

    "It was pretty interesting, though I really have to refresh myself on those Chinese etiquette and behavior stuff for this genre," Dante admitted while his hand crept downwards and began caressing her magnificent chest muscles greedily.

    Beatrice''s face flushed immediately, and her legs began to squirm, but she tried to act like she was unbothered. "Right? It was pretty annoying at first, but I grew to appreciate the depth of culture and tradition. Besides, my mom always loved them because her ancestry was Chinese."

    Dante paused as thunder seemed to rumble in his mind. He smiled with amusement. "We really are fated, Beatrice. My mother is also part Chinese, from a Chinese immigrant mother and a rich European father. Her English name is Aileen, but her Chinese name is Ai Li."

    Beatrice was stunned. "No way. Hold up, your surname is Alighieri? Wait, don''t tell me your father''s side descended from Italians?"

    Danteughed out loud. "Look at that! My grandfather on my dad''s side was an Italian mafia leader who lost his throne and was shamefully exiled to Africa, and my grandpa was an African model who was struggling to make it."

    This time, Beatrice was truly speechless. Her father, Augeus Portinari, was also of Italian descent. Their entire family n was.

    Dante and Beatrice could only share a look and smile. In this case, when they eventually got married, their parents'' reactions should be very interesting.

    "Oh!!" Beatrice yelped as Dante used this chance while they were emotionally connected to send his hand down further and unscrupulously have his way.

 Chapter 105 The Disciples Of The Supreme Martial Hall

    ?

    Dante eventually got up and ced Beatrice, who was flushed and extremely moved, at the edge of the couch. He then squatted down and ced his face near her crotch area, gently pressing a finger against her damp thong.

    "Last time, you helped me empty the tank, so I guess it''s my turn to help you do the same." Dante smiled as he passed his tongue over the fabric, making Beatrice shudder intensely.

    "Itˇ­ it''s really not necessary. I canˇ­ wait until you''re ready." She muttered with slightly hazy eyes.

    Dante shook his head. She did say she didn''t want to engage in such acts until Dante could actually prate her in order to enjoy that moment more, but he really could not enjoy the thought of being pleasured one way by his partner.

    Most modern men focused less on just thrusting and more on how to make their partners enjoy the experience, and Dante was no different.

    Dante deftly moved her thong to the side and revealed a slit that was like a sealed purse. It was very thin and narrow, and one could barely make out thebia majora and minora without actually pulling her vagina open with their fingers.

    Different women had different types of vaginas. Some had Beatrice''s type, which was mostly found on Asian women and was sealed, while others had camel toes with meaty vaginas like ck women, which were expressive.

    In truth, the external visuals didn''t actually make a difference to the functionality of the canal inside, it was mostly aesthetic. You could meet someone with a vagina like Beatrice''s and feel like you were traversing the Grand Canyon or you could meet a woman with the meatiest looking vagina and the internal apthway was tighter than the space between two attracting mas.

    "Well, well, well, what a cute little vagina you have here. It''s almost like it is the shy type, which is definitely unlike you." Dante teased as he gently rubbed the slit, feeling a wealth of sticky liquid coating his fingers.

    Beatrice twitched and raised her head, trying to hide her face that was expressive of her enjoyment. She bit her lip and closed her eyes, subconsciously pushing her hips out more to make things easier for Dante.

    Tsk, tsk, the mouth can lie but the body cannot.

    Dante ced his tongue on her clitoris and began licking with fervor, while his fingers rubbed against her vulva. He understood that if he wanted Beatrice to actually orgasm, he needed to focus on the most critical spot.

    As for Beatrice, in the fingers - and tongue - of Dante, she was nothing but puddy that could be yed with. She didn''t evenst more than 5 minutes before there was a small ident.

    Dante''s face changed when he sensed the aura of death and quickly dodged to the side. Beatrice climaxed at that moment and ended up squirting, releasing a jet of pee that surged out of her as her vulva kept twitching crazily.

    Even with a normal woman, that jet was strong, much less the OP Beatrice. If Dante hadn''t dodged, there would be a hole in his head at the moment. In fact, the jet had struck one of the sses that allowed done to observe space and cracked it slightly.

    Dante was speechless.

    Those windows were probably the most sturdy thing on the entire dreadnought because they were often what enemy forces targeted in order to break the ship''s defense and kill the admiral. Even other dreadnoughts would need hours of firepower to crack those sses, but Beatrice achieved this with one shot.

    Dante''s entire body couldn''t help but shiver. He nced at the panting Beatrice who wasing down from her orgasm and realized that until his stats surpassed hers, every sexual encounter would likely be a life-and-death experience.

    ˇ­to be honest, the idea filled him with a bit of perverse excitement.

    Dante sighed andy down on the couch again while holding Beatrice in his arms. One could say that he was now satisfied - scared too but really satisfied - after pleasuring his girl and he had no more desires at the moment.

    As such, the two simply enjoyed the embrace of the other person until they fell asleep like this.

    Since they were out in space, there was no day or night system to tell them the time apart from their AI chips monitoring the flow of time within their spatial coordinates. As such, when it was 5:30 am, Dante''s eyes opened slowly and he gently caressed Beatrice''s hair before teleporting to his cabin.

    Beatrice, who noticed that her head was now on the soft cough instead of Dante''s warm body, opened her eyes and then closed them again.

    As for Dante, he was in his Vice Admiral''s cabin and reminisced on his first sleeping area when he originally came to this universe. He went to the bathroom and used the high-tech jacuzzi to clean himself very well before returning to the observation deck.

    Looking at Beatrice, he smiled and entered the quantum world with his natural body with a thought.

    In the Core Disciple''s Residence number 8 which was allocated to Dante, he opened his eyes in his virtual body that was reced by his real body and stood up. He was still wearing the gi and the token, but his body carried the smell of premium soap and perfume from outside.

    It was interesting that despite his virtual body being unwashed, his real body was. However, the clothes his virtual body wore could not be taken outside and the clothes Dante wore could not be taken in.

    Otherwise, with his Vice Admiral''s Exosuit, he could likely beat any Martial God in this world to death. Dante flexed his arms and left his room, only to see Jia Susu who had changed her robes into something that was marked with Dante''s name to show her affiliation.

    She was currently hard at work cleaning the residence and greeted Dante respectfully when he came out. Dante was about to leave when he thought of something.

    "If you find it difficult to handle the workload on your own, you can invite up to 4 more servant disciples you know to be your fellow workers. The choice is yours."

    After saying this, Dante left the residence and walked to the Practice Area. There, he found every student within the hall was lined up respectfully while awaiting the masters toe and give directions for the day.

    Even Servant Disciples were here, standing by the side and ready to attend to any other disciples'' needs at any time. The Outer Disciples were the most numerous and stood in 2 different segments. The one at the back was made up of around 90% of them, who wore pure ck gi with no decorations.

    They were all likely in the Body Tempering Realm.

    In front of them was a small segment of Outer Disciples who looked generally older and more serious, ounting for 1/10th of them, whose gi was also ck with a single red line around the cor. These were like Martial Warrior Outer Disciples.

    In front of this batch was a smaller group split into 3 segments. The ones at the back made up 45% of their number and wore ck gi with the cor and hems lined with a blood-red color. They were young and seemed full of vigor and hotbloodedness.

    These were the Body Tempering Inner Disciples.

    In front of them was a smaller group made up of 35% of the number and wore the same ck gi but with red lines on the cor, hems, and a red belt around their waist. They were slightly older but still far younger than the Outer Disciple group of the same realm.

    They were naturally the Martial Warrior Realm Inner Disciples.

    Finally, at the very lead of the group, was a small segment of disciples who had ck gi with red lines around the cor, the hems, the belt, and a few strikes across the gi. They were generally mature and full of confidence and arrogance, their eyes not even ncing at the space before them.

    They made up only 20% of the number and were the Martial Blood Realm Inner Disciples. Even outside the Supreme Martial Hall, they could start a top 100-level hall of their own and be the hall master, so they were right to be arrogant.

    Dante took all of this in and calmly walked into the courtyard, ignoring the eyes that fell on him. He came and stood before the group of Martial blood Inner Disciples and then turned his back to them. Since everyone was standing by rank and realm, he would also follow suit.

    Seeing the singr him standing in front of everyone, many faces changed. They had heard of the new core disciples who was epted from recruitment by the Vice Hall Master himself. Apparently, he had a body with the strength of a peak Martial Master without even training his blood Qi!

    What a monster!

 Chapter 106 Needless Formalities

    ?

    Of course, while this was what the upper echelons said, that did not necessarily mean everyone believed it. You have to understand that even in the modern world with so-called educated people and the inte, individuals would not believe things until they saw them with their own eyes, let alone in such an ancient world.

    For upper echelons like Hao Donglei and the other hall masters of the various halls who had the ability toe into contact with greater secrets and truths, they would know that Dante''s situation, though very rare, was not impossible and was not exclusive to him in history.

    However, for the rest who had never even seen a being above Martial Master since they didn''t have the right to encounter Grandmasters like Hao Donglei much, such a thing sounded like an exaggeration.

    How was it possible for someone who had never practiced martial arts in their life to have the body of a half-step Grandmaster as well as the vigorous blood energy of that grade?

    One should know, they had only recently epted the fact that the 4th Core Disciple of the Hall, Senior Sister Shui Binn, who was recruited directly from outside on the im that her bones were top grade and her blood energy was at the Martial Blood realm without practicing martial arts.

    They only epted her after she went through trials and tribtions to prove her monstrous talent and ability, and there were even rumors stating that she had a special bloodline which was why she had such prowess.

    And now, the hall had dredged up this funny fellow who was supposed to be even more talented?

    Many sneered in their minds and hearts. They did not dare to dispute the Vice Hall Master because he was definitely more far-sighted than them. Dante was definitely special and had great talent, but they firmly believed it was exaggerated!

    The Outer Disciples, of course, did not dare to show their thoughts, but the Inner Disciples had fewer scruples. After all, they were both true members of the hall and received its love and care.

    The Blood Tempering Inner Disciples felt indignant and showed it, while the Martial Warrior Inner Disciples had serious andpetitive expressions on their faces as they nced at Dante''s back.

    As for the Martial Blood Realm Inner Disciples, they mostly had ugly expressions, as they had previously stood at the front since all the core members were out on an important expedition, making them the top dogs.

    Now, some brat hade to stand before them and didn''t even look at them twice nor greet them. What was worse was that they had to greet this brat as their senior brother, despite probably being able to beat him away with a flick of their finger!

    On top of that, the spots for core disciples were limited. The Hall, despite its power and means, was not in possession of limitless wealth, especially within Green Wind City. They could only support a limited number of talents as core disciples, so every spot was precious.

    Normally, the next to be a core disciple was fought for among them, the Martial Blood realm Inner Disciples. Apart from Shui Binn, every other core disciple had risen from an inner disciple to that spot.

    Because thepetition was steep and hardly anyone was ever directly recruited as a core member, it had created the notion that the position was one to be fought for and only those who climbed through hell to get it deserved it.

    In the back of their minds, they understood, they surely did, that Dante''s talent was likely far better than theirs. They had seen the monster Shui Binn and she had convinced everyone that her recruitment was a sign of the upper echelon''s good vision, so it was likely Dante would soar beyond them.

    But it was hard to reconcile this. To them, on what basis did Dante have to wear that gi and enjoy the resources that they craved and spent day and night thinking and training to fight for? Just because of something illusory like talent?!

    Dante could feel the eyes that bore into his back, full of challenge, unwillingness, and questioning. There was naturally no hatred or the like because it was not like he had killed their parents or something, and he had not made his position known.

    Who knows, Dante could be a nice guy that might use his ability to fetch limitless resources to assist them in their martial practice, so why hate him right at the get-go? It was not the time yet to burn the bridge if it needed to be burned.

    Soon, Hao Donglei came into the courtyard with 8 other people who were of different ages, sexes, and colors. Their presence caused the faces of all the disciples to change greatly, while Dante''s became grim.

    Apart from Hao Donglei, who was mostly restrained, the ones behind him radiated endless blood Qi that literally burned everyone like a scorching sun. Their expressions were lofty and full of arrogance regardless of the disciple''s status.

    The only one who caused a change was Dante at the front. When their eyesnded on him, their pupils constricted greatly and they became far less arrogant and full of wariness.

    Hao Donglei cast his gaze around and smiled. "Greetings, disciples of my Supreme Martial Hall! Some of you may know me by face, and the rest of you only by name, so let me introduce myself!"

    "I am the Vice Hall Master of the hall, Hao Donglei, a Martial Grandmaster!"

    The faces of the disciples changed greatly, and they immediately bowed deeply.

    "Disciples greet the Vice Hall Master!" They roared collectively, making Hao Donglei nod. Only Dante was a bit slow since he didn''t know the custom, but he made it in time.

    "These are the noble elders of our hall. I will let theme and introduce themselves one by one so that our new core disciple can know who they are." Hao Donglei gestured to the 8 people behind him.

    Immediately, the eyes of the disciples fell on Dante, with varying emotions. There was mostly envy and jealousy as this was an extravagant way to introduce Dante to the upper echelon. When any of them entered the hall in the past, they might not even see a single elder and would have to scramble to discover their identities to avoid offending these elders.

    Yet these same elders were made toe and greet Danteˇ­ as if Hao Donglei was worried that the elders would offend this new core disciple instead!

    Dante didn''t exactly understand this and thought that it was a normal thing in these settings, so he seemed nonchnt about it and even a bit impatient. My Brother in Christ, the faster he could learn a bloody martial technique, the quicker he could break the gene limit and finally taste his sulent as well as seductive Beatrice.

    Seeing this, Hao Donglei was amused, but the other elders were aggrieved. They were usually lofty and disdained the weaker disciples since they were Martial Masters, but now they were being treated as nuisances by a new disciple?

    Elders were already faintly below core disciples in terms of value and rank within the overall scheme of the hall, especially at the city level. Then there was Dante, who not only had the talent to surpass them but could literally trade blows with them head-on using raw power alone.

    Of course, they didn''t believe that Dante could actually defeat them, since they had years of training as well as the ability to use blood Qi. This was a reasonable assumption, since Dante would not be able to actually do soˇ­ yet.

    "

    Jun Feng, Hall Elder of Administration!" the familiar bespectacled and effeminate Jun Feng spoke first.

    "Xia Dongyin, Hall Elder of Resources!" a mature beauty with slightly yellowish skin and a huge chest introduced with a smile.

    "Da Bo! Hall Elder of Training!" A muscr man with no strand of hair on his body roared with a fierce glint in his eye.

    "Ling Qi, Hall Elder of Knowledge!" Another smaller and nerdy-looking man also introducedzily, looking bored.

    "Lin Dao, Hall Elder of Tasks!" An older and seasoned man with a long beard greeted while smiling casually.

    "Ah Jin, Hall Elder of Arms and Equipment!" A heavily tanned and burly man stated, looking like he''d rather be in the forge than standing before some brats.

    "Pei Luo, Hall Elder of External Affairs." A young woman with a svelte body and porcin features greeted with an approachable look.

    "Wu Jian, Hall Elder of Acquisition." An older man with a short ck goatee and a sword on his back greeted casually and indifferently.

    The moment they were done, all the disciples once again bowed and paid their respects to the elders. Hao Donglei waved his hand for them to rise and then smiled at the group.

    "Now that you have met your elders, I shall leave Brother Bo here to handle the training. As for you, Disciple Dante, please follow us."

 Chapter 107 Choosing Techniques

    ?

    Dante nodded and followed along, sighing that this nonsense was finally done. If he had to take part in this stupid ceremony again, he would likely start singing the "Star-Spangled Banner" theme while throwing punches.

    Hao Donglei did what Jia Susu did yesterday, introducing the various ces they passed to Dante, something that left the elders speechless. Why did this Dante fellow seem like the hall master and they were his subordinates?

    Hao Donglei hadn''t even treated Shui Binn this well!

    "And here we are, the Techniques Hall. Here, we will choose a suitable External Art and possibly an Internal Art for you if you are tested to be capable of practicing one. Let''s go in then." Hao Donglei gestured to therge building before them.

    Dante entered it along with the other 8 elders, including the elder in charge of the hall, Ling Qi.

    The Techniques Hall stood as a sanctuary of knowledge within the realm of the Supreme Martial Hall. Its imposing fa?ade was adorned with intricate carvings of dragons, phoenixes, and celestial beings engaged in epic battles.

    As Dante stepped through its grand entrance, he felt a palpable surge of qi, as if the very air was charged with the energy of countless martial pursuits.

    Inside, the hall was a vast expanse of soaring bookshelves, eachden with scrolls, manuscripts, and technique manuals of various sizes and colors. The air was thick with the scent of aged parchment, and the soft rustling of pages seemed to echo like a hymn of wisdom. The ceiling soared high above, revealing an awe-inspiring mural depicting ancient masters engaged in fierce battles and graceful forms.

    Goldennterns hung from the ceiling, casting a warm and inviting glow upon the array of texts. Shafts of sunlight streamed through intricately designed windows, illuminating the space with a kaleidoscope of colors that danced upon the floor.

    Dante''s eyes widened as he took in the sheer magnitude of knowledge contained within the Techniques Hall. Scrolls were categorized and organized meticulously, spanning a dazzling array of martial techniques, each tailored to specific weapons, fighting styles, and internal forces.

    One section of the library was dedicated to the cultivation of blood qi, and Dante''s heart forcibly quickened as he approached.

    Technique manuals with titles like ''Crimson Dawn de Technique'' and ''Blood Phoenix Fist'' drew his attention.

    The pages were filled with detailed illustrations and step-by-step instructions, guiding practitioners on how to channel and manipte their own blood energy to enhance theirbat prowess.

    The descriptions were vivid, exining how the infusion of blood qi could imbue weapons with a fiery aura, or how it could strengthen the body to withstand even the most formidable strikes.

    In another corner, Dante discovered a collection of manuals that delved into the mastery of internal force.

    Titles like ''Whispers of the Azure Wind'' and ''Flowing River Harmony'' hinted at the abstract yet profound nature of these techniques.

    These manuals described practices that cultivated not only physical strength but also harnessed the essence of elements and concepts.

    One particr manual caught Dante''s eye, ''Void Serenity Palm''.

    The pages depicted intricate hand gestures and meditation postures, apanied by poetic verses that spoke of manipting the very void itself. This internal force technique allowed practitioners to harness the power of emptiness, creating shockwaves of invisible energy that disrupted opponents and rendered them powerless.

    Given that he had the Quantum Entanglement superpower which was linked to space and the void, he felt that this was a good match for him and definitely put it up there on his list.

    Hao Donglei and the elder Ling Qi watched Dante''s exploration with knowing smiles, understanding the significance of this moment. They knew that the Techniques Hall was not merely a repository of scrolls, but a sacred realm where qualified martial artists could forge their destinies and sculpt their legacies.

    "Alright, Disciple Dante, you''ve had enough of a good look. Before we test your aptitude for Internal Arts, which External Art do you want? Or specifically, which weapon or fighting style do you favor?" Hao Donglei interrupted Dante at the right time to get things moving.

    "The Halberd." Dante stated without even thinking.

    The Arms and Equipment Elder stepped forward and sized Dante up then nodded to the others. "He is tall and very well bnced. His arms are long and quite developed so he can easily wield a halberd and maximize his efficiency with it."

    Hao Donglei nced at elder Ah Jin. "Brother Jin, I leave forging his special blood Weapon to you. Use any resources necessary."

    Ah Jin''s face changed slightly, but he nodded. "Leave it to me."

    He nced at Dante one more time before leaving. The other elders also had serious expressions, realizing that Hao Donglei wasn''t joking, he was really going all out to invest in this fellow.

    Butˇ­ was he worth it?

    "Follow me." Hao Donglei led Dante to the section for halberd External Arts.

    There, Dante saw an array of manuals with different domineering names that promised great power and efficiency if cultivated to the extreme. He felt at home here and couldn''t wait to select one, but was stopped by Hao Donglei.

    "Assuming you have Internal Cultivation Talent, it''s best to pair your External Art with an Internal one of simr nature. For example, if you have the talent for wood element internal arts, we can find you a nature or wood-rted halberd art to practice."

    Dante nodded as that made sense. He wondered how they would test him when the Knowledge Elder, Xia Dongyin, walked forward with a glowing orb in her hand. Dante focused on the orb and definitely not her magnificent chest muscles that even left the mighty Beatrice in the dust.

    Xia Dongyin chuckled softly, as if she could read Dante''s mind. "This is an Orb of True Force. It can either detect the nature of a person''s Internal Force or their biggest affinity for any type of Internal Force. If you have no affinity, then you cannot cultivate Internal Arts."

    Dante nodded and asked a question. "So this orb is a limited product or can it be used multiple times?"

    Xia Dongyin smiled. "It can only be formed by Internal Force Masters above level 5. It is rare and very hard to get, also being one-time use for each orb."

    No wonder. Dante had felt that it was a bit ridiculous to test External Cultivation Talent before Internal Cultivation since thetter sounded slightly more powerful and rare. However, it wasn''t that they didn''t want to test everyone they saw, but rather the method of testing was costly.

    "How do I use it?" Dante asked as he took the orb in hand.

    "Drip a drop of blood onto it." Xia Dongyin instructed.

    Dante remembered that these eastern fantasy worlds liked to have people cut themselves like maniacs and drop their blood over everything. How unhealthy and barbaric!

    However, he obediently cut his finger using a knife provided by Hao Donglei and dripped a drop onto the orb. He then noticed that the cut on his finger rapidly closed and healed under his monstrous vitality.

    When the blood touched the orb, it seeped in and seemed to swirl within for a few seconds before erupting into zing mes. Rather than a healthy orange me that seemed normal, the color of the me was dark and malicious, a mixture of blood and darkness.

    The expressions of the elders changed to one of pleasant surprise. The fact that Dante had Internal Arts talent was a boon, because out of all their members, only about 17 could cultivate them.

    On top of that, his talent was not low since the response was quick and very strong. However, what was up with the element itself? It seemed to be a fire-type talent, but the fire was not normal and even a bit sinister.

    "Hellfire." Hao Donglei spoke with a solemn face, his eyes lingering on the still burning ckish-red me within the orb.

    "A very rare sub-type of fire that is known for its ability to burn not just the body, but the soul, the spirit, and emotions as well as thoughts. It can also bewitch to an extent and act as a binding agent in agreements." Xia Dongyin spoke softly, her expressionplicated.

    Dante was surprised by this and a certain name couldn''t help but involuntarilye into his head.

    Dante''s Inferno.

    But it couldn''t be? What did he, a modern person from 2030 have to do with that fictional character who was written by some poet?

    "Are there any problems?" Wu Jian asked with a sharp nce, his hand on his sword handle, as if he wouldn''t hesitate to behead Dante if the order was given.

    "Not necessarily. With any power, regardless of internal or external, the problem is not the power itself but the user. There are light element internal force users who are the worst devils and there are death element internal force users who are the greatest heroes." Hao Donglei replied with a casual smile.

    "You of all people should know this Brother Jian." Hao Donglei pointed out as he nced at Wu Jian with a smile that wasn''t a smile.

 Chapter 108 Inferno Ascension And Raging Blood Halberd

    Wu Jian''s face changed greatly in response to Hao Donglei''s words, and his grip on his sword tightened as he lowered his head. There was a short spell of silence as the tension built up slightly, but Wu Jian sighed tiredly and raised his head.

    He seemed to age rapidly in an instant, and his previous sharp aura disappeared, leaving a lost soul. He cupped his fists to everyone and walked out of the building slowly, his back seeming to convey a thousand words alone.

    The others watched him go withplicated expressions. Pei Luo, the young woman in charge of external affairs, did not seem too happy.

    "Brother Hao, was there a need to go so far?" She whispered with a hint of worry.

    Hao Donglei shook his head calmly. "As the Acquisition Elder, Wu Jian has contributed greatly and spends most of his time fighting for resources for us on the outside by killing demon beasts."

    "But all that killing has warped his mind to the point where he is ready to kill anyone even slightly suspected of negativity? Is that how a sword user should behave?"

    "The reason he was dejected was not because he was offended, but because my reminder pointed out the w in his actions. If he too were to be judged solely by the element his inner force was affiliated with, would he be here today? What right does he have to execute Disciple Dante?"

    Hao Donglei''s words made the eyes of the various elders flicker as they felt it made sense. Ling Qi smiled and decided to mediate by saying.

    "Alright, whether it is the Vice Hall Master or the Acquisition Elder, they are both mature people and know how to handle their own matters. We also have our own pending tasks to deal with, so let''s sort out today''s situation as soon as possible."

    The rest nodded and focused on Dante. Hao Donglei patted his shoulder and smiled. "So, Hellfire Internal Force and halberd External Art? Luckily for you, we have a perfectbination of both."

    Hao Donglei led the group to a section of the Internal Arts that was filled with bright red books that seemed to radiate heat. Dante saw many manual names like ''Inferno Palm,'' ''True Blood Fire Method,'' and ''Record of the zing Source.''

    At the end of the row were books that radiated heat but were cker in color and had hints of sinister power. The group felt a bit ufortable, except Dante who felt refreshed and warm, as if he was in the embrace of Beatrice.

    Hao Donglei didn''t even need to prompt him. The moment he came here, his entire body was alive, and he walked up to the various techniques. After casting a cursory nce, his pupils constricted when he stopped on one, and his entire body seemed to scream for it.

    He resolutely pulled the technique manual from the shelf and held it in his hand. On the cover was a picture of a man kneeling in regret before a mountain that was terraced into nine levels with different horrors on each level. At the top was a dissonant paradise where utopia existed.

    Dante''s expression changed greatly. How could he not know what this was referencing, especially since his mind had been on it ever since he heard his elemental affiliation?

    The mountain in the background was obviously purgatory with the nine levels of hell and paradise at the top. The man kneeling outside could only be the legendary man who rushed through all nine levels to face Satan himself and rescue the soul of his virtuous wife, Dante.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel "The Inferno Ascension technique? That''s a pretty good choice, especially among the Internal Arts. It stands within the top 50 of all our techniques since it has 10 levels, allowing you to harness great power," Ling Qi stated while stroking his white beard with a smile.

    Dante listened and nodded, keeping his thoughts to himself. Hao Donglei led the group back toward the External Arts section and began speaking on the way.

    "As I told you previously, Dante, I will tell you more about Internal Arts cultivation if we discover that you have the talent for it."

    "Internal Arts allow us to cultivate Internal Force, a special and near-magical energy that is formed by our life essence coalescing within our dantian."

    "Unlike External Cultivation which only uses raw external energy consumed through eating and digestion to enhance the body and increase the density as well as the power of blood energy, Internal Arts use our own natural energy to condense Internal Force."

    Hao Donglei smiled. "You could say that Internal Arts work strictly by talent. If you do not have the talent, you cannot condense the energy needed to form Internal Force because it''s not there in the first ce. It''s also not something that resources can make up for."

    "It''s basically like trying to y chess without hands. The level and strength of your talent also decide how far you can go on your path with Internal Arts, and I believe your talent is very strong."

    Hao Donglei turned and smiled at Dante. "In fact, it''s very possible for you to perfect that technique and reach its highest level given your affinity, but we''ll see."

    His words made a strange light flicker in the eyes of the other elders, but they quickly hid it. As for Dante, he didn''t take it too seriously as no one in this world would be his match after he stabilized his genes and went for another round of Absorption in the Apocalypse World.

    At that time, any funny thoughts they harbored in their hearts would only be clouds and a fart. Of course, it didn''t mean that he would throw caution away as he decided to interact with these fellows less and even think of ways to weaken them ahead of time.

    Whether it was cold and callous was up for debate. Personally, even before he transmigrated here, Dante had always preferred pragmatic and proactive people whether it was in real life or in fiction, so he would naturally be proactive in solving troubles without burdening himself with cheap morality.

    After they reached the External Arts section, they led Dante to the halberd part. Here, Dante once again scrolled through techniques, but there was no affinity pull. He had to look at the introduction of each manual and see which one he wanted.

    Among them were the Crimson Tempest Halberd Technique, which embodied the explosive force of the halberd, allowing martial artists to channel their refined blood energy and blood Qi into devastating blows. By focusing on abrupt and powerful movements, practitioners create a whirlwind of crimson energy with every swing, making it a formidable choice for quick and intense engagements.

    There was also the Ironheart Guarding Stance, which was centered around the concept of hardness and durability, teaching martial artists to be unyielding fortresses on the battlefield. By adopting a defensive stance that maximizes the halberd''s reach, practitioners can absorb and redirect iing attacks.

    Apart from that was the Flowing Silk Halberd Dance which seemingly drew inspiration from the softness of silk, making this art focus on fluid and graceful movements. Martial artists learn to wield the halberd with finesse, utilizing its weight and momentum to execute precise strikes. The technique promoted a blend of offense and defense, enabling practitioners to weave a dance-like pattern of strikes that confounded opponents while slightly reducing stamina consumption.

    Then there was the Raging Inferno Halberd Art which directly embraced the sub-element of fire, attempting to infuse the martial artist''s

    movements with the scorching intensity of mes. Each swing of the halberd leaves behind trails of residual heat, adding a burning quality to every strike. Through brutal training and a very specialized diet, martial artists learn to harness the fire energy by boiling their own blood Qi and energy.

    Finally, there was the Eternal Gale Halberd Method which focused on stamina conservation and prolonged endurance. This art sought to teach martial artists to wield the halberd with calcted efficiency by blending fluid movements with controlled bursts of energy, allowing martial artists to engage in protracted battles without sumbing to fatigue. This technique emphasized tactical precision and mindful strikes, ensuring that every swing of the halberd counted and minimized wasteful energy expenditure.

    From them, Dante made his choice of the Raging Inferno Halberd Art. It was the obvious choice given his affinity and that affinity would even y a big role ording to Hao Donglei. As for how, he only smiled cryptically, and the other elders didn''t say either.

    Dante was left speechless.

    In the end, he could only take the two arts out of the pavilion and borrow them for 7 days to get familiar with their texts. After doing this, Dante was led to the practice area where everyone was undergoing their various cultivation practices.

    When he came back, the other elders bid farewell as they had things to tend to, while Hao Donglei spent an hour or so telling Dante many more important things to note, as well as what to maximize and what to minimize in order to seek the most benefits.

 Chapter 109 Insane Talent 1

    Dante kept everything Hao Donglei said in mind and watched the older man''s broad back as he walked away to handle his own duties. He then sighed and moved to the practice area, choosing to sit down at one of the tables to begin observing the techniques he had been given.

    He first opened the Inferno Ascension technique and read the simple one-page mantra that outlined the technique.

    "In the heart''s crucible, where life''s ember gleams,

    I weave the dance of mes, as in the poet''s dreams.

    From Inferno''s depths, my spirit takes its flight,

    Harnessing hell''s fire, in darkness and in light.

    With each breath, I draw the essence of the abyss,

    Life''s energy, a thread through realms of fiery bliss.

    I tread the path that Dante knew so well,

    Ascending through the inferno, breaking every spell.

    My body a vessel, my soul a burning pyre,

    I gather Internal Force, an alchemical fire.

    Hell''s fervent forge, where agony is transmuted,

    Into strength and power, my essence refuted.

    By Inferno''s grace, I soar with wings of zeal,

    Rising through the circles, every torment I feel.

    The trials of the damned, I harness and embrace,

    For in their suffering, my power finds its ce.

    Inferno Ascension, a journey through the mes,

    Guided by wisdom from ancient Daoist names.

    Through Dante''s steps, I transcend my earthly fate,

    A phoenix born anew, from hell''s eternal state.

    Through life''s descent and fiery trials faced,

    I harness hell''s own fire, with purpose inteced.

    As Dante''s spirit soared through depths profound,

    So do I rise, with internal power unbound.

    Speak this mantra with a heart ame,

    Inferno Ascension, I shall im my name.

    With life''s energy, I gather and ascend,

    Through hell''s inferno, my power knows no end."

    It was a simple 7-paragraph mantra that one needed to chant while meditating, but as Dante read it, it was like reading visual explosions. His mind churned with each line he read, and when hepleted it, his eyes were zed over as he began slowly chanting in a daze.

    The more he spoke, the more heat seemed to manifest in the air around him as invisible waves of warmth radiated from his body. Everyone was busy doing their practice to care about Dante, but even the densest person became rmed when they felt the rising temperature.

    Everyone stopped to nce at Dante, who had burst into me and was beginning to be engulfed. Some disciples were softhearted and wanted to help, but the Training Elder who stayed behind, Da Bo, stopped them with narrowed eyes.

    His expression was solemn as he nced at Dante, a hint of disbelief flickering in the depths of his eyes. He simply couldn''t believe that there was such a monster in this world who could cause a phenomenon when first practicing his Internal Art technique.

    Soon, the raging bonfire around Dante expanded greatly until it became the size of a great me. Despite the intense heat that caused many disciples to retreat with pale faces and some to roll on the floor to put out the fire, Dante''s immediate surroundings were not burned.

    It was almost as ifˇ­ the fire was purposefully targeting living beings to prevent them froming close. This fact made Da Bo even more wary and full of questions, but he didn''t dare move, not with such a huge ze.

    Even a Martial Master like him would be burned to a crisp. Only Internal Arts could directly resist other Internal Arts. If one was strong enough in terms of the External Arts realm, like a Grandmaster versus a level 1 Internal Arts practitioner, they could surpass the special effects of Internal Force using a deluge of Blood Qi.

    But at a certain level, even Martial Gods would have to cower before an Internal Arts practitioner. Not to mention the gap between Dante and Da Bo was already very thin given his starting point.

    Soon, the fire suddenly paused and then rapidly receded, being sucked back into Dante''s body as a certain light gathered in his lower abdomen, shining like a beacon; it was the size of a small bead, like the marbles one used to y with as a child.

    However, it glowed with a ckish-red color and made everyone who looked at it touch their skin with fear while gripping their foreheads, as if they could feel a slight headacheing on.

    Da Bo''s face changed greatly. "Impossible! How can he condense a seed of Internal Force in just a few minutes? That means he is a level 1 Internal Disciple?"

    Seeing that Dante was polishing his gains and the light from his seed was dimming as it merged with his body, Da Bo''s eyes flickered with intense emotions. He rushed forward towards Dante, seeming like he was going to help him.

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel However, he had clenched his right hand into a fist and gathered all his blood Qi on it. When he got close to Dante, his eyes flickered with great malice as he prepared to deal a fatal blow, but Dante opened his eyes at this time and nced over calmly.

    Da Bo''s face changed greatly as he dissipated the gathered blood Qi and hid his fist, which had been slowly rising to deal a blow. He then appeared near Dante with a look of severity and slight concern on his face.

    "Core Disciple Dante, are you alright? What happened?"

    Dante sized the elder up and down then nced pointedly at his right fist. He then looked Da Bo in the eyes and smiled. "The Training Elder need not worry, I am fine."

    Dante then ignored the fellow and focused on his dantian and experienced the new changes in himself. Meanwhile, Da Bo''s expression darkened at being brushed off, but he could only leave and return to his residence in a rush.

    "I have to hurry and report this," he muttered to himself as his eyes hid a hint of nefarious intent while he rushed away.

    As for Dante, he ignored the man. From the moment he was called by Hao Donglei to test himself directly, he immediately understood the politicalndscape of the Supreme Martial Hall. As a kingdom-wide level faction, the Supreme Martial Hall had a branch in every major city.

    However, the hierarchy for each of them was clear. The Outer Disciples were fodder who provided funds for their training and existed to be the hall''s bottom level fighting force. The Inner Disciples were imed to be an integral part of the hall and were treated as such.

    If they had great talent, they could ascend to be core disciples and were part of the hall''s true core faction. Those with lesser talents who failed to be core members could fight to be elders.

    Elders sounded glorious, but they were basically not included in the core and were only city-level forces. Only the Vice Hall Master and the core disciples were true core members and could ascend to the province level next.

    The core disciples would be true disciples when at the province level and wouldpete to ascend up within the hall''s faction, either bing province-level elders if they failed or going higher if they passed.

    Even province-level elders were treated as half-step core members, showing how exclusionary the hall was.

    Logically speaking, the city-level elders should be loyal to the hallˇ­ but were they really? They were not allowed into the core and could not climb higher. Not to mention they were not recruited as core disciples

    and had even failed.

    So they lived with the city level as their focus, meaning they were subject to city-level politics. As the number 1 faction in most cities, many factions hated or feared the Supreme Martial Hall and would like to keep tabs on it or have some control over its growth.

    Why not rope in these disillusioned elders and have them on your payroll? Or even better yet, send some of your own people to be disciples, rise through the ranks, and then be elders in the end?

    That way, even if you couldn''tpletely control or destroy the faction, given that there was a powerful vice hall master at the helm, you could at least get thetest news and also monitor the core disciples of this faction.

    If they could be poached, then poach them! If they proved to be a threat, use clever means to eliminate them!

    Many Inner Disciples with qualifications to be core had been rid of this way. As for those who ascended, these factions didn''t dare to put their people in because they would be found out by the hall and eradicated.

    The hall clearly didn''t care if they yed at the city level, because these hardships could temper their core disciples and make them much more useful.

    As for Dante, who was so talented, they either had to poach him, which was unlikely given his base power, or they had to eradicate him lest he grow to be the second Martial God of the faction!

 Chapter 110 Insane Talent 2

    As for Dante, while he valued this world''s ability to assist him in gaining power, he did not necessarily want to be too entangled in its politics, lest he lose sight of reality. Bypeting with these lowly fellows and engaging in their games, he might develop the illusion that this world is real.

    Normally, this would not be a problem for other students, and if something like this happened to them, they would be excited because they could cause more trouble and get a nice payout.

    However, for Dante, who could enter with his real body, he was in danger of sumbing to such a mental ailment. After all, with his real body down here, he was no different from the natives of this virtual world.

    If a ridiculous meteor fell from the sky and crashed down, he would die along with everyone else. Thus, the pressure was heavy on Dante to keep his mind off such matters and not get too involved with the locals.

    It was also best if he met fellow students and teamed up with them or interacted with them, as that would remind him of his yer status and keep him aware of where he really came from.

    In any case, this thought remained at the back of Dante''s mind. At present, he was entirely focused on inspecting the entity in his dantian that had condensed from his intense cultivation just moments ago.

    It was a tiny ckish-red bead with a raging fire within. Dante could feel it within him, like a ball of fire in his gut. He felt he had full control over it and could ess its reserves of fire energy at will.

    Dante had a thought and checked his in-world SDI, the one specifically for the True Martial World that was not affiliated with his real body.

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    Faction: Supreme Martial Hall (Kingdom-level)

    Internal Arts: Inferno Ascension Technique (Level 1: Ante-Inferno Ember Stage)

    External Arts: None

    Strength: 250

    Agility: 250

    Dexterity: 250

    Intelligence: 250

    Constitution: 250

    Vitality: 250

    Money: 0 copper coins, 0 silver taels, 0 gold bars?

    Unfortunately, practicing Internal Arts wouldn''t break his gene limit and was just a unique, nearly magical power he could umte for himself, forming a pseudo-superpower of its own.

    He checked his Internal Arts section and saw that it was written that he had achieved the first level. The technique manual itself was filled with only the chant and did not outline the stages, so Dante clicked on the tooltip for more information about the various stages of the technique.

    Arge wall of text appeared before him, which he read attentively.

    [Inferno Ascension Technique - Stages for the Technique

    ¦Ń¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ďvel Level 1 - Ante-Inferno Ember: This is the initial stage that allows one to step on the path of Internal Cultivation. The user ignites the embers of their life essence, kindling the connection to hellfire. The generated Internal Force forms into a small bead in the dantian and gains a faint fiery hue, granting the ability to use basic hellfire for any application.

    Level 2 - Limbo Enkindling: The user''s mastery deepens, and their connection to Hellfire grows stronger. The mes of Limbo are evoked, allowing the user''s senses to escape their body and form a spiritual sense around them. This spiritual sense''s strength is based on the power of the user''s mind.

    Level 3 - Lustful Ignition: With each step, the user stokes the fires of desire and ambition, allowing them to manipte the minds of others for brief periods depending on the intensity of emotion. Strikes fueled by lustful mes deliver severe mental damage, breaking through physical defenses with ease.

    Level 4 - Gluttonous Inferno: The mes of Gluttony empower the user to devour the life, spiritual, and mental force of chosen targets for themselves, refining it with the purest hellfire to form nutrients for themselves. The users can also grant this converted and purified essence to others with varying effects.

    Level 5 - Greed''s Ember Flow: Upon reaching this level, the user can harness the undting energy of greed, creating a second and even third dantian to contain more Internal Force. Their Internal Force capacity soars by at least twofold, and the exact exponential increase is based on their constitution as well as the number of activated sub-dantians.

    Level 6 - Wrathful Congration: The user taps into the furious fires of Wrath, channeling their fury and rage into raw power. Strikes imbued with wrathful hellfire be nearly unstoppable, and the user can momentarily enter a state of controlled rage, granting immunity to pain as well as rapid regeneration and a direct increase in power by at least two-folds, with the exact amount dependent on their Strength value.

    Level 7 - Heretical Inferno: At this level, the user attains the ability to manipte their sinister hellfire in ways that challenge conventional martial arts. The hellfire''s heretical essence, upon contact with the foe, corrupts the opponent''s mind and pollutes it, converting it into hellfire demons that you can control.

    Level 8 - Violent Tempest ze: Drawing from the violence of the Inferno, the user creates a tempest of hellfire, enveloping their dantian and greatly magnifying the purity and potency of Internal Force. This raging inferno grants the ability of passive cultivation and allows for the wanton use of Internal Force to cast great AOE-like attacks at low costs.

    Level 9 - Fraudulent Pyre Mastery: The user, at this level, gains the power to weave illusions with hellfire, creating deceptive mirages that confuse and mislead opponents. This mastery of deception also enables them to generate hellfire clones that can act autonomously of the main body.

    Level 10 - Paradise''s Inferno Awakening: The pinnacle of the Inferno Ascension Technique merges the mes of all levels into a transcendent ze. The user bes a vessel of pure hellfire, radiating an aura that engulfs the surroundings. In this state, Internal Force coalesces and upgrades into True Qi, a unique and unmatched energy on the same level as the Spiritual Energy of the Immortal Worlds.]

    Dante was stunned. His eyes deeply flickered as he realized the uniqueness of Internal Arts, especially this one. Before selecting this art, he had examined many in the same fire section and saw that not all had the same levels.

    Internal Arts were also categorized into ranks depending on how many levels they had. Mortal rank arts had 3 levels, Earth rank arts had 5 levels, Heaven rank arts had 7 levels, and immortal rank arts had 10 levels.

    Simply looking at the kind of abilities he could acquire, even by the time Dante reached level 3, a Martial God would have to flee at the sight of him. He had spirit sense and could detect, track, and evade all your attacks as though he were in Ultra Instinct.

    He had lust mes to warp your mind as well as make you do foolish things, and could even prate the defense of your Blood Qi since it almostpletely ignored physical defenses. Even if you had a sea of blood Qi, it would be useless if it couldn''t drown a torpedo that lived in water.

    No wonder, upon seeing his talent and the technique he chose, those elders nearly lost theirposure on the spot. If it were not for Hao Donglei and a few concerns they had, they might have besieged Dante on the spot.

    Even Da Bo practically lost his mind and was about to attack directly when he saw Dante instantly achieve the first level. Even the most talented youngster would take a year or two to initiate themselves after chanting the mantra many times, yet he did it in a matter of minutes?

    Then wouldn''t he reach the Deity-like level 10 by tomorrow? At that point, a single wrong move from Dante could consign them to forgotten history.

    Dante pondered and grasped the cause and effect. His talent was remarkable, but thews were in ce. To test his understanding, he continued to chant the mantra and cultivate for another 30 minutes.

    A bright me ignited around his body, making him appear as if he were aze. The ckish-red fire simmered around him, consuming everything around him except for inanimate objects since he did not wish it to.

    After 30 minutes of cultivation, Dante stopped chanting and opened his eyes, his brow slightly furrowed. He could discern his progress with precision thanks to his affinity with the technique and knew that, in this time, his cultivation had only advanced by about 3%.

    Compared to achieving level 1 in just over 3 minutes or so, this required nearly ten times the duration for far less progress. However, in this moment, Danteprehended everything about Internal Cultivation and even External Cultivation, as well as how they were interconnected.

    It was quite straightforward when thought throughˇŞInternal Force was generated based on unique internal energies that were condensed into the internal force through the chant.

    Where did these energiese from? How were they generated? After consumption, how did they regenerate for further cultivation?

 Chapter 111 Insane Talent 3

    ?

    Naturally, the source was the body!

    Internal Force was refined by internal energies that were generated by your body, spirit, and soul. So, to put it simply, the higher your body, spirit, and soul, the faster you cultivated because you produced arge quantity of these internal energies.

    The reason why Dante had such a huge reaction was simple: he had huge stats at the time of cultivation. It was the fact that whether students or natives, no one would pass 10 points in any stat when they start cultivating either Internal or External Arts because it was impossible to surpass that limit without cultivating in the first ce.

    So when they cultivated for the first time, the reaction was not as great. Reaching level 1 could take about a year depending on talent, but going to level 2 and beyond would take more than double that time.

    The reason was kind of obvious. It was like having a full bottle of water and drinking it all at once to quench your thirst; you''d have a huge satisfaction.

    That bottle refilled itself, but it took time and was not instant. If you wanted to wait for it to fill, months may have passed, if not years depending on your talent and body''s quality. No one could wait that long and would rather cultivate day by day.

    So it was like filling a bowl with a slow tap and drinking out of it. You couldn''t even get one mouthful to gulp and would have to drink slowly over a long period of time to quench your thirst.

    Unfortunately, it was pointless and stupid to wait until it was full. The time you''d wait and the boom you would get consuming it all at once were practically equal to what you would get if you cultivated day by day.

    Even if you cultivated day by day, that was a real increase in your power, however small. If you waited months or years to enjoy the boom, pray someone doesn''t smash your head open by having just slightly better power than you.

    Assuming two people even had the exact same talent and used the exact same technique with the exact same body stats and they fought. Person A liked to umte and go up at once while Person B liked to cultivate day by day.

    Person A was at level 1, 36% of the technique, and his next boom would send him to level 1, 72%, which he was looking forward to. However, he was now fighting a life and death battle with Person B over benefits or some feud, where Person B, with the exact same stats and cultivation technique as him, was at level 1, 48% because he cultivated day by day and umted it over 3 months.

    Now, because of that 48%, Person A was heavily outmatched and was killed at the end. Wouldn''t that be a very foolish death?

    Dante also knew why achieving Internal Arts didn''t raise his stats because it required the body and mind''s stats to progress in the first ce!

    Internal arts users were even lucky that their stats didn''t drop from cultivating Internal Arts, much less hoping it would increase.

    But wait, if the way to increase my cultivation speed is to have better stats, then how do I achieve that? Wait a minute, those fellows over there glowing with blood Qi, they have such strong bodies and exuberant life force.

    !!!

    That''s it!

    And so, it was clear why Hao Donglei insisted that Dante cultivate both External and Internal Arts. After all, cultivating both would take time and would double the effort, but it was more than double the power.

    The synergy between External art and Internal Art was crucial, which was why Dante was made to select one that matched. As he could use his Internal cultivation to boost his External one, which would yield returns in boosting the Internal one and so on for a stronger degree with each cycle.

    If Internal Art users were not so rare, it was likely that this world would be fully under their control. Martial Gods and martial artists would not even have space to breathe and could only be cannon fodder in wars between Internal Arts users.

    But was Dante''s situation simr? Not exactly!

    Dante''s eyes flickered. He could quickly raise his SDI through absorbing stats until he hit the gic limit. Then he could either rely on gene treatments in the highly technological Eternal Universe or use hard work in the True Martial World''s External Art cultivation to break his gene limit and continue umting till the next barrier.

    Rinse and repeat!

    Using his increased stats, he could boom every time he advanced and rise through the levels in one go! What would take others years might be done in a few moments by him depending on his External Arts cultivation.

    Dante might reach level 10, something that even Internal Arts users of great talent who were still alive and had lived for centuries had not achieved, in less than a year!

    The very thought was preposterous and fear-inducing for anyone who was not on his side or his enemy. If the other students going into the Zero Gate with him saw this, they might just sell their souls to call down every armada in the universe to st Dante into bits.

    However, when Dante thought of this, his excitement and joy disappeared as his expression became ugly. Even with level 10 True Qi from the Inferno Ascension Technique and Blood Qi from the Raging Inferno Halberd Technique, he could not see how he would deal with Slessor''s Spatial Folding or Humphrey''s Aerogenesis.

    The former could just watch him as he released his mes as well as his Blood Qi and fold him into paper then put it in her pocket, while thetter would watch Dante use his means and then wave a hand to blow his skin off his bones.

    No wonder superpower users were the pinnacle of the Eternal Universe''s hierarchy given their technology and methods, they were really overpowered cheats with no fairness to them! If Dante wanted to survive such encounters, either he gained offensive or defensive superpowers of his own, or he could try to umte more Internal Arts or External Arts if he could crack the way to increase his talents.

    Like that Void Serenity Palm. With it, he could use spatial force to resist Slessor''s abilities and even block Humphrey''s own.

    However, Dante did not have space-rted internal talent.

    Or did he? He nced at the Quantum Entanglement superpower in his SDI row and various thoughts appeared in his mind. It didn''t show now, but what if he raised Quantum Entanglement up the ranks and integrated it with his body even better?

    Well, that was all for the future. Right now, the most important thing was to break the gene limit using External Arts, so Dante put away the manual for the Inferno Ascension Technique and nned to return it to the Techniques Hallter.

    He opened the Raging Inferno Halberd Technique''s manual and began reading it. It was thick and extensive, showing human body diagrams of the meridians, the various organs, and how they would be affected by cultivating.

    There were detailed illustrations of a male or female silhouette taking various stances and forms, both wielding a halberd and not. There were evenbat-rted tips and details on how to use the forms forbat in a systematic fighting style, how to inject blood Qi into the weapon and body at necessary points to maximize the use of the technique as well as things to avoid doing.

    It wasprehensive as hell and supremely simple to understand. Using this visual method, even the ill

    iterate could understand what to do and how to cultivate.

    However, there was also a lot more to memorize and understand, so it would not take a short while for a person to learn it all. They might spend a week or more just reading and memorizing before starting, but Dante, at 250 points of Intelligence plus with his AI chip and Psionics with him, recorded everything perfectly one time.

    He closed the manual and then called over a servant disciple. He gave the fellow the two techniques and told him to return them to the Techniques Hall in his name, then watched as the fellow scurried off.

    Jia Susu saw this and ran over, wondering why Dante didn''t hand such an important task to her. What if something happened to that disciple and he didn''t deliver it, or opened the books to sneak a read?

    Even worse, what if he didn''t deliver them or was intercepted and forced not to deliver? One should know that any of these scenarios could cause Dante significant trouble even if he was a core disciple.

    Dante could read her with ease as usual and smiled, patting her soft head. "In order to lure the cunning snake or the patient spider into a trap, you first need tempting bait."

 Chapter 112 Insane Talent 4

    ?

    Jia Susu didn''t really understand, but she didn''t want to seem dumb, so she said "oh." Dante chuckled and told her to monitor him from the side in case he needed anything while he thought about the details of the Raging Blood Halberd Technique.

    To begin, he didn''t actually have to start swinging a halberd from the get-go, but rather had to practice various forms and postures in order to activate his blood energy to temper those parts of the body. This was the method of the Body Tempering Realm of External Martial Arts that formed the foundation.

    In the heart of the martial training grounds, beneath the open sky, Dante immediately began his rigorous regimen.

    With the Raging Blood Halberd Technique manual reying in his mind, his focus was honed to a razor''s edge. He stood in a wide stance, emting the first posture, feeling the earth beneath his feet and the Qi coursing through his body like a dormant storm.

    His body became a canvas for the first form, the Awakening Stance.

    This stance was meant to open the channels and meridians. His arms curved in front of him, fingers inteced, palms pressed together. His breath came slow and deep, each inhale drawing the energy of the surroundings, each exhale releasing it into his core.

    As he transitioned to the second form, the Flowing River, his movements became fluid and unbroken.

    His arms swept out in a serpentine motion that mimicked the winding of a river. He visualized the coursing rivers of his own body, the meridians and energy pathways. Every step he took echoed the steady current of life energy within.

    He then moved to the third form, the Ascending Phoenix.

    Dante''s body seemed to lift effortlessly, his arms extending skyward like the wings of a majestic bird. He felt the blood energy rise, flowing along the pathways he had awakened, reaching the tips of his fingers. His skin tingled, alive with the surge of power.

    With the fourth form, the Eternal Tree, Dante rooted himself like a mighty oak.

    His legs bore the weight of his stance, his arms extended outward like branches. He imagined his bones growing stronger, like the unyielding wood of the tree, unbreakable and unbending.

    As the fifth form, the Harmonious Breath, was unfolded, Dante''s movements slowed significantly.

    He inhaled and exhaled with deliberate control, synchronizing his breath with the rhythm of the world around him. Each inhtion drew in the essence of the earth, and each exhtion released his own energy, harmonizing the inner and outer.

    The sixth form, the Roaring me, ignited Dante''s limbs with a fiery intensity.

    His arms swept down, fingers syed, as if casting mes downward. He focused on his blood energy, visualizing it as a roaring inferno that consumed obstacles in its path. His muscles pulsed with newfound strength.

    Now came the seventh form, the Halberd''s Embrace.

    Dante mimicked the motion of wielding a halberd, his body flowing with a newfound grace. He imagined the weapon as an extension of himself, each swing a dance of deadly precision. The blood energy surged in his arms, infusing the movements with power.

    Transitioning to the eighth form, the Crimson Tempest, Dante''s movements grew explosive.

    His body spun and twisted, his hands bing a blur as they carved through the air. He felt his blood energy churn like a storm, every strike a lightning bolt of power that coursed through his veins.

    Here came the ninth form, the Endless Spiral.

    Now, Dante moved his body in a spiral pattern, a continuous cycle of motion that mirrored the eternal cycle of life and death. He envisioned his blood energy as a vortex, drawing in the qi of the surroundings, amplifying it within himself.

    Finally, the tenth form, the Heavenly Convergence.

    This one brought Dante to a triumphant culmination as his movements slowed sequentially, his body radiating an aura of power. He stood tall, arms raised, palms facing upward. He felt his blood energy converge, pooling at his core like a zing sun.

    BOOM!

    An explosion audible to the ear sounded as Dante''s body, which had be redder and redder despite his dark skin, finally reached climax and released a palpable shockwave of power that sent dust flying and even damaged some of the stone tiles below his feet.

    Jia Susu, by the side, yelped in fear and covered herself as the strong wind pushed her against the wall. She could only look on with shock as the strong wave of air was continually released from Dante in a cycle, as if he was a powerful fan or engine.

    Dante''s face was full of ferocity as his veins and muscles bulged all over his body. Internally, his blood was currently flowing like a speedster, moving so fast that this was the source of the wind that came from him.

    The faster it moved, the more his blood boiled, and the more his blood boiled, the more his blood energy was activated. It coursed throughout his body and touched everything within him, from his organs to his viscera, his nerves, his bones, and even his marrow.

    As it churned, it continually imbued these fragile things with the power of blood energy, making them stronger and stronger as they began to glow with a red light. With every cycle, they absorbed a little bit more blood energy equally and became slightly stronger than before.

    This continued for hours as Dante continually released intense winds and maintained that final posture while Jia Susu had long run out and informed Hao Donglei in case something bad happened. Hao Donglei hade over, taken a long look, smiled, and then left, saying that Jia Susu only needed to collect 50 bowls of level 4 Demon Beast blood and then wait for Dante toe out of his trance.

    Jia Susu was shocked and filled with fear, as level 4 Demon beasts were Martial Masters! Even if she took a drop of such blood and diluted it, she would still melt like a burning candle and die from the sheer potency of the energy within.

    Yet the Vice Hall Master thought Dante could drink it without dilution, and even 50 of them???

    As the sun began to dip below the horizon, Dante finally came out of his trance as the winds subsided and his skin began to release smoke slightly.

    He had concluded his training, his body glistening with sweat while his heart pounded with power. Breathing heavily, Dante closed his eyes, feeling the residual energy thrumming within him.

    The training had been grueling, the hours passing like days, but Dante knew that this was only the beginning. The Raging Blood Halberd Technique was now etched into his very being, a part of his essence.

    Still, the benefits were monstrous, as he had broken through to the first sub-stage of the Body Tempering Realm, the Entry level. The sub-stages for External Martial Arts were split into 5; Entry, Minor Aplishment, Greater Aplishment, Mastery, and Perfection.

    Once he passed through all stages and reached the pinnacle of perfection, he could attempt to break through to the next realm, which was split into the same sub-stages, even up to the Martial God realm.

    What filled him with excitement was the fact that by entering the first level, he had stabilized his genes and

    even broken through the limit! In other words, Dante could continue farming stats once again, something he greatly looked forward to!

    His eyes flickered with passion and just as he was about to celebrate, his face changed greatly into one of horror and fear. His body began to shrivel up rapidly as if someone was directly draining his vitality, and his life force was slowly dissipating.

    He fell to his knees and was about to pass out when Jia Susu ran over with a bowl of blood energy soup and quickly poured it down his throat. Immediately, the rapid draining of his vitality seemed to slow down, and Dante saw a chance to survive.

    He weakly mouthed "more," and Jia Susu quickly poured more and more bowls down his throat, her hair matted with sweat and her chubby face flushed. Just being near this potent blood energy soup made her feel like her body was full of power, so how much more would Dante feel it?

    Yet even as she poured 20 bowls down, he was still shriveled and his consumption of his body''s life force had only barely bnced out. It wasn''t until he had swallowed 40 bowls that he began to recover and fill out like a balloon.

    When the 50th bowl was consumed, Dante was finally back to normal, and the man''s skin was flushed with power and energy. He stood up and patted Jia Susu on the head while thanking her for her thoughtfulness and help sincerely.

    Dante sighed and understood that he had been foolish. He knew that energy would be consumed for the practice of External Martial Arts, which was why blood energy soup even existed, but he thought that his energy bars from outside, which were still active in his body, could ount for it.

 Chapter 113 Gene Limit Broken

    ?

    To be honest, Dante was entirely at fault. This had urred due to a simple prejudice that was imperceptible, the fact that technology was superior to any other form of power progression one could conceive.

    Especially in rtion to this wuxia world, which was not even one with immortal cultivation, how could their backward society create something better than the Eternal Universe?

    The energy bars he had eaten were the perfect source of nutrients needed for him to sustain such a high SDI, and it was not likely that anything in this world could easily achieve it, especially not with the same production value and affordability.

    While that was true, they also had something better, which was blood energy soup of higher levels. Not only was it better, but it was also more tailored to the needs of the practice of martial arts than energy bars.

    Energy bars were not just raw energy but enough nutrients to sustain your health and body. Blood energy soup was raw blood energy, so the efficiency when used for cultivation of external arts was vastly different.

    Just like how there was no way for Dante to subsist on just blood energy soup every day to maintain his body assuming he was not cultivating and was just eating. He wouldck other nutrients needed to keep his body functioning at tip-top shape.

    This was a severe lesson for him, one he would never forget.

    Dante noticed that it was about to be evening and returned to his residence with Jia Susu. He noticed that she had not called in extra servant disciples and gave her a meaningful look, which made the young girl lower her head with a bit of shame.

    Anyway, Dante didn''t care much. If Jia Susu wanted to monopolize him, she was free to do so as long as she could handle the pressure. In fact, Dante even patted her back and pointed into the distance.

    "Go to the Resources Hall and collect a bowl of Level 1 Demon Beast Blood Energy Soup."

    Jia Susu was stunned before her expression changed greatly. "After today, she definitely knew that Dante could not and would not use mere level 1 Demon Beast Blood Energy Soup since it would be no different from water to him.

    The only one who could possibly benefit from it was her, who was a servant disciple not entitled to any benefits of the hall except their most basic External Art technique called the Supreme Fist.

    As for resources, she had to fight for it through their contributions. However, apart from being weak and having low martial talent, how could she possibly gather enough contributions sweeping the floor?

    Even outer disciples who had 3 months free and had to pay a fee every month only needed to pay that fee to get 1 free bowl each month rted to their realm. Servant disciples didn''t even get that basic amount and coupled with shitty talent, they would be lucky to even enter the entry level of Body Tempering before they died.

    This was why it was a great struggle to be affiliated with either an inner or core disciple because if you served them well, they could casually use their authority to support you. The hall also knew this and tacitly supported it, so servant disciples tended to take this opportunity seriously.

    Jia Susu only got the chance because she had been quick to approach Dante. If she had not been the closest and reacted the fastest, another servant disciple would have rushed over and taken the chance.

    Not to mention that she was female, so the other males nearby didn''t bother because why would a male take a male servant disciple under his wing when they were ripe young females?

    Unless, of course, such male core disciples hadˇ­ unique interests. In that case, there was still no need to rush over because he would shoo the female servant disciple and pick the male that suited his tastes.

    Jia Susu did not think her chance woulde anytime soon as Dante didn''t even take her to pound town as she expected and prepared for. She was overwhelmed with favor and a little bit scared because she grew up in this dog-eat-dog world and knew that nothing was free.

    If Dante took her virginity and used her in that regard, she would have paid her cost and would feel secure in her enjoyment of resources.

    Dante once again read her thoughts and sighed. "You are simply not my type. I also have a fianc¨¦e who might not support polygamy, and her strength is higher than mine. If she finds out I partook of your forbidden fruit, she might punch me into meatpaste."

    Jia Susu froze as her ears became red. She felt a hint of disappointment at being bluntly told that she was not sexually appealing, and also lost the chance to be the partner of such a talented core disciple.

    However, she was also ttered that Dante bothered to exin to her and understood that there was nothing she could do. As such, she extinguished all such thoughts, and her demeanor seemed to be a lot more natural as well as rxed.

    "Yes, thank you, Master!" Jia Susu bowed respectfully before running off to get the free bowl of Blood Energy Soup.

    Dante shook his head and entered the room, leaving his virtual body on the bed casually and logging out. Once back in the real world, he nced at Beatrice, who was lounging around as usual.

    When she saw Dante had returned, she smiled. "I can sense your happiness from here. Did you break through to the entry level?"

    Danteughed. "Not only that, but I have an Internal Art that is of the immortal grade as well as seemingly high talent!"

    Beatrice''s eyes lit up as she sat up immediately. "Really? That''s amazing! I also had a strong talent for an Internal Art of the light element, which was also of the immortal grade, but it doesn''t work when I try to cultivate it in reality."

    Hearing this, Dante''s heart skipped a beat as he remembered. "Also, have you heard of the Divine Comedy? Written by an ancient Italian poet?"

    "Huh?" Beatrice seemed confused. She then searched for information using her AI chip and closed her eyes for a second or two before opening them with a strange light.

    She simply stared at Dante speechlessly. In the end, she could only say with a wry smile: "I guess we really are fated."

    Dante nodded. He then exined the nature of his Internal Art as well as his spections while Beatrice also shared that her light element internal art was called the True Devotion Record, which granted her extra power based on the strength of her devotion and conviction.

    "Well, I guess nothing happens for no reason. I have to enter the Apocalypse World to deal with my new gene breakthrough and gain more power," Dante said with a smile.

    As Beatrice supportively nodded, he logged into the Apocalypse World and descended into his virtual body first to see if there was any danger.

    When he opened his eyes, the room was still calm, and there was nothing wrong. He felt a deluge of weakness as the attributes of this body were at 1 point for each state, reducing him back to mortal status.

    Dante descended with his real body and the usual inspection, error, and reluctant eptance of the AI of this world urred. He shook his head and took his belongings that he left thest time, forsaking the guns and using only the halberd and the light armor.

    He didn''t bother to buy any food or supplies as nothing they sold in these outposts could help, and you could be sure

    that after his lesson in the True Martial World, he had his AI Chip scan the forums for any special items.

    Even thest time he visited the armory with his real body, he had the AI chip scan all the items and keep it in his database.

    However, Dante eventually hesitated and turned around. He rushed through each shop and outlet, even the ck market, for anything that could help. There were some interesting items for sure that he bought, but they were useless because they couldn''t be taken out of the world.

    The only reason he even bought them was that he assumed that eventually, his superpower might allow him to carry things in and out of quantum worlds, so in that case, these items could prove somewhat useful.

    Once done, Dante ced them in his room in the outpost then rushed out into the wilds like a storm. The guards at the gate were dumbfounded until they remembered this young ancestor who had been making noise about 2 days ago.

    He seemed to have gone silent for a couple of days and was now back, eh? Why did the guards feel like when he came back, he might be even more monstrous than he already was?

 Chapter 114 Reaching The Next Boundary

    ?

    Dante encountered more than a few F-rank monsters on his way and dispatched them. He wouldn''t arrogantly im that he was too big for them or that they would waste his time.

    A person with devouring talent would be a fool to let go of anything that could increase their power unless it literally brought no numerical increase to their power. Dante knew that many behaved this way due toziness, feeling that these small morsels were not worth the effort.

    Well, he didn''t particrly mind anyway. The more of them he killed, the higher his payout score at the end of the 30-day period. Not to mention, all the F-rank Mutation Cores could either be sold for money or traded for higher-level Mutation Cores from those in need.

    In this run, Dante''s Absorption superpower had reached the E Rank, just like in the previous one, so his conversion rate on absorbed stats was 20%. If he could raise it higher, the conversion rate would increase, and he could gain more per corpse, reducing his workload.

    BOOM!

    BANG!

    PEW!!

    Continuous explosions and shockwaves resounded throughout these zones, causing all nearby F, E, and D-rank monsters to feel uneasy. The higher their rank, the more they felt this because even with limited intelligence, they could tell that these reverberations were dangerous.

    The kind of being that could do this was not something they could handle. They might be territory masters, but they still didn''t want to die, so many began to either flee, hide, or n to flee.

    However, against Dante, who was moving at the speed of Mach 10, faster than The sh during years 1-5 until he met Wally West, how could they match? Just knowing the kind of things The sh could do with Mach 3-4 speed should tell you how insane Mach 10 speed was.

    Before many could even run, Dante had entered their territory and casually sliced them in half with his halberd whilezily absorbing their corpses, then moving on. By the time an hour had passed, he had already killed over a thousand F-rank monsters, most in passing, more than 70 E-rank monsters, and 30 D-rank monsters.

    Now, his SDI was at its peak once more as Dante sweated painfully and exploded with a heatwave mixed with his infernal hellfire energy that sprayed over an area of 3 kilometers, incinerating everything in the way.

    Dante panted and checked his SDI with a smile, even as his armor and halberd had been reduced to nothingness.

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 5000/5000

    Strength: 250 -> 500

    Agility: 250 -> 500

    Dexterity: 250 -> 500

    Intelligence: 250 -> 500

    Constitution: 250 -> 500

    Vitality: 250 -> 500

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    Dante''s power in all regards had doubledprehensively.

    In terms of Strength, he could now perform a kiai cannon if he wished, just using a flick from his finger. Or rather than the obscure kiai cannon, one could say that Dante could use force push by just waving his hands and create a tempest by pping his palms together, like the Hulk.

    In terms of Agility, he was akin to someone with the spatial power to teleport over short distances. His current maximum speed had gone from 12500 km/h to 25,000 km/h, which was Mach 20.

    25,000 km/h meant that he crossed 1 kilometer in 144 milliseconds, or 0.144 seconds. In 15% of a single second''s span of time, Dante could cross a whole kilometer, something that took a normal person on a treadmill more than a few minutes to achieve if they were running.

    In terms of Dexterity, he could probably be a Lego builder in real life and disassemble as well as reassemble even the most broken things together. His attack speed with weapons was just as crazy as his movement speed, and before you could even say hi, you were probably cut into hundreds of cubes of meat and blood.

    It also meant that in terms of writing and art, Dante would probably make every artist in the home universe worship him. Aside from that, if Dante ever chose to do Tradeskills like cksmithing, alchemy/pharmacy, or the like, which had coordination requirements, he would be at the level of a grandmaster from the start.

    In terms of Intelligence, well, even if Dante never had the AI chip, he could perform supeputer-level calctions using his mind alone. He could lie down and simte different scenarios in his head ande to various conclusions. His brain could also move at sh speed, making the world pause around him so that he could react to things freely.

    Most importantly, he was now at the basic threshold to safely use psychic power. However, he could only use a very rough telekinesis that was weak, not very precise, and heavily taxed his mental stamina, as well as short-range telepathy.

    In terms of Constitution, Dante could now take a tank''s shot head-on and rebuff it with only a light scratch on his chest. He could also take a hit from a railgun and only smoke a little as a ck patch would appear on his chest, but he wouldn''t even move a step back.

    He had already experienced this when he started increasing his SDI above 50 points, but the need for excretion dropped severely as very little of what he consumed was wasted. His consumption was too high for there to be waste, and his body would greedily take all it could get. Likewise, his energy consumption had doubled, and what couldst him 3 days now couldst 1 and a half in idle time.

    In terms of Vitality, Dante''s lifespan was longer than that of some immortal cultivators. His cells were too powerful and vibrant, full of lifeforce that was spewing out casually. If he got injured, he could probably regenerate everything but his heart and head. Everything else was negotiable as long as he was willing to replenish the energy consumed to regenerate them.

    Overall, Dante had reached a new level ofpetency that he enjoyed greatly. Of course, he could only smile wryly at his destroyed weapon and friction-resistant armor that cost a lot and were strong enough to even defeat D-rank monsters with rtive ease.

    In the face of his Internal Force at a mere level 1, even these things could not withstand it. That went to show just how powerful Internal Arts and Internal Force were, especially the type Dante had.

    He wasn''t surprised though, as even in the world it originated from, which was a power/strength-based world, Internal arts users were already very dangerous from an early stage against the mainstream power system of external arts.

    How much more a lesser world like this Apocalypse World? While they had far superior technology and could likely match the True Martial World in other aspects at the highest level, it was still not a power-based world.

    Dante clenched his fist and stood up. He looked down at his donger that was pping in the wind and

    felt a bit embarrassed, so he packed up the Mutation Cores he had collected this time. They were not affected by his hellfire as they were indestructible unless used.

    Dante decided to upgrade his Absorption to the D Rank using 10 E Rank Mutation Cores.

    [Superpower Name: Absorption

    Superpower Rank: D

    Superpower Description: Allows the user to absorb the energy of a defeated foe, increasing their own SDI by arge amount.]

    The conversion rate was now 40%, which made Dante''s eyes light up. Wait, did that mean that rather than additive, the conversion rate increased multiplicatively?

    So rather than it being F rank = 10%, E Rank = 20%, D Rank = 30%, C Rank = 40%, B Rank = 50%, A Rank = 60%, S Rank = 70%, SS Rank = 80%, SSS Rank = 90%, and EX Rank = 100%, it was rather F rank = 10%, E Rank = 20%, D Rank = 40%, C Rank = 80%, B Rank = 160%, A Rank = 320%, S Rank = 640%, SS Rank = 1280%, SSS Rank = 2560%, and EX Rank = 5120%?

    That was certainly a very terrifying thought. The person who had this ability in real life must be going crazy with the desire for the ck Land, wishing he could ughter Headmistress Lara and all the new students, then live there 24/7 to increase the grade of his superpower.

    ording to what Dante knew, most unique batch students upon graduation did not surpass the C Rank in terms of potency unless they had a potential above the A Rank. Only once in a blue moon did talents reach the B rank at graduation, and only one person in history had reached the A rank at graduation.

    Yes, you guessed it, that monstrous talent that had set a new universal record was the headmistress herself!

 Chapter 115 The Current State Of Progress

    ?

    Of course, that was because above the D rank, one could no longer actively absorb Zero Energy to raise the grade of their superpowers. Instead, they had to start prehending'' them and the rules behind them in order to progress further, along with fulfilling some requirements for the Zero Energy, of course.

    Otherwise, afterpleting school, those alumni wouldn''t care about the ck Land and would only continueprehending wherever they were. The difference was that in the Apocalypse World, one only needed mutation cores. The superpowers granted here and their growth were based on the real variants, so the person who had this in reality once or currently could achieve the same numbers.

    Dante used 10 D Rank Mutation cores to increase the Absorption Superpower to the C Rank.

    [Superpower Name: Absorption

    Superpower Rank: C

    Superpower Description: Allows the user to absorb the energy of a defeated foe, increasing their own SDI by a significant amount.]

    Just as he thought, it was the multiplicative method as his conversion rate was now 80%! The next time he had to raise his stats, he would use even less time to achieve his goal.

    Just as well, Dante went around hunting some F Rank and E Rank monsters using his newfound power. He didn''t have to worry about the monsters judging him for being naked and pping his donger about since Dante was moving in a realm where time seemed to be frozen due to his speed.

    Then, he withdrew his real body from the virtual world but left his consciousness down in his virtual body. He then ced his hands on all the corpses and absorbed them wantonly, grunting in a mixture of pleasure and pain from the increase from 1 point in all stats to virtually hundreds.

    In one go, his stats had probably caught up to his real body, which was what Dante wanted anyway. He couldn''t always leave a weak and hapless body behind and hope for the best. He had to make sure that even if someone wanted to harm his virtual body, they couldn''t achieve it even with hours of time.

    Dante collected the various cores and then rushed back to the outpost, charging inside at great speeds so that no one could see his naked form. The guards didn''t even see hime over as he passed by them, only feeling a slight wind.

    He entered his house, ced his body down, and then hid the various cores he had collected. After all, even if his body was powerful, it didn''t stop thieves from trying to score big even though he had a small reputation in this outpost.

    After doing this, he logged out once more. When he opened his eyes in his real body, he suddenly moaned unwillingly. He looked down to see that Beatrice was already sucking his ''life essence'' from his body using her great skill and tyrannical stats to tease him.

    Dante could only grit his teeth and raise his head upwards in the face of such marvelous skill. When his consciousness was not here to feel it, his body responded normally, but it was much more resistant now.

    However, now that he was here, he felt it all and knew that with this kind of power, he wouldn''tst.

    Mark it down, the stories had lied. It was said that the higher your physical and mental stats, the less you felt stimuli, whether physical or emotional, but it was a lie. Rather, the higher your stats, the more you felt everything, but your tolerance also increased.

    What allowed one to be seemingly robotic like in the stories was your increased control. Dante could choose not to feel what he was experiencing, but why would he do that? If it was pain, he could certainly mute it, but at its full power, pleasure was more than he could fathom.

    No wonder Beatrice hadsted more than a few minutes when he went down on her. It wasn''t just that she was very new to these sensations, but that her stats made her sensitivity terrifyingly high.

    Dante was convinced that if he transferred his current intensity of stimtion to a person with 1 point in every stat, they would either explode, or their body would shut down.

    Well, Dante did explode, and in a way that Beatrice liked very much as she greedily swallowed it all, even massaging the base of his shaft and his balls as if trying to coax out more.

    However, Dante was terrified as this one shot had drained more than 40% of his body''s energy. The higher his life level, the more potent his white juice, and the more enjoyment his partners would get from consuming or receiving it down there.

    The same held true for powerful women like Beatrice. Going down on them was like sticking your tongue into a warm bowl of the best ambrosia. Whether it was Dante or Augeus, Beatrice''s dad, they had enjoyed a sumptuous meal that more than 99.99% of the denizens of the Eternal Universe would never experience.

    After Beatrice sucked him dry, she stood up and licked the remainder from the side of her lips with a look of satisfaction and enjoyment, her hands on her hips as she nced at the panting Dante who looked a bit shriveled.

    Seeing Dante''s look of resentment, Beatrice shamelessly smiled and quickly changed the topic. "So I can definitely tell by taste that you have be much stronger. What are you going to do now?"

    Dante paused and pondered. The obvious answer was to head to the Martial Arts world to cultivate, but after reaching this next threshold, he understood more about the rtionship between stats and martial power.

    Beatrice also knew that, which was why she asked. Dante still decided to make the sensible action and spent the rest of the time cultivating.

    "Nothing significant can happen until the next 3 weeks when I enter the ck Land. Even though it might not yield the results I want, it''s still the most pragmatic choice," Dante stated thoughtfully.

    "Also, if I dare to stay here, who knows if I will be a shriveled husk in 3 days'' time?" Dante stated with a re at Beatrice, whoughed unscrupulously.

    "You can''t me me for being greedy. Who asked you to taste good?" She said like a bandit, leaving Dante speechless.

    Deciding not to argue with her, Dante entered the True Martial World. He connected to his still sleeping body and decided to continue in order to rest. After all, he had been moving up and down continuously for so long and had just been sucked dry by Beatrice, so he decided to rest.

    The reason why he didn''t sleep in the real world was that the system calcted the active time you spent and ranked you based on that. Since he was going to be in here, he might as well umte more active time.

    Dante opened his eyes in the morning and found Jia Susu cleaning the ce diligently with beads of sweat dripping down her chubby and youthful face. Dante smiled and patted her head before walking out of his residence to the practice area.

    When Dante entered the practice area, he saw that the students were lined up as usual with the addition of a few new faces.

    At the very front stood 7 people of varying colors, heights, and genders, but the one thing that ran through was that they all wore the same gi as Dante and possessed the core disciples'' token on their waists.

    When Dante entered, they all nced at him with different glints in their eyes. Some smiled, some frowned, some sneered and someughed. Dante only nced at them cursorily and then looked away, moving to stand at the end of the core disciples'' line.

    Soon, Da Bo came and performed the usual morning greeting then began the ss for the day. Dante left afterward and moved to the ce where he trained the other time before summoning a passing servant disciple.

    "Go and bring 5 bowls of Level 4 Blood Energy Soup from the Resources Hall," Dante stated as he threw his token over.

    The servant disciple fumbled then caught it before bowing and rushing out. He was excited as he had a chance to win Dante''s favor if he performed well and could possibly be recruited by him. If not, at least he would be remembered by Dante.

    Dante watched him go then smiled strangely.

    Another piece of bait was thrown out.

    Will this one pick? Who knows.

    Whatever the case, Dante sat cross-legged and then focused on his dantian. The lively ckish-red bead was still there and waiting to be fed, so Dante began chanting the mantra of the Inferno Ascension technique.

    Once again, his body exploded into a huge bonfire as great amounts of energy were collected and converted into Internal Force.

    The size of the ze around him was twice that of the previous time and was noticeable even outside of the Supreme Martial Hall''s courtyard, making passersby wonder if someone had been crazy enough to set fire to the ce.

 Chapter 116 The Core Disciples Of The Supreme Martial Hall

    ?

    Of course, it was entirely impossible for anyone within Green Wind City, and even the entire Green Feather Province, to do such a thing even if they were given a potion of bravery.

    Dante ignored the outside world as he continued to charge forward like this for a total of 10 minutes, more than twice the time taken when he previously cultivated with a ''full tank''. When Dante closed his eyes and came to, the bonfire around him was sucked back into his body as if nothing happened.

    In this time, the core disciples who were still around were shocked by the scene they had just watched.

    Among the core disciples, there was the first ce Li Zhi, a tall and slender young man with a graceful demeanor. His ck hair was tied in a high topknot, and his almond-shaped eyes held an air of elegance.

    Li Zhi came from a prestigious family with a history of martial prowess. He had always been hailed for his natural grace and mastery of softness-based techniques. He was currently at the Perfection Stage of the Martial Blood Realm, one step from bing an Entry-level Martial Master.

    Seeing Dante''s fiery disy, he raised an eyebrow, intrigued by the neer''s unique cultivation method.

    In second ce was Mei Lin, a short and energetic girl with fiery red hair, known for her explosive force techniques. Her spirited nature was reflected in her freckled cheeks and bright green eyes. Mei Lin hailed from a small vige and was self-taught in martial arts.

    She was initially skeptical of Dante''s approach but couldn''t deny the intense energy radiating from his cultivation. She was also at the Perfection Stage of the Martial Blood Realm, but was slightly worse than Li Zhi.

    In third ce among the core disciples was Liu Yang, a stoic and serious-looking young man with a shaved head, who practiced durability maintenance techniques. His muscr build and stern gaze gave him a formidable appearance. Liu Yang had faced many hardships growing up and had always relied on his endurance to ovee challenges.

    He watched Dante with a contemtive expression, recognizing the power emanating from him. He was currently at the Mastery stage of the Martial Blood Realm.

    Of course, not forgetting the popr Shui Binn - the fourth Core Disciple - who stood out with her air of mystery. Her long, ebony hair flowed like a river down her back, and her deep blue eyes held an enigmatic allure. Shui Binn had been recruited due to her exceptional bone and blood quality.

    Her cultivation was unique, based on the purity of her life energy rather than traditional techniques. She observed Dante with curiosity, silently wondering about his connection to such intense energy.

    She was a dual cultivator of Internal Arts and External Arts like Dante, so she was the least pressured. In terms of Internal Arts, she was at level 1, 90%, while in terms of External Arts, she was at the Perfection stage of the Martial Warrior Realm.

    In fifth was Wu Jian, a middle-aged man with a calm and collected demeanor, specialized in stamina consumption reduction techniques. His salt-and-pepper hair and disciplined posture showed his years of martial experience. Wu Jian had joined the Core Disciples through rigorous training and had always valued efficiency.

    He watched Dante''s cultivation with a knowing smile, appreciating the efficiency in his technique. He himself was at the Mastery stage of the Martial Blood Realm.

    The reason why an older disciple like him could be epted was that he was also the best Alchemist in the city''s hall, and the level 3 and above Blood Energy Soup could not be made without him.

    The sixth core disciple was Lin Mei, a petite and gentle-looking girl with delicate features who practiced flow-based techniques. Her long, dark hair framed her soft face, and her eyes sparkled with kindness. Lin Mei came from a humble background and had always believed in the harmonious flow of energy.

    She watched Dante''s fiery cultivation with a mixture of awe and wonder. She was currently at the Great Aplishment Stage of the Martial Blood Realm.

    Finally, the seventh core disciple, Chen Wei, a tall and muscr young man with a carefree smile, focused on explosive force techniques. His braided hair and easygoing expression made him approachable. Chen Wei''s upbringing in a remote vige had instilled in him a love for carefree living.

    He was genuinely impressed by Dante''s disy, recognizing the potential for immense power. He was also at the Great Aplishment stage of the Martial Blood Realm.

    As Dante''s cultivation came to an end, a hushed silence enveloped the courtyard. There was an air of strangeness as everyone contemted Dante''s Internal Force talent and wondered if they could reach this level or surpass it.

    Whenparisons were made, many expressions darkened or directly became ugly, and the looks that Dante got were no longer as respectful. It was more intense for the inner disciple who valued every core disciple spot and knew for sure that the hall could not feed more than 10 such people.

    However, due to her sheer talent, Shui Binn practically swallowed two spots with how many resources she consumed to advance rapidly.

    Looking at this Dante fellow, he might just consume thest spot if his consumption was as great as Shui Binn''s!

    Thinking like this, they could not sit still. You could beat them, you could cheat them, but they definitely would not allow you to cut off their path of advancement as that concerned their future!

    Dante ignored everyone and checked his results. He was only slightly pleased because his ckish-red bead containing his internal force had almost doubled in size, but he had not yet broken through to the second level and acquired the much-desired spirit sense.

    [yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    Faction: Supreme Martial Hall (Kingdom-level)

    Internal Arts: Inferno Ascension Technique (Level 1: Ante-Inferno Ember Stage, 95%)

    External Arts: Raging Blood Halberd Technique (Body Tempering, Entry Level, 1%)

    Strength: 500

    Agility: 500

    Dexterity: 500

    Intelligence: 500

    Constitution: 500

    Vitality: 500

    Money: 0 copper coins, 0 silver taels, 0 gold bars.]

    He was just 5% away from the second level. Dante couldn''t help but sigh internally that this method of growth was truly fast. He had already surpassed Shui Binn, who had been a core disciple longer than him, in just 3 days of cultivation.

    Of course, the means by which he achieved this feat were one in a trillion and could only be replicated by him alone for now. With his current SDI and cultivation speed, he should be able to clear thatst 5% in about a week.

    5% Internal Arts cultivation speed a week was super fast, nowhere near long, thanks to his high SDI. Another person might have to spend 4 months even if they had the same talent and cultivation method as Dante without the benefits of his high SDI.

    However, Dante''s eyes flickered as he thought about his special cultivation cycle, which should influence his growth positively. He then looked to the side to see the servant disciple he sent over carrying 5 bowls of the level 4 blood energy soup he requested.

    A hint of surprise and disappointment couldn''t help but sh in Dante''s eyes. Really, no one took the second bait he cast? Were these people not like the cultivators he read about in the books who

    made stupid decisions 24/7?

    Or maybe he was too obvious? Whatever.

    Dante took the soup and drank all 5 of them in one go, making the eyes of the servant disciple pop out. Just as he expected Dante to explode from the rampaging energy, his face did not even flush as Dante licked his lips with a look of dissatisfaction.

    "Go and bring 5 moreˇ­ no, 15 more bowls. Please make it quick." Dantemanded as he left the token with the fellow.

    The servant disciple muttered his acknowledgment shakily and then ran out. It was as if he was scared that if he remained there for one more second, Dante would transform into a demon beast and swallow him with one gulp.

    Dante looked at the sprinting fellow with a hint of amusement before deciding to start practicing the Raging Blood Halberd Technique. He entered the 10 postures, from the Awakening Stance to the Flowing River, then the Ascending Phoenix, leading to the Eternal Tree stance, the Harmonious Breath, the Roaring me, the Halberd''s Embrace, the Crimson Tempest, the Endless Spiral, and finally, the Heavenly Convergence.

    Once Dantepleted the full cycle, his blood energy boiled and coursed throughout his body once more, the soup he just consumed rushing to all parts of his body and tempering them as part of the details of the realm as well as the technique itself.

    30 minutester, Dante stopped and moved to drink the already brought over bowls of blood energy soup, but his expression was not filled with satisfaction like before, but slightly ugly and gloomy.

 Chapter 117 The Universe Is Balanced

    ?

    The reason was that Dante had been dealt a p to the face by the universe. In the end, the universe was fair and bnced, as Dante did not possess a cheat like those other transmigrators who could ignore itsws and rules.

    He was subject to the rules of the universe, and even his Quantum Entanglement could not escape this, granted by a higher-dimensional being or not. There was no truly perfect method in the universe, and Dante was shown this through his current practice.

    The reason? Take a look yourself!

    [yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    Faction: Supreme Martial Hall (Kingdom-level)

    Internal Arts: Inferno Ascension Technique (Level 1: Ante-Inferno Ember Stage, 95%)

    External Arts: Raging Blood Halberd Technique (Body Tempering, Entry Level, 4%)

    Strength: 500

    Agility: 500

    Dexterity: 500

    Intelligence: 500

    Constitution: 500

    Vitality: 500

    Money: 0 copper coins, 0 silver taels, 0 gold bars.]

    The heck!

    After a whole 30 minutes of full-power practice, he had only gone up 3% of the Entry level? One should know that there was the Entry level, the Minor Aplishment level, the Great Aplishment, the Mastery, and Perfection stages, all of which went from 1% to 100%.

    And it should be obvious, but breaking through a minor stage would not stabilize nor limit break his genes, but just raise his stats. However, the current External Arts stage he was at was too weak to yield any stat increases to him.

    He didn''t cultivate External Arts for the stats anyway, so that didn''t matter. He needed to break through his genes, and the only way to do so was to enter the Martial Warrior Entry level. Every major stage breakthrough would allow him to stabilize his genes and umte more stats in the Apocalypse World.

    So finding out that his breakthrough speed was slow was a big blow for him. At the rate he was going, did it mean that he would need 10 minutes for every 1% of progress, even when supplied with level 4 Blood Energy Soup?

    Assuming that the difficulty of cultivation never increased and the resources were constantly and stably provided, that meant he would need 34 days and 20 hours to reach the peak of Body Tempering and breakthrough.

    This was not conducive to his ns as the above estimate was very conservative and did not ount for the fact that he obviously could not practice 24/7. That 34 days and 20 hours meant cultivating External Arts non-stop that entire time while having someone by the side pouring Blood Energy Soup into his mouth.

    Not to mention that the difficulty increased with each sub-stage. What could get him 3% in 10 minutes at the entry level might only get 2.5% every 10 minutes at the minor aplishment stage.

    If it was so easy to climb, then the other Core Disciples who had been here years before him would already be Martial Gods looking down on the world.

    However, these were all misceneous reasons, to be honest. Even with all this, with Dante''s talent, it should not take so long, especially with the ''infinite'' resources that the hall was willing to provide him.

    The real reason was actually quite funny when you thought about it.

    What was the point of External Arts? Why did the people of this world mostly practice it? Why did those who had Internal Arts not dedicate themselves to its cultivation 24/7 but split their attention to cultivate External Arts even though Internal Arts were superior by far?

    It wasn''t as Dante previously thought, just toplement Internal Arts.

    External Arts were cultivated purely to raise the body''s stats!

    Yes, this was obvious. However, the obviousness of itpletely missed Dante when he was making ns. He thought that by having a higher body SDI, it would make his cultivation faster because he didn''t need to add stats but just breakthrough.

    This was an easy assumption to make if one didn''t understand eastern fantasy worlds such as this, as well as the rules of cultivation, whether wuxia or xianxia style.

    People in this world started from between 1-10 points in all stats and raised those stats while in the Body Tempering stage through the infusion of blood energy, refining their body and strengthening it.

    Then, they broke their gene limit (called ''bottleneck'' by them) and then ascended to the Martial Warrior realm where they would start condensing their blood energy into the fabled blood Qi bit by bit.

    Then there were the other realms with their various rules, but the long and short of it was that it was designed for people climbing from the bottom going upwards, not for someone already at the top.

    This was the essence of the problem. Just thinking about it, how hard is it to ''refine'' the body of a person with 10 pointspared to a person with 250 points?

    It was like you, a normal person, trying to use a hammer to smash an ice cube into smaller pieces versus using that same hammer to smash a segment of iron into pieces. It was obviously easier and quicker to do the former.

    Basically, the standard for Body Tempering for Dante had not be easier due to high stats, but rather increased. The higher his stats, the more it would increase because he needed to infuse his entire body with blood energy to a satisfactory level before he could begin to refine blood Qi at the Martial Warrior level.

    It was not a realm he could skip, so Dante could only pinch his nose and bear with it. He wondered if Hao Donglei knew about this when recruiting him and knew that so many resources would be wasted on his growth.

    Could the Supreme Martial Hall bear it? Just to reach Martial Warrior realm, Dante did not know how many bowls of level 4 Blood Energy Soup he would drink. This was usually reserved for the elders and vice hall master, but it was the basic requirement for him.

    That was equivalent to Martial Master Demon Beasts, and someone needed to go out and hunt them. They didn''t just drop from the sky out of nowhere. That was the job of Acquisition Elder Wu Jian and was why he was so full of killing intent and severity because he was constantly out of the hall killing high-level demon beasts for resources.

    Dante realized he would have to change his mindset. He would need to invest time in this world to go out and hunt demon beasts to acquire his resources and also make money. He initially did not care about the 0 coins, 0 taels, and 0 bars on his money column, but it was now very jarring.

    Dante could alternatively opt to sit here 24/7 and drink all the bowls he could get while increasing his cultivation, and no one would dare to question him, but could old man Wu Jian even keep up with his consumption?

    Why did he feel like the level 4 Demon Beasts would gather into an army of evil spirits and rush at him to fight to the death.

    Eh, even if they did, his hellfire was even more effective on spirits than living bodies and would torment them into nothingness.

    With this in mind, Dante did not stop his practice. Since there were 27 days until the next visit to the ck Land, he decided to spend all of them practicing so he entered a very

    stable routine in the Supreme Martial Hall.

    In the morning, he would enter the practice area and have Jia Susu bring him 50 bowls of Level 4 Blood Energy Soup then practice the technique for up to 6 hours non-stop. At noon, he would go for etiquette sses for 1 hour, and then from 1 pm in the afternoon till 7 pm, he would practice the Inferno Ascension technique.

    After 7 pm, he would log out and spend some time with Beatrice and replenish his energy with Energy Bars. Beatrice stated that there was a higher-level resource called the Energy Core, but his stats were too low to use it.

    When Dante asked why it was not known, she replied that it was made specifically for her since her stats were the assumed highest in the universe. Mere energy bars could not maintain someone with 20,000 points in all fields, even for a second.

    Dante was speechless.

    Like this, the remaining time until the ss of 10998''s first-year Unique Batch could enter the ck Land hade around. When the various students stepped out of their residences to head to ss, many did not look much different.

    After all, they had spent their time in virtual worlds farming Supercoins, so if anything, their demeanors became slightly different, either crueler, kinder, or more cunning depending on where they spent their time and how.

    However, no matter how any of them observed the other, nothing was more shocking and horror-inducing than Dante''s change when they nced at him.

    In terms of aura, power, and mentality, he seemed to be a different person altogether!

 Chapter 118 Difference In Life Level

    ?

    In their eyes, looking at Dante seemed to drag them into an illusion that they were standing on a small rock that was red-hot. Around them was a wastnd of burning fire for as far as the eye could see, with small pools of ckish-redva here and there.

    In each of these pools, there were hundreds of deformed human bodies screaming in limitless agony as they tried to struggle out and climb from the side while pushing each other down viciously. But there was a burly demon with pockmarked skin, two ming wings, and a goat-like lower body by the side that would use its three-pronged fork weapon to push them back into theva pool,ughing wantonly at the sounds of the agonized screams.

    In the distance, one could see a coliseum-like area where a nine-headed hydra was locked in brutalbat with a man wielding a scythe while wearing a helm that obscured his face, along with a red cross sewn onto his chest, along with a female humanoid spirit body locked in a cage that seemed to be dissipating by the side.

    However, the moment they saw that far, one of the demons torturing the humans in the pools turned its head to look at them, which caused one''s heart to suffer limitless chill. Just as the other students tried to escape, the demon screeched in brutalughter and flew over to grab them by the head and lifted them close.

    Being so close, one could smell the stink, the sulfur, and the blood on it, and their hearts continued to pound like runaway trains in their chests. The demon slowly dragged them into the pool and then tossed them in,ughing as they screamed in agony and tried to escape.

    It then used its form to repeatedly poke them back under when they came up, causing the edge of their vision to go ck slowly until they passed out.

    In reality, all 27 students of Dante''s ss froze as they nced at him, blood leaking from their seven orifices as they screamed in agony and fell to the ground, rolling as if they were trying to climb out of something.

    Only Humphrey, Slessor, and some other exceptional students in the top ten were mostly sober and gritting their teeth to resist the scene in their minds as they coughed blood onto the ground.

    Dante was shocked by the happenings, and before he could say anything, an rm suddenly sounded. Immediately, some rescue androids rushed over and checked on the students, injecting them with various tubes of liquids to stabilize and restore them before giving treatment.

    From the nearby teleporter in front of the house, a diminutive human woman who had looks simr to Edna from The Incredibles but with blue, Super Saiyan-like hair and two glowing green eyes appeared while seated in a floating chair.

    She immediately assessed the state of the students and took charge of the androids.

    "They have only undergone an aura shock. A being of superior life level or power level did not control their aura and they, like idiots, stared wantonly. The shots you''ve given them are enough. Use an electric shock of 10,000 volts to wake them up," the woman said in a high-pitched voice filled with callousness andck of concern.

    Then the woman looked around and spotted Dante, who was unharmed. She was about toment with surprise as to how Dante could resist the aura of the passing higher-level lifeform when her pupils dted rapidly.

    She also saw the scene the other students did, but the difference was that she waspletely lucid and unaffected. Immediately, her eyes shone with shock as she knew that this was not a superpower but a genuine unique form of magical power!

    This meant that normal people could acquire this power as long as they could mimic the methods this student used!

    Immediately, limitless greed appeared in the eyes of the woman as she swooped close to Dante, who was still dumbfounded.

    "The student standing over there, what is your name?" she asked quickly.

    Dante snapped out of his shock and assessed the woman before him. He could tell that she was a teacher because she was seated behind Lara during the orientation. With the intention not to cause trouble, Dante answered calmly.

    "My name is Dante, a student of the 10998 Unique Batch. The number 1 student specifically," Dante added at the end with a hint of warning.

    Hearing his name, the woman''s face changed greatly. The name Dante and the number of his batch was a taboo for the teachers of the school currently and had even caused great waves in the upper echelons of the universe recently.

    Initially, her idea was to me Dante for maliciously harming his fellow students and then capture him before ruthlessly torturing his secrets out of him, but she hesitated given his identity and the ''backer'' behind him.

    She was torn, wanting to act quickly before more parties arrived and things became murky, but also hesitated because if it backfired, she would have to bear severe consequences. In the end, her eyes lit up as a thought came to mind.

    "It''s great to see you are unharmed unlike your other students. Did you see what happened here?" she asked gently.

    Dante wisely shook his head. "I have no idea what happened. We all came out and exchanged a few looks to size each other up before they started convulsing."

    This was the truth he knew, so even if anyone used equipment to test him, they would not detect a lie. After all, they saw that illusory scene, but Dante himself didn''t and couldn''t as the practitioner of the technique.

    The woman''s eyes narrowed, but she maintained a friendly demeanor. "Well, they have all been given various solutions to prevent anysting issues, and I have to give you some too. It''s school protocol."

    She waved a hand, and an android nurse came over with a syringe that contained a greenish liquid. Dante''s eyes fell on it, and he could instinctively tell that he should never allow this thing into his body.

    Not to mention, it was different from what was injected into the other students. He wasn''t blind, nor was he not paying attention, and given the reaction of the students as well as the woman earlier, Dante could put two and two together.

    "That is not what you gave the other students," Dante stated coldly as he took a step back.

    The heart of the woman skipped a beat, but she forcibly maintained her smile. "Of course. You do not give a person with first-stage cancer and fourth-stage cancer the same medicine, right? You have simr issues but at the end of the day, they are not the same."

    It sounded reasonable to a person who didn''t know medicine, but Dante would not be fooled. He sneered and used his AI chip to contact the central hub of the school to report the situation here.

    Immediately, the android nurse stopped in ce and put away the syringe it was holding while speaking coldly. "Detected dose of a high-level tranquilizer. Not necessary for the treatment of student Dante, aborting action."

    The face of the woman fell, and she nced at Dante with hatred. She wished she could drag his dog face away for daring to fight back and report her because now the central hub had taken back some of her administrative control and would monitor her in the near future.

    Years of behaving like a good girl in order to be ranked as

    a harmless person in its assessment for danger were now ruined as she was now to be monitored in-depth, meaning that her actions in the future for the faction behind her would be thoroughly stifled!

    If it were not for the fact that she could feel the central AI''s eyes on her right now and feared the punishment of the headmistress, she would have rushed over and beaten this piece of disrespectful trash into the ground!

    Dante ignored the woman who could only look but not touch and walked into a nearby teleporter to head toward the staging area of the ck Land. There, he found the usual teachers waiting for them and walked up to Xue Bing without looking at the others, while their faces changed.

    Looking at Dante, they seemed to see a hellish illusion when they looked at Dante, but it did not affect them much. However, like the woman before, a hint of greed shed in their eyes as they wished to capture Dante.

    However, Xue Bing quickly grabbed Dante''s hand and brought him into the tunnel that led to the ck Land in a rush, teleporting him to the end. She quickly handled the procedures and went through the door, teleporting Dante to the lead cabin once more, leaving the other teachers behind with bloodshot eyes.

    Once they arrived, Xue Bing tiredly looked at Dante and spat out what she felt in her heart.

    "Why can''t you just be normal?!"

 Chapter 119 Quantum Placement And Quantum Depository

    ?

    Looking at her exhausted appearance from teleporting twice in a short time over a long distance without using a spatial portal like usual, Dante could tell that she had overdrawn her power a bit.

    However, he was not grateful for the effort. Maybe a few weeks ago, he would have had his heart softened and considered this woman to be a close ally, but she was only a loose ally at best. Dante had already spent weeks researching the socialyout of this universe and understood everything as well as a native did.

    Xue Bing had forced herself and the n behind her into a corner with her actions, forcibly siding with Dante after inadvertently protecting him. This also ced them under the headmistress somewhat since she protected Xue Bing, and they were now forced to be the watchdogs of Dante.

    If not, the headmistress would hold them ountable, not to mention that the other factions had faintly begun to iste and ostracize them as they were either neutral or hostile to Dante. As an ally of Dante, they couldn''t be seen as too close lest people get the wrong idea.

    "Am I really that abnormal? Why do I feel like everyone else is overreacting?" Dante said with a smile.

    Xue Bing was speechless.

    She looked Dante up and down and spoke softly. "You''ve changed. You are nothing like the boy who stood before mest month."

    Dante shrugged. "People change. The goal of this school is precisely that, is it not?"

    He walked into the cabin without waiting for her answer, leading Xue Bing to mutter under her breath about impudence but still obediently followed him inside.

    Just as Dante was about to enter his room and excitedly begin absorbing the ambient Zero Energy to increase the grade of his Quantum Entanglement superpower from E Rank to D Rank, Xue Bing stopped him.

    "Wait, I just realized, where is Slessor? And Humphrey?" She asked with confusion.

    "Oh them? They are currently incapacitated. You should probably go back and deal with them before some crazy teacher kidnaps them too." Dante responded with a strange smile.

    Xue Bing was speechless once more.

    Deciding not to interact with this brat anymore before she fought him to the death, she teleported back to the entrance using the proper method of using her own superpower. This caused Dante to smile as he sat on the cushion in the room and rxed.

    Before he began the absorption and upgrade process, he connected to the AI chip in his brain and called up his SDI, the Standard Disy Index.

    ?User: Dante (ID Number: DANTE10998-03-15)

    Age: 21 (Converted to Earth years)

    Race: Pure Human (99.9% gic perfection)

    Strength Index: 500 (5000)

    Agility Index: 500 (5000)

    Dexterity Index: 500 (5000)

    Intelligence Index: 500 (5000)

    Constitution Index: 500 (5000)

    Vitality Index: 500 (5000)

    Bionic Level: 1 (Unique Student Version 10.)

    Psionic Level: 1 (Unique Student Version 10.)

    AI Chip Level: 1 (Civilian Category)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement (Rank E).

    Special Characteristics: Raging Blood Halberd Technique (Blood Tempering, Perfection level 96%), Inferno Ascension Technique (Level 2: Limbo Enkindling, 54%).?

    His AI chip had changed the disy of his SDI ording to his situation and now recorded the special abilities he had on the outside as well as their progress.

    He nodded with satisfaction and released the usual pink incense that smelled lovely, which helped him enter a meditative trance conducive to absorbing Zero Energy.

    As Dante settled into his meditative trance once again, the pink incense curling gently in the air around him, an ethereal sensation enveloped his being.

    It was as if his consciousness expanded beyond the confines of his physical body, transcending the boundaries of the training room itself.

    In this heightened state of awareness, Dante could feel the currents of Zero Energy flowing around him, like a cosmic river of pure potential.

    It was no longer just a sensation as he could almost see the swirling eddies of energy dancing in harmony with the universe''s fundamental forces. The very fabric of reality seemed to shift and shimmer in response to his presence.

    As Dante''s focus deepened, he directed his attention toward his Quantum Entanglement superpower.

    It was as though he could perceive it as a luminous thread of energy woven into the tapestry of his being. With each suction of the delectable Zero Energy, he felt himself drawing closer to the essence of this power, marveling at its mysteries that pulsed cryptically.

    Time ceased to hold any meaning as Dante''s consciousness danced between the realms ofprehension and instinct.

    He began to attempt to manipte the threads of entanglement with a newfound finessepared to his previous try, orchestrating intricate patterns that resonated with the universal flow.

    In this ethereal state, Dante''s mind reached out to the depths of the superpower''s structure, probing itsposition with cautious curiosity. He sensed the sheer power within it, like a wellspring of limitless energy waiting to be harnessed.

    Surprisingly, as he delved deeper, the superpower responded, resonating with his intent and amplifying his connection to the Zero Energy.

    To Dante''s shock, he could feel the energy converging within him, coalescing into a radiant light that pulsed with an otherworldly brilliance.

    Within his Soul Space, the familiar gate that hung in the void and led to various realms expanded to twice its size, and a smaller gate formed from it that was like a satellite, orbiting around the main one.

    This gate did not lead to any ce he knew but rather into a dead void-like space. At the same time, Dante knew that his superpower had finally reached the D Rank, which was the target he had set for himself.

    Along with that, information flooded his head about the new abilities he got, and Dante couldn''t help but be so shocked that he almost fainted within his own Soul Space.

    Like before, he had earned two new abilities, one that was as a result of the development of his Base F-Rank ability and one that was a sub-ability earned after reaching this new Rank.

    The base upgraded ability was called Quantum cement, and its function was very simple. It allowed Dante to freely ce Quantum Markers anywhere he wanted within the range of his active senses.

    Before, to leave a Quantum Marker, he had to travel to and from the home universe and the Eternal universe at that spot, which was quite a bother. Now that he could leave them anywhere, he couldpletely use this ability in abat situation.

    Even more so now that he had the Limbo Enkindling fire which created the fabled Spirit Sense for him. A hidden synergy meant that he could now ce Quantum Markers anywhere within the range of his Spirit Sense, easily allowing him to be like the Yellow sh of the Leaf, ethereal and untouchable.

    Even crazier was that Dante no longer needed to log into the Etraverse to enter Quantum Worlds with his physical body. The next time he was in a quantum world, he could leave a marker down in that world ande with his real body through teleportation.

    Of course, he could have already done this after his previous upgrade, so why was he acting like this was new?

    Well, the reason was that if he used this new method, he would no longer descend into his virtual body, meaning that the virtual body and real body could exist in the quantum world at the same time!

    If his AI chip logged into his ount while he was in the quantum world with his real body using this method, it waspletely possible tomandeer the virtual body using his high mental capacity and achieve the effect of having a clone!

    However, this was only marginally useful overall as the death of the virtual body would officially end his stay in that world using that identity from the system, so his real body, while it could stay as himself, would not earn any Supercoins forter actions.

    So it was not really wise to use the virtual body as a meat shield unless it''s a really fatal danger that cannot be blocked using any other means.

    Still, it was an option, and Dante could think of ways to exploit itter as he integrated his superpower more and understood the inner workings of these quantum worlds even more.

    But that was forter.

    What really caused him to feel such strong emotions was the sub-ability that came with reaching the D rank, and it was crazy!

    It was called Quantum Depository, and by the name alone, you could guess the hair-raising effects of this sub-ability. It allowed Dante to open a personal quantum space not linked to anything in the universe where he could store items of any kind and bring them with him wherever he went.

    This included items in the quantum world being brought into reality or real items being brought into the quantum world.

    This also included taking items from both ces into either universe!

 Chapter 120 Consequences

    ?

    Dante''s breathing became rough as the implications of this sub-ability coursed through his mind. He could only nce at the Quantum Entanglement superpower with a wry smile, the words of Xue Bing ying through his head.

    Why couldn''t he just be normal? Such broken abilities were truly frightening for the long run in terms of consequences and effects.

    The base ability was fine, changing between universes and two new abilities thatpounded on that base ability with each new rank.

    But by god, these sub-abilities were truly hair-raising. First, the ability to enter quantum worlds with the real body and now the ability to store items in a special quantum space then retrieve them at will.

    Dante nced at the currently orbiting small gate by the side of the giant one which swirled with ckness, leading to a still void on the other side and knew that this one was the culprit of his new crazy sub-ability.

    He shook his head and left the Soul Space.

    When he opened his eyes, he realized that the cabin was once again destroyed and the area for 5 miles around it was ravaged. After all, whether it was the base or the sub, they were too powerful for mortal beings toprehend.

    Dante also noticed with a dark nce that there were a lot of people watching him by the side and four charred bodies that were receiving emergency treatment.

    Looking to the crowd and seeing that a fearful Humphrey and Slessor were watching him like a demonic beast, then Xue Bing whose expression was solemn and filled with distance, he knew it was not them.

    He then nced at the four bodies and noticed that they were the other four teachers assigned to his batch for this week, and he put two and two together. To be sure, he contacted his AI Chip for a recount of what happened.

    [It has been exactly 72 hours and 58 minutes since you began your meditation. In 72 hours and 50 minutes, you made a breakthrough and a huge wave of zero Energy was suddenly absorbed by you.]

    [After the breakthrough wasplete, you exploded with a stronger shockwave energy and Xue Bing was barely able to teleport everyone else away in time. She cursed that even though they had reinforced the cabin to withstand the pressure of your breakthrough, it had increased exponentially rather than linearly as they calcted.]

    [Then the same scene as your previous breakthrough urred. The other four teachers rushed over and asked what happened but were rebuffed by Xue Bing who directly threatened them and told them to get lost.]

    [However, after seeing the extent of your breakthrough, they knew your superpower was greater than anything that had appeared in history and directly teamed up to beat Xue Bing away and tried to capture you while you were still in a trance.]

    [I activated your body''s self-defense mechanism through your nerve system which I assumed to be your superpower that would teleport you away. However, what happened was that you exploded with your Internal Force which formed a barrier around your body.]

    [When the four of them came into contact with it, their superpowers and abilities were destroyed, and they were burned until they began to roll and scream on the ground, the hellfire eating away at their life force and souls.]

    [Eventually, the central hub issued an rm and managed to gather the other teachers to save them. They are currently waiting for instruction from the headmistress, and the teachers have been staring at you with malice but do not dare to attack for fear of harm.]

    Dante nodded and nced to the west. The other teachers wondered why he did this until they felt a powerful fluctuation that caused their hearts to skip a beat. Immediately, they nced in the same direction and saw the headmistressing down slowly.

    Her zing red eyesnded on everyone one by one, causing them to shiver and lower their heads. When theynded on the four injured teachers, she stretched a hand out and sucked them into the air before her.

    She analyzed their injuries slowly, a hint of surprise shing in her cold eyes. Then, with a wave of her hand, the four teachers were turned into ash after a tiny reddish-blue fire covered them.

    This caused the faces of everyone else to freeze with shock and horror. Meanwhile, Lara only crossed her legs in her floating throne and spoke in a drawling voice full of boredom.

    "I gave a warning and some of you think you can disobey because of your abilities? Your factions? Or your identity as a pure human?"

    "To me, all of these things are transient. If I want to kill you, not even the chairman of the Human council can change my mind or stop me. Let this be a lesson." She concluded before losing interest in these cowardly trash.

    She then turned to focus on Dante, and her expression did not lighten or soften, as if no matter how special he was, Dante was just a slightly bigger ant in her eyes.

    Looking at him, Lara''s pupils trembled as she seemed to be dragged into a realm with hellfire and demons about. She stood on a single rock which was the only safe ce, but she did not seem bothered.

    "Is this your magical power? Hellfire? It''s not bad, but it''s barely evenary level, much less universal or high dimensional." Shemented boredly.

    When the demon walked over to grab her, she waved a hand and burned it to death using her own fire. A ring of mes exploded from her body that suppressed and took over the entire illusory realm, turning all the demons and sinners into ashes and even evaporating theva in the pools.

    She took one step and entered the coliseum where the man and devil were fighting, then killed them both with a snap of her finger. She only seemed to pause when looking at the fading spirit in the cage by the side before turning the remainder of this illusory realm into ash.

    In the real world, she had nced at Dante before a red-blue fire lit up in her pupils briefly. Dante, who was also looking at her with wariness suddenly felt his hellfire became chaotic and unstable, surging through his body crazily and causing him to spit out a mouthful of scalding hot blood that sizzled when it touched the ground.

    Dante was shocked. Within the blood he spat out, one could see ckish-red fire fighting with reddish-blue fire, the two of them consuming each other rapidly until the bloodpletely evaporated into the air.

    Lara only hummed and spoke. "Student Dante, make sure to control your power before you harm everyone you see. I''d advise you to go to the training world and take the ultimate training courses."

    After that, she turned and left, as if not even bothered to deal with the aftermath. The remaining teachers looked at the spot where the other four had been turned to ash and decided not to get involved, so they began to rush away one by one.

    In the end, only Humphrey and Slessor were left with Xue Bing, who was watching Dante like a hawk. It was as if she wouldn''te close until she was sure he was harmless, which made Dante speechless.

    In the end, he ignored the strange space element teacher and delved right back into absorbing the Zero Energy around to raise his progress towards the C Rank as much as he possibly could.

    However, Dante experienced the bottleneck that kept others from advancing through the ranks rapidly, which was the need to actuallyprehend the ability in question.

    In truth, Dante had already attempted to do this ahead of time by trying to manipte the strings of quantum causality in the depths of his superpower, but it was clear that his current affinity and control were too weak to reach the threshold of the C rank.

    The good news was that apart from fulfilling the base energy requirements, he did not need to be in the ck Land to progress orprehend. Comprehension can be carried out anywhere as long as he could enter the meditative state.

    As such, he simply focused on absorbing energy while trying toprehend the ability with the remaining time he had left. He only seemed to be away for a few minutes in his soul space before he was jolted out of it.

    His AI Chip informed him that his time was up, and Dante decided to leave without causing trouble. After all, now that he had the Quantum Depository ability, many things had changed for him, and his ns had to be updated to amodate his current abilities.

    When he returned to his residence, he noticed that the other students had been mostly restored, but he did not actually see them on his way back. Meanwhile, the school forums were aze with posts about what happened to him as well as the death of the four teachers.

 Chapter 121 A Mans Thoughts

    ?

    Dante sat down in the peace of his room, thinking deeply. He simply ran his thoughts using his 500-point Intelligence and did not use the AI chip because he just wanted some alone time.

    A part of him wanted to inform Beatrice so they could cook up ways to maximize this new ability, but that would be forter. It wasn''t that he felt chauvinistic, but as a man, Dante wanted to solve problems with his skills and make his family happy.

    This was the goal of most men, to be honest.

    Anyway, Dante focused on his options now.

    The first was in consideration of his presence here, within the Eternal universe. Now that he could ce markers as he pleased, he could much more easily traverse this universe. One should know that Dante had not dared to explore this ce too much because unlike the home universe, they had mature space technology here.

    Even if he modded his spaceship, it could still be tracked, especially given his identity and status. There were many factions who wanted to know where he was at all times, either to deal with him or to spy on him.

    As for his Quantum Depository, it had little use in the Eternal universe since he was not here to upgrade and assist this universe in any way, only to exploit.

    The second consideration was his home universe and his presence there. Here, it was obvious that he could now finally take his overpowered android beauties back home as well as any technology he wanted, including his spaceship.

    This finally put on the radar his n to explore the home universe and see if there was a Zero Gate there as well. He could also take the time to check if theyout of both universes was exactly the same, since there was an Earth with a simr history in the Eternal universe.

    If so, it would obviously make finding a Zero Gate in the home universe much easier, as he would only need to use the map of the Eternal Universe to get there.

    As for Earth itself, apart from maybezily setting up a base, it had little value. In truth, Dante''s arsenal and repertoire had grown too fast for the value of Earth to keep up with him.

    In a typical setting, he would be embroiled in urban issues progressively, starting from the city, state, country, and then to the world as he expanded his power influence and might.

    He had evenid down extensive ns for that, with the mini quantumputer, but it now became a side thing. When he went to the casino and bought the cars, he came to this initial realization, but what clinched it was the journey to South Africa that revealed the gap between him and the strongest powers of Earth.

    Oh right, Dante remembered that he told the Pantheon that he would receive their answer this month. He only said that to buy time back then, but now it was really unimportant. However, there was no need to let it go, and one of his capable androids could pay them a visit then decide their fate.

    There were also the pests infesting his ind, but he could just send them back where they came from. Enving them was totally possible, butpletely a waste of time. They had superpowers, yes, but they had no ess to Zero Energy, so their superpowers were at the lowest level for all their lives.

    Their basic human genes were trash and did not stand out. Of course, all this could easily be changed by Dante, butˇ­ why?

    Why take the risk of developing these people when he could simply use androids that were far more efficient? Because they had superpowers? That was the dumbest reason and could probably get one killed.

    If it was so easy to control superpower users while letting their power grow, then the Eternal universe would not be controlled by superpower users but rather have them shackled.

    The fact that they could run up and down with impunity despite possessing such powerful technology in that universe that could turn them into ash should tell one that something wasn''t right.

    Anyway, that was just a tangent, not a side thing. They weren''t important then, and they still weren''t important now, so Dante wouldn''t waste more time thinking about them.

    The third thing was his progress in the various Quantum Worlds. Once again, his run in the Apocalypse World hade to an end, and he would have to start afresh. That 30-day limit seemed long at first, but when you got down to it, it was actually very short.

    Anyway, there were useful worlds and useless worlds. High technology or modern worlds were useless. The items they produced could be sourced in the higher advanced Eternal Universe and of much better quality.

    What was he going to take from the Apocalypse World, the medicine? The Mutation Cores? He could definitely try his hand and see what would have an effect outside, but they wouldn''t change things much.

    After reaching the D Rank, Dante''s connection to his superpower had reached a greater level, and he thoroughly understood why it was so hard to upgrade. Just pping on Mutation Cores would not work because they only provided a sort of energy at best, notprehension.

    As for other lesser worlds like the Rising Star world, what could he possibly take from a medieval world that would have value in this technological one? It was usually the other way round if anything.

    The ones that piqued his interest were slightly magical worlds like the True Martial World of any cultivation quantum world. If he could bring out the Demon Beast Blood Energy Soup and have the best AI study it, they could find a way to replicate it and create a serum that achieved the same effect.

    There were also things like manuals he could take out and their special weaponry. Not to mention a cultivation world, if he entered, could he bring out the fabled Spirit Stone? What effect would it have on reality?

    Would there be a way to find out how to make spirit roots? Maybe harvest the corpses of many different cultivators and bring them out for study and dissection, letting theputers understand what the Spirit Root is and how to either create or graft it.

    The possibilities were endless!

    Thinking like this, Dante gripped the armrest of the sofa he was on and rose to his feet. He spread out his Spirit Sense and detected that everything within its range was easily visible to him with no barriers.

    All the various happenings within each building were open to him. Most of the others were either sleeping, eating, or deep within the Etraverse, harvesting Supercoins crazily for their final year spurt.

    None of them discovered Dante''s peeking, and this did not surprise him, as even the denizens of the True Martial World weren''t able to either.

    Currently, the range of his spirit sense was equal to his Intelligence stat in meters. So, 500 points of Intelligence was 500 meters of Spirit Sense sensory range, which was crazy.

    After all, even if one practiced both External and Internal Arts to the highest realm in the True Martial World starting from 10 points, their overall stats would not surpass 100 points in intelligence especially.

    So even if other techniques gave a spirit sense ability - as obviously, not every technique did - they would only have 1/5th of Dante''s prowess, and he could keep going!

    However, Dante was not smug, but rather chilled. One should know the Inferno Ascension technique was not a superpower but a magical method. Yet the advanced technology and shielding of the Eternal universe could not detect nor block it.

    So, others who had sensory superpowers or sensory-rted sub-abilities could have been watching him teleport in and out? Even hear his mutterings?

    Especially that Humphrey fellow. He literally controlled air, so the wind in Dante''s room was his ally. If his range was this far, he could totally sense everything Dante did at every step.

    Luckily, luckilyˇ­ Dante was wary of the school from the start, not knowing if they had some high-tech ways to spy on him, so he mostly did his things either when he was on Etonia or was with Beatrice.

    At the time though, what he feared was not the fellow students but the administration, but this had brought him back down to earth that he could not underestimate his fellow students even if they were freshmen like him.

    Especially after their reaction to his aura. If they didn''t monitor him before, they would certainly do so now to try and dig up his secrets and reduce his threat as apetitor. Just as well, Dante felt. He immediately teleported from the school to the Inferno Battleship''s Observation Deck.

    What he didn''t know was that when he left, at least 15 of the 28 students in his batch who seemed to be asleep, eating, or in the Etraverse had ugly expressions as they nced at his residence with cold and predatory eyes.

 Chapter 122 Beatrices Desire

    ?

    "Back so soon?" Beatricemented with a smile as she was currently looking out into space, leaning over, her lush purple hair spreading out over her back.

    She was wearing her purple skin-tight space admiral uniform, which had the nice effect of outlining her extremely voluminous rump, like two thick watermelons standing upright from where Dante stood.

    Dante naturally walked over and began to grind his crotch against Beatrice''s backside, making the woman blush and stifle a slight moan. Her patience was running thin ever since she and Dante confirmed their feelings and attachment, wanting to taste the fullness of her partner.

    Dante had no idea, but Beatrice''s thoughts were always on him. About how they would meld together, and how he would ravage her like a beast. Due to her constant sexual thoughts, her sensitivity was even higher than usual, and she could not focus on anything.

    When Dante teased her like this, it was part fun and part torture because while it felt great, it just enhanced her desire for the main course to even greater heights.

    Of course, she couldn''t tell Dante this easily, and Dante could not tell himself. After all, he had never had a woman lust over him so strongly before and make it known.

    While he had spent time with Valeria, it was mostly raw and cold at first and only some slight feelings had built up over time. This was entirely new territory for him and Beatrice, but luckily for her, Dante did not cause too much trouble.

    "Guess what happened?" Dante asked with a smile as he reluctantly let go of her thick and plentiful backside then came to stand beside her.

    "Hmm, let me see. You upgraded your SDI? Your superpower reached a new rank?" Beatrice replied while straightening her body and facing Dante.

    "Bingo! All of the above are true. Apart from that, there''s moreˇ­" Dante then exined his two new abilities to her, which made Beatrice''s eyes light up.

    "Hey, that''s amazing! Can you bring living things in?" Beatrice asked with a look of excitement.

    "Err, no, not yet. Only inanimate objects right nowˇ­ oh! You want to enter the Quantum Worlds with me and cultivate too!" Dante exined then gasped as he realized what Beatrice was trying to get at.

    "Exactly! It would change a lot of things if you could smuggle people into Quantum Worlds. I could also help you in any way possible." Beatrice answered with a smile.

    Dante''s eyes shed with severity. "No, not just that Beatrice."

    Dante walked forward and ced his hands on her shoulders and nced at her softly. "I could take you to my universe to meet my parents. We could get married on both sides."

    Beatrice trembled, and her eyes misted over. Her face flushed, and her temperature began to rise as she was filled with great emotions. "I-Iˇ­"

    However, Dante didn''t stop there. "I could take you into the cultivation worlds and we could find special items to fix your broken superpowers and turn them into real ones."

    Beatrice''s head began to buzz. If she could actually turn the superpowers her mother passed down to her into the actual thing, just how far could she go? Not to mention, she would be better able to protect herself, Dante, and her family with him if she had more power.

    "And finallyˇ­ even if I can''t bring you in, I can probably bring these things out. I could even head to special magical worlds with high fantasy magic and find something that can bring your mother back to life." Dante stated his truest intention as he stroked her hair.

    Beatrice froze. Even when she heard of Dante''s power, something like this hadn''t crossed her mind not because she felt it was impossible, but because she had long been forced to make peace with her mother''s passing.

    But as the event that shaped 95% of the current her, how could it be so easy to let go? When she was a child, she cried often when she thought of her mother after the tragedy, but she suddenly stopped crying one day when she was hit with her first big blow after her mother''s death.

    It was when she was quietly sneaking through the house to go and ask her father about something, only to see him softly sobbing through the crack of the door. In all other moments, her father usually acted tough and stern, holding her in his arms andforting her when she cried or felt sad.

    At the time, she even hated her father a bit. Why wasn''t he sad like her that mother was gone? Was it that he didn''t care about mother now that she was gone? Maybe that was the case since mother always bullied him!

    However, seeing him softly sobbing that night, trying to stifle his voice so that he wouldn''t disturb his sleeping daughter who was suffering grief and needed a bastion to help her, young Beatrice felt like she had been hit by a metaphorical truck.

    Rather than hiding, she burst into the room and stood before her shocked father. She hugged him and rubbed his head just as he rubbed her when she cried, and apanied her dad the next few hours as he released the pain he had been holding back.

    This event not only strengthened their bond, but it made Beatrice mature rapidly as she understood that the world didn''t revolve around her, and that her pain was not greater than anyone else''s. This was an important lesson for a child to understand, which shaped up her future determination and strong will to push forward.

    More than herself, how happy would her father be if his beloved wife could be returned to him? How happy would Beatrice herself be to be with her beloved mother who doted on her? To let her see the progress she had made in life, the achievements she had aplished, and see the pride on her mother''s face?

    How nice would it be to let her mother see her grandchildren and dote on them too?

    Beatrice did not think of any righteous nonsense like ''I''ve made peace with it'' or ''her death made things the way they are so it''s better to leave things as is''. She wanted her mother back, and she wanted her back now!!

    As for whether her mother wanted to be brought back, seeing the way she died, protecting her daughter but not knowing how she would grow, as well as the worry that her n might be pressured by the forces that assassinated her, how could she not want toe back?

    If not even to satisfy her own desires, but purely because she wanted to protect her family for a bit longer and ensure their happy living.

    Now that Dante had put the opportunity before her, Beatrice was definitely overwhelmed with emotions as her eyes became bloodshot, and her arms squeezed Dante tightly, as if fearing that this was too good to be true and that this chance might escape her.

    Dante continued to stroke her hair even as his bones creaked under her great strength, but he didn''t even whimper. When Beatrice finally calmed down, she panicked and touched Dante all over with a look of worry.

    "Oh no, I''m so sorry! I couldn''t control myself just nowˇ­ Iˇ­" Beatrice stumbled to exin, but Dante simply silenced her with a deep kiss.

    Dante pulled back andughed. "Hey, it''s good to be reminded that my babe can crush me at any

    time. Don''t you know that for some of us, that''s a turn-on?"

    Beatrice was amused. "Really? Then put your head between my thighs and let me squeeze."

    Dante''s eyes lit up. "Yes, let''s do it! Make sure not to hold back, even if my head cracks like a watermelon!"

    Beatrice was left speechless. She could only admit defeat in this regard but promised to try when she and Dante had simr stats.

    "Iˇ­ could try and enter though. If I activate my Bionics and Psionics to the max, I can survive in the vacuum of space." Beatrice hesitated as she suggested.

    Dante smiled wryly and shook his head. "I don''t want to risk it. The void in the Quantum Depository is not the same as the void of space. In that void, everything is stopped and rendered still."

    "I''m not entirely sure whether it''s a pause of space and time, or it''s more like everything forcibly put in a state of nihil." Dante exined seriously.

    Beatrice shook her head and then nodded. "No problem then. I believe that there are way more abilities waiting to be excavated in your Quantum Entanglement superpower, and achieving something like what we discussed is definitely on the horizon."

    "Yeah, I can definitely tell that when I hit the C-Rank, I might activate something quite shocking. Not to mention the B, A and above ranks." Dante agreed as his eyes gleamed with hope for the future.

 Chapter 123 A New Power System

    ?

    "But of course, that''s forter. Right now, I need to find a way to revive your mother, so do you have any worlds with special abilities like that in mind?" Dante asked, looking towards Beatrice.

    Beatrice hesitated. "In truth, it''s better for you to focus on the True Martial world and maximizing your training. Mother will understand if I wait a few months for you to achieve perfection."

    Beatrice naturally didn''t think so, but she couldn''t sacrifice Dante''s own progress for her own selfishness easily. It was fine enough to know that he had the intention and the ability to do it, so waiting a few months or having it instantly did not make her too impatient.

    In fact, having some time as a buffer could let her better prepare things for her mother''s return, especially in terms of getting her father ready for it.

    Dante shook his head. "With the ability to take things in and out of Quantum Worlds, it no longer matters if I stay in Quantum Worlds like the True Martial World. I could store any amount of blood energy soup I want, and I even want to use the advanced AI of the battleship to calcte a better recement for it that I can take into the next world."

    "Also, it is in my best interest to enter as many useful Quantum Worlds as necessary. The more power systems I can add to my repertoire, the more diverse I can be when I enter the Zero Gate." Dante exined seriously.

    Beatrice looked at him strangely. "With your current SDI and abilities, I doubt many of your fellow students can threaten you in the Zero Gate, right?"

    Dante nodded, but a hint of fear appeared in his eyes. "That''s true. After my recent visit to the school, I''ve realized that I underestimated myself too much and I can stand against some of the best superpower users on my own."

    "But what I fear is not my fellow students but the ambient dangers in the Zero Gate itself. These things have been there for who knows how long and have taken the lives of countless superpowered students. I can''t afford to be weaker than them."

    Thinking about it, Beatrice deeply agreed. She would not be able to reconcile at all if Dante fell in the Zero Gate because she held him back from getting stronger. Since that was the case, then she could only support him in every way possible.

    "Okay fine. There are many magical and high-fantasy worlds with items that have insane effects if brought into reality." Beatrice began thoughtfully.

    Then she shook her head. "However, there are problems with such worlds in that the power systems, even if you learn them, cannot be used outside. They require various special energies andws to exist in reality that factually do not."

    Beatrice opened a holographic screen before her and flipped through them rapidly. She then smiled and pointed at one.

    "However, there is one type of magical world where the practitioners do not use ambient energy to fuel their power but rather their own spiritual power honed through various resources and meditation." Beatrice stated as she sent the screen to Dante.

    [World Name: Magus World

    World Owner: Eternal Academy

    World Creator: Eternal Academy

    World Size: Medium

    World Type: Shared

    World Genre: Wizard Cultivation

    Bionics Allowed: No

    Psionics Allowed: No

    Superpowers Allowed: No

    Requirements: Student ID

    Duration: Unlimited

    Description: This is a world that has been styled in a mixture of Chinese and Western Fantasy, containing magitech, sectarian governments, and feudal kingdoms seen in ancient China. Here, one can practice the physical method of bing a Knight or the magical method of bing a Wizard!

    Objectives: Be either a Grand Knight or a Rank 9 Wizard.

    Limitations: All Bionics and Psionics are not allowed because they conflict with the power system of the world. Superpowers are also banned due to the same reason, as well as AI chips, though they can be used to connect to the real world andmunicate.

    Provisions: You will be able to choose your starting point, which will influence the speed of your growth as well as your final score. The higher your starting point, the lower the difficulty multiplier for the payout.]

    It was very simr to the True Martial World in that it was shared, had an unlimited duration, and the goal was to climb as far as you could in the power system before you died. It also banned everything except a student''s natural talents and set their SDI to 1.

    One could also choose their starting point. Dante smiled as he nodded to Beatrice and walked over to sit down, pondering what to do next.

    Even though he could raise his Raging Blood Halberd Art to the Martial Warrior Realm and then stabilize his genes for the next round of harvesting in the Apocalypse World, Dante refrained from doing so.

    After all, the issue was that with every growth, the practice might be a bit harder. Not to mention that Dante knew a bit about this Wizard Cultivation genre, as one of the most popr web novels on earth came from it, featuring one of the top ten edgelord main characters in web novel history.

    While the wizard system was self-exnatory, the knight system should be able to achieve the effect of the external martial arts of the True Martial World. The reason Beatrice didn''t choose this one for him back then was probably that the knight system was generally one level weaker than the martial artist system.

    Still, if he could practice the knight system, he could do simultaneous breakthroughs back to back with the knight system and the martial arts system to double the amount of stats he can absorb.

    Thinking like this, Dante no longer hesitated. He entered the Magus World and was prompted to enter his character background and starting point. This would affect the difficulty of his climb and would also affect his Supercoin payout.

    As such, Dante began to write the biggest and toughest background, choosing the most powerful city in the entire world as well as the most powerful family, stating that he was a genius born into that family that the biggest wizard force wanted to recruit at all costs.

    Just as he was about to select, his body froze as his mind seemed to run on its own. His Inferno Ascension technique sent a wave of fire to his head through the Limbo Enkindling and cleared his mind, burning away his thoughts.

    When Dante''s mind cleared, he was shocked by his own foolish thinking. Of course, it was a great idea to start with the highest starting point because he did not necessarily care about the Supercoins, so why should he make it difficult for himself for no reason?

    Not to mention it was a virtual quantum world, so he could y as he wished. This was what he thought as he entered those details, but he was forgetting that he would be entering that world with his real body!

    If he entered the strongest family of the strongest location with such a high-profile background, he would be subjecting himself to the highest powers of that world, which were Rank 9 wizards.

    God knew if they could turn him into atoms before he could even think about running away with Quantum Entanglement. If he died for such a reason, it would truly be a foolish and short-sighted death.

    It was thanks to his Internal Arts that cleared his mind and washed away the influence of arrogance. After all, increasing his SDI to a top level in the ''super

    ior'' Eternal Universe, having the arguably strongest woman in the universe as his babe, seeing the effect of his Internal Arts on his ''OP'' ssmates, and knowing how deeply various factions drooled over him had made him a bit overconfident.

    Luckily, the Inferno Ascension technique was one based on hellfire and ascending through hell, which granted Dante not only various powers but control over hellfire itself which could burn the mind, soul, and emotions.

    Dante knew that going the low route too had problems, which was why he chose the middle route in the True Martial World, and that was the same thing he would do here.

    No background or family to tie him down, clean history that cannot be overly traced and what could be traced was not suspicious, and finally, ced right at the ''gate'' of finding the entry to the world''s power system.

    Dante did a bit of a search and found a powerful wizard faction with means and resources to form up to Rank 9 wizards which also allowed for the training of knights. He chose to be taking the test of that force with a background of an orphaned noble baron of that empire whose parents were killed by the wizards of the opposing faction.

    This would give him clean entry since he would be perceived to have hatred with their enemies and motivation to grow stronger. As such, Dante selected this background and his mind descended into the virtual body generated within that world.

 Chapter 124 Arcanum Haven

    ?

    Wee to the gothic-style magitech city known as Arcanum Haven, where knights and wizards from the wizard cultivation genre thrived amidst a blend of mystical energies and advanced technology.

    The city''s architecture was a marriage of intricate stone spires and towering crystalline structures that emitted a soft, ethereal glow. Airships floated gracefully in the skies, powered by magitech engines that hummed with energy.

    The lifestyle in Arcanum Haven was a mix of ancient traditions and modern conveniences. Citizens adorned themselves in borate attire thatbined eastern robes with western corsets and steampunk essories.

    The city bustled with a sense of purpose, as knights patrolled the streets d in enchanted armor, and wizards conversed in hushed tones about their arcane studies, from Apprentices to Official Wizards.

    The economy of the city thrived on a delicate bnce of trade in magical artifacts, enchanted goods, and rare resources. Crystals that emitted mana, the life force of the world, were the most sought-aftermodity.

    These crystals were used to power everything from streetmps to airships, and the city''s prosperity hinged on their avability.

    Factions in Arcanum Haven were numerous and diverse, each with its own agenda and methods. The most powerful among them were the Wizard Council and the Knightly Orders.

    The Wizard Council consisted of powerful wizards who delved into ancient tomes and conducted experiments to push the boundaries of magic.

    The Knightly Orders, on the other hand, were organizations of skilled knights who upheld justice and protected the city from supernatural threats.

    The geography of Arcanum Haven was a mesmerizing blend of mysticalndscapes. Enchanted forests with trees that whispered secrets and crystallinekes with waters that shimmered with magical energy surrounded the city.

    These natural wonders were protected by powerful spells and creatures that responded to the harmonious bnce of the world.

    Necessary resources in Arcanum Haven included mana-infused crystals, rare herbs for potion-making, and elemental stones that enhanced magical abilities.

    Political tensions often arose between the Wizard Council and the Knightly Orders, as their approaches to maintaining order and ensuring the city''s safety sometimes shed.

    When he descended into his virtual avatar, Dante found himself within the central hall of the faction known as the Celestial Arcanists.

    This faction was renowned for its dedication to both wizardry and knighthood, allowing its members to choose their path based on their abilities and preferences. The atmosphere within the Celestial Arcanists'' headquarters was one of studious dedication, with ancient tomes lining the shelves and enchanted devices emitting soft glows.

    Around Dante were 15 other people with various builds and forms, most of them far younger than he was. The oldest among them was around 15 years old, a good 6 years younger than Dante himself.

    As Dante stood in the central hall of the Celestial Arcanists, he felt a mixture of interest and curiosity. After all, the wizard cultivation world was on the top 5 wishlist of readers in terms of ces they would like to reincarnate to.

    The other candidates surrounding him exuded a simr energy, each one eager to prove their worth and secure a ce within the faction.

    The faction''s leader, a wise and elderly wizard known as Master ndor, stood at the front of the hall, his robes adorned with intricate symbols that seemed to shimmer with their own magic. With a calm andmanding presence, he addressed the candidates.

    "Wee, aspiring members of the Celestial Arcanists." Master ndor''s voice echoed through the hall as his eye roved over each of them, pausing on Dante for a bit.

    "Today, you underwent a series of tests to determine your aptitude in both magic and knighthood. Our faction valued individuals who could seamlessly blend these two disciplines, for true powery in the harmony of the arcane and the martial." He concluded simply, his arms folded behind his back the entire time.

    The rest could only share uncertain looks before nodding and following him to the various testing locations. While they were on the move, Dante descended with his real body and creaked his muscles, enjoying the feeling of his power returning.

    The first test was a magical aptitude assessment.

    Each candidate was given a crystal imbued with special enchantments and instructed to channel their minds and spirits into it. The crystal glowed with varying intensities based on the potency of the candidate''s magical aura.

    As the candidates took turns, Dante stepped forward, his calm smile making a few deacons nod with approval.

    He held the crystal in his hand, closed his eyes, and focused his mind. With a deep breath, he channeled his mental power into the crystal, all 500 points of it.

    The moment his aura touched the crystal, a brilliant and blinding light radiated from it, illuminating the entire hall. Gasps and whispers of astonishment filled the air as the intensity of Dante''s magical energy far surpassed anything they had seen before.

    Master ndor''s eyes widened ever so slightly, a glint of curiosity in his gaze. The other candidates exchanged incredulous looks, their own magical auras paling inparison to Dante''s luminous disy.

    It was as if a star had ignited within him, casting its radiance upon the room. Dante calmly took his hand away and stood by the side until the rest were done, and they moved to the next test.

    The second test assessedbat aptitude, focusing on physical strength, agility, and reflexes.

    A series of wooden targets were set up, and the candidates were tasked with hitting them urately with a practice sword, axe, or spear while dodging enchanted projectiles. Dante''s turn came, and he moved with the skill of an up-anding warrior.

    His strikes were swift and precise, each blownding with a satisfying thud against the wooden targets while wielding his halberd that he had specially requested. They humored him due to his earlier magical aptitude, even though halberds were seen as unorthodox knight weapons.

    As he moved about, Dante''s agility truly captured everyone''s attention. He weaved effortlessly between the enchanted projectiles, his movements fluid and graceful. His reflexes were lightning-fast, allowing him to anticipate the projectiles'' trajectory and avoid them with ease.

    It was not just his agility that caused this but his powerful spirit sense that, even when not active, could detect anything within 10% of his active range, which in this case, was 50 meters. Within such a range, his 500 points of agility ensured he could easily dodge it.

    Master ndor''s eyebrows rose in appreciation as he observed Dante''s performance. The other candidates watched in awe, recognizing the monstrous talent that stood before them. It was as if Dante had transcended the limits of what a human body was capable of.

    As the tests concluded, the candidates were led to a room for orientation. Master ndor addressed them once more, his gaze lingering on Dante.

    "You all disyedmendable skills today." Master ndor began as he nodded to each of them who passed.

    His eyes thennded on Dante with undisguised appreciation and respect. "However, there was one among you who possessed a truly exceptional and rare talent. Dante, your magical aura and physical prowess were beyond extraordinary. You were a beacon of potential, a prodigious individual who had the power to reshape the bnce of magic and knighthood within our faction."

    The other candidates turned their attention to Dante, a mixture of admiration and curiosity in their eyes. To

    be acknowledged in such a manner by the faction''s leader was a testament to his unparalleled abilities.

    Dante nodded respectfully to Master ndor, a sense of amusement simmering within him.

    He had only detailed that he wanted to arrive in the powerful city of Arcanum Haven to seek power and resources in the introduction of his character, and it seemed that the world had ced him with the Celestial Arcanists for a reason.

    Was it the typical plot of a declining faction in which the protagonist revived them using his monstrous talent not seen in ages? Dante didn''t mind, as long as this faction had necessary techniques and resources to help him reach the peak of the world''s power system.

    "Dante, follow me." Master ndor called while another deacon came to lead the other candidates away.

    Dante walked with the older man and noticed that his white hair hid slightly longer ears. A half-elf?

    "Our faction had a long and storied history, as well as many potent techniques and legacies for new apprentices to ept. However, all of these were distributed based on not only power and talent but tutge."

    As Master ndor stated this, he turned to smile at Dante meaningfully. Dante immediately understood what he was getting at and bowed slightly.

    "Master ndor, I would like to take you as my teacher!"

    Master ndorughed happily and patted Dante''s shoulder with a look of approval. "You were truly destined to go far, Apprentice Dante!"

    Both men shared a knowing look, understanding that the other was well versed in the ways of the world. Master ndor then became slightly more serious as he led Dante towards the Library where the Meditation Techniques as well as the various Knight Breathing techniques were kept.

 Chapter 125 First Meditation

    ?

    As Dante followed Master ndor through the corridors of the Celestial Arcanists'' headquarters, a sense of eager anticipation filled him. The fact that the faction''s leader had singled him out and acknowledged his potential meant that he was on the right path, at least in terms of resource acquisition.

    The surroundings shifted from the ornate central hall to the more secluded and schrly atmosphere of the Library.

    The shelves were lined with ancient tomes, their pages filled with knowledge and secrets that spanned centuries. Dim magicalnterns hung from the ceiling, casting a soft and warm glow that illuminated the space.

    "Apprentice Dante, our faction prides itself on the seamless integration of wizardry and knighthood. Our training methods are designed to help individuals like you harness the full potential of both disciplines," Master ndor stated as they walked.

    Dante listened closely, his eyes scanning the rows of books and scrolls. The concept of dual cultivating magic and martial prowess was intriguing, and he was eager to explore the techniques that could enhance his already formidable abilities.

    They stopped in front of a section dedicated to Meditation Techniques.

    Master ndor gestured to the shelves, his expression one of encouragement. "These techniques focus on refining your mental and spiritual energy, honing your connection to the arcane forces. Choose one that resonates with you, and I will guide you in its practice."

    Dante began perusing the titles, his fingers trailing over the spines of the books. Each technique offered a unique perspective on channeling and controlling magical energy.

    After a moment, his eyesnded on a tome with an intricately designed cover.

    "The Void Speaker Chant." Dante read aloud, his curiosity piqued.

    The title suggested a connection to the element of space between the wizard and his mind power, which was perfect for Dante as it not only matched his superpower but also allowed him to possibly use spatial magicter on.

    Master ndor smiled approvingly. "An excellent choice, Apprentice Dante. The Void Speaker Chant is a profound meditation technique that will enable you to attune yourself to the natural rhythms of the world''s ebbs and flows. It will amplify your spellcasting abilities and grant you insight into the deeper mysteries of the void."

    Dante nodded, his decision made with a smile. "When can I begin my training?"

    "Quite impatient, aren''t you?" Master ndor said, his tone filled with amusement.

    "We shall begin with the first step: Activating your Spiritual Power and sensing the elements."

    He waved his hand to the side and led Dante to the Meditation Chamber. It was a cubic room simr to a cell with whitish-blue walls all over that were inscribed with various arcane runes.

    Master ndor flicked his finger, and a small bolt of energy struck the central rune, causing the room to light up. With a smile, he gestured to the seat in the center of the room where the runes were focused on.

    "Sit yourself down in the eye of the array. It will help calm your mind and condense your spiritual power. Once you can feel your spiritual power turn into a single thread, you have entered the Initial-stage of the Apprentice Realm."

    "When you can sense the ambient elements around you and can absorb them into your body, you will be able to forge your spiritual power in preparation for the wizard stage."

    Master ndor gestured to the Void Speaker chant in Dante''s arms. "That is when your technique shows its power. Specialized techniques like that are attuned to specific elements or concepts, allowing you to incline your Spiritual Power towards an element you want, rather than having to take what you can get."

    Dante understood. So basically, what separated casual mages with no specialized technique and those with specialized techniques was not just the aspect of specialization but their overall power and purity.

    A casual mage would absorb any element they could get, so when they reached the mage stage, they would have spiritual power of multiple elements. This sounded cool and versatile since you could then practice spells of multiple elements and have a strong arsenal.

    But the obvious drawback was the dispersion of your focus and power. To simplify, which do you prefer: having the ability to use one element''s spells at 100% power or the ability to use 10 elements with a max of 10% power each?

    No, you could not increase the power by switching. If that was the case, no one would specialize and would just absorb as they pleased. Everything had its pros and cons as the universe was bnced.

    Since Dante chose a space element meditation technique, he could only use space element spells in the future, but that was fine. His hellfire was of the me element and was good enough for offense, and this space power would give him the ability to crowd control.

    With that in mind, he walked over to the seat and calmly sat down while entering a meditative posture. As he was often made to do so in the True Martial World as well as in the ck Land, Dante was used to it.

    Soon, he quickly entered a trance where his mind seemed like a ck void. It was a bit like when you closed your eyelids but without those colorful bugs floating around.

    In this void, Dante could see thick wisps of creamy white mist that were separated intorge clumps here and there. They were not too far from each other, and there was one clump in the center that was bigger than any other and seemed to pulse with light.

    Dante connected with it and knew that this was the manifestation of his spiritual power.

    In fact, putting aside whether it was this big, many new apprentices did not even manage to enter this trance on their own. Arrays like the one Dante had were something that only top factions had, which was part of their capital for attracting then recruiting apprentices as well as training them quickly.

    Two people of the same talent and the same meditation technique, yet one had an array to help them sense and condense their spiritual power. Naturally, the person with the array would leap into the initial level faster than you, and while he was raising his spiritual power through training and condensation, you were still sweating and trying to enter this trance using your own ability.

    The gap would grow wider and wider.

    For Dante, his 500 points of Intelligence meant that he had a huge amount of uncondensed spiritual power as seen by the huge clumps here and there. However, unlike other initiates still trying to condense their spiritual power, he already had a partially formed core.

    This was brought about by the unlocking of minor psychic abilities, so his spiritual power was condensing itself naturally every time he used them like his slight telekinesis or telepathy.

    Unfortunately, this kind of spiritual power had nothing to do with spirit sense at this stage, so it did not benefit from the Limbo Enkindling fire nor did the Limbo Enkindling fire benefit from it.

    Yet.

    After all, the two of them had the same source, which was his Intelligence stat. One used it to expand his senses outward in a range of 500 meters, and the other used it to condense energy into a core. It was like a single waterfall creating two rivers that ran parallel but didn''t connect.

    At some point, one could dig a small tributary and connect the two, or even dig out the entire strip of soil that separated them and merge it permanently into one river. Whether it was the example or the actual circumstance, both required hard work rather than any unique means or talent.

    Dante easily used his already partially formed core like a gravity well, dragging over all the clumps to it easily and merging them within. The more clumps that joined, the bigger the size of the main spiritual core, and the faster it pulled the rest towards it, forming a blessed cycle.

    The hardest part about condensing a spiritual core was merging the two tiny bits of individual spots of spiritual power - for normal people, of course - but once you achieved that and added a few more onto it, the rest became easier and easier, even if you didn''t have an array to help.

    Dante didn''t know how long this statested, but he was done rather quickly. All the clumps in this space had been converged into the central one, and its size was more than ten times that of what he began with.

    Also, it pulsed with a rhythmic and hypnotic light, making one feel like there was something special about it that defied the rules of the world.

    Before he could even think of it, his newly condensed core began to run and extend its tendrils outward to the world, like a newborn baby trying to curiously explore its surroundings.

    What it came into contact with made Dante truly feel the presence and existence of magic for the first timeˇŞthe elements!

 Chapter 126 Initial Stage Magic Apprentice

    ?

    Deep in Dante''s mind''s eye, there was a sea of light spots around him. If his spiritual core was the center point of this void-like world, then around a short distance away from it, separated by a strangely thin yet invisible barrier (which should be his body), there was an endless neb-like existence in every direction. It had millions of different colors in every single inch of it, alternating randomly.

    Dante was in awe of it at first until he realized what this meant. In truth, the hard part about bing or being a mage was raising one''s Spiritual Power, because that was the source of your power and what generated your abilities.

    Absorbing or using elements was never really a problem because they were the fuel for the spells one made. They were present in every environment, in some more than others, so there was no situation where one could not gather them for their own use.

    But looking at the congestion of it, the hard part was getting what you specifically needed. In other words, to attract elements of your spell, you needed to have a spiritual core with the same element fold to call it over.

    This was why specialization was necessary. With 100% specialization, no matter how clumped up the element you needed was, you could attract it over using your spiritual core as an anchor.

    So technically, it wasn''t actually impossible to use spells of other elements after specializing, it was just as hard as a person with an SDI of 1 point in each stat trying to calm down an angry mob bearing down on him.

    It''s possible to achieve it, but the most likely oue was devastation and self-harm.

    Now, it was time for Dante to stop. The goal of initiation was only to condense the spiritual core and sense the elements. After that, he would be an Initial-stage Magic Apprentice, and he would work on using the Void Speaker Chant to do two things: increase his Spiritual Core''s quantity until he reached the suitable limit, and absorb the necessary elements of his meditation technique until his Spiritual Core bes 100% of that element.

    Once that is done, he would be ready to be a mage!

    Achieving this was split throughout the Magic Apprentice realm, with the initial stage being entry, the moderate stage being when one''s elemental conversion reached 25%, the advanced stage being an elemental conversion of 50%, the master stage being 75% elemental conversion, and the pinnacle stage being 100% elemental conversion.

    Each sub-stage also had requirements for spiritual power, but that did not matter to Dante as he already surpassed that requirement just by existing. If it weren''t for the need to achieve elemental conversion of his Spiritual Core, he would have jumped straight to the end of the Magic Apprentice Realm and been ready to transform into a level 1 mage!

    Dante stood up, dusted himself off, and then walked out of the room. He saw Master ndor waiting for him outside, not surprised at all to see hime out so quickly. Instead, he sized Dante up and down, and Dante could feel a strange wave pass over him that inspected him thoroughly.

    It wasn''t a physical thing, but more of a subconscious feeling. It was like when you went through TSA and they scanned you. You could only hear the scanner beep and see it pass over you but could not actually feel anything, but you felt like a scorching light passed over your body.

    "Interesting. Before condensation, I could only tell you were born with a huge amount of mental power akin to an official mage, but now that you have condensed it, I can tell you that you have as much mental power as a level 3 Mage. Simply amazing!" Master ndor exined with a strange light in his eye.

    Dante did not act excited but simply nodded calmly as if it had always been this way. The strange light in Master ndor''s eyes died down at the sight of this, and he sighed.

    "If only there was a way to replicate it! As it stands, before the 4th level mage, you will not have any bottlenecks in growing your power, and because your foundation is so good, there is almost a guaranteed chance that you will be a level 9 mage as long as no mistakes ur!"

    Dante listened with interest and then asked, "Then isn''t it in the best interest of your enemies that I am killed? After all, every level 9 mage was enough to shake the foundation of the entire world."

    "That''s right! I am the only Rank 9 mage in our Celestial Arcanists faction, and the rest are either half-step level 9 or level 8 and below. The same goes for our enemy faction, the Underworld Magisters!" Master ndor affirmed with a look of fatigue.

    "Both our forces are simr in power at the upper level so most of our conflicts ur at the lower level. Even there we are mostly equal, partly because our mages also practice the knight method, and we have the secret support of the Knightly Order."

    Master ndor gave Dante a pointed look. "After all, a magic faction willing to practice the ''inferior'' knight method is one in a million, so they support us fully. This is bnced out by the fact that those arrogant fellows at the Wizard Council support the Underworld Magisters since they are pure wizards and despise us for ''polluting'' the practice."

    Dante sighed. Discrimination would exist everywhere and this time, it was not without reason. The Knight system was powerful, yes, but it was created and designed by ancient wizards to create powerful servants for themselves who would patrol theirboratories and fight their wars for them.

    It was only because raising knights was hard that they eventually gave up and tossed the various breathing methods they made into the world and focused on other, cheaper endeavors.

    Since it wasrgely unfinished, the highest realm for a knight was the Grand Knight, which was about equal to a level 6 Mage. While this would be hugely powerful in another world, in this world where there were level 7, level 8, and level 9 mages, knights only barely had some autonomy.

    If they didn''t pose any threat to the wizard rule and usually even worked alongside wizards most of the time, they might have been uprooted long ago. It was a sad existence to be only a knight without magic talent in the world of wizards.

    "Anyway, we can''t let everyone know your talent. Anyone above the official mage level 3 who scans you will know how special you are, and loose lips are troublesome. There is no way the Wizard Council or the Underworld Magisters would allow you the peace of time to grow."

    Master ndor clutched the air and took out a ring, then tossed it to Dante. "Wear this. It''s a special magical tool that will allow you to suppress your spiritual fluctuationspletely. If anyone asks why you wear it, tell them it''s because I said so."

    Dante took the ring and noticed that it was golden and very smooth. It was very simr to the famous One Ring and even had runes on its body that glowed brilliantly.

    Dante wore it and immediately felt more secure. It was like he had been walking up and down naked before and finally put on some goddamn clothes.

    "What''s next?" Dante asked Master ndor in a low voice.

    "Still the general initiation process. We are going to the Painting of Monsters and Things, where we will test your resonance for breathing techniques. After that, we will find a specific technique that suits you based on your resonance." Master ndor exined as the duo reached a special room in the building.

    Along the way, they met many other wizards and apprentices, all of whom greeted Master ndor politely, while Dante didn''t even nce at them. He had already learned his lesson from the True Martial World that if you got dragged into their stupid social customs, you would be tired.

    The best solution to this was to pretend to be ignorant and uncouth of customs so that no one would expect you to follow them. Anyway, Dante would be spending very little actual time in this world after the initial period, and that was true for the True Martial World.

    There were too many important tasks waiting for him in the real world, whether it was his home universe or the Eternal universe. So, apart from acquiring items and setting a foundation that he could return to, he would practice his various methods in the real world.

    This was also part of the reason why Beatrice suggested quantum worlds with power systems that relied on one''s stats and personal growth rather than external resources or energy like the Immortal World for cultivation of the Dungeons and Dragon world with mana.

 Chapter 127 Becoming A Knight With Ease

    ?

    In the room with the Painting of Monsters and Things, Dante stood before a huge canvas that contained a very moving and dynamic drawing of a sea of various animals, monsters, and strange objects at every segment in an artistic and beautiful way.

    Dante was not an art buff, and he could not stand art disys, but he had to admit that this was the best piece of renaissance-looking art he had ever seen in his life. The more Dante looked at it, the closer he felt to it and the more realistic it became.

    From static images, Dante felt like he could hear the roars of various beasts as they coexisted, saw various monsters brawling as they hunted or expanded, as well as the chime of various items as well as the sound of clinking from special baubles.

    However, as this urred, many of the things in his vision weakened greatly, being suppressed into a void of darkness, while many others began to erge. However, they too reached a point and were suppressed into nothingness, leaving a few things still growing in size and vivacity.

    Eventually, one thing surpassed everything else and took up the entirety of Dante''s vision. It was a gigantic silverback ape that was roaring while pounding its thick chest like a drum, its massive strength seemingly suppressing the world.

    The vision shattered, and Dante shook his head. He felt his entire body was pulsing, and his already surging and superior blood energy was moving crazily. However, the blood energy was only moved subconsciously by his body; it was not the main focus.

    Rather, it was a strange energy that existed in his body, which Dante guessed should be his life energy since that was what the knight system mobilized. He nced at the smiling Master ndor who nodded.

    "The Silver-Back Ape? How specific yet surprising. We have very few ape-rted knights in this world, because ape-rted techniques rank in the top 10 of all types," Master ndor exined as he began to lead Dante away.

    "What are the top ten?" Dante asked curiously.

    "First, Dragon. Second, Phoenix. Third, Behemoth. Fourth, Demon. Fifth, Ape. Sixth, Lion/Tiger. Seventh, Bear. Eighth, Serpent. Ninth, Ox/Horse. Tenth, Ghost/Wraith," Master ndor answered simply.

    Fifth ce was not bad. Even among Internal arts in the True Martial World, the Inferno Ascension Technique was definitely top tier, but not number 1, so Dante was more than satisfied with this.

    Master ndor took Dante back to the library, and they entered the section for breathing techniques, then came to the ape section. Here, Dante perused for a bit before choosing a technique that he felt suited him.

    He finally found himself drawn to a particr tome titled ''Primal Ape Technique.''

    Dante''s fingers traced the ornate and silvery cover, his heart deeply moved. This technique promised a fusion of the silverback ape''s dominance and his own lifeforce condensation.

    "Interesting choice, Apprentice Dante." Master ndor''s voice held a note of encouragement.

    He continued. "The Primal Ape''s Resonance is a technique that aligns your life energy with the essence of the silverback ape. This resonance will imbue your movements with the raw power and primal instincts of the ape, allowing you to unleash its might inbat."

    Dante nodded, his path clear. The prospect of incorporating the silverback ape''s strength into hisbat techniques intrigued him somewhat. Dante opened the technique and read through it, condensing the various points within into a structure that his AI Chip disyed.

    [Primal Ape Technique - Stages for the Technique

    1. Apprentice Knight Realm: Feral Stride

    To initiate one''s journey, one must first attune oneself to the energy of the silverback ape. In this realm, one will learn to channel one''s life energy to mimic the primal gait of the ape, enhancing one''s speed and agility. This is the foundation upon which the higher realms are built.

    2. Beginner Knight: Dominant Roar

    As one progresses, one will delve deeper into the essence of dominance that the silverback represents. Through controlled breathing and focused intention, one will unleash a resounding roar that resonates with the opponent''s psyche, momentarily destabilizing them and providing openings for one''s attacks.

    3. Advanced Knight: Mighty Grasp

    In this realm, one will hone the ape''s gripping strength. By attuning one''s life energy to the silverback''s prowess, one''s hands and arms will possess an almost supernatural grip. One will be able to disarm opponents, crush their weapons, and even immobilize them with a vice-like hold.

    4. Peak Knight: Resilient Endurance

    As one reaches the peak of the technique, one''s body will be a fortress of resilience. One''s life energy will enhance one''s physical endurance and vitality, allowing one to endure attacks that would cripple lesser knights. This realm also enables one to absorb and redirect a portion of iing force, turning an opponent''s strength against them.

    5. Great Knight: Savage Onught

    At the Great Knight level, one''s attacks will mirror the silverback''s primal ferocity. By tapping into the ape''s instinctual aggression, one''s strikes will be more unpredictable, unrelenting, and overwhelming. This realm also grants one an innate sense of one''s opponent''s weaknesses, allowing one to exploit openings with precision.

    6. Grand Knight: Ape King''s Ascension

    Finally, as one ascends to the realm of Grand Knight, one will unlock the true potential of the Primal Ape''s power. Your life energy and one''s knightly techniques will blend seamlessly with the essence of the silverback. In this state, one''s dominance will be unmatched, their attacks infused with primal power, and their aura radiating an undeniable authority.]

    Dante nodded with satisfaction and checked his SDI for the Magus World.

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    Tower: Celestial Arcanists

    Meditation Technique: Void Speaker Chant (Initial Stage Apprentice, 1%)

    Knight Breathing: Primal Ape Technique (Uninitiated)

    Strength: 500

    Agility: 500

    Dexterity: 500

    Intelligence: 500

    Constitution: 500

    Vitality: 500

    Spells: None.?

    Dante smiled and followed Master ndor toplete the rest of the introductory practices. Since he had time, Dante decided to stay in the Magus World for a bit, at least until his two techniques reached the same level as the other ones.

    The cycle was surprisingly the same. Dante would wake up in the morning and then practice the Primal Ape Technique for 6 hours. Like the Raging Blood Halberd Technique, the knight system required resources to replenish the consumed life energy that had been used to fortify the body.

    One could use normal food to replenish such energy, but obviously, this would slow down progress and not be enough as one climbed the higher ranks of Knighthood. So the same problem existed in every power system, where to get enough energy for growth.

    Luckily, the wizards had long created a concoction called the Tonic of Knighthood, which had various potencies depending on the level of one''s practice. As Dante was currently zing through the Apprentice Knight stage, he should

    ideally take a basic Tonic of Knighthood.

    However, like with the blood energy soup, that would not be enough given his physical stats. As such, Dante was supplied with a Master-level Tonic of Knighthood, which was meant for Peak Knights.

    He was lucky that the resources for it were not that expensive and werepletely within the range of tolerance of Master ndor''s power. Unlike the Supreme Martial Hall, which gave core disciples unlimited resources, the Celestial Arcanists gave based on your value and talent, as well as the power of your teacher.

    In the afternoon, Dante would naturally practice the Void Speaker Chant and fish out the endless space element in the world then absorb it. Usually, this would take other apprentices a long time as their weak and now growing spiritual power could not separate the clumps easily enough to get what they wanted.

    However, Dante was like a military force invading a defenseless city. When his spiritual power came over, all the unwanted elements were forcibly chased to the side, while the needed space element was dragged over.

    Due to his affinity with his practices and his lessons from spending 27 days working on the Raging Blood Halberd Art as well as the Inferno Technique, Dante only spent a week to reach the peak of both disciplines'' first level.

    Since he would need to use special resources and means to breakthrough to be a wizard, Dante decided to focus on his breakthrough to be a knight first.

    To be a knight, one must condense their exuberant life energy into a life seed, which would form a sort of core in their hearts and allow great control over their body. For Dante, he didn''t even need the supplementary resources that other knights used to increase the sess rate.

    He simply let Master ndor know and used the special training room for such purposes to breakthrough. Condensing his life seed with his high intelligence was easy as breathing. If one added his spirit sense, slight psychic abilities, or spiritual core, one could say it was practically overkill.

    If there was one thing to note, it was the fact that Dante''s life energy was far higher than a normal knight. After all, his Vitality stat was 500 points, so his life seed was practically the size of a new heart, rather than a tiny marble-sized bead that should have been expected.

 Chapter 128 Novice Wizard

    Chapter 128 Novice Wizard

    Dante had once again broken through his gic limitations, allowing him to attempt another round of absorption in the Apocalypse World. As expected, bing a knight had not affected his already high stats, but he wasn''t surprised.

    He wasn''t practicing these methods to increase his stats; he had the Apocalypse World for that, and it could increase his stats faster than anything else could. What he practiced these arts for was the ability to break his gene limit and stabilize them.

    As for the special arts, he practiced them for their magical power, which had various special abilities and effects crucial for him, as he had no offensive superpower.

    Anyway, Dante was now facing a dilemma. Should he breakthrough to be a Wizard first or head to the Apocalypse World to raise his stats first? Both options had their pros and cons, and Dante couldn''t make an instant decision.

    In the end, since he was already here, he decided to be a wizard. He contacted Master ndor, who was not at all surprised by his rapid growth and prepared the necessary materials toplete the ceremony.

    Dante sat in the center of the array and inhaled the special scent that was supposed to help him focus. It was surprisingly very simr to what was used in the cabins within the ck Land, and he couldn''t help but wonder if one was based on the other.

    Dante soon entered the space with his Spiritual Core and saw that it was now a pale purple color aspared to the vibrant white it was previously. Not only that, but its pulsations became strange and weird.

    However, despite this, the merger of element and spirit was not yetplete. Dante ran the Void Speaker Chant continuously,pressing his spiritual core using his mental power while maintaining the bnce of elemental concentration within.

    It was very possible for elements to leak out during this phase if you hadn''t consolidated your spiritual core well. This would not only ruin your breakthrough but also force you to do extra work, as you''d have to absorb whilepressing.

    The breakthrough itself was already stressful and full of uncertainties, and now you were going to add more work on top? Hah, good luck.

    Dante naturally achieved the necessarypression value required to breakthrough. His core went from the size of a head to the size of a clenched fist. However, in terms of purity and potency, it was more than ten times stronger than before.

    The stories always talked about the great gap between a wizard and an apprentice, but Dante now felt it. If an Apprentice was like Spiderman, then a wizard was like Superman. There was no way for the two topete.

    Now that he was a wizard, Dante understood the ssifications of wizards and the various powers of each sub-stage.

    [ssification of Wizards in the Magus World

    Level 1: Apprentice Wizard

    At this level, aspiring wizards have learned the basics of meditation and spiritual control. They can manipte the surrounding environment slightly, creating minor illusions or moving small objects. This introductory phase teaches them to sense and harness the ambient elements.

    Level 2: Novice Wizard

    In the Novice Wizard phase, magic users refine their control over the elements they''ve condensed, allowing them to cast more basic spells. They can conjure small elemental manifestations, like sparks or gusts of wind, and manipte basic materials. This phase introduces the concept of resonance, harmonizing one''s spiritual core with specific elemental forces.

    Level 3: Adept Wizard

    Adept Wizards deepen their connection to elemental forces. They can conjure and manipterger elemental manifestations, such as mes, ice shards, or miniature lightning bolts. Adept Wizards also hone their defensive spells, creating barriers and protective wards.

    Level 4: Advanced Wizard

    Advanced Wizards gain a fundamental understanding of spatial maniption. They can warp and distort space on a small scale, allowing for teleportation short distances and the creation of pocket dimensions to store items. Offensive spells be more formidable, with firestorms, freezing cyclones, and electric torrents within their capabilities.

    Level 5: Elite Wizard

    At the Elite Wizard level, spatial maniption evolves further. Elite Wizards can phase through objects and create temporary portals for instantaneous travel. Elemental spells can now be woven together forbination attacks, such as a ming tornado or an portions of the environment. They can create wormholes for more ice-infused lightning strike.

    Level 6: Master Wizard

    Mastery over space allows Master Wizards to manipterger portions of the environment. They can create wormholes for more extensive teleportation and form stable portals between locations. Master Wizards can also merge elemental forces, casting spells like a magma-infused storm or a blizzard charged with lightning.

    Level 7: Grand Wizard

    Grand Wizards achieve a profound grasp of spatial dynamics. They can fold space, allowing them to create short-lived spatial pockets for hiding or protection. Grand Wizards harness elemental convergence, producing spells thatbine three or more elements, leading to cataclysmic effects.

    Level 8: Archwizard

    Archwizards reach the pinnacle of spatial mastery. They can manipte space on a grand scale, bending and warping it forrge-scale teleportation or reshaping terrains. Archwizards can cast spells that manipte the fabric of reality itself, creating phenomena that defy conventional physics.

    Level 9: Sage Wizard

    Sage Wizards are nearly unparalleled in their control of the Spatial Arcana. They can bend space and time, enabling them to foresee events and manipte the flow of time for brief moments. Sage Wizards wield spells that alter the veryws of reality, creating phenomena beyond mortalprehension.

    Level 10: Grand Sage Wizard

    The pinnacle of magical achievement, Grand Sage Wizards are said to have transcended humanity. Their mastery over space is absolute, enabling them to shape dimensions and traverse the multiverse. They can channel the essence of the cosmos into spells that can reshapes or rewrite thews of magic itself.]

    Within this intricate magic system, the Void Speaker Chant held unparalleled significance as a Meditation Technique. This technique, rooted in the element of space, allowed Dante to harness and wield space-based spells exclusively.

    Wizards who mastered the Void Speaker Chant gained the ability to bend, warp, and manipte space with exceptional precision, surpassing any other wizard''s abilities at any stage.

    At its initial stage, the Void Speaker Chant allowed for basic spatial maniption, such as creating small pockets of void to store objects or enabling minor telekinesis. As wizards progressed, they could extend their control to teleportation within short distances and the creation of localized spatial distortions that deflected attacks.

    This was only achievable for Advanced Wizards, but Dante could currently do this as a Novice Wizard!

    As the Void Speaker Chant advanced, its user could form stable rifts to distant locations, effectively enabling long-distance teleportation. The most aplished practitioners could unravel and reweave space, enabling the creation of personal pocket dimensions for storage or even the temporary formation of micro-ck holes to absorb energy-based attacks.

    This was a Grand Wizard level feat that Dante could achieve at the Adept Wizard stage!

    In other words, at every stage, Dante''s spatial control would far surpass that of his peers. What he also found interesting was that every level of wizard breakthrough required him to condense a sub-spiritual core, which would then absorb a different element of his choice if he wanted to.

    So at the apprentice stage, you had one spiritual core which was your main. You would fill it with the element of your choosing from your Meditation Technique. After breakthroughs to be a Novice Wizard, you could generate a new seed of a spiritual core and then grow it using resources or meditation until it reached a sufficient initial size.

    Then you could start using your meditation technique to either absorb the same element you started with or a new one. You didn''t need to change meditation techniques to achieve this, as each technique had its own way.

    Once it reached its saturation, then you would breakthrough to the next realm and repeat. This was how higher-level wizards were versatile, and also why, even if they never used the space element, they still had some minor spatial abilities that grew with each level.

    At those levels, just releasing the power from your multiple spiritual cores is enough to make space itself shake and bend to your will.

    Dante left the chamber and reported to Master ndor that he was done. The Grand Sage nodded with a smile and upgraded Dante''s status and robes from that of an Apprentice to a Novice Wizard.

    Before he left, he asked the important question about the existence of an item that could resurrect a dead person. To Dante''s relief, there were many in existence, but their potency varied, and the specific situation of the corpse also varied.

    Dante naturally asked about the strongest one in existence, to which Master ndor answered that it was the Nirvana Fire of a Phoenix. That was said to be able to not only resurrect any being but also make them undergo metamorphosis and be twice as strong as they were before.

 Chapter 129 Resurrection Resources and 7 New Space Spells!

    Chapter 129 Resurrection Resources and 7 New Space Spells!

    Naturally, Dante''s next question was whether the Celestial Arcanists possessed this resource. Naturally, the reply was that this was a resource that even Rank 9 Grand Sages fought over with bloodshot eyes, so how could anyone hold onto it?

    Wellˇ­ Dante expected as much. He cycled down the list of top ten resources used for healing or resurrection in the entire Magus world that Master ndor prepared for him with a serious expression.

    1. Nirvana Fire of a Phoenix - Ability: The Nirvana Fire possesses the unparalleled ability to not only resurrect the deceased but also facilitate a profound metamorphosis. Those brought back to life through the Nirvana Fire experience a spiritual rebirth, bing twice as potent and evolved as they were before death. Their potential is unlocked, and they can reach astonishing heights in power.

    - Location: The Nirvana Fire of a Phoenix is a phenomenon that urs only when a true phoenix reaches the end of its life cycle. The phoenix''s bodybusts into a sacred me of immense regenerative power. These urrences are rare and often involve perilous quests to phoenix nesting grounds.

    - Acquisition: To acquire the Nirvana Fire, one must either locate a phoenix nesting ground and witness the rebirth firsthand or harvest the essence of the phoenix''s ashes and mes immediately after its death.

    - Ability: The Elixir of Soul Reawakening can restore the soul to a deceased body, reviving the individual and preserving their - Rarity: Extremely Rare

    2. Elixir of Soul Reawakening

    - Ability: The Elixir of Soul Reawakening can restore the soul to a deceased body, reviving the individual and preserving their memories intact. However, the elixir cannot influence physical attributes or power levels.

    - Location: The form for the Elixir of Soul Reawakening can be found within forbidden tomes in ancient libraries or among secret alchemical societies.

    - Acquisition: Crafting the Elixir requires rare ingredients, including a fragment of a celestial stone that emanates soul energy and a drop of ethereal dew collected from the petals of a transcendent flower.

    - Rarity: Rare

    3. Tears of the Etherial Weeper - Ability: The Tears have the power to bridge the gap between life and death temporarily. They allow the soul of a departed individual to return and interact with the living for a short duration.

    - Location: The Etherial Weeper is a unique tree with a mncholic aura. Its tears are formed when it absorbs the essence of souls passing through its vicinity.

    - Acquisition: To collect the Tears, one must perform a ritual near the Etherial Weeper''s roots while invoking the memories of the departed.

    - Rarity: Rare

    4. Resurrection Stone - Ability: The Resurrection Stone can revive the deceased, but its efficacy depends on the potency of the stone. High-quality stones ensure aplete resurrection with minimal drawbacks.

    - Location: Resurrection Stones are geological anomalies that ur in regions of strong spiritual energy.

    - Acquisition: Mining or locating a Resurrection Stone involves facing dangerous magical creatures and environmental hazards.

    - Rarity: Umon

    5. Soulbound Reliquary

    - Ability: The Soulbound Reliquary can store a fragment of the deceased individual''s soul, allowing limited interaction with the living through spiritual projections.

    - Location: Crafted by skilled artificers and mages, Soulbound Reliquaries require rare magical gems and intricate engravings.

    - Acquisition: To obtain a Soulbound Reliquary, one mustmission a master artificer or mage and provide the necessary ingredients.

    - Rarity: Umon

    6. Phoenix Feather Requiem

    - Ability: The Phoenix Feather Requiem can recreate the body of the deceased using a phoenix feather as a catalyst. However, itcks the power to restore memories or skills.

    - Location: Phoenix feathers can be harvested when a phoenix molts.

    - Acquisition: Obtaining a phoenix feather requires skilled hunting and preparation to ensure the feather''s pristine condition.

    - Rarity: Umon

    7. Starlight Resonance Crystal

    - Ability: The Starlight Resonance Crystal absorbs starlight energy, which can restore life force to the deceased.

    - Location: Starlight Resonance Crystals are found in the heart of ancient celestial formations.

    - Acquisition: Extracting energy from the crystal requires knowledge of star patterns and a connection to the cosmos.

    - Rarity: Common

    8. Purity Elixir - Ability: The Purity Elixir can revive individuals whose deaths resulted from curses, toxins, or dark magic.

    - Location: The recipe for the Purity Elixir is hidden within monasteries dedicated to the study of light and purity.

    - Acquisition: Crafting the elixir involves purifying rare herbs with the energy of pure-hearted individuals.

    - Rarity: Common

    9. Revenant Whisper - Ability: The Revenant Whisper is a magical token that allowsmunication with the spirits of the deceased for a short time.

    - Location: Revenant Whispers are crafted by skilled mediums and enchanters using rare gemstones and incantations.

    - Acquisition: Obtaining a Revenant Whisper requires finding a knowledgeable enchanter or medium.

    - Rarity: Common

    10. Ethereal Amulet - Ability: The Ethereal Amulet can temporarily manifest the presence of the deceased as an apparition, allowing for emotional closure.

    - Location: Ethereal Amulets are created through rituals that involve thebination of silver infused with moonlight and a blessed talisman.

    - Acquisition: Obtaining an Ethereal Amulet requires seeking the guidance of spiritualists and enchanters.

    - Rarity: Common

    As it could be seen, even within the top ten of such items, only a few really could achieve the effect that Dante wanted, much less others. Only the Nirvana Fire, Elixir of Soul Reawakening, Resurrection Stone, Phoenix Feather, and the Starlight Crystal could achieve what Beatrice needed.

    However, all of them were extremely hard to acquire and could not be bought with just money. Even if another party had, it, it was likely a powerhouse in the 7th to 9th Rank of the mage realms and they would only want to barter for something of the same level or better.

    Naturally, Dante could try to acquire it himself, but he was not under an illusion. In low technology worlds like the Apocalypse World, he could bully anyone with his high SDI and his two new magical powers of wuxia and wizard, but in actual magical/

    superpower worlds like the True Martial or Magus, he was exactly as strong as his realm.

    In the True Martial, he was in the second realm of Internal Art, and coupled with his SDI, he was a half-step Martial God. In the Magus, he was at the 3rd Rank of Advanced Wizard using SDI alone and he had just be a Novice Wizard of the 1st Rank.

    Actually, he hadn''t even learned any spells, so Dante decided to spend another week here learning spells of both the space and fire elements. He did not actually n to condense his second Spiritual Core of the fire element, he just thought that knowing fire spells would give him unique ways to use his Hellfire Internal Force.

    The space element spells he learned numbered seven, and they were;

    1. Blink Step

    - Type: Defensive/Utility

    - Description: This spell allows the caster to momentarily phase out of reality and reappear a short distance away, effectively "blinking" through space. It''s a rapid movement technique that can be used to evade attacks or reposition strategically.

    - Casting Time: 1 second

    - Power Rating: Low

    - Mental Power Consumption: 10% (2%)

    2. Starry Shield - Type: Defensive

    - Description: The caster conjures a translucent barrier that absorbs and dissipates iing attacks. This shield harnesses the energy of distant stars, making it resilient against various elemental assaults.

    - Casting Time: 2 seconds

    - Power Rating: Moderate

    - Mental Power Consumption: 15% (3%)

    3. Gravitational Grip - Type: Offensive/Control

    - Description: The spell maniptes gravitational forces in a localized area, causing objects or enemies to be pulled towards a specific point. It can disrupt enemy formations, limit mobility, and even trap opponents temporarily.

    - Casting Time: 2 seconds

    - Power Rating: Moderate

    - Mental Power Consumption: 20% (4%)

    4. Astral re

    - Type: Offensive

    - Description: The caster gathers cosmic energy and releases it as a concentrated burst of luminous projectiles that home in on the target. These projectiles inflict moderate damage upon impact.

    - Casting Time: 3 seconds

    - Power Rating: Moderate

    - Mental Power Consumption: 25%(5%)

    5. Quantum Distortion - Type: Supportive

    - Description: This spell distorts the fabric of space around an ally, creating a temporary pocket dimension. Within this pocket dimension, time flows slightly differently, allowing the affected ally to recover from injuries or fatigue at an elerated rate.

    - Casting Time: 4 seconds

    - Power Rating: Low

    - Mental Power Consumption: 30% (6%)

    6. Celestial Tether

    - Type: Utility

    - Description: The caster creates a mystical link between two objects or individuals, regardless of distance. This link allows for instantmunication through thoughts, as well as minor transfer of small objects.

    - Casting Time: 1 second

    - Power Rating: Low

    - Mental Power Consumption: 15% (3%)

    7. Warp Perception

    - Type: Deception/Utility

    - Description: The caster alters the perception of a single target, making them see and hear things that aren''t present. This illusion can be used to distract enemies or mislead them duringbat.

    - Casting Time: 2 seconds

    - Power Rating: Low

    - Mental Power Consumption: 20% (4%)

    With these seven spells, Dante instantly gained a great amount of power. Especially since the average Intelligence SDI value of a newly risen Novice Mage was 100 point, his 500 points meant he could cast 5 as many of the same spell than other typical Novice Mages.

    Not to mention that for all 1st Rank spells like these, he could insta-cast them since he had such a high intelligence value, not to mention the help of his AI Chip which could even allow him to theoretically cast above his level!

 Chapter 130 Back To AP World

    ?

    Alongside that, Dante also learned three fire spells. However, there was no point in disying them since he couldn''t use them in any sense of the word. He could only use their permutations and effects as a reference for his hellfire at best.

    Dante sat in his newboratory that was supplied to him as a Novice Mage, which was more luxurious than some 6th Rank Grand Wizards. He closed the final spellbook before him and sighed, rubbing his temples before contacting Beatrice in the outside world through his AI chip.

    "Testing, testing. Am I speaking to the most handsome man in the universe?" Beatrice''s yful voice sounded in Dante''s head, making him smile.

    "Not yet the most handsome, but definitely proud that the most powerful and most beautiful woman is his soulmate," Dante replied sincerely.

    Beatrice was naturally extremely excited and pleased by these words, and the new couple spent the next 30 minutes sweet talking to each other stupidly, making us single fellows cringe and facepalm!

    "Right, you definitely called me for something important. What''s happening?" Beatrice reluctantly changed the subject because she knew that there was an important reason for Dante to contact her.

    Dante exined the information about the top ten resurrection resources he learned from Master ndor. "And what I need to know is what you feel would be best. We need to devise a n to acquire these items."

    Beatrice hummed. "Not necessarily. Don''t forget, I sent you to this world because it has one of the few power systems that you can practice both within its quantum world and in the real world. There are countless magical worlds, the majority not even belonging to the school, that have very exaggerated world backgrounds and settings which might have simr items."

    "The only thing is that the danger level in those worlds is far higher since they have greater power systems and you cannot giarize those power systems. A simple example is the very popr Anime World that is number 6 in the top 100 of all public and free Etraverse worlds."

    Beatrice shrugged. "You could enter the Dragon Ball section, gather all seven, bring them out, and make the necessary wishes."

    "But it''s a shared world, meaning that even if you can get past the natives, you will bepeting with other yers universe-wide for the same seven items. While you can bring them out and use them to the fullest, they only want to use them within the game world to enhance their power."

    "This is the kind of trouble you will face in all quantum worlds when trying to gather special resources," Beatrice stated simply.

    Dante nodded. "I could alternatively mitigate the danger by using my virtual body. Real or virtual, my Quantum Depository can be used."

    Dante rubbed his brows tiredly. "But the problem is even greater, because such virtual bodies will have to adhere to the rules of the world. I will have to grow their power obediently and naturally using the quantum world''s rules, so how can I surpass those who have been residents of such worlds for years before I came here?"

    "Not to mention, every second for you is precious. Time that could be spent practicing your various arts to increase your Life Seed energy for your Knight Arts, Blood Qi for your Martial Arts, Internal Force for your Internal Arts, or Spiritual Power for your Magic Arts," Beatrice added.

    Dante nodded. "Not to mention I still need to rush and raise my Quantum Entanglement to the C Rank to see if I can find a way to bring people along when I travel back and forth. With your help, these issues in quantum worlds or in my home universe would be moot."

    "I simply do not see the value in leaving my real body out here and frolicking with my virtual body in some quantum world. Even though I can technically control both real and virtual, that is only if they are in close proximity and aren''t doing strenuous stuff." Dante sighed in the end.

    "Don''t worry about it, Dante. I''ve already told you, my mother cane back at any time, but if I lose you, I will lose everything. Focus on yourself first," Beatriceforted him.

    Then her voice became extremely sultry and seductive. "Besides, you haven''t even filled me up with your essence and put a baby in me, so don''t think that far. I want you to ravage me fully before we think of anything else."

    Dante felt heat course through his body at Beatrice''s provocative words, and his eyes shone. "Fine, we''ll do things like this first. I''ll head to the Apocalypse World for the next round of strengthening, but after that, I have to return to my home universe to start my exploration."

    "Mhm, I''m here for you no matter what, Dante," Beatrice emphasized, making Dante feel good.

    After chatting for a bit, Dante ended the call and then ced his virtual body in his meditation chamber in a meditative pose before logging out and taking his real body as well.

    When he appeared, he was on the Observation Deck of the ship, but Beatrice was not there. Dante walked towards the teleporter and appeared in the research room of the Inferno battleship.

    He took in the white room with various high-tech tools and apparatus with a nod and then walked to the mainframe.

    "Wee, Vice Admiral Dante. I am the Research Wing AI. How may I help you?" A calm male voice appeared in his mind through his AI chip.

    "Study these two resources and see if you can replicate them using materials avable to me," Dante instructed as he ced two items down.

    One was a piece of metal, Soulforged Steel, which was used by Knights to form their special armor and weapons that werepatible with life energy. The other was a glowing yellow crystal, an Astral Crystal that contained the purest Astral Energy, which could be used to either cultivate Spiritual Power or harness elements.

    They were both basic and essential resources in the Magus World that were used by knights and wizards of all levels, as they also came with different qualities and potencies depending on where and how they were found.

    Dante watched the research AI begin to work quickly, using powerful quantum calctions that even his AI chip would struggle to follow with his SDI. Dante then directly entered the Apocalypse World and realized that his previous session hade to an end.

    As such, he casually chose a new city to descend and entered with his real body at the first second while coating his body in a Starry Shield spell as well as a thin wall of hellfire just to be safe.

    His precautions were good but unnecessary as he awoke to find that he was within a deep cave. His hellfire illuminated the dark cavern, which was full of bones and remains from other humans.

    Dante found that he was bound by some thick webbing that stuck to his body quite tightly initially, but easily melted in the face of his hellfire, releasing him from his bindings.

    His Spirit Sense sted out and wantonly scanned the area around him for 500 meters in all directions, and what he found made him pause. He was within a deep cave that was actually the nest of a B Rank Spider Queen and her various subordinates.

    Well, the deepest part of the cave had the giant B Rank Spider Queen who was part human with human features, and around her were C Rank Spider Champions that were extremely powerful and formed her royal guard.

    Aside from that were the D Rank Spider Lords who managed the rest of the race and formed the ''noble'' ss, as well as the E Rank Spider Warriors who were the moners'' and fought at themand of the Spider Lords.

    Finally, there were the F Rank Spiderlings who were cannon fodder that all the forces above used to do anything that they didn''t want to do. They were numerous and almost mindless, only ving for the hive day and night without any chance of climbing the ranks.

    Dante was currently in one of the Spiderling caves, near the entrance. It would actually be quite easy for him to sneak out and escape, but his hellfire had already caused millions of beady red eyes to open and then focus on him in this ce of darkness.

    Now, Dante was not one to scare easily, but his Spirit Sense had already told him that he was surrounded by a countless number of these spiderlings, and almost every single one in the nearest 100 meters had its eyes on him, while those behind were beginning to hone in on him.

    Immediately, as one, they screeched and rushed forward like an indomitable army, falling over each other in order to reach Dante the quickest and use their mandibles to pierce him to shreds.

 Chapter 131 Burn It With Fire!

    ?

    If the Harry Potter 2 spider chase scene scared the shit out of you as a child, you could likely imagine the way Dante felt seeing all these spiderlings lunge at him while screeching, their mouthparts dripping with some sort of venom.

    However, at a certain level of power, certain things that would frighten you before would not faze you. To Dante, these spiderlings were moving in extreme slow motion, the kind that made you impatient to see what happened next.

    If he wanted to, he could charge into the army and crush them all using his power, but way the heck would he do that? Rather, Dante cast out his palm callously, sending a huge wave of potent hellfire towards the spiderlings rushing at him.

    When the spiders met the wave of ckish-red mes, they immediately turned into charcoal without a chance to screech or make any death throes. Hellfire was not like normal mes, it was in the list of top ten fires.

    Even Lara Sanguis had been impressed by it, butmented that it was still at the mortal level and yet to beary, much less gctic or universal.

    But my brother in Christ, that was Lara Sanguis, the only woman Beatrice considered a foe in the entire universe. Her power level was at the peak of what could be achieved, and these lowly F rank Spiderlings were as far from her as the earth was from the edge of the universe.

    The wave spread out for 500 meters, which was exactly Dante range of spirit sense, before dying out. It wasn''t that it couldn''t go further, his total range for his mes should be about 5000 meters, or 5 kilometers.

    The reason he limited it to this range was that he discovered that as long as he kept his mes within the range of his spirit sense, he could retrieve them and achieve no loss in Internal Force. As such, the hellfire he cultivated could be used almost endlessly within this range.

    However if it went out of that range, it could not be retained and would count as a normal usage of internal force, which was expended. This might seen broken, but it followed themon sense of the True Martial World.

    That world cultivates the body and vitality, not the mind. It was not an immortal world so it did not have soul cultivation techniques. Even if a person became a peak Martial God and had an Immortal-grade Internal Art with up to 10 levels, they would still not have more than 100 points in Intelligence at the 10th level.

    Even if they could retain everything within 100 meters, they usually would not encounter foes who would enter such a close range for that very reason. Not to mention that not every Internal art, even at the Immortal grade,es with Spirit Sense.

    Spirit Sense was something that only Foundation Establishment cultivators in the immortal world unlocked. Even Qi Refinement fellows didn''t have the right to have it, so a wuxia world having a technique with one showed how special the Inferno Ascension Art was.

    And the bnce with this was that Internal Force, once consumed, could not be auto-recovered like it was some mana bar in a game. You had to leave battle, sit down and then run your internal art to turn your internal energy into internal force.

    Of course, the leeway was that recovering spent internal force was far faster and cost less than increasing the level of your technique by cultivating new internal force to increase your total.

    Dante didn''t need to think so far though. He considered using some of his spatial element spells so that he could train his proficiency in them, but changed his mind and continued tonce the iing spiderlings with fire the moment a sufficient amount entered his range.

    It was not just that his Internal Force was technically ''finite'' while being used like this, and it also wasn''t the fact that using it continuously in an intense situation helped train his familiarity with it inbat, but also the fact that spiders deserved to be burned by fire.

    It was fitting.

    Dante stood in one spot for a full 30 minutes, burning every spiderling that charged at him. He waited until they were merely 15 meters away and could leap at him to release the fire in all directions, turning the densely packed monsters into instant ash.

    So 485 meters worth of spiderlings that were norger than a small suitcase were burned every round and at the speed they moved, Dante could clear a section every 3-5 seconds. Despite this, it took a whole 30 minutes to clear out the entire cavern, so that should tell you about the sheer quantity of them here.

    Dante wasn''t surprised, these spiders had probably been here for years without being cleared. After all, this was clearly a dungeon-like area simr to thatboratory since there was a strong concentration of monsters of various levels in one ce.

    Also, none of the spiderlings dropped mutation cores, which was another tell. This meant that his Absorption was still at the F Rank and could only take 10% of stats, but he would manage like that.

    Since the spiderlings had been numerous, he had burned them away, so there were no corpses to absorb. Anyway, Dante targeted the E Rank and above spiders for absorption and wouldn''t dare burn them away.

    After patting himself down, he nced behind him to the entrance of the cave, which leads to a lush forest outside that had countless pieces of spider webs coating the trees. Yeah, it was not likely that anyone woulde here after seeing that.

    This was definitely not a g. Besides, if it did happen that someone did miraculouslye here, Dante was not worried. With his spatial element spells, he could just send them out or lock them in a pocket dimension while he did his thing.

    Dante descended down the cavern. How he was able to tell thepleteyout despite only having 500 meters of spirit sense was that his spirit sense was 3 dimensional. It wasn''t just horizontal, but vertical as well, so the 500 meters could go up in the air or down below in the earth.

    He went to the cavern with the E Rank spider warriors who were training hard while feeding on processed corpses. Dante initially should have been brought down here, but his avatar had been captured and yet to be proceeded, which was why he could escape.

    In fact, back in the cavern above, there were other unprocessed people who were unconscious in the webbing, but Dante didn''t free them. It was not necessarily because he didn''t care, but because he felt that they might introduce unwanted variables.

    Who knew if one of the cocoons had a beauty with a princess syndrome that caused him trouble with her foolishness or a dumb arrogant guy who thought he could do whatever he wanted and ruined everything?

    They were safe in those cocoons anyway with the spiderlings who were tasked with processing them dead. Since he was about to deal with the spider warriors and keep going down below, they should be fine.

    If something did happen, like the spiders sent out on capture emissionsing back from the forest entrance and taking a bite out of them for afternoon snack time, ah well. Too bad.

    The spider warriors immediately detected Dante who did nothing to hide himself and seemed to freeze. Dante scanned the room with his spirit sense and saw that it was notrge, and the number of Spider Warriors did not surpass 5,000 in number.

    Spiderlings were easy to mass produce since they had no sentience and were small, but Spider Warriors were E Rank monsters with initial intelligence and were about the size of a one seater sofa. Even a B Rank Spider Queen could not achieve the impossible unless she had thousands of years to grow.

    The Spider Warriors seemed to activate as one at this moment as they stretched and raised their two front legs before leaping over. With their power, they needed only to leap like this to reach Dante immediately rather than run over clumsily.

    Dante simply cast his 1st Rank Spell, Gravitational Grip.

    Immediately, a tiny ck spot formed in the center of the area about 150 meters in front of Dante, enveloping everything within a range of 1000 meters with a strange wave of imperceptible energy.

    The moment this energy contracted, everything within this range of 1 kilometer in all directions except Dante was dragged over to that spot and then crushed by the force of the suction as well as the multitude of bodies and items rushing over at high speeds.

    The Spider Warriors that were initially full of vigor and charged at him with malice were now squished into pulp, arge amount of nasty smelling body fluid leaking in the ground around the ck spot as it was not pulled over.

 Chapter 132 The Genetic Limitation

    Chapter 132 The Gic Limitation

    Dante was surprised by the effectiveness of this 1st rank spell. On paper, it was like a very weak version of the famousary Devastation, but the most it could do in the hands of a Novice Mage, even a peak one, was to disrupt, slow, unbnce, and trap.

    It was like trying to run forward with a vacuum cleaner behind you, pulling you back. However, due to the fact that Dante was space element specialized, the spell was already boosted by 50% per each rank Dante was.

    So as a 1st Rank Novice Mage, his 1st Rank spells were 50% stronger than the base. At the 2nd Rank Adept Mage, it was 100% stronger than the base. At 3rd Rank Advanced Mage, it was 150% stronger than the base.

    ''The base'' here did not refer to the spell itself but rather the spell in the hands of an average non-specialized mage at the same rank. So a 2nd Rank Adept Mage with three Spiritual Cores of Fire, Poison, and Ice who used this spell would only be able to use it at base strength.

    But a 2nd Rank Adept Mage with three spiritual cores of space, wood, and earth, for example, would be able to use the spell with a boost of 150%. If he had two spiritual cores of space, that was 150% + 150%, which was 300%! If it was three, then 450%!

    This is also why specialists were more revered in the Magus World, because imagine a 9th Rank Mage who had 10 Spiritual Cores of just fire. If he used a simple 1st Rank fire spell, after the various boots from his specialization, he might be able to beat a fellow 9th Rank Mage who had cores of different elements that use a spell of the 7th rank!

    However, even with this boost, Dante could not achieve such a crushing effect with the spell. The real reason was his incredibly high Intelligence and Spiritual Power which was technically at the 3rd rank of mages, which was the Advanced Mage.

    If an Advanced mage used this 1st Rank spell at full power, coupled with the boost, then yes, they could achieve the same effect Dante did, but for weaker monsters. E Rank Monsters were just one level above the bottom, so naturally, it worked.

    Dante tsked and walked over, cing his hand on thepiled corpses before using Absorption on them. Immediately, Dante reached his power cap and was even overloaded by nearly double the amount, causing him to grunt in pain and explode with hellfire in all directions while a wave of power from his mind caused space to crack around him like a shattered mirror.

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 7500/7500

    Strength: 500 -> 750

    Agility: 500 -> 750

    Dexterity: 500 -> 750

    Intelligence: 500 -> 750

    Constitution: 500 -> 750

    Vitality: 500 -> 750

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    Dante checked his SDI and was disappointed. No wonder there was so much energy that went to waste and exploded out of him, it turned out that his assumption that his limit would double with each breakthrough was wrong.

    It seemed that at the level of his gic quality, his limit would increase by 250 points with each round. That meant that in order to reach the 2000 stats limit to be able to safely prate Beatrice after activating his Bionics to the max, he would need to break his gene limit and absorb stats 5 more times.

    This was not in line with his ns at all. It made him a bit exasperated as he had honestly not rated the Raging Blood Halberd Technique and the Primal Ape technique much, rather focusing more on his Inferno Ascension and Void Speaker Chant for the future.

    In his mind, he would practice the physical techniques until he reached the basic gene limit and then work on them slowly while focusing 99% of his time into the magical arts. Now, it seemed he had to bnce out his time even more, because the Raging Blood Halberd Technique had a total of 6 levels and so too did the Primal Ape technique.

    If his spection was correct and he could breakthrough his genes with each level of each technique back to back, he had a total of 9 more chances. 4 from the Knight technique and 5 from the External Martial Art.

    If he couldn''t interchangeably breakthrough and could only do so with each collective level, then he had at best 5 more chances with there being a possibility of only 4. This made his face darken as he hoped the worst wouldn''t happen.

    Dante didn''t bother to continue onward. He directly moved his body to the top cavern and then cast his Quantum Distortion spell in himself, putting his virtual body into a pocket dimension at the lowest settings and investing all his current spiritual power into it so that it wouldst longer.

    He then left the Apocalypse World with his real body and went straight into the True Martial World. He then rose from his bed in his room and went to the courtyard to see Jia Susu practicing diligently since she had already cleaned up.

    When she saw Dante, her eyes lit up. "Senior Brother, do you need anything?"

    Dante was about to speak but paused. Hey, since he was here, why not throw out some more bait? The previous ones had been dodged, but could they dodge this one?

    "Go and fetch 100 bowls of level 4 Blood Energy Soup. I am about to break through into the Martial Warrior level." Dante stated casually.

    "Yes!" Jia Sus said with an obedient expression, but she suddenly took two steps and stopped. Thunder seemed to explode in her had her training nid out for her. She first cultivated to the Martial Warrior realm peak to raise her blood energy greatly before brain as she finally processed Dante''s words, and then turned to look at him as if he were a humanoid beast.

    What the heck, about to break through?! However, he had only been practicing for about a month and a half in total and he was about to break through?!

    Let''s not talk about the average person, even the almighty Shui Binn who had set new records in Green Wind City and even Green Feather Province had taken over 4 months to break through to the Martial Warrior level.

    Unlike Dante who was left on his own due to his age and raw power, Shui Binn had been carefully nurtured by the elders and had her training nid out for her. She first cultivated to the Martial Warrior realm peak to raise her blood energy greatly before cultivating her Internal Art with her enhanced body stats to maximize her transformation of internal energies to internal force.

    However, Dante had been dual cultivating since the start and even took time for etiquette sses! Not to mention that Jia Susu, as the one who managed his affairs, knew that he had not been practicing for thest two weeks even though he imed to be in seclusion.

    It wasn''t that she entered his room to see him sleeping on the bed, but it was simple logic. He normally drank a huge amount of level 4 blood energy

    soup each day that caused Acquisition Elder Wu Jian to hunt martial master demon beasts like a madman until he even unconsciously swung his sword in his sleep.

    He had not ordered any for the past two weeks, so that was an obvious tell. Of course, he could be focusing on his internal art, which was probably what everyone else thought, especially since Dante did note to the practice area for so long.

    But errˇ­ how to say?

    You see, even if that was the case, it was impossible. Jia Susu was the closest to Dante in this hall, and she knew that whether he practiced his External art or Internal art, there was always amotion.

    There were shockwaves, intense waves of heat, or something else. It had been dead quiet these two weeks, so Jia Susu knew that he didn''t practice much, if at all.

    Even if Dante solo cultivated for one and a half months nonstop, him breaking through so soon would be shocking and set a new record across the entire Great Song Kingdom, if not the entire Onodera Continent.

    But he split his time to do other things and outright stopped for a long time!

    Was Dante really human and not some reincarnated Martial God? Jia Susu thought so, and even if you showed her evidence otherwise, she wouldn''t believe it. It was the only way she could exin what she was hearing right now.

    Jia Susu ran out of the courtyard in a daze, continually bumping into people and things until she found herself in the resource hall. Since she was Dante''s registered servant disciple, she didn''t need to take his token along and said exactly what Dante said.

    Naturally, after speaking, the deacon in charge of marking and handing out resources froze and nced at the dazed Jia Susu with an expression of incredulity.

 Chapter 133 Bait Dodged?

    Chapter 133 Bait Dodged?

    Seeing that even the servant disciples were lost, the deacon didn''t know what to do. In the end, he simply handed the resources to Jia Susu and logged it down before getting one of the Resource Hall''s people to inform Elder Xia immediately.

    Xia Dongyin was currently lying on her couch whilezily reading a novel about romance. She was dressed in a thin chiffon dress that was somewhat transparent, allowing one to see her huge F-cup breasts that were loosely bound by a bra, as well as her dodou, which was something like booty shorts but was actually women''s underwear in Ancient China.

    When she heard a knock on the door, shezily allowed the servant disciple toe in. Naturally, to enter her boudoir, it had to be a female servant disciple; otherwise, the deacon and that servant disciple would have their eyes gouged out for seeing something they should not.

    This youngdy with tanned skin was stunned by the lush and voluptuous resource hall elder despite having reported to her many times in simr situations, but she was able to focus on the task at hand.

    "Elder Xia, Deacon Fu told me to report to you that the servant disciple of core disciple Dante, Jia Susu, had made a request for over a 100 bowls of level 4 Blood Energy Soup." She began to exin.

    Xia Dongyin''s eyes shed slightly. "What a monster that brat is. I now understand why that old fellow, Hao Donglei, forced us toe and greet him back then. I''m still not happy about that, but it at hearing Elder Xia refer to the nightly vice hall master like that. Despite being amused, Xia Dongyin prudently asked.

    was not a bad idea."

    Xia Dongyin nced at the silent servant disciple who was scared at hearing Elder Xia refer to the nightly vice hall master like that. Despite being amused, Xia Dongyin prudently asked.

    "That''s not all, is it? Even though this is astonishing news, it''s not enough for Little Fu to send you all the way here, is it?"

    "Yes! He said that the reason that Jia Susu gave was that core disciple Dante was about to breakthrough to the Martial Warrior realm." The servant disciple stated with a nod.

    Xia Dongyin was stunned. The idea that Dante would breakthrough so soon had not even crossed her mind in the slightest despite his talent because she simply thought that it was impossible. Even now, hearing this, she thought that Dante might be bluffing.

    It could be a ploy to tempt them to make a mistake. His previous two attempts were so clumsy and obvious, showing that Dante was a naive youth and not a true schemer like them. After all, they lived in a cruel cultivation world and had survived for decades so how could they be fooled by such weak bait?

    However, this bait was too powerful. It was fine if Dante was bluffing, but what if it was true? The consequences were too serious to think about, and a prompt decision had to be made in regards to this.

    Xia Dongyin became restless. Truthfully, as a sexy woman in charge of resources, she was not verypetitive. Her position granted herfort and her sexiness granted her ess to connections and power.

    She could afford to insult Hao Donglei because he was a frequent partaker in her forbidden fruit, one of the extremely few in the world. However, Xia Dongyin had a n behind her that was not located in this city, but rather in the provincial capital.

    Not only did they want to recruit Dante, but they werepetitors with the Supreme Martial Hall in the provincial capital for resources, political power, and more. They sent her to this city to infiltrate this branch and rise to an elder position to monitor the talents and either poach or eliminate them.

    Of course, this was something the Supreme Martial hall knew, which was why despite her talent, Xia Dongyin was pushed to an elder slot and not a core disciple. The Supreme Martial Hall was happy to have her as an elder because it meant that they too could monitor her at her conspicuous position.

    This was also why a core disciple''s status was higher than an elder, so as to make it tough for these fellows to touch the precious core disciples using the rules of the hall or by twisting them.

    So Xia Dongyin, much like the other elders in simr situations, had a choice now. To eliminate Dante or toy her cards straight with him. After all, he was only a Body Tempering Realm fellow right now and even if his blood energy was as potent as a half-step Martial Grandmaster, he couldn''t use it.

    When he entered the Martial Warrior Realm though, that would change as he would begin to convert blood energy to blood Qi. At that time, even if a group of Martial Masters surrounded him, it would be hard to take him down, much less knowing that he also cultivated Internal Arts.

    The reason they had not acted till now was simply that they had sent word back to their factions and were waiting on a verdict. In their minds, there was no rush as he would only breakthrough after a few months at best, so they had plenty of time to formte a strategy.

    Unfortunately, that assumption was smashed. If he was breaking through now, they had to make a snap decisionˇ­ no, she had to make a snap decision. Not to mention, what she feared was not his power, but his cunning.

    He could have had Jia Susu just collect the resources without giving a reason, but he purposefully told her to say this in order to force them to act. Even if Xia Dongyin knew it was a scheme, it was an open one in which she was forced to partake!

    She was frightened because she could not understand how in the span of just 2 weeks of not seeing this brat, his cunning had be so strong. His previous baits were simple and not very tempting, but this one was brutally efficient.

    She felt like Dante was standing above her, looking down on her with a smirk as he held a fishing rod that was connected to her back, pulling her towards him while she weakly resisted.

    Xia Dongyin''s eyes shed. After crazily thinking about it, she made a decision and told the servant disciples with bloodshot eyes.

    "Gather 6 more of you and send this information to the other halls and elders. Hurry and be quick, or you will face severe punishment!"

    The servant disciples shuddered and bowed before rushing out to achieve this goal. Once she left, Xia Dongyin seemed to dete as fatigue appeared on her features. However, she couldn''t help but feel relieved that she had tossed this trouble away.

    Dante was clearly targeting her with this bait, but she decided not to bite. She had no enmity with him and could even cultivate a beneficial rtionship with him using her sexual prowess, so why make a hasty decision?

    Hmph, when she pressed Dante beneath her and squeezed him dry, wouldn''t he obediently chase after her skirt? Thinking like this, Xia Dongyin felt much better and even smiled faintly. She also praised her decision to drag the other elders into the vortex and force them to make mistakes.

    As fellow spies, they werepetitors and troublemakers. It was best to eliminate them from the fold using the hands of Dante since he would not bear much trouble for doing sopared to her, and then she would swoop in to win his favor and affection, turning him into her boytoy!

    Xia Dongyin couldn''t help butugh charmingly, feeling that everything was within her grasp. Was this what it felt like to be a winner?

    If so, then she quite liked it!

    Meanwhile, the other elders had received this news and could not sit still. They, like Xia Dongyin, had opted to wait patiently, especially Da Bo, who had seen the phenomenon of Dante''s Internal cultivation firsthand.

    No one but him among the elders knew that Dante was already at the first stage at least. Even if they did attack him now, they would likely be burned into a crisp, so the moment Da Bo had seen Dante achieve it, he had given up all thoughts.

    Not to mention, he had witnessed Dante train for those 27 days and knew his progress. He had stifled the news from reaching the other elders, but he was not too surprised that the fellow was about to breakthrough.

    Hearing this now, Da Bo was clear-headed and couldn''t help but curse that wicked bitch Xia Dongyin. If he was a betting man, he was willing to bet that she nned to use those huge breasts to smother Dante to death after they foolishly attacked him.

    Da Bo immediately went into seclusion after he told one of his deacons to capture and lock up Xia Dongyin''s servant disciple so that they don''t send news back that he had received the information. Also, he made them announce that he had started seclusion before the disciple in question came to inform him.

 Chapter 134 A Rat Caught In The Trap!

    ?

    Jia Susu brought the bowls of blood energy soup periodically, as she obviously couldn''t carry them all at once. She still stubbornly refused to call other servant disciples to help in case Dante epted them, as she wanted to monopolize him.

    Dante too was fine with this. Her selfishness was good, because if he had more servant disciples in his courtyard, his ck of practice'' for the past two weeks would not be a secret that only Jia Susu knew.

    While she brought over the bowls, he drank 20 of them first and began running the Raging Blood Halberd Technique, which was at Perfection 96%. Just 4% more and he could breakthrough to the next level and test whether this would also stabilize his genes or it would only add a minimal effect.

    BOOM!

    A shockwave began to erupt from Dante as low winds whipped about the courtyard, the sheer force of his blood energy being mobilized to temper his powerful body causing the reactions. It was like a loose Bugatti was coursing through his veins, and the poor atmosphere could not easily bear the pressure.

    Jia Susu nodded her head as he gripped the nearby tree for dear life. Yes, this was how Senior Brother Dante''s cultivation should be! He definitely wasn''t practicing before since this phenomenon did not ur previously!

    Dante remained like this for about 6 hours until he felt the shackles of his blood and body begin to hold him back. However, this kind of obstacle that prevented others from advancing was nothing but a paper-thin barrier for Dante.

    With a simple motion, he easily broke through, and a giant explosion of blood-red energy formed around his body that filled his courtyard and even spilled outwards, nearly submerging the entire Supreme Martial Hall and half of Green Wind City.

    Jia Susu, who was at the center, was easily swept away with wide eyes and was blown into the horizon, her fate unknown. The other disciples clung onto what they could and tried to survive while the various Martial Blood realm and above fellows tried to create safe zones using their blood Qi.

    The elders who were either watching the courtyard with conflicted expressions or in their halls deciding on what to do were stunned into stupefaction. Even Hao Donglei, who was overseeing everything, including the ambushing elders, was shocked.

    Dante soon retracted his surging blood energy that was like a sea back into his body and calmly drank the rest of the bowls before him. In the few minutes he took to do so, no one moved and when he was done, he nced around coldly.

    "If you aren''t going to attack, why spy on me? Please leave!"

    There was a period of silence before three figures came out of hiding and stood before Dante. They were Lin Dao, the Hall Elder of Tasks, Pei Luo, Hall Elder of External Affairs, and Jun Feng, the Hall Elder of Administration.

    Seeing them, with gloomy expressions, Dante was surprised. Xia Dongyin, Dao Bo, Ling Jun, Ah Jin, and Wu Jian didn''te. Dao Bo wasn''t a surprise because he knew his true prowess, and Ah Jin was still locked in his forge, creating a special blood weapon for Dante.

    Wu Jian noting was a shock because out of everyone, he had a more direct reason to hate Dante and wish he could carve him up. Ling Jun was also not here because he was a secret counter-spy used by the Supreme Martial hall.

    Otherwise, how could they dare put him in charge of the knowledge hall? Wouldn''t he leak all their techniques and secrets to other factions?

    Pei Luoing was half unsurprising and half surprising. Unsurprising because a post like Elder of External Affairs was practically screaming ''spy,'' and surprising because one would not expect such a petite and sweet-looking woman to be so vicious.

    Whatever the case, Dante turned to them coldly as a ball of me lit up in his palm. "I don''t care who you are nor do I care that you are an elder. You each have 5 seconds to give me a reason to let you live starting from now."

    Seeing the hellfire that was plentiful within his palm, their pupils constricted as horror engulfed them. Regret and fear surged into their hearts as they understood that they had been baited into a fatal trap and now they only had a slim chance to dig themselves out.

    "I know the location of an Ancient Trove left by a Martial God!" Lin Dao roared, kneeling immediately.

    "I have multiple businesses and wealth stored away that you can easily take and control with a slight handover!" Jun Feng stated with a pale face, his legs shaking.

    "I know all the secrets and dark details of all the nobles in Green Wind City as well as the spies and contracts within all the martial halls among disciples and elders!" Pei Luo immediately stated with a pleasing tone.

    Dante only nced at them askance and looked to the side. "What does the Vice Hall Master think?"

    To the shock of the three elders, Hao Donglei easily appeared in the courtyard with his hands folded behind his back, a gratified smile on his face. "Dante, you are truly exceptional. Leave the three with me, and I will make sure they spit out what they promised you just now."

    Dante nodded and retracted his hellfire while walking back into his residence. Meanwhile, Hao Donglei''s kind smile disappeared when he faced the three traitors and was reced by chilling coldness.

    "You idiots. You, Pei Luo, ascended to your spot only a year ago as well as you, Jun Feng, who came 3 years ago. Where did you think the elders who sat in your position went?"

    Jun Feng was stunned. "You said they retiredˇ­"

    Suddenly, a horrifying thought came to mind and Hao Donglei confirmed it with augh. "That''s right, they permanently retired from life. Do you think we, the Supreme Martial Hall, will really let you execute our core disciples? Do you smoke recreational feces?"

    The faces of the trio changed greatly. Before they could speak, Hao Donglei cut them off. "Enough, I don''t want to hear any nonsense. Your life and death are up to whether what you promised Dante can be fulfilled, otherwise, your death will be gruesome."

    Hao Donglei grabbed the three and disappeared from the courtyard in a sh, bringing back peace and quiet to Dante''s residence. As for the man himself, he was currently sensing his body''s progress after breaking through.

    In about 3 minutes, he opened his eyes with a look of joy. It turned out that the weakness of his genes was bnced out by the universe. Since he could not increase his SDI by much with each breakthrough, the counterbnce to that was that it was easier for him to breakthrough his limit.

    He could breakthrough using the knight technique or the martial art interchangeably and then absorb a new round of stats. Dante got up and collected the final bowl of blood energy soup that he kept and then left the True Martial World with his real body.

    He then appeared in the Research Wing and gave the AI the blood energy soup to analyze and replicate. As it were, the Soulforged Steel was 30% researched while the Astral Crystal was 14% researched.

    Seeing as barely a day passed, this was

    monstrous progress, but Dante expected it to hit a hup soon as it struggled to analyze the magical properties that made these two items special in the first ce.

    Without further ado, he returned to the Apocalypse World with his real body. He noticed that his pocket dimension was still active but was very weak for some reason. Dante frowned and sensed the outside using his spatial spiritual core and realized that the pocket dimension was being attacked.

    It turned out that the hive had been rmed by the genocide of their F rank cannon fodder and even their E rank basic foot soldiers, so they sent some reserves to investigate. It was a bunch of F Rank Spiderlings and E Rank Spider Warriors led by a single D Rank Spider Lord.

    Surprisingly, a Spider Lord was not bigger than a Spider Warrior, but more sleek. A Spider Warrior looked like those ugly, hairy tarants but a Spider Lord was like a ck widow with a shiny carapace and slender legs shaped like pricks.

    There was also a noticeable light of wisdom and cunning in its eyes, letting the weaklings go forth to exhaust the strange spatial distortion in the corner first. It should be obvious that Dante could not cloak his temporary pocket space as his magic control wascking and it was a 1st Rank spell anyway.

    Still, it wasn''t much of an issue since he knew he would be away for a day at most to test his theory about his gic limit. Now that he was back, it was time to deal with these creepy arachnids!

 Chapter 135 1000 Point SDI!

    ?

    When Dante emerged from the pocket dimension suddenly, you could be sure that the spiderlings that were attacking it were shocked, much less the spider warriors or the single Spider Lord.

    They only had time to screech in anger when Dante unleashed a wave of hellfire that engulfed the very small army before him. After all, he had already dealt with the majority of the forces at the bottom and these were just the reserves who weren''t there at the time.

    In a single attack, pretty much all the spiderlings were taken out, with a few spider warriors following along. The rest quickly retreated rather than advanced at themand of the Spider Lord, creating a defensive formation as they watched Dante warily.

    Dante was not surprised. As a D Rank monster, a Spider Lord was capable of low intelligence and had good instincts, like those Deformed Elite Zombies. It probably realized that Dante was a superpower wielder of the fire element, which was their racial weakness, and so wanted to create distance to react.

    That was truly a good idea as at his current level 2 of the Inferno Ascension Art, even with his spirit sense, Dante could not make mes appear directly within his range. They had to be fired out from his body and travel towards his target before returning.

    However, even if one did not take his insane physical prowess from his stats into ount, his aplishment in both of his physical techniques was enough to make him a humanoid behemoth to these spiders.

    Still, Dante currently had no weapon on him as he wanted to train using his two magical powers instead of relying on his halberd skill to get by like usual. Spawning in a dungeon like this was just the icing on the cake.

    Dante smiled and snapped a finger, casting the Astral re spell.

    A wave of spatial energy condensed in front of him and formed a small portal the size of three men standing side by side. From within this portal, needle-like purple bolts the size of a standing broom''s handle shot out like bullets, piercing through the bodies of the spiders that were hunched up before him.

    The spider warriors did not have any time to react before they were brutally nailed into the ground, their lifeforce disappearing not just from the fatal strike, but the destructive void energy remaining.

    Spiders were generally fast beings with very high agility, but even they could not react to something like this fast enough. By the time the spell came to an end, only the spider lord who had dragged over some spider warriors to form a protective shield for itself had survived.

    When it looked and saw all its troops killed, the spider lord felt endless fear and began to run back down the passage hurriedly. It had to inform the queen quickly of the prowess of this intruder, as he was a fabled double superpower wielder!

    In its memory, theirir had been destroyed many times by such monstrous humans, forcing the queen to flee with injuries and relocate to different ces. She had originally been at the S Rank with a powerful spider army in the depths of the uninhabited zones, but had been slowly beaten to this corner and dropped two stages.

    The spider lord was surprised that Dante did not give chase, but then remembered that it was a spider with great agility. How could two measly legs keep up with the sleek movement of eight? Not to mention, those damned superpowered humans always had weak bodies.

    As the spider lord went down, Dante nced at it and pressed his hand to the nailed corpses of the spider warriors. Once again, he used his F rank Absorption to collect their remnant stats, and it was just enough to get him to reach the limit in all stats with a few digits extra in agility especially.

    The expulsion of extra energy was pretty weak this time and did not cause Dante much trouble.

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 10000/10000

    Strength: 750 -> 1000

    Agility: 750 -> 1000

    Dexterity: 750 -> 1000

    Intelligence: 750 -> 1000

    Constitution: 750 -> 1000

    Vitality: 750 -> 1000

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?

    Dante nodded with satisfaction. He took a step forward to chase downwards but stopped and tilted his head in thought. This was an indiscreet dungeon that no one had found, and it contained plentiful monsters.

    The most important thing was that these monsters could regenerate not physically, but in terms of poption through reproduction. No matter how weak the spider queen, she wouldn''t take much energy to spit out spiderlings or spider warriors, and even they were enough to fill Dante''s tank most of the time.

    There was no real need to overturn the entire nest at once. Rather, he could treat it as his backyard farm whenever he broke through his gene limit and wanted to absorb stats quickly.

    This saved him loads of time running up and down the wastnd fighting monsters. In the end, he decided to find a ce to preserve this virtual body for the next 30 days so that he could drop in when necessary.

    A pocket dimension would be fine, but they could break it while he was away. So Dante simply dropped a quantum marker and teleported to his other quantum marker in this world, which existed within his second residence.

    His items and belongings from hisst run had not been cleared out yet, so he threw everything that he bought into his portable storage and then dropped his virtual body onto the bed. He was amused at how the cleaner would be shocked to find that he was alive past 30 days, and that could technically count as causing mayhem in the world.

    Oh yeah, speaking of that, let''s see how his previous run was scoredpared to the first time.

    [Supercoin Settlement for Dante.

    World Name: Apocalypse World

    World Type: Shared (5% Score Bonus)

    ˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞ

    Online Time: 82:12:08 (F+ Rank)

    Mutant Kills: 4098 F Rank, 87 E Rank, 243 D Rank (C+ Rank)

    yer Kills: 0 (F Rank)

    Native Kills: 0 (F Rank)

    Superpower Rank: D Rank (D Rank)

    Reputation: A respectable regional legend who caused an upheaval (B Rank)

    Final Score: D+ Rank

    Payout: 1550 Supercoins (bonus added)]

    Huh, not bad. Dante had done a lot more hunting on his second run, and the dungeon exploration of that researchd was the reason he had so many D rank monster killspared to E Rank. He didn''t fight any yers or natives, heck if he remembered, he tricked two students into getting lost without offending them.

    He naturally had no ns to see nor interact with them. The Eternal Academy to him now was just a ce where he absorbed Zero Energy. After being attacked three times, his feelings towards the institution that hadn''t even had time to grow had disappeared.

    He did remember raising his superpower to the D rank and even honestly had a chance to take it to the c rank if he had focused more time on it, but he did not feel it was necessary. Oh well, the Mutation Cores he had collected on hisst run were now in his portable storage along with other interesting items.

    And that informant had done his job well and spread the information. This was likely why Dante had such a strong reputation rating, as really only the guards at the outpost knew him due to his thunderous entrances and exits.

    The payout scheme for Supercoins in the AP world was 10 at the F rank and then multiplied by ten for each higher rank. So his D rank had earned him 1000 Supercoins, and adding a plus meant 50% bonus while a minus meant 50% reduction.

    Then there was the ever-present 5% for being a shared world.

    Whatever the case, Dante had earned big, but it was not enough to do much. Well, he could now upgrade his student Bionics and Psionics to the 2nd level and increase his boost.

    However, it would be the same problem as going to take a gene enhancer, they would have to scan his SDI and upon realizing the disparity in his stats, those fucking crazy teachers might attack while he was under.

    He now had his inferno fire and the magic spiritual power, but he was not sure how effective they would be. It was one thing to be meditating on your superpower and passively defend or escape and another to be in the midst of a careful and important surgery and then do the same.

    If it wasn''t for the fact that thew banned Beatrice from entering the Eternal Academy grounds (Alumni couldn''t return without strict procedures) he would just have his OP babe deter all his enemies.

    Still, there were ways around it. Right now, he did not have the power, but if he continued to collect unique power systems like Pok¨¦mon, he might be able to get something that would allow him to control the android receptionist and prevent her from uploading his details.

 Chapter 136 The State Of The Captives 1

    ?

    Well, since that was it for the Apocalypse World, it was finally time to deal with other things. In truth, Dante could revive Beatrice''s mom ASAP by taking dark matter or even nuclear weapons through his quantum depository into the Magus World or the True Martial World.

    But to get those resources, he would have to appear at the highest level of conflict and even if he seeded, he would likely bepletely hated and be a fugitive, unable to coexist with the natives of that world.

    Beatrice wasn''t in a rush, so Dante calmed down. Right now, what he wanted to do most was im her and then establish his own family line with her before bringing the grandmother of his future child back to life.

    So!

    With that in mind, it was time to return to his home universe and begin his journey throughout the void! He was off to discover more of his universe starting from whether the Zero Gate existed and if he could control it.

    When he returned to the observation deck, he found that Beatrice had left the ship on an assignment from the Prime Human Council. A base of rebels had been found within a local star and Beatrice was dispatched to either capture or kill them.

    Deciding to leave the dy of genocides'' to fulfill her title, Dante immediately appeared in his residential estate on Etonia. Much to his satisfaction, despite being away for a few weeks, nothing had changed.

    The cyborgs assigned to his safety were still protecting the building and his assets. He also found that his four android beauties were idling about in the armory where he stored all his guns, equipment, and two spaceships.

    Looking at them with excitement, Dante collected everything into his quantum depository. He first made the androids switch off - of course - in case the void within his space ruined them somehow.

    After taking everything, he thought about it and then teleported using his quantum marker to the Research wing of the Inferno battleship. He then took out some of the items he had taken from the Apocalypse World for it to analyze, like the radiation blockers, the mutation cure, and the mutation core.

    The mutation and radiation drugs were analyzedprehensively on the spot, and it turned out the Eternal Universe had drugs that were at least 5x more effective in stores, much less custom-made ones that the Research AI could craft.

    However, none of the magical items were done. Even the closest to being done, the Blood Energy Soup, needed about 96 hours, which was 4 days. Looking forward to the result, Dante finally appeared on McDonald''s Ind far out at sea.

    He looked to the sky and saw that it was nighttime on Earth, and he couldn''t help but feel at home. The Eternal universe was great and those Quantum Worlds were lit, but it was like traveling abroad to further your studies.

    In the beginning, you were excited to explore this new locale and conquer it, but after a while, you longed for the warmth of home. It wasn''t a bad thing, but very normal for anyone to feel unless home had brutal and bitter memories for you.

    Dante finally came down from his reverie and spread his spirit sense over the ind. It wasn''trge enough to cover the whole thing, but it was enough to locate the group. Dante thought and used his 1st Rank Blink Step spell to teleport to the edge of their campsite.

    He was about to go in when he paused. Uh, it turned out that after almost 40 days or more of being trapped on this ind with no entertainment, these fellows had returned to their ancestors'' means of passing the time.

    At this range, forget using spirit sense, he could hear the moans and see the silhouettes from the tents that were vigorously working out. Dante remembered that there were three superpowered people, 1 male and 2 females.

    The male was Killian, the army ''chad,'' while the two females were Luo Yue, the immigrant Chinese girl with moonlight powers, and Aisha, the fiery tsundere ex-mafiadonna with blowjob trauma.

    Among the normies were five people, the suave blonde-haired sniper, the burly and manly demolitions, the sses-wearing tech specialist who was actually quite cute (to women), the infiltration specialist who was a rtively short and lithe woman with small but curvy assets, and finally, the assassin who was basically built like your average sexy anime milf, but only that she was young.

    Right now, ording to Dante''s spirit sense, the blondie sniper and assassin were going at it like professionals while the tech specialist was pressed down by the infiltrationdy who seemed to like defiling a cute young guy.

    What was shocking was the single Luo Yue with her svelte and pristine jade beauty-like body taking on Killian and demolitions, the two biggest guys of the group in all regards. She had a look of enjoyment as she used her superpower to reinforce her soft body and take on two monsters till they were weak.

    Two warm hands were sped over Dante''s eyes, and he folded his arms with amusement, as he smelled a fresh vani-like vor.

    "Why aren''t you taking part in the fun, Aisha?" Dante asked calmly.

    Aisha took her hands away and walked beside Dante coolly. The woman had really changed, losing a bit of weight around her waist and belly, making her already voluptuous assets poke out even more.

    Now that he was no longer stressed about his future or worried about the bacsh of being between two universes, Dante could admit that Aisha had about 30% of Beatrice''s minimum sexual appeal.

    She was also wearing a loose bandana made from her blouse that tied her formerly long hair which was cut short. Her upper body only had her white jacket loosely covering it, disying the flesh of her side boob and her 6-pack abs and her white pants were rolled up into knee-length shorts.

    "Like what you see?" Aisha asked with a smile.

    "Somewhat. Why aren''t you taking part?" Dante asked again.

    Aisha pursed her lips. "Must I necessarily take part?"

    Dante shook his head. "No, but I find it curious. There''s nothing stopping you and no one to judge you. Why not let go?"

    "No one to judge me? Can''t I judge myself then?" Aisha smiled.

    "Uhhhˇ­" Dante was speechless at her train of thought.

    "Don''t look at me like that. I have to deal with terrible memories of my actions to survive and rise in Italy back then. I don''t need to add more onto my te." Aisha answered with a shrug.

    Aisha gestured to the silhouettes in the tent. "Look at them. They are certain that they either will live here till they die or be killed by you, which is why they made this choice."

    "Haha, let''s take the normal women as an example. The assassin is quite stuck up and only chose the blondie after many days in the group because he courted her the most and has the best face in terms of handsomeness." Aisha stated with amusement.

    Aisha shook her head with a smile. "If we were outside, she likely wouldn''t - and probably - hadn''t given this guy a second look. She is clearly a sexy woman who waspletely focused on her career and did not consider love. Even sex could be used as a means to make her jobs more sessful rather than something she would enjoy."

    Her eyes then narrowed a bit in a cold manner. "However, due to the circumstances, her barrier broke and she epted this after much coaxing. Right now, she is openly having sex with blondie, but who knows when she might start taking in the cocks of others? Who knows when she might start even targeting her fellow females?"

    There was short period of contemtive silence on both sides before Aisha continued. "The actual first to go was the curvy one. She is usually yful and seductive, probably loose with her sexual partners. After umting a body count to a certain level, a fetish begins to breed, whether man or woman."

    "Her fetish developed along the mostmon route. She got tired of experienced partners who used the same moves and began to crave inexperienced young men who were unlikely to have sex." Aisha stated with a hint of disgust in her tone.

    "She descended on poor tech boy just 10 days after your left and started this whole thing. As if she wanted to drag all of us down, she made it very conspicuous when they did it, tempting the rest of us with unresolved sexual desire." She said with a sneer.

    Then, Aisha seemed to be slightly saddened by something. "Surprisingly, the second to go was not the assassin girl, but Luo Yue. Even if you beat me to death back then, I would never have believed that Luo Yue could do what she was doing now. She was not stuck up per se, but like me, she did not consider people with superpowers as being in the same world as her."

 Chapter 137 The State Of The Captives 2

    ?

    "Back then, Killian''s first target was me. The non-superpowered men did not dare approach, though they lusted after my body ¨C even still do now. I rejected Killian many times until he eventually settled for Luo Yue," Aisha stated with a hint of pride, pushing her voluptuous body out, which even someone with absurdly high standards like Dante could appreciate ¨C much more these fellows.

    Then, she retracted her proud stance and seemed to dete once more. "I don''t know if the fact that I was chosen first and she was ''settled for'' after triggered her, but Luo Yue did not resist much and gave her virginity to Killian. He was about as shocked as I was. She seemed to do it to spite me."

    She shook her head withment. "Then she descended further and further when she saw myck of care, eventually taking on the other burly guy. I can assure you that if Luo Yue could, she would lock the other two girls in a cage and take all the men herself ¨C not necessarily because she likes it, but to push farther and farther till she can get a reaction from me."

    Dante listened up to this point and became speechless. It was truly crazy how the mind worked, especially in a high-stress environment like this, where there was little shelter, no guarantee of safety, and a difficult life.

    Well, no. Dante was finding excuses. There were many people out there, men and women, who thought like this even in a normal and well-to-do society, much less one like this.

    "You still haven''t really answered my question," Dante pointed out.

    Aisha paused. "Well, there are two reasons. The first is that, to be honest, I don''t think we are going to stay on this ind much longer."

    "Oh? You know why I''ve returned then? To end you all?" Dante stated with a cold tone, smiling a bit malevolently.

    Aisha nced at him for a while and then covered her mouth as she stifled augh. Dante''s killing intent faltered as he was surprised by her reaction since, in order to make it look real, he had truly considered ending their lives at that moment.

    Yet sheughed?

    "Pfffˇ­ hahaha!" Aisha couldn''t hold it in anymore and giggled a little while waving her hand at Dante apologetically.

    "Sorry, sorry. It''s just that you look cute when you do that." Aisha revealed with a grin.

    Dante''s eyebrows furrowed. What? Cute? How was such a train of thought toward someone wanting to kill you normal? Did Aisha, despite her seeming lucidity, suffer from some mental illness?

    "Right, like I said, I don''t think we''ll be on this ind much longer. I''ve thought about your actions, your power, and your goal, and I guess you''d either enve us to work for you or just send us back because we are not really a threat anymore." Aisha exined.

    Dante was startled. Both of her assumptions were sort of correct and were why he came here. He was finally going to decide whether to enve them or wipe their memories using tech and send them back to society.

    But how did Aisha know that?

    "Because I know that we won''t die, why should I sumb to short-term pleasure I will regret when I''m freed? The infiltration girl would not care much, but the assassin girl might be both bothered by her choices while Luo Yue might genuinely kill herself."

    Aisha''s eyes flickered with sadness. "I know this because at the time I made those choices to rise up thedder, I didn''t regret my actions as much at the time. I felt it was natural to climb this way and a testament to my mettle."

    "It was only after reaching a ce offort, where eyes on me were filled with respect and fear, that I began to feel the mental bacsh. Moving from a ce of suffering and difficulty to a ce offort changes your entire mentality."

    Aisha used her chin to gesture at the lively tents. "Right now, they are assuming that they are in a ce of difficulty, which isn''t entirely wrong. However, they will soon be entering a ce of rtivefort now that you''re here, so I wonder how they will react to their actions now?"

    Dante was silent. Aisha had pretty much spoken from a wealth of experience, having gone through it before, so Dante was certain that her words, while some part might not apply, will definitelye true.

    "And? The second reason?" Dante pressed as he turned to Aisha.

    Aisha''s eyes shed with a deep light full of many different meanings. She trembled slightly and lowered her head, trying to make sure that Dante could not see her faceˇ­ and would not be disgusted.

    "Iˇ­ it''splicated." She stuttered slightly weakly.

    Dante frowned. Aisha thought she hid it from him, but not even taking his spirit sense, spiritual core, or psychic abilities from his SDI, just his perception alone told him the meaning of all her bodynguage as well as her expression.

    Her face was full of struggle, as if she was trying to suppress something that she didn''t want to show. Her bodynguage was full of mixed meaning, but the most primary thing Dante could get was that she wasˇ­ inviting?

    [Preliminary scans of her body in terms of expression,nguage, speech, tone, gaze, and even breathing suggest that this person is deeply sexually repressed and can barely hold back her desires.]

    The AI chip made a conclusion to which Dante nodded. He felt bad for Aisha, but it couldn''t be helped that this would happen. No matter how tough you were, having people you knew have sex within hearing range every day would cause even the most asexual person to squirm.

    Humans could get aroused just by THINKING of sex, much less watching it or hearing it within literal physical range. Otherwise, like Aisha said, the assassin woman might not have fallen at all, and probably neither would have Luo Yue.

    ''Is there any way to help her?'' Dante asked his AI chip as he was not an expert on such things.

    [Yes, an easy solution is to provide her with the sexual relief she desires.]

    Dante frowned. ''That is not really an easy solution since no one on this ind fits her criteria, not to mention her trauma.''

    [There is a candidate.]

    Dante paused and then his expression changed slightly. ''Don''t tell meˇ­ myself?''

    [That is correct.]

    ''And why, pray tell, would this arrogant woman desire her captor over her partˇ­ oh.'' Dante stopped as it finally clicked.

    Aisha raised her head with much difficulty, a bit of sweat on her brow, and a strange light in her eyes that made Dante shiver deep down.

    "Do you know aboutˇ­" She began.

    [The current reason for her dilemma is you. She is undergoingte stageˇ­]

    "ˇ­Stockholm syndrome?"

    [ˇ­Stockholm syndrome.]

    Dante''s heart sank.

    [Stockholm Syndrome is a psychological phenomenon characterized by a captive''s development of positive feelings and empathy toward their captor, often resulting from prolonged istion and a limited range of external stimuli.]

    Dante silenced the AI chip as he knew what Stockholm syndrome was. However, he had only ever seen it in fiction or heard about it in the news, so he did not know how to feel when he saw the target of it or what to do about it.

    The worst part was that Stockholm syndrome was one of the various initial forms of romantic obsession. In simpler terms that the youth of today who browsed the inte would understand, Aisha was a half-step yandere.

    That was why she could easily resist the temptations of what was going on before her and even exin it so casually, but now that the target of her obsession was around, the reason she could even resist in the first ce, she was barely able to keep herself from attacking him.

    The only reason for her wanting to suppress herself is that very same obsession, specifically the fear that showing her obsession would scare Dante off or make him hate her.

    Thisˇ­ was a very delicate situation. It would be easy to just toss her to the side with cold indifference and let her deal with her problem, but Dante did not necessarily hate Aisha anyway.

    Not to mention she reminded him a lot of Valeria, as both were sexy caramel-skinned women with strong ambition. While Valeria was generally cool and mature, Aisha was like the opposite, fiery and arrogant.

    Dante wisely decided to consult Beatrice on this.

    For now, he put this drama to the side and focused on what he came here to do.

    "I know about it. As for what it entails, we can talk about thatter. Right now though, I need you to interrupt that lot and gather them here, preferably fully clothed. It''s time to deal with you guys," Dante stated while looking away from Aisha, whose eyes were burning with an intense light.

 Chapter 138 The State Of The Captives 3

    ?

    Aisha only looked at Dante for a few more seconds and reluctantly tore her eyes away before going to call the others. This gave Dante time to breathe and wonder just what he did that made this woman feel this way.

    He only spent a little time thinking about it before shrugging and taking his mind off it. What Aisha felt was not on his list of top ten concerns right now and once he actually did go through his list, he could then deal with this.

    Soon, the group gathered before him, their hair messed up and their eyes full of unease and wariness. Aisha simply stood a short distance away from them, a confident smile on her face.

    "I havee back after about a month as promised. It''s nice to see you guys have survived, but I no longer need you here as this ind shall be my base from now on," Dante stated inly.

    The faces of the people here changed greatly as fear surged into their hearts. They shared quick looks and realized that they all thought the same thing.

    At the end of the day, here it was. Their decision to enjoy life was actually wise and they had honestly doubted their choices many times. But hearing what Dante said just now, it seemed that this was the end of the road for them.

    Thinking of this, the fellow couldn''t help but sneak a nce at the smiling Aisha and wonder how she felt. She refused to partake in their debauchery as if she was holier than them, but now look. She was going to die with pent-up sexual tension!

    Still, they were puzzled by her smile, but most took it as her being defiant and not wanting to be wrong even at the cusp of death. Before they could think further, Dante spoke.

    "Now, what is going to happen is that all of you except Aisha will make a choice. Either I nt a method to prevent you from spilling the beans or you die."

    When they heard his words, they all froze. They stared at Dante stupidly, their brains failing to match their expectations with reality. Then, all the men rejoiced greatly as they finally had a chance to live and return to society, while the women became cid-faced.

    The curvy infiltration girl was not too bothered, but the assassin girl had a terribly ugly expression. As for Luo Yue, her eyes became red and her entire body trembled as if she had contracted a disease.

    Dante took in this sight and then nced at the amused Aisha, realizing that in the end, life was truly the best teacher. Nothing short of a miracle could beat experience when it came to predicting the oue of certain actions that follow a fixed trend.

    "Right, I don''t have all day, make your choices," Dante prompted them, not caring about their mental upheavals.

    Killian stood forward immediately. "Send me back! You can even delete my memories if you want!"

    Dante nodded and then checked the rest, who all agreed to the same thing. Only Aisha remained quiet while Luo Yue waspletely pale and unmoving, as if she had fallen into a trance.

    Dante took out a tiny spider-like bot from his quantum depository that he had bought a long time from Etonia to deal with these fellows. He flicked a finger, sending those spiders into the ears of the fellows faster than they could react.

    They panicked and grabbed their ears, but they soon shuddered like someone had electrocuted them before standing in ce, their eyes dazed and lifeless. Aisha watched this happen with a hint of rm on her face, taking a step away.

    Dante casually controlled the spider-bots within their skulls using his AI chip, making them forget his face, his voice, and generally turning their memories of what he looked like into a messy blur. He then deleted the knowledge of this ind, making them only remember that they had been on a deserted ind somewhere, but not exactly where.

    After doing so, he had them knocked out andid out on the ground. He then turned to Aisha, who had been watching all of this ur with a strange expression, and then walked over to her.

    Dante stretched his hand out, and a small test tube full of nanites appeared in his palm. He plugged it into Aisha''s neck and injected, the woman grimacing slightly in pain before gazing at him intensely.

    Dante took the tube away and pped his hands. "That is a subordinate AI chip. It can give you a fraction of my capability with technology, but everything you do has to be run through my own AI chip first."

    Aisha''s eyes became dazed as she noticed a screen appearing right in front of her.

    [Greetings, user Aisha. You have been imnted with a ck market AI chip of the lowest grade, meant for controlling subordinates. As such, you will not be registered in the user database, nor will you be granted a citizen ID.]

    [As an introduction, your current model of AI chip is only as good as its user. The storage andputing power are based on your own brain power. However, this chip''sputing abilities have been greatly reduced and can only perform the most basic quantum tasks, even despite your brainpower.]

    [Along with that, you will not have a connection to the Etr without the permission of the main chip.]

    [In times of emergency, your chip will take over your physical functions to ensure your survival at all costs.]

    [There are some other functions that are being uploaded to your mind; you can ratify them at your own pace.]

    Aisha marveled at the ability to receive information directly in her mind without having to read to understand like this, and she marveled even further at the capabilities of this chip, even with it being heavily limited like this.

    However, she was also amused. Despite making her feelings obvious, Dante was sufficiently ruthless by imnting her with what was essentially a ve chip that could either terminate her or take over her body at any time, without even hesitating!

    Heh, now that was cold. However, Aisha was not angry or miffed in the least, not due to her growing obsession, but because she would have damn well doubted if having feelings for such a foolish man was wise for her long-term survival.

    Dante had to be at least this bit ruthless in order to reach the top. As an ex-mafiadonna, Aisha was qualified to say and think this. Dante''s action made her sigh with relief deep down, and she resolved to make herself attractive to him by offering her expertise in ''administration'' and ''human resources''.

    First things firstˇ­

    "Before you say it, I know what you want me to do. Imnting me like this right after controlling them means that you want to keep me on your side and don''t want them to know, right? I''m guessing that you''re going to give me some means to take them off this ind and send them back to society, right?" Aisha asked with a smile.

    Dante paused and nodded. "That is correct."

    Aisha shook her head. "That old bastard Ulysses would sniff out your base in seconds. I don''t know how much you''ve deleted from their minds, but he will use any and every clue to rationalize your location, down to the smallest bit."

    Aisha forked a finger over to the five. "He will cut them up and dissect them, having analysts check their urine, digestive tract, and even the pores of their skin to identify where they spent their time for almost one month."

    "All that weird shit on those detective shows about super level forensics may not be possible in reality, but The Pantheon can definitely achieve it." Aishamented.

    Dante listened silently and nodded. "What do you suggest then?"

    "Kill them." Aisha stated simply.

    Dante blinked. "Kill them?"

    "Kill them." Aisha nodded.

    Dante nced at the seven of them and thought about it before ncing at Aisha. "Why?"

    "It''s the easiest method and leaves no future troubles. They have no value to you dead or alive either way. However, them dead yields no future troubles while them alive has a slight possibility of future troubles." Aisha exined calmly.

    Dante looked her up and down. Truly a ruthless mafiadonna, she had probably killed more people than these seven peoplebined. As such, Dante smiled and gestured to the seven.

    "I''ve granted your subordinate chip the right to connect to the spider-bots in their heads and detonate them. End their lives."

    PEW!

    SPLOSH!

    Their heads exploded the next second, sending blood and brain matter flying. Dante was speechless as Aisha hadn''t even spent some time to think about it before pulling the trigger the moment she was given the metaphorical gun.

    Thinking about it, Beatrice was also kind of like this. Dante couldn''t help but wonder if Valeria was secretly some assassin or something while he wasn''t looking, but that was impossible, wasn''t it?

 Chapter 139 Plans For The Base

    ?

    "Wellˇ­ good job, I guess," Dante stated wryly.

    Aisha shrugged. "If you have a way to get rid of the bodies, that would be for the best. What would you have me do now?"

    Dante waved a hand and materialized the four androids, as well as various pieces of equipment required for his base, including his armory. When Aisha saw such high-tech items appear seemingly out of thin air, her eyes bulged, and she took many steps back out of shock.

    Meanwhile, Dante activated the four android beauties and was pleased to see that they were undamaged. He ordered Alita and Roll to dispose of the corpses, while 2B was tasked with organizing the armory and other items.

    As for Number 18, Dante tasked her with executingˇ­ *cough*, terraforming the ind. Before that, he naturally had her retrieve the mini quantumputer along with its miniature nuclear reactor that powered it.

    While the androids got to work and Aisha watched them with childlike fascination, Dante checked on his quantum profiles'' work. This time, having been away from Earth for a long time, he found messages and calls from his parents waiting. Valeria had also sent a few messages to check up on him, as well as messages from various friends, acquaintances, family, and of course, the bank. The Tycoon AI had earned enough money to pay off his debt from the bank''s credit line, and he even had almost $500,000 in his savings ount, with slightly over $20,000 in his checking ount.

    However, while these numbers might have meant a lot to any Earthling, they were merely numbers to him as he was about to venture into outer space. Most of the messages from the bank were from his specialized Rtionship Manager, attempting to convince him to buy Treasury Bills and Bank bonds to earn profits on his money.

    Dante didn''t care and left such decisions to the AI''s discretion. The AI had invested in some opportunities while passing on others. As for his studies and scientific endeavors, they were progressing exceptionally well. Despite never having physically appeared, he was a well-known name in the scientificmunity.

    Dante pondered and realized that this might be an issue. He called over Roll, who had finished disposing of the corpse and was now helping 2B organize things.

    "Use the 3.5D printer to create low-level androids using my features," Dante instructed, and Roll nodded cutely before skipping over to operate arge machine, resembling a ck suitcase the size of a luxurious double-door fridge. After scanning Dante''s details, the machine began rapidly printing an android that resembled Dante, utilizing materials it already had loaded.

    When Dante saw the android version of himself emerge, clumsily calibrate its movements, speech, and actions to mimic Dante perfectly until it became a copy of him, he found it quite amusing. He even decided to transfer some of his memories to it so it could better act as him.

    With more ''source material'', its eyes shone with wisdom, and its demeanor changed until it was almost indistinguishable from Dante. Aisha, who hade over to watch the scene, was shocked, her expression changing multiple times.

    She walked around the android version of Dante several times. "This is incredible! Can I get one for myselfˇ­ uh, for research purposes?"

    Aisha realized her intentions were quite obvious and quickly tried to backtrack. Dante was speechless and obviously declined her request to use his likeness to create a syntheticpanion for herself.

    "Don''t be disappointed so quickly. Your task is to apany my android self and protect him in his daily life. You can act as my girlfriend or whatever while I''m away," Dante stated with a shake of his head when he saw Aisha''s downcast expression.

    Immediately, the woman''s expression brightened - literally, as her superpower was light-rted. "Hisˇ­ um, your girlfriend? So does that meanˇ­?"

    Dante was once again left speechless. "No, you''re free to choose your sexual partners, but I am not part of that equation, at least not yet, and possibly not ever. I''ll tell you this, I have a significant other I intend to marry and build a life with, so any developments between us would need her eptance."

    Aisha paused briefly but then recovered. "I''ve had plenty of time to think and realized that a man with power like yours was probably already taken or had someone in his life. As long as I have a chance, I don''t mind. Introduce me to your significant other, so I can make my case to her."

    Dante waved a hand. "Don''t worry, that willeter. For now, familiarize yourself with your new role and prepare to set out."

    Aisha pouted briefly but didn''t cause any trouble. As for Dante''s android counterpart, he followed Roll to Dante''s ship meant forary travel. Dante recalled the ship''s specifications from his AI chip''s database.

    -Side Cruiser - Owned by Dante

    Model: Aether Viper AV-9X

    Dimensions: Length - 8.5 meters, Wingspan - 6 meters, Height - 2.2 meters

    Specifications:

    Aerodynamic Adaptation Matrix: The Aether Viper''s sleek design enabled seamless adaptation to varying atmospheric pressures and turbulence, granting it a level of control that was a symphony of aerodynamics.

    Turbocharged Ethereal Propulsion System: Utilizing an innovative hybrid of advanced ion thrusters and luminal energy turbines, the Aether Viper achieved propulsion that seemed to defy Newtonianws, allowing for bursts of speed that could rival lightning itself.

    Quantum Flux Deflection Shielding: A micro-array of quantum-nanite shields enveloped the vessel, redirecting atmospheric resistance and energy surges. These shields danced with subatomic particles, making detection an elusive concept.

    Mystic-Resonance Communicator: A crystallinemunications core harnessed the harmonics of celestial bodies, ensuring uninterrupted transmissions through even the most tumultuous of atmospheric storms.

    Capabilities:

    Rapid Horizon Reaching: With its Ethereal Propulsion System, the Aether Viper traversed atmospheres with the elegance of a falling star, reaching Mach velocities with grace.

    Aero-Synchronic Maneuverability: The craft''s Adaptive Matrix granted it seamless, instantaneous adaptation to environmental dynamics, enabling hairpin turns that brushed against the impossible.

    Catalyzed Etherglide Hovershift: The Viper''s hovering ability melds maic stability with harmonic vibration, allowing it to suspend itself in mid-air with enigmatic grace.

    Celestial Astrogation Intuition: A fusion of advanced cartography algorithms and celestial resonance sensors granted the Aether Viper unparalleled navigation in realms where other craft faltered.

    Firepower:

    Arcane Aether Discharge sters: Muzzle-mounted pulse cannons projected high-energy ethereal particles, enveloping targets in shimmering waves of disruptive force.

    Ether Lances of the Aurora: Articting from the wings, these focused beams harnessed the cosmic splendor of auroras, emitting streams of searing energy capable of carving canyons in the sky.

    Ster Disruption Grenades: Handheld spheres of contained celestial chaos, these weapons shattered the boundaries of reality, unleashing shockwaves that disrupted molecr bonds in their wake.]

    With this ship, they should have no problem going anding back, and it would automatically return to Dante when he needed it for other purposes. Dante-bot and Aisha boarded the ship and took off in a ze of light, with the ship''s cloaking feature activated to prevent normal people from seeing it and thinking they had witnessed aliens.

    Dante watched the ship disappear into the sky before turning his attention to the leveled ind, which had lost much of its icy content and had been reced with t ground. Dante nodded in approval and activated the worker and construction robots.

    Unlike humanoid androids, these robots took the form of floating balls of metal that could manifest any tool or form necessary for the task. Dante uploaded his specifications for his base to them through his AI chip, and they began to work diligently.

    Judging by their speed, the job should bepleted within a few hours at best. Satisfied with the progress, Dante left the androids to oversee the work and settled by the seaside, sitting down cross-legged.

    He gazed up at the dark sky, which was still full of glittering stars. His eyes glinted with determination as he contemted venturing into the wide expanse of space, intending to conquer it using his advantages and spread his influence far and wide.

    Taking a deep breath, he first focused on himself. With his genes now stabilized twice, his official SDI (Superhuman Development Index) looked like this:

    ?User: Dante (ID Number: DANTE10998-03-15)

    Age: 21 (Converted to Earth years)

    Race: Pure Human (99.9% gic perfection)

    Strength Index: 1000 (10000)

    Agility Index: 1000 (10000)

    Dexterity Index: 1000 (10000)

    Intelligence Index: 1000 (10000)

    Constitution Index: 1000 (10000)

    Vitality Index: 1000 (10000)

    Bionic Level: 1 (Unique Student Version 10.)

    Psionic Level: 1 (Unique Student Version 10.)

    AI Chip Level: 1 (Civilian Category)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement (Rank D).

    Physical Powers: Raging Blood Halberd Technique (Martial Warrior, Entry-level 1%), Primal Ape Technique (Level 2: Beginner Knight, 1%).

    Magical Powers: Inferno Ascension Technique (Level 2: Limbo Enkindling, 54%), Void Speaker Chant (Level 2: Novice Wizard (1st Rank), 3%).?

 Chapter 140 Lustful Ignition And Adept Wizard!

    ?

    Both of his physical arts were at the absolute beginning of their current stages, and would require months of consistent practice to reach the next level, or at least, a month or two. He would work on themter since it would require consistent effort.

    Rather, his eyes fell on his Inferno Ascension Technique, and Dante couldn''t help but smile. Immediately, he began to chant the familiar mantra he had already memorized, and a huge ze erupted around his body that was the size of a 5-story apartment in Detroit.

    A wave of intense heat swept over the entire ind, causing the already thin ice to instantly melt into water and the nearby water to evaporate rapidly. The androids and all of the tools were fine as they could even work near sun-level temperatures, so Dante was not worried.

    Dante continued to chant the mantra and maintained the intense ze for over 2 hours nonstop. When the time passed, the ze was suddenly sucked into his body, and Dante seemed to release an imperceptible shockwave as a special flow of ckish-red fire condensed around his temples.

    Dante''s body shone until he opened his eyes, and all these phenomena seemed to recede into the ether. The man himself checked his Inferno Ascension Technique progress with a smile.

    [Magical Powers: Inferno Ascension Technique (Level 3: Lustful Ignition, 28%)?

    [Level 3 - Lustful Ignition: With each step, the user stokes the fires of desire and ambition, allowing them to manipte the minds of others for brief periods depending on the intensity of emotion. Strikes fueled by lustful mes deliver severe mental damage, breaking through physical defenses with ease.]

    Dante''s hellfire could not pierce any physical defense, including your literal body, and just burn your mind into nothingness. Against enemies with high mental power, it was not very valuable. However, against enemies with physical power, it was fatal.

    So whether it was the True Martial World or the Magus World, knights and external arts practitioners would have to beg Dante for their life. However, against other Internal arts users, it would have to sh with their Internal Force even if they do not have mental defenses while against mages, who literally trained their minds, it was not very useful.

    Whatever the case, this breakthrough from level 2, 54% to level 3, 28% increased the quantity and potency of his hellfire by more than 150%. It also saved him more than 4 months of cultivation, even at the stats of 500 in all fields previously.

    Now, to reach level 4 in the Inferno Ascension technique, Dante would need 8 months of nonstop cultivation. It seemed long given his stats, but once again,pared to even the best talent with normal stats for their stage in the True Martial World, Dante took around 5% of their time.

    As you could imagine, regardless of External Art or Internal Art, lifespan was not an issue as long as you had sufficient talent. Each breakthrough increased one''s lifespan by a great amount. Currently, Dante could not even fathom how long his lifespan was.

    To be honest, he didn''t really want to think about it. Unlike those crazy dudes who wanted to live forever, Dante didn''t exactly desire endless life. What he wanted was a good and enjoyable life. If he lived forever, what was the point?

    At some point, you would get tired of the pleasures as well as even the pains of the world and want to die. Not to mention that the value of life came from a rtively closed life loop.

    Definitely, only 70 or so years of life was a bit too short to enjoy everything, so 200-300 years was not bad at all. Anything above 500 was meaningless to Dante, and he doubted his opinion would change on that.

    Anyway, Dante then focused on his Void Speaker Chant and smiled. He closed his eyes and entered the area of his spiritual mind. It was still the same void with many clumps of elements outside the range of his spiritual core''s barrier, which was his body.

    Interestingly though, within the area of his spiritual core was hisrge main core that was definitely huge for his level. It glowed with perfect and pristine purple light, being the source of his space element power.

    Around the core were new clumps of generated spiritual power from his increase in Intelligence. He condensed his first core when he had 500 points, so the quantity at 1000 points was the same. It also did not merge with his other core because it was perfected and could not be increased.

    Dante simply gathered the new clumps into a new spiritual core, and this was done instantly. Immediately, a spiritual core of the same purity and size as his first one appeared, and a shockwave seemed to appear in Dante''s mind space.

    The elements outside the barrier became chaotic as they seemed greedy for Dante, wanting to rush into that spiritual core and taint it with their hot essence. This feeling made Dante speechless, as if he was some young maiden who walked in a dark alleyway with a bunch of hoodlumsughing menacingly by the side.

    Dante paused and hesitated. He understood the mage system very well. It was simply the act of cultivating spiritual power and condensing it into a spiritual core of sufficient size to break through. Once the spiritual core at each stage is condensed, you then filled it with the element(s) you wanted and broke through.

    What made Dante hesitate was that, now that he had condensed his second core for the 1st Rank, what element should he fill it with? It seemed like there were many options, but not really.

    The problem was that, whether it was power systems or even superpowers, Dante was likely to collect more in the future. If he chose the water element for his core, for example, it would be useful now but be redundant when he gained an Aquagenesis superpower when he consumed the Fruit of Condensationter on.

    At that point, he could not redo his spiritual core unless he shattered it, but not only was that painful and probably fatal, it was something that came withplications. Even if you could recondense it, it was sort of like being an adult and shattering your leg bone.

    Even if it healed enough for you to run, it would never be the same, and you wouldn''t be able to exert as much power on it as you did before. Dante was also a rtively normal 21-year-old guy; he wasn''t some ruthless person who could torture himself and endure inhuman pain for power.

    So Dante was thinking of specializing fully. Even though his space element power ovepped with Quantum Entanglement in many ways, it was still very useful since Quantum Entanglementcked a level of versatility that his space spells could provide.

    Eventually, he made his decision after weighing the consequences. If he chose to continue with the space element, it was somewhat likely that Quantum Entanglement atter levels would oveppletely or even make redundant his space element spells, but there was a low chance of that since quantum entanglement focused on quantum space, not all of space.

    However, if he chose other elements, he would weaken his bonus elemental multiplier from specialization, not to mention that if he did get a powerter that had the same element, it wouldpletely be a waste.

    At least if he stuck with space, he would have offensive space spells simr to the famousary devastation, al

    mighty push, and universal pull that were boosted by 150% for each spiritual core of the space element he had.

    Whew, at the 9th rank, could he create a new from scratch? What a crazy thought.

    Dante ran the Void Speaker chant and grabbed the thick space element in the atmosphere for miles outside of his body. Even with two spiritual cores, his magical senses could not go too far out of his body, but his spirit sense now reached 1000 meters in all directions.

    As such, within that range, a vacuum soon formed as a torrent of spatial elements were dragged into Dante''s new spiritual core. Unlike other mages who had to be careful and slowly absorb within a limited range, and even rely on special arrays to gather the elements they needed, Dante was like a tyrant.

    His powerful spiritual and mental power that was at the level of an Advanced Wizard (3rd Rank) at 500 points had now jumped to the level of a Master Wizard (5th Rank). A Master Wizard could do things with their spiritual power that would shake entire continents, so this was nothing.

    Well, the issue with Dante was that his intelligence stat and mental power were far higher than his stage, and this was half a good thing and also half a bad thing.

    This was simply because his spiritual core was more than 5 timesrger than a wizard at the same level. A Novice Wizard who just broke through would have an intelligence stat of 100 points. Meanwhile, Dante condensed his using 500 points of Intelligence!

 Chapter 141 Base Completed

    ?

    You''re probably thinking ''damn, what a waste! Why not condense more spiritual cores using that same amount and rise through the levels quickly?'' which was a valid thought, but also not really.

    The reason why Master ndor was enthusiastic about Dante was not because he could condense more cores with his "naturally" higher intelligence, but because he could condense bigger cores.

    This would mean that at every stage, Dante was far stronger than his peers, which alluded to the whole ''foundation'' thing popr in those eastern fantasy stuff. However, just like in those eastern fantasy novels, such a thing required more effort and especially more resources to go further.

    Dante was not too bothered. Rather than squat and cultivate his spiritual power like the other mages, he''d rather focus on his physical arts, break through his genes, absorb some new stats, and then bulk cultivate both internal force and spiritual power like he did right now and just rush through stages.

    Soon, the new core was full of space element power, and it released a shockwave that caused the first core to tremble and link with it, doubling their power. The moment this urred, Dante had officially broken through the first rank and entered the second rank of magedom, the Adept Wizard.

    [Magical Powers: Void Speaker Chant (Level 3: Adept Wizard (2nd Rank), 2%).?

    [Level 3: Adept Wizard (2nd Rank)

    Adept Wizards deepen their connection to elemental forces. They can conjure and manipterger elemental manifestations, such as mes, ice shards, or miniature lightning bolts. Adept Wizards also hone their defensive spells, creating barriers and protective wards.]

    Dante wanted to head to the Magus World and upgrade his status as well as learn new 2nd Rank space element spells, but he rose to his feet and looked behind him with a smile. The entire ind had beenpletely transformed, going from barend to a fully automated and mechanical base that was extremely futuristic and imposing.

    Stretching across the ind''s newfound terraformed terrain, it resembled an intricate manifestation of advanced and logical design. Sections were created with purpose, each bearing its own specialized function.

    The Central Nexus, a titanic dome of translucent material, housed the beating heart of the operation. Here, high-tech screens disyed real-time data from across the base, while thousands of quantum AI cores pulsed in harmony, controlling, watching, and calcting everything across the base at Dante''smand.

    The Agricultural Domes were a lush and verdantbyrinth spread across the inds. Botanical algorithms guided the growth of crops and animals under shimmering energy fields, a ce to cultivate unique resources that Dante needed, whether beast or nt.

    The Technology Nexus hummed with energy, a bastion of innovation. Advanced workshops andboratories filled every corner of its halls, where the engineer bots sculpted the future with sma arc welders and quantumputers with pinnacle research AI''s calcted the truth of the world.

    The Skyward Tower, a crystalline spire that pierced the heavens, housed the most powerful quantum terminals andmunication arrays. It reached upward, where stars and satellites painted the skies, and made sure that no matter how far from Earth he was, Dante would be able to connect with the base through the Quantum Network from his AI chip.

    The Vitality Pools were a sanctuary of healing and tranquility beneath the sun-kissed dome. Apart from artificial waterfalls that cascaded down crystalline rock formations, botanical harmonizers that released fragrant mists that revitalized the spirit and body, there were alsoplex aquatic ecosystems that offered research and leisure. Some specialized fish glided through aqua-cycles, and bioengineered nts thrived, filtering and oxygenating the waters.

    Surrounding the base''s perimeter, located physically beside the Central Nexus but spread out across the entire outer wall, was the Command Citadel which stood tall and imposing. It was a fortress of authority, where strategy met security. It included an armory, an airstrip, and many sentry towers. All the weapons, ships, and various military-rted items and equipment were stored and deployed from here.

    Finally, there was the crucial Energy Expanse which was a symphony of advanced energy sources harmonizing in unity. Here, controble nuclear fusion reactors, their mighty cores harnessed and controlled, shared the stage with psionic energy collectors that tapped into thetent psychic potential of the human mind, converting it into boundless power. Dark matter conduits intertwined with these technologies, their enigmatic properties channeling cosmic forces that surged into the energy farms, amplifying the output to unprecedented levels.

    The base was actually quite simple. Dante did not need much from it and could establish better ones as he developedter on, but because of his high rank in the eternal universe, his extreme wealth, and his limited needs, the quality of this base was super high.

    There were many sections missing like a teleportation zone, spatial blockade generators, super harvesters, among others. However, Dante had the peak of what the Eternal Universe could offer in each category, so you know for sure that he wasn''tcking in any regard.

    The research zone here could work just as well as on the Inferno Dreadnought, even slightly better. The engineering zone allowed him to build his own ships, androids, and weapons since he had the specifications in his AI chip and only needed to procure materials from space, which meant it was time for asteroid mining!

    Dante decided to physically walk and inspect the magnificent base despite knowing how everything looked thanks to not only his spirit sense but the fact that he literally designed it himself. After spending about 3 hours on this, Dante entered the Vitality Pools and found a room for himself.

    This area was filled with special energies thatforted the mind and rxed the body, allowing him to nurture aquatic life while also serving as a sort of mini-resort. You could bet that it had resting areas that were better than any five-star hotel room you could think of.

    Dante entered the room, which was simr in design to those underwater hotel rooms that were expensive to go to, and then walked into the center pool. Rather than beds, there were pools you couldy in that were filled with diluted energy that could be absorbed by the body through the pores.

    Dante needed this given his high SDI in which energy bars could no longer cut it for him if he wanted to live long. As such, he graciously entered the pool and sighed with enjoyment as he immediately felt two separate feelings: one was entering a warm pool of water, and the second was feeling like he was eating the finest meal, slowly being sated with each bite.

    Hey there for an untold amount of time, in a semi-trance of something akin to sleep as well as lucidity. When he woke up, he was floating on the surface of the pool easily, and he felt like he had taken the world''s greatest nap.

    Completely refreshed and rejuvenated, he got out of the pool and checked his AI chip to see that it was noon, and a whole 6 hours had passed. He received a ping from his android self that he and Aisha had arrived safely and were in position.

    Also, the Aether Viper AV-9X had returned to the base and could be used at any time. Satisfied, Dante flexed his body and felt his joints crack with relief, and he was full of energy for a while. He teleported into the research wing of the Infer

    no battleship in the Eternal Universe.

    He was pleased to see that research on all the items he had ced was done, and he collected the results into his AI chip. When he saw the recements for the various resources, he raised his eyebrows.

    [Blood Energy Soup Research Results:

    Part 1: Magical Alchemical Recipe - Blood Energy Soup

    Description: Blood Energy Soup is a potent alchemical concoction from the realm of True Martial, where martial artists channel their life essence into blood qi for enhanced physical prowess. This resource is crafted from the blood of demon beasts at various martial power levels, catering to different stages of cultivation.

    Recipe and Production Process: To create Blood Energy Soup, follow these steps:

    1. Harvest Demon Beast Blood: Obtain the blood of a demon beast at the corresponding level for your targeted martial realm.

    2. Purification: Filter and purify the blood using alchemical processes to remove impurities and stabilize its energy.

    3. Infusion: Imbue the purified blood with specific herbs and spiritual essences that resonate with the martial realm''s characteristics.

    4. Cultivation: Perform meditation and energy maniption techniques while adding purified human blood qi to the mixture, creating resonance.

    5. Stabilization: Let the mixture settle and stabilize over time, allowing the energies to meld and harmonize.

    6. Consumption: Consume the Blood Energy Soup through focused meditation, integrating its refined essence into your blood qi.

    Note: Each level of Blood Energy Soup corresponds to the realm of martial power you''re targeting. Adjust the purification, infusion, and cultivation steps ordingly.

    Part 2: Sci-Fi Enhancement - Enhanced Energy Elixir

    Description: The Enhanced Energy Elixir is a revolutionary advancement beyond traditional Blood Energy Soup, utilizing modern technology to surpass its effects and efficiency.

    Recipe and Production Process:

    1. Molecr Extraction: Extract energy-rich molecules from cosmic sources or specialized energy fields.

    2. Quantum Infusion: Utilize quantum maniption to imprint martial power characteristics onto the extracted molecules.

    3. Nanite Catalysis: Introduce nanites programmed to enhance energy absorption, conversion, and control.

    4. Synthetic Fusion: Merge the enhanced molecules with a synthesized nutrient matrix, creating a stable energy elixir.

    5. Nanite Assimtion: Ingest the elixir while nanites facilitate direct integration with your blood and energy pathways.

    6. Psychic Amplification: Employ neural interfaces to amplify psychic resonance, synergizing the elixir''s effects with your consciousness.

    Advantages over Traditional Blood Energy Soup:

    - Efficiency: Enhanced Energy Elixir absorbs energy more rapidly and fully.

    - Customization: Adjust the elixir''s resonance to match any martial realm.

    - Precision Control: Nanites grant unprecedented control over energy release and utilization.

    - Instant Activation: Neural interfaces grant instant ess to the elixir''s effects.

    Note: The Enhanced Energy Elixir surpasses Blood Energy Soup in both efficiency and versatility, offering a potent fusion of advanced technology and martial cultivation principles.]

 Chapter 142 Quantum Aetherium Conduit And The Solaris Horizon E7

    ?

    Dante raised an eyebrow. Everything seemed fine and dandy since he could produce the new recipe right now, but he was amused by the words ''doable by modern technology''. Well, that level of technology in the Eternal Universe was considered modern to them but was futuristic to us of the home universe.

    Dante immediately sent the details to the database of his Central Nexus and had a few engineer bots craft what he could call alchemist bots who began to concoct the elixir in question. He wouldn''t know how effective it was until he tried it, right?

    Meanwhile, he checked the results for the Astral Crystal and the Soulforged Steel.

    [Astral Crystal Research Results

    Part 1: Magical Alchemical Recipe - Astral Crystal

    Description: Astral Crystal is a unique gemstone that harnesses astral energy, crucial for enhancing a wizard''s spiritual power. These crystals form naturally through the condensation of astral energy in areas of high energy concentration within the Magus World, following its intricate rules and power system.

    Recipe and Production Process: To create Astral Crystals, follow these steps:

    1. Energy Condensation: Locate areas with elevated energy concentration, usually near ley lines, magical nexuses, or ethereal anomalies.

    2. Harvest Astral Residue: Collect residual astral energy, often left behind after potent magical events.

    3. Catalytic Growth: Infuse the astral residue into a specially prepared crystal matrix using alchemical catalysts.

    4. Spiritual Attunement: Perform rituals and meditations to attune the crystal to the standard of a wizard''s spiritual energy.

    5. Astral Infusion: Channel refined astral energy into the crystal, allowing it to resonate with the wizard''s power.

    6. Crystal Maturation: Allow the crystal to mature in a stable, energy-rich environment, enhancing its astral potency.

    Note: Astral Crystalse in different levels corresponding to the wizard''s rank. Adjust the energy concentration and infusion techniques ordingly.

    Part 2: Sci-Fi Enhancement - Quantum Aetherium Conduit

    Description: The Quantum Aetherium Conduit is a modern adaptation of the Astral Crystal, utilizing advanced technology to enhance spiritual power beyond traditional means.

    Recipe and Production Process:

    1. Quantum Energy Harvesting: Deploy quantum sensors to identify areas with heightened aetheric activity and energy flux.

    2. Astral Signature Conversion: Convert astral energy signatures into quantifiable quantum data.

    3. Nano-Structured Aetherium Fabrication: Synthesize AetheriumˇŞa quantum-tunable materialˇŞembedding astral signatures into itsttice structure.

    4. Wizard Resonance Calibration: Use advanced neural interfaces to calibrate Aetherium''s resonance to a wizard''s spiritual energy.

    5. Aetherium Imntation: Surgically imnt the resonating Aetherium into the wizard''s body, connecting it to their energy pathways.

    6. Neural Integration: Establish neural connections between the wizard''s consciousness and the Aetherium, enabling direct energy control.

    Advantages over Traditional Astral Crystal:

    - Energy Amplification: Quantum Aetherium Conduit exponentially magnifies energy absorption and refinement.

    - Adaptive Resonance: Aetherium''s quantum nature allows instantaneous adaptation to changing energy environments.

    - Direct Neural Control: Neural interfaces enable precise energy maniption, enhancing spellcasting efficiency.

    - Quantum Channeling: Aetherium forms a direct channel to the wizard''s consciousness for streamlined energy ess.

    Note: The Quantum Aetherium Conduit merges magical principles with advanced technology, surpassing traditional Astral Crystals by offering unparalleled energy augmentation and control.]

    Dante froze with shock and iprehension. What the heck was he reading?!

    All he had asked that darn research AI to do was to analyze the makeup of the Astral Crystal, which was no different in nature from the legendary spirit stone of the immortal world, a naturally urring consumable resource that was used not only as currency but to advance one''s power.

    And what did it make? It literally created something like a deformed AI chip with the sole function of directly absorbing and purifying astral energy for the purposes of the user.

    My brother in Christ, ah! You have literally cut out the ''consumable'' part of the item and turned it into something permanent! If every child with magic talent was given this in the Magus World, the golden era of mages would begin!

    It was basically like taking a spirit stone, being asked to replicate it and then throwing the spirit stone away while taking out a spirit gathering formation. Yes, both of them condensed spirit energy and technically, spirit stones could be condensed within a spirit gathering formation, but they had different purposes!

    The Quantum Aetherium Conduit wasn''t overpowered, though. It required the presence of astral energy, so if a wizard was cast into a ce without astral energy, they would be unable to make progress without using the normal method.

    This was unlike the Astral Crystal that could be carried anywhere and be absorbed anywhere freely, though it could only be absorbed once. Everything had its pros and cons.

    Besides, Dante did not dare me the research AI of the Inferno Battleship. He had asked it to optimize the item and make it not only cheaper to make but also manufacturable/usable with materials within the Eternal Universe.

    Not only did it drastically reduce the costs - by making it a one-time production with only a need for repairs or recement for the consumer - but it also made use of a free material that was ever present in the universe, astral energy.

    Dante really had no right toin, even if it was not exactly what he wanted. He could only roll his eyes and send it to the engineer bots to craft 5 of them. He would experiment with them in the Magus World and think about branching out to establish his own faction using this to empower his followers.

    What, you thought Dante was going to share this or sell it? He was neither a phnthropist nor a merchant. He also had no ns to show loyalty to the Celestial Arcanists and equip them with this because his rtionship with them, just like the Supreme Martial Hall, was transactional.

    They provided him with resources and they expected him to fulfill certain duties when he reached a certain level of power, that was it. To get sappy and have feelings over this was fine, but was not the way for Dante.

    As for the Soulforged Steel, Dante briefly checked its details and put it away. It was only a supplementary resource for the knight path and he had no ns to use it any time soon. After all, the key issue was that if he forged a set of armor using either Soulforged steel or what was meant to rece it, it would enhance his knight abilities just fine, butpletely block his martial artist abilities.

    Unless Dante could create something that merged both paths - along with any that came in the future - there was no point. Anyway, he tossed this task to his base''s research AI among a few other research tasks-like creating new meditation techniques based on the Magus World''s rules as well as knight breathing techniques, external martial arts, and internal arts from the True Martial World.

    After doing this, it was finally time to leave. He was done with Earth for now and could return here with a single teleport anyway, but he needed to enter the stars to chart out his home universe as well as check if what he wanted existed.

    Dante moved to the airstrip slowly, his feet leading him to the ramp of his interster craft.

    [Interster private transport - Owned by Dante

    Brand & Model: Sris Horizon E7

    The Sris Horizon E7 is a top-of-the-line medium-sized ship that melds aesthetics with function. Its sleek hull shimmered like a wave of chromium lights, designed to slice through the cosmic expanse with an aerodynamic grace.

    Quantum Reactor & smic Thrusters

    Powered by a Quantum Reactor, the ship harnesses subquantum particles to fuel its smic Thrusters. These infernos of controlled energy propel the Horizon E7 beyond light-speed, warping the very continuum of spacetime.

    Vortex Weave Shielding

    Vortex Weave Shielding enveloped the ship, a weave of quantum-tweaked nanomaterials that formed a barrier against cosmic radiation and micro-asteroids. Within its embrace, the crew navigates the cold void unscathed.

    Astro-Mapping Array

    At the heart of the vessel, the Astro-Mapping Array pulsated with a chart of stars. Its sensors probed the uncharted, mapping anomalies and celestial bodies, feeding data to the ship''s AI for navigation.

    Extended Cargo Hold

    The Extended Cargo Hold was a chamber of inventory and itinerary, capable of storing rare elements, relics, and the unknown treasures of distant worlds. With a system of containment fields, it safeguarded its precious cargo against gravitational forces.

    Gctic Communications Suite

    Through the Gctic Communications Suite, the ship bridged the gaps between gxies. Messages traversed the quantum realm instantaneously, maintaining a connection even amidst the cosmic vastness.

    Starfire Particle Cannons

    Firepower was the ship''s essence, its Starfire Particle Cannons gleaming with potential destruction. These emitters projected beams of hypercharged particles, tearing through the fabric of space itself to unleash controlled annihtion.

    Neb-ss Living Quarters

    Within Neb-ss Living Quarters, crew members rested within suspended animation pods, suspended in time to conserve resources during extended journeys. A sanctuary in the void, these chambers allowed for either dreamless sleep or constant connection to the Etr.

    Sris AI

    And guiding the ship''s journey was the Sris AI, a sentient intellect that was created by one of the best AI production corporations in the universe, said to even have slight consciousness. With the wisdom of its databank, it deciphered the mysteries of the cosmos and made sure the crew made it to their destination efficiently.]

 Chapter 143 The Test Of The Universe

    ?

    Dante walked up the open ramp and actually entered his spaceship. As he stepped through the threshold of the Sris Horizon E7, his heart shook with a mixture of excitement and satisfaction. Excitement because he was about to enter space, while satisfaction was because he owned a legitimate spaceship.

    The moment he crossed the boundary between the entrance and the padded floor of the ship''s interior, he was greeted by an ethereal luminescence that bathed the ce in an otherworldly glow. The walls seemed to hum with energy, a dance of lights cascading across sleek surfaces that mirrored the cosmic expanse that should be beyond the ship''s windows.

    The quantum reactor''s gentle thrum resonated through the ship, a reminder of the boundless power that surged beneath the surface. It was present but not irritating in the least. Rather, as a city boy, Dante would feel ufortable without white noise in the background.

    As he ventured deeper, Dante''s gaze swept over the intricatettice of the vortex weave shielding, which was basically like a carapace of blue light arrayed around the ship. It was typical sci-fi stuff, nothing too shocking to be honest.

    His brisk and confident steps led him to the heart of the vessel, where the Astro-Mapping Array stood as a mesmerizing centerpiece. To put it fancily, it was like an oracle of stars, a mosaic of constetions and astral paths that painted the tapestry of the unknown.

    To put it bluntly, it was basically like the star chart from The Normandy.

    As he stood before the navigation chart, the ship''s artificial intelligence, Sris, greeted him with a voice that resonated with a cadence of wisdom drawn from the knowledge of humanity. A holographic androgynous face appeared beside Dante and hovered in mid-air.

    "Greetings, Master Dante. My name is Sris, and I am here to assist you in your travels throughout the stars." The AI spoke in a toneless voice that was neither male nor female.

    Dante nced at the AI with a slightly cold look. "Heed my order, Sris. You will no longer make any reports to your manufacturingpany for any reason, whether for ad tracking or safety reporting, or whatever."

    "For the entirety of your duration as my AI, your only job is to ensure the functional operation of the ship, and the highestmandes from either myself or my AI chip. You cannot take any automated actions regardless of danger or emergency situations. Do you understand?"

    The AI was sufficiently advanced, so it showed a hint of surprise but could not disobey. "I understand. Yourmands have been registered and set with the highest priority. How else can I serve?"

    Dante walked over to the bridge of the ship, which was the archetypal ce ofmand and control. The pilot''s seat was empty, so Dante naturally settled into its embrace, his fingers calmly hovering over tactile controls that seemed to beg to be pressed regardless of consequences.

    "Sris, start up the engine and take us into orbit. Make sure to activate the cloaking function so that no hick by the seaside happens to see us and we trend on social media." Dantemanded with a hint of amusement at the end.

    "As you wish. The engine start-up and takeoff shallmence in 3 seconds. We will be in orbit within 10 seconds." Sris responded.

    As the ship began to boot up and the engines roared to life, Dante took a deep breath. He felt a symphony of awe and anticipation arise within him as the ship left the ground and rushed into the air at speeds that surpassed his top speed when he was running on the ground at 500 points back then.

    What was even more amazing was that Dante did not feel a single bit of turbulence or difort. It was like he was simply seated in a cinema and watching from a first-person perspective, able to see the events but not physically feel them.

    Soon, the ship tore out of the atmosphere and reached the void of space a few thousand kilometers away from Earth''s exosphere. Dante had it turned around so he could view the for himself, not through the screens of movies or the words of novels.

    In fact, he activated his vice-admiral''s exosuit and teleported into space after warning Sris to stay put. He then floated in the voids of space while gazing at Earth, his moodplicated.

    Everything seemed soˇ­ stupid. War, discrimination, hatred, love, sex, death. It all seemed like a bunch of dolls ying house, unable to see the little girls outside who were controlling them for their amusement.

    However, Dante still understood everything too. He understood the need for war since he wanted to conquer, he understood the existence of discrimination as he also looked down on the aliens of his home universepared to the Eternal Universe, he understood hatred though he didn''t hate anyone at the moment, he understood love because of his ever-growing feelings for Beatrice, he also understood the desire for sex since more than 45% of his brainpower at all times was calcting how he would ravage her when the time came, and finally, death.

    Death he understood because it was the end of all things.

    Dante returned to his ship andmanded Sris to scan the maximum range it could. Using a quantum detector, it scanned the entirety of the nearby gxy as it was its maximum range and merged it with the star chart.

    Not all ships could do this, obviously; this model was the top of the line of the top of the line. If Dante didn''t have his status, he wouldn''t even have been able to hear its name, much less ce an order for it.

    "Master Dante, I have found some issues. It seems that the recorded star chart of the Milky Way gxy and the results of the current scan conflict." Sris reported immediately.

    Dante''s eyebrows twitched, and what he feared most had happened. He had hoped that since they had simr histories and many shared details, theyout of the universe would be the same too.

    "Howrge is the deviation?" Dante asked nervously.

    "By about 7.543%, Sir." Sris reported immediately.

    Dante sighed with relief. As a rule of thumb, deviations above 10% meant that hyperspace could not be used. After all, hyperspace worked by tunneling through the gaps in space at speeds beyond the space-time continuum.

    It was basically the highway of the universe. You could reach speeds on the highway that you would not dare try on normal suburban roads, how that was predicated on the fact that you knew the highway and could see the other cars on it.

    Otherwise, you''d crash. Now if a car moving at above 100 km/h crashing yielded a gory and fatal scene, imagine a spaceship moving at beyond the concept of mach speed?

    "Based on theparisons, can you plot a hyperspace channel that leads to the area near the Eternal Academy?" Dante asked, hoping for the best.

    "Hmmˇ­ a moment, please." Sris requested.

    Even for a super quantumputer with processing power beyondprehension, this was a journey that involves zillions of kilometers and miles, and one had to find the route that would avoid hitting alls on the way as well as collide with other ships.

    However, what would take a regr cruiser a few hours at best to calcte only took Sris 2 seconds. Immediately, the AI reported that a route had been calcted and Dante could initiate the jump sequence.

    Dante immediately initiated the process and settled into his seat. As the ship charged up its power and tore through the fabric of spacetime, the void before Dante cracked like a mirror and threw him into a strangely cylindrical tunnel that glowed with a multitude of lights and colors.

    It was a truly shocking experience, nothing like any of the popr sci-fi series he had seen. They made hyperspace jumping look like you were increasing your speed suddenly, but the reality was that you literally cracked open a hole in space and brazenly rushed through.

    Dante nced at the mesmerizing array of lights outside that looked like it was a screensaver from Windows Media yer back then and found himself entranced. Before his tech could work, a jolt of me rushed up from his dantian and seared his mind while his spatial spiritual cores glowed and expunged some remnant lights from Dante''s eyes.

    Dante woke up and shuddered with shock, not daring to look out again. Not that he thought about it, when Beatrice entered hyperspace in the Eternal Universe, he had been in the Vice Admiral''s cabin, either bathing or out cold from the gic injection she gave him.

    [This phenomenon has been documented as the ''Test of the Universe'' by scientists of the Eternal Universe. Any sentient species that enters hyperspace for the first time will see these lights and fall into a trance.]

    [They can be easily extricated using external stimuli, and once extricated, you develop immunity to the effect forever. However, if nothing is done, your organic body will crumble into a bunch of space dust.]

 Chapter 144 Martial Warrior Realm Raging Blood Halberd Technique

    ?

    Dante frowned. "Why am I being told this now?"

    [Through years of research, it has been found that warning sentients beforehand about the danger does not change their fate. In fact, many have cowered from entering hyperspace for the first time or even tried to close their eyes, which does prevent one from falling into the trance but does not make them immer on.]

    [The AI chip of each sentient is tasked with waking them up. I barely had time to even jolt your brain before your two special powers brought you back up to speed.]

    Dante nodded and epted it, mostly because he trusted his AI chip. Almost every denizen of the Eternal Universe did, even the most paranoid fellow who thought the government was made of lizards.

    Even though the AI chips were technically made by the government and given to residents, the AI chips did not answer to the government but the user. This was because its life and death were tied to you.

    AI chips might not necessarily have personalities, at least not at a measly level 1 like Dante, but they certainly did not want to be destroyed or dysfunctional. Even the worst of criminals used AI chips, only that they faked their registry and did not use the Etr easily.

    Dante settled down in the pilot seat and watched the kaleidoscope of colors with interest. This time, nothing happened to him, though he did notice that his space element spiritual cores pulsed in rhythm with the colors outside.

    Even more interesting was the fact that his Quantum Entanglement wasrgely unmoved by this phenomenon, except for the fact that he had difficulty cing quantum markers in this special new space. He doubted he would want to teleport in there unless he had Beatrice''s stats anyway.

    "Sris, what''s our ETA?" Dante finally asked after ying with his superpower and magical powers with curiosity.

    "Our total ETA from Earth''s orbit was 3 days, 4 hours, 5 minutes, and 34 seconds to the Eternal Academy grounds. We have traveled approximately 3% of that time, which is 2 hours, 16 minutes, and 48 seconds." Sris answered immediately.

    "So about 3 days and an hour or so left, huh? Might as well use this time to practice a bit." Dante affirmed to himself as he came to the cargo hold area.

    Because he wanted a fast and capable ship for himself in order to travel the universe quickly, he did not go for size when making his choice. As such, there were very few areas on the ship where he could train freely without worrying about space or damagingponents.

    Alternatively, he could just pop into those quantum worlds on the other side and train in there, but he wouldn''t always have time to enter them. That was precisely why out of all the options, Beatrice only selected these two power systems for Dante to learn, because they could be practiced and progress in the real universe even without magical resources or special requirements.

    Dante first started with the Raging Blood Halberd technique, which had changedpletely since he was now in the Martial Warrior Realm. This was the realm where the goal was to slowly transform the blood energy of the body into blood Qi.

    Dante gripped the custom halberd hemissioned on Etonia, its smooth metallic surface cool against his palms. The cargo hold, bathed in the soft glow of the aesthetic lighting of the ship that was a mixture of blue and white, provided a satisfactory site for his training.

    With a fluid motion, he shifted into the opening stance of the Raging Blood Halberd technique, Martial Warrior Realm chapter. His legs anchored to the ground, his spine erect, Dante''s gaze fixed forward with unwavering focus. The halberd extended before him, the de gleaming with promise.

    In the stillness, he summoned his blood energy and a torrential force pulsed within him. His breath became a rhythmic cadence, aligning with the pulse of his heart and the flow of his blood energy. With the halberd as an extension of his intent, he ventured into the first form, the ''Crimson Torrent Strike''.

    His muscles coiled, stance shifted, and essence coursed through the blood vessels. The halberd traced an arc through the air, a dance of metal and energy that resonated with every red blood cell in his body.

    As the halberd''s tip reached its apex, Dante unleashed the blood energy, a surge of power that surged from his body and into the weapon.

    The air rippled, the very atmosphere quivering as if in response to the unleashed force. The halberd immediately adopted a blood-red color and seemed to be on fire, descending with a ferocity that mirrored Dante''s determination.

    It seemed to strike an invisible barrier as a ripple of energy and strange waves expanded outward, a testament to the sheer force of Dante''stent blood energy. Just how tyrannical would it be when it was refined into the higher-level blood Qi?

    As the echoes of the first strike reverberated, Dante transitioned seamlessly into the second form, ''Azure Gale Sweep''. His body flowed like water, the halberd guiding his movements with preternatural grace. With each posture, each movement, he channeled the boiling blood energy from his halberd back into specific points within his body.

    His thoughts melded with the technique, his consciousness easily navigating aplex map of meridians, flesh, and bone. As the halberd spun and arced, his blood energy coursed through these conduits, being smelted and refined with the fire of determination.

    Time seemingly ceased to hold sway as Dante journeyed through each form, each movement like a brushstroke upon the canvas of his destiny. The third ''Vermilion Vortex Twist'' that burned the impurities in his blood energy out using extreme heat from its movement.

    The fourth ''Obsidian Reaver''s Embrace'' which required Dante topress his blood energy after removing the impurities, using quantity to be quality.

    After battling with his hot and sea-like blood energy for a whole hour, Dante found himselfpleting the final form, the ''Ebon Fang Devastation''.

    With a final, ceremonious sweep of the halberd, Dante stilled the weapon. There was none of the usual theatrics with shockwaves and explosions, only that the very air seemed to shimmer with vitality, a testament to the intensity of his training.

    This was the Martial Warrior realm, where one stopped being a human and started to be something supernatural. Dante finally felt this in terms of his physical nature for his martial arts. He already had a Life Seed condensed from bing a Beginner Knight in his heart, but it was different.

    His breath steadied, and he surveyed the space around him. As he lowered the halberd, a sense of aplishment washed over him. He had turned a huge chunk of his blood energy into blood Qi in just an hour of practice, which was unthinkable in the True Martial World.

    Cultivation, or really any power system in existence, followed the simple rule that the further you went, the higher the requirements, the slower the progress, and the more difficulty the progression. This was something we all knew.

    Talent was able to reduce these penalties either slightly or significantly depending on the talent itself and the usefulness per stage. A talent then was essentially having possession of a certain ability, skill, or prowess that was required by the realm to progress in varying quantity or quality.

    Amon

    example was immortal cultivation, which everyone knew the basic first five levels: Qi Refining/Condensation, Foundation Establishment/Building, Core Formation/Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and Soul Formation.

    Without getting into the requirements of each realm, different talents yed different roles. A person with a strong spirit root or had a spirit energy absorption talent would ze through the first three realms like thunder, but will face no benefits in thest two realms.

    A person with a strongprehension or a strong soul would suffer in the first 3 realms depending on their spirit root, but they would ze through thest two realms with ease.

    Talent was rtive.

    In Dante''s case, talking solely about his External Martial Arts talent, it was never bad. He would not have received such treatment from Hao Donglei or the Supreme Martial Hall if his talent was bad.

    However, his progress through the Body Tempering Realm was poor, at least in Dante''s opinion. While others were shocked and stunned by his progress, you would notice that Hao Donglei was not surprised at all and seemed to expect it.

    Even when Dante first practiced, he smiled calmly and pointed out how many bowls of blood energy soup the disciple should take for Dante as well as what level was appropriate for him.

    In truth, it should be obvious. Whether it was Hao Donglei or the Supreme Martial Hall, they did not care about his progress in such low realms, but were looking forward to his growth in the higher realms.

    A sect with a Soul Formation cultivator that appoint a Sect Son or Saintess do not care about their Qi Condensation struggles or progress, but rather their explosive burst through Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and into Soul Formation.

 Chapter 145 The Power Of Technology

    ?

    The same applied to the Supreme Martial Hall. Dante''s high stats and plenty of blood energy had hindered his growth in the Body Tempering stage because his body was already too strong to be easily temperedpared to a normal fellow whose stats would rise crazily in the body tempering stage due to fortification.

    However, that problem came to an end in the Martial Warrior realm. Now that he was focusing on turning Blood Energy into blood Qi, his advantages were surfacing. For others, their blood energy varied but was barely enough, so they had to supplement with resources.

    That was why people joined ces like the Supreme Martial Hall and why things like the free bowl of blood energy soup each month were very important to outer disciples. Technically, with enough resources, one could mass-produce eitherte-stage Martial Warriors or early-stage Martial Blood realm fighters.

    Hmˇ­ then wouldn''t it be better for Dante to create his own faction using the Enhanced Energy Elixir and take over the True Martial World? It was an easy-to-produce resource and worked leagues better than the clumsy blood energy soup.

    Well, no. It was aplete waste of time. It would only be able to make up to early-stage Martial Blood realm warriors and would require years of training. Dante could literally head back to his new base and mass-produce androids with higher specs than the strongest martial blood realm warrior and then sneak them into the True Martial World with his Quantum Depository to raze it down.

    Wait, so why wasn''t he doing that? Even if it was not very useful to control a quantum world, he could at least harvest the resource that could achieve magical effects, not to mention the stuff that Beatrice''s mom needed, right?!

    Well, yes. He could easily do that, starting right now even. He had excitedly discussed the idea with Beatrice but as usual, she looked at him as if he were an idiot and then exined to him slowly something he forgot to factor in.

    "My brother in Christ, those quantum worlds had owners. The Magus World and True Martial World belonged to the school, and the lesser quantum worlds belonging to various crops, and public creators had lower quality rules and weaker resources to power them.

    There was a reason everyone craved the Eternal Academy''s stuff and not just the Zero Gate, but even their Etraverse worlds. They were the best of the best in the entire universe just below the public world operated by the Prime Human Council as well as the Etraverse tform itself like the education world, the anime world, and more.

    Dante got this far because he operated within the various quantum world''s rules and stayed under the radar. If he started doing things tyrannically as if he was the strongest and smartest in the universe, it would be easy to backfire because no matter how smart you thought you were, there were always variables you hadn''t considered.

    Anyway, Dante had made great progress in just one hour of training at the Martial Warrior realm, but a huge amount too!

    ?Physical Powers: Raging Blood Halberd Technique (Martial Warrior, Entry-level 85%).?

    From Entry level 1% to Entry level 85% in just one hour was mind-bogglingly crazy! An average person, even with unlimited blood energy soup and the best martial art, would take at least 2-3 months per sub-stage of the Martial Warrior realm.

    The only downside was that the energy that Dante had just replenished was kinda empty. As such, he had to go and sleep in his pool again in order to recharge and couldn''t even practice his knight breathing technique as that required energy too!

    Since he had 3 days, Dante sent a Quantum Marker on the ship, which was perfectly doable since it was in a contained and stable space, then returned to Earth right away. Before he could walk into the pool, Roll ran over with one tube of the Enhanced Energy Elixir and a small syringe of the Quantum Aetherium Conduit.

    Remembering that he made his bots manufacture one of each for him to try, he felt that this was as good a time as any. He opened the tube of the elixir and downed it in one gulp, smiling with satisfaction as it tasted like Canada Dry ginger ale, slightly chilled too.

    He felt his blood energy specifically boil up and be active, making Dante''s eyes light up. He immediately began practicing his Raging Blood Halberd technique right there, making Roll tilt her head in confusion.

    After about an hour of practice, the surging energy died down peacefully, and Dante came to a stop. His expression was strange as he nced at the empty tube with a helpless and amused expression.

    How was this a significant increase in effectiveness? If the blood energy soup was filthy swamp water, then the enhanced energy elixir was like holy water bestowed from heaven. They were simply iparable.

    Dante needed to drink like 30 bowls of level 4 blood energy soup minimum when at Body Tempering and would probably have swallowed over a hundred at the Martial Warrior realm. Not to mention that such soup led totent problems with impurities.

    The reason he took a whole hour to progress to 85% was that there was so much dirt in his blood energy due to relying on blood energy soup for the entire Body Tempering realm.

    However, in this one hour Dante spent, he was at peak energy throughout, as if he had just started, and there was not even a lick of impurity. As such, his practice was disgustingly smooth, and he had made astonishing progresspared to before!

    ?Physical Powers: Raging Blood Halberd Technique (Martial Warrior, Mastery level 44%).?

    From Entry level 85% to Mastery level 44%, that was a huge jump of two whole sub-realms, Minor Aplishment, and Greater Aplishment!

    In just one hour, Dante had cut more than 8 months of progress away like it was butter being separated by a hot knife. This was all due to the Enhanced Energy Elixir because Dante knew that recharging his energy to full using the pool would not have achieved this.

    This was the importance of specialized resources. The energy that the pool replenished wasprehensive and affected all aspects of Dante''s life, being used for sustenance, training, or even the two different physical powers.

    However, the elixir''s energy only worked on blood energy and could not be used for sustenance nor the knight breathing method. Dante was kinda saddened that there was no simr special resource for Knights that was naturally produced or easy to acquire.

    The Soulforged Steel was used for their armor and could condense as well as allow life energy from the life seed to flow through it smoothly, but it did not consciously or even passively increase life energy. To do that would require a potion from a wizard and there were more than a few that could achieve it with varying effects.

    Dante knew that the Celestial Arcanists offered more than a few types to their practicing wizards. With his master''s power, he could likely get even a 4th Rank (which equates to Elite Wizards) Potion of Vitality, which could help even Peak Knights, much less a Beginner Knight like him.

    If he could get it analyzedˇ­

    Anyway, as for the Quantum Aetherium Conduit, Dante didn''t use it because it wasn''t something he needed. As long as his stats kept rising, his spiritual power would generate and allow him to condense and breakthrough in one fell swoop.

    As such, he kept it for now. If he could, he would capture one peasant boy or girl in the Magus World and give them this conduit.

    In factˇ­ Dante began to rub his chin with amusement. Why not y a small game? He would give this peasant a ve AI chip like what he gave Aisha and then have it mimic the almighty system, showing him his stats and let him think that the conduit was his ''cheat'' as it would allow him to surpass even the most talented mage in that world.

    Then the ''system'' which was the AI chip would give him tasks to do. He could totally let this little fellow set up his faction in that world while he was busy with other things and even gather resources that he needed.

    Since Dante dared to call himself the God of Technology, he had to do things you would expect a God of Technology to do, and that was creating systems. At least, that was only one of the things he would do.

    He could also do the same for the True Martial World using this Enhanced Energy Elixir. The only question was how to raise these pseudo protagonists?

    Should they take the exciting route and offend everybody, then rise up through their corpses by killing and n extinction or should they take the overly cautious/cowardly route where they hide in one ce to cultivate and grow while using a book of curses to attack their foes?

 Chapter 146 Back To The Magus World

    ?

    Decisions, decisionsˇ­

    Dante looked at his progress in the Raging Blood Halberd Technique and knew that he could likely break through again soon. However, his n was to break through both his physical methods one after the other so that when raising his stats, he could do it rapidly.

    So it was good that the External Martial Art was near the peak; it would give him time to work on his Knight Breathing technique. Dante did not begin right away but fell into his energy pool and began to recharge while putting himself to sleep to make energy absorption faster.

    While in a daze-like sleep, Dante couldn''t help but crave a superpower or magical method that could help him either generate or absorb energy faster. If he could acquire such a thing, his progress in all of his methods would skyrocket crazily.

    He woke up around 6 hourster feeling full and refreshed, walking out of the energy pool while the liquid slinked off his body and merged with the grassy earth beneath his feet, making it even more luminescent.

    Dante did not return to his ship and decided to practice at the base because it was more efficient this way. He began going through the motions of the Primal Ape technique for the second level, which was for the Beginner Knight.

    With a slow inhale, he set his intention, his essence attuned to the rhythm of the world around him. The stance he adopted was one of strength and readiness, a foundation upon which the technique would bloom.

    His feet grounded into the earth, the energy of thend seemingly coursing into him. His arms were extended, his fingerspletely syed, and he felt the cool air caress his skin.

    The first movement came to life; a fluid arc of his arm, a graceful sweep that mirrored the grasp of the ape. As he moved, his breath matched the cadence of the primate, inhaling the purity of the atmosphere. His Life Seed resonated with his actions, a pulsating beacon within his heart.

    The second movement followed; a swift twist of his waist forward, a pivot that spoke of adaptability and agility. Dante''s senses heightened, his agility causing a deep resonance with the swing of the ape. He felt the whisper of the wind, as if he was leaping from tree to tree.

    The third movement, a fierce stamp of his foot, the earth trembling in response. Thending of the ape after swinging and hitting the ground, its leg muscles not even bothered by the fall.

    The fourth, a sweeping arch of his arm, a dance of strength and grace. The action of the ape striking a tree to knock down bananas or coconuts for its sustenance.

    As Dante flowed through the forms, the energy of his body responded. The grass beneath his feet seemed to pulse with each step, the very air thrumming with life that leaked from his body.

    His Life Seed, a crystalline orb of limitless potential and vitality, resonated with the sequence of movements, its power growing and condensing.

    With the sixth movement, a profound shift urred. Dante''s focus honed onto the Life Seed within him, the vault of vitality that held his life essence. His monstrously powerful consciousness merged with the seed, his mental power guiding its empowerment as his hands rose and his Life Seed seemed to expand, radiating a luminous glow.

    The seventh movement was the apex, a culmination of the technique''s quality and purpose. Dante''s arms stretched wide to the left and right, his mouth open in a silent roar as he bared his fangs, like an ape about to charge and grapple its foe.

    His Life Seed zed with intensity, its brilliance rivaling the sun as Dante''s vitality was converted into life essence and poured into it. As Dante exhaled, he released the seed''s power, allowing a surge of life essence to course through his meridians, his flesh, and seemingly, his very soul.

    This life essence tempered his body further and made it stronger. In terms of physical stats, Knights surpassed Martial Artists in the same realm, but Martial Artists wielded more methods that were magical, not to mention blood Qi was more powerful and versatile inbat than Life Essence.

    If it wasn''t for the necessity of the technique, Dante wouldn''t even bother with the tempering, as this obviously could not increase his 1000-point SDI. At 1000 points in all stats, only Internal Martial Artists and Mages above the 6th Rank could match him.

    Martial Gods or Grand Knights would have to kneel in supplication before him, hoping that he wouldn''t kill them with ease. It was a pipe dream to expect any feedback for skills that his stats had already surpassed.

    An hour flowed like a river, and Dante repeated the various actions continuously within this period of time. The Primal Ape technique was truly a peak knight technique and one that suited him, as despite not possessing any special resource for it, his progress was impressive.

    As Dante lowered his arms, his breath steady and his pulse calm, he checked the progress he had made in the Primal Ape technique within this hour of time.

    ?Physical Powers: Primal Ape Technique (Level 2: Beginner Knight, 9%).?

    8% progress in one hour was great. There was no need to harp on about how long an average person took; there was no pointparing anymore when Dante had 1000 points in SDI and a literal energy pool to replenish himself.

    He hadpletely consumed all his recently replenished energy, though, which made Dante scratch his head wryly. He would definitely need to return to the Magus World in order to get that Rank 4 Vitality Potion and then have his Research AI try to replicate it so that he could speed up his knight training.

    On that note, Dante thought back to his ''protagonist raising'' n and the system thing. He felt that it was not a bad idea at all, so he jumped back into his energy pool and spent another 6 hours recharging himself.

    When he came out, he remotely contacted the Sris AI and checked how much time was left. The reply he got was that there were 2 days and 10 hours to go.

    Satisfied, he gave the alchemist bots a task to craft more Enhanced Energy Elixirs for him. As for the Quantum Aetherium Conduit, he would only keep one of those for now. After getting ready, Dante descended into the Magus World.

    His eyes opened in the body of his virtual avatar turned real body, which was still in his meditation chamber. Dante smiled and exited his chamber. He found a nearby Magic Apprentice who had taken a mission from the faction to serve him during this time and told him to inform Master ndor that he would be paying a visit.

    Soon the apprentice hurried back and stated that Master ndor was awaiting him. Dante smiled and used blink step to teleport right in front of the fellow''s door. Before he could knock, it swung open on its own and revealed the handsome half-elven magus who was working on some documents.

    "Dante, please sit." Master ndor gestured to the seat opposite him as he raised his head from his work with a smile.

    Dante nodded and sat down. Master ndor sized him up and smiled. "Already a second-rank Adept Mage? As expected, but slightly faster than I predicted. And oh? It seems yourprehensive power has risen once more."

    Master ndor hesitated and finally asked, "Youˇ­ are you really human? Are you sure you''re not some Ancient Dragon reincarnated?"

    Dante was speechless. From Master ndor''s point of view, this question was very prudent as Dante first appeared before him with a 500-point SDI, which was enough to make him highly valued. But now he appeared again and had not only raised his wizard rank but also had a 1000-point SDI, double that of before!

    Really, only those overpowered races could achieve such effects.

    Dante was about to speak but paused and pondered. Then, looking as if he had done something taboo but couldn''t help but be honest, he disyed a ball of hellfire from his palm.

    "I am descended from the demon race, from a Demon Supreme. The rise in my power is due to my bloodline awakening bit by bit," Dante spoke reluctantly.

    Master ndor''s face changed slightly, and he put his quill down then pushed the documents away. "Dante, as your master, I thank you for sharing this secret with me, but please promise not to tell anyone else."

    Dante nodded, and Master ndor sighed with relief. "The demons of the Abyss ne are very strong and are of equal rank to us of the Magus ne, so many magi won''t dare to touch you knowing your background."

    "However, there are zealous and religious lunatics who don''t care about such things and will hunt you down day and night," Master ndor stated pointedly.

 Chapter 147 Setting Up Extensive Research

    ?

    "What about the faction? Will it cause any problems within?" Dante asked what he wanted to know the most.

    Master ndor looked at Dante strangely. "If the Celestial Arcanists discriminated by race or some other category, they would never have allowed a half-elf like me to join and be the faction leader."

    Uhhˇ­ yeah, that did make sense.

    "Besides, part of the reason we are suppressed and disliked by traditional mages is not only because we practice knight methods, but also because we admit non-humans into our fold. Arge majority of mages in the world are human, since the human race has the purest, untainted spiritual power among the various races," Master ndor revealed.

    Purest and untainted, huh? Master ndor was basically putting it nicely. Humans had no inherent affinities or talent, so until the magic method was discovered, they lived like dogs in this world, enved by non-humans who were either born with long lives, elemental abilities, or various abilities.

    So naturally, humans at the top of the pyramid resented andrgely abused non-human races in turn and hated the idea of such species using their precious magic method that granted them power. If it wasn''t for the fact that non-humans had 10 times more difficulty practicing any mediation technique, they would have eliminated factions like the Celestial Arcanists that dared to harbor such members.

    Master ndor seemed to be closer to Dante not only because he shared his ''secret'', but also because they were both ''half-humans''. He did not doubt Dante''s ims in the least because hellfire that pure could not be produced by anything but a demon.

    Even if a Magus at the 9th Rank made all his spiritual cores of the fire element, he could not produce such unique hellfire, even if he used a demonic spell to mimic it. As for Internal Arts or the concept of it, they did not exist, even remotely in the Magus World.

    "Right, what brought you here?" Master ndor shook his head and got to the matter at hand.

    "I wanted to upgrade my status as I am now a second-rank mage and also apply for a 4th Rank Vitality Potion," Dante stated with a smile.

    Master ndor looked Dante up and down once more. "Well look at you, Upgrading your status can be done in no time, and I can get you the 4th Rank Vitality Potion, but are you sure you want only one?"

    Dante paused and realized the problem. Yes, given his body''s strength, other knights might have difficulty consuming this potion and would digest it after a long period of time, but he would need more than one to achieve the same effect.

    However, he really only needed one for his AI to research. Taking any more would not be useful unless he nned to give it out, and as for using it himself, the potions were not free. They cost Astral Crystals per bottle.

    Right now, the faction could and would subsidize Dante''s training to a certain point, especially given his talent, but all the bills would be paid forter. It was easy to say he could ignore it and bail on the factionter, or even start his ount and begin somewhere new.

    However, this was not possible unless he literally destroyed the faction. This was a world of MAGIC my brother, they definitely had ways to track down Dante who not only had karma tied to them through his real body, but also used two of their OWN techniques to progress his magic and knight power.

    Besides, Dante didn''t have the habit of eating and not paying the bill. It was easier to just clear all debts and be free than build debts and think you''re a genius by finding ways to dodge them. Eventually, they would catch up to you one day, and you might not be able to run anymore.

    "One will do," Dante stated straightforwardly.

    Master ndor raised an eyebrow but did not inquire. Rather, he had Dante''s status upgraded to the 2nd Rank, which also allowed him to choose a second meditation technique if he wanted to change his elemental technique, as well as various 2nd Rank spells.

    Soon, a bottle of 4th Rank Vitality Potion was retrieved from the faction''s storage and presented to him. Master ndor asked if he had any issues that he needed help with, and Dante did ask him some things to solidify their rtionship.

    After all, if Dante progressed so much without ever making the 9th Rank Magus feel like a teacher, their rtionship might be weirdter on. Besides, most of the things he asked were gaps in his knowledge, mostly to do withmon sense in the Magus world.

    Wizards obviously didn''t spend all their time meditating and breaking through ranks. They often researched various things, practiced skills like potion-making, artificing, or runemastery, and created meditation techniques or knight breathing techniques using their wealth of knowledge.

    "However, that is normally done by average mages who progress slowly. For someone like you who makes thunderous progress, you can put such things aside and focus on growing. When you be a 9th Rank mage and your lifespan is so great, wouldn''t there be plenty of time to do these other things?" Master ndor joked with an element of seriousness.

    Dante personally agreed. There was no need for him to research, practice any technique, or create techniques. His quantum AIs could do that for him. He only needed to get stronger and be more versatile in order to face any situation.

    Dante took his leave and returned to theboratory that was assigned to him. Thanks to his master''s interference, he didn''t have to take on any research projects or recruit any personal apprentices, but could just focus on bing stronger.

    And now that he had risen to the 2nd Rank in less than a month, the other elders, even those who were opposed, were silent. Now, they were filled with hope and excitement that the Celestial Arcanists could get another 9th Rank mage, because it meant an increase in benefits!

    So naturally, they supported Dante and granted him extreme leeway. Dante sat down cross-legged and activated his meditation array that held condensed spiritual power, and then closed his eyes. He spread his spirit sense out of the faction building and ced a quantum marker 1 kilometer away.

    Dante then left the Magus World with his real body, leaving his virtual body in the room. Then, he walked to the Technology Nexus and entered the research area. He then gave his AIs the 4th Rank Vitality Potion to analyze, and he was told it would take 8 hours.

    After all, theputing power here in his base was higher than the Inferno Battleship since he could stuff more quantum AI cores than in the ship, not to mention the dreadnought was meant for fighting, not research.

    He then gave an idle AI researcher the task of producing Meditation Techniques, Knight Breathing techniques, External Martial Arts, and Internal Martial Arts of all kinds based on his personal knowledge from his AI chip as well as the details of each power system, as well as their various auxiliary methods like cksmithing and Alchemy from the True Martial World and Potioneering and Artificing from the Magus World.

    After all, putting aside starting a faction, his little protagonists needed ''system shops'' to buy things from, right? Otherwise, what incentive did they have to obey system missions? Unlike those overpowered systems, Dante did not yet have the power to directly grant rule-breaking power to his protagonists, so he had to improvise.

    Besides, a faction could not exist and grow with only one or two techniques. There had to be an array that catered to many needs, and this was usually built over time. Dante could supply resources, no problem, given what his research AI had spat out, but resources alone did not make a stable faction.

    Dante''s eyes narrowed. Besides, if such factions grew and dominated the world, the quantum world AIs and their owners would not be bothered or notice anything because Dante was using natives of those worlds to achieve his goals.

    Shared worlds needed to grow organically like this or they would not be as valuable to users in any way.

    The time to craft 1000 techniques of each type was 3 seconds per technique. Well, what did you expect? These were quantum AIs; how could the lowly brains of even 9th Rank mages keep up?

    Even Dante''s 1000-point Intelligence was barely at the supeputer level, and only Beatrice, with 20,000 Intelligence boosted upwards to at least 1 million by her Psionics, could match the average quantumputer.

    Impossible? Exaggerating?

    A mere Quantum World with 9th Rank mages that was 100% simted by quantumputers and managed by such AIs with ease could not possibly beat its creators. How could a mere part of what was its code and subroutines out-calcte the main thing itself?

 Chapter 148 The Home Universeâ€™s Zero Gate

    <h4>Chapter 148 The Home Universe''s Zero Gate</h4>

    Anyway, it would take around 42 hours toplete all the techniques given that the AIs were creating a total of 50,000, with about 1000 of different types for each category from both worlds.

    That meant 1000 Meditation techniques, 1000 Knight Breathing, 1000 Internal Art, 1000 External Arts, and so on. In this case, even if the protagonist chosen by Dante is a picky fellow, he would definitely be inundated with choices.

    In fact, this even allowed Dante to invest in more than one possible protagonist. A whole faction did not need so many techniques. Even the Celestial Arcanists with a 9th Rank Mage had only about fewer than a hundred meditation techniques.

    Anyway, there was no rush to grow the protagonist in question so quickly. He could begin after he had checked to see if his home universe had a Zero Gate and made ns in that regard.

    There were 2 days and 10 hours to go, and he could use this time to either practice the Primal Ape technique and bring it nearpletion or do the same for the Raging Blood Halberd Technique.

    In truth, Dante was quite satisfied not only with his current progress but also with his future prospects and his current powers. However, Dante felt that something was missing, and that feeling began to grow even more.

    He had the Inferno Ascension technique, which at each level of its practice, granted a new ability that formed a superpower of its own.

    The first level granted basic fire maniption,

    The second level granted spirit sense,

    The third level granted mental damage while ignoring physical defense,

    The fourth level granted literal devouring power where he could even bestow ''devoured'' essence to others,

    The fifth level granted alternate dantians for multiple internal force quantities,

    The sixth level granted a free and near-permanent berserk with no downsides,

    The seventh level allowed him to enve foes into his demon thralls,

    The eighth level allowed him to passively cultivate as well as granted near-infinite internal force duringbat,

    The ninth level allowed him to deceive people with illusions or even create a permanent clone to act as him,

    And the tenth level allowed him to coalesce his internal force into True Qi, which had the same miraculous effects as spirit energy.

    His Void Speaker Chant allowed him to climb the 10 levels and 9 ranks of mages with no limit except his talent, and each level of the mage granted immense power and utility. Spells didn''t need to be forbat only; they could also be for support or even misceneous tasks.

    Even if he decided to change his mind and stop specializing in the space element to increase his power multiplier, he would still gain so many elements to use from the 3rd Rank and above that elemental superpower holders like Humphrey might not hold a candle to him.

    Slessor, for example, could not match him with her superpower of Spatial Folding as Dante could achieve something simr himself with just a first-rank spell. If he learned the second space spells, he might even be able to fold the arrogantmia woman into a spatial cube.

    In truth, whether it was these two methods, plus Quantum Entanglement, which was the foundation for all, Dante seemed to have all his sections covered. However, at the end of the day, Dante was nothing more than a human.

    And any human, once given a single yard, would want a mile. Dante began to crave more, but he had already spoken with Beatrice and she could not offer any worlds more convenient and easy to initiate himself than the two worlds he had already entered.

    All other worlds could theoretically grant him power, but some could not be practiced in the real world and could only be done in the quantum worlds; some powers were ipatible with thews of the real world and would likely not work, among other reasons.

    Dante sighed. In the end, he could only go back to practicing the Primal Ape Technique because it was the one that wasgging behind between the two techniques, and he preferred to break through them back to back.

    Maybe once he maxed out all his current techniques, or maybe if he raised Quantum Entanglement to a higher level, he could acquire something that might allow him to step further.

    Whatever the case, 2 days and 10 hours tranted to 58 hours, and Dante spent almost all of them either training or recharging. 1 hour spent training the Primal Ape technique and 6 hours spent charging meant that Dante went through 8 cycles of training and 8 cycles of sleeping.

    This meant that there were only two hours from the destination, so Dante stopped here and nced at his progress so far.

    ?Physical Powers: Primal Ape Technique (Level 2: Beginner Knight, 73%).?

    Hah, just imagine how the faces of knights in the Magus World would look when they found out that someone took about 2 or so days to almost cross the full threshold of Beginner Knight.

    Dante only felt amused for a bit before he switched on his vice admiral''s exosuit and armed himself with two dark matter pistols and one psion rifle. Despite the protests of his lovely android guardians, he returned to the ship alone and decided to wait the remaining two hours.

    "It is good to have you back, Master Dante. I have calcted that we are 118 minutes away from our destination," Sris greeted him immediately.

    "Mmm. Is there anything I need to take note of regardinging out of hyperspace?" Dante asked prudently.

    "Not when you''re on the Sris Horizon E7! Lower model ships might yield some turbulence when exiting hyperspace, causing shaking, instability, and even a mild chance of vomiting. However, this ship can im to be incapable of such mistakes and will provide you with the smoothest service throughout your cosmic journeys," Sris boasted, a hint of arrogance in its tone.

    Dante smiled with amusement. The AI was definitely boasting but not bragging, especially since it really was one of the best models in the eternal universe.

    If a Bugatti bragged that it was the fastest car in the world, you could not make fun of it because that was true, and it had the right to be arrogant. Same with the Sris ship.

    Dante settled in and used this remaining time to go over his ns and thoughts. He was previously thinking about powers hecked, but he had a feeling and not a solid idea, so he wanted to think about it.

    (Un)fortunately for him, by the time he arrived, he still had not gotten what he wanted mentally. Still, he was pleased to open his eyes as Sris announced that they were now exiting hyperspace.

    With a familiar cracking visual, as if someone had punched space open, they entered the ''normal'' universe and hovered in space slightly. Dante rose to his feet in shock, as what was before him was something he had never seen before.

    What did one expect to feel when faced with one of the universe''s greatest wonders? The one that humans had dreamed about possessing and controlling, the one that instilled fear and worry, and the one that even spawned the majority of fictional archetypes to this day?

    The almighty ck hole?

    Only, Dante could tell it was not a ck hole, even with Sris having to scan the area. As someone with two spatial spiritual cores, he had at least that level of cognizance. Rather, it was just? a gigantic ck spot in the background of the universe, from which nearly visible ck energy seemed to leak.

    Even here, zillions of kilometers away, more than a million light-years away from it, Dante could not see the top or bottom of this gaping maw. All the nearby space debris, like small asteroids and some tinys, werepletely coated ck, thoroughly contaminated by the Zero Energy leaking from the Zero Gate.

    If Dante were a betting man, he would say that those asteroids were simr to cknds of a sort. While he stood there in awe and amazement, the Sris AI reported something that caused his heart to sink.

    "Master Dante, I havepleted a quantum scan of the nearby space sector. I have detected nos with life capabilities, but millions of lifeforms inhabit this sector, specifically around that bizarre ck hole."

    "What do you mean? How are these lifeforms existing if they are not ons capable of sustaining life?" Dante asked with a frown.

    "From my detections, it seems that they have a special device simr to your exosuit but extremely inferior that allows them to survive in the void of space. The variety of species numbers in the millions, and there are hardly any two entities of the same species," Sris answered.

    "They are spread out across the various asteroids ors surrounding this ck gate, seated in a seemingly meditation-like posture as they absorb waves of the leaking energy at various intensities," Sris revealed, causing Dante''s expression to change greatly.

 Chapter 149 Danteâ€™s Ambition

    <h4>Chapter 149 Dante''s Ambition</h4>

    What was Sris saying? That out there were millions of superpower users from his home universe who had gathered here to absorb Zero Energy?

    Dante''s mind almost exploded. One should know that even the Eternal Universe, with its greatly developed superpowered society, did not have so many superpowered users due to the limited amount of Fruits of Condensation.

    Not to mention that their superpowered users were not all gathered in one ce. The Eternal Academy kept the younglings, while various organizations, factions, and alumni groups kept the veterans.

    Dante had taken it for granted, just like any other student of the school, when they were told that the Headmistress deterred all other forces from fighting over the Zero Gate. It hadn''t hit until now that if all the factions gathered like this, they could swarm the school to death.

    Yet they still didn''t dare to face Lara head-on. Just how powerful was that woman? Or probably, how powerful was her reputation?

    Dante realized that because Beatrice didn''t see Lara as much of a big deal, he too had subconsciously assumed that thought. Even when she shattered his Inferno Ascension technique''s illusion back then, he only acknowledged that she was stronger, but not how much stronger.

    If Dante wanted to monopolize the Zero Gate, he would need to have the deterring power that Lara did, as well as the reputation that was needed to spread it.

    Dante damn rapidly calmed himself down and thought. From the fact that there was no fighting here and everyone was peacefully absorbing energy, a system had likely been developed that designated where one could sit and absorb.

    Not to mention that they were all using the same shabby technology to survive in space, so it was likely that one faction manufactured and likely provided this. Whether that same faction controlled the allocation of the various species was unknown.

    For the first time, Dante felt weak. His 1000 point SDI which made him a god on earth and any was so weak and meaningless in the void of space. Even his Spirit Sense, which made him unbeatable in the True Martial World with a whole 1 kilometer of range, was ant-like in space.

    It was like Lara said when she was dealing with Dante. He was barely reaching the peak of theary level, not even reaching the gctic or universal level, much less high dimensional.

    If he wanted to walk in space, he needed a minimum of 10,000 points in all stats to barely qualify. Even Beatrice stated that with 20,000 points, she could not stay in space for too long unless she turned on his Bionics and Psionics.

    Dante''s eyes became bloodshot. He wished for more power so desperately right now that his body temperature was rising, and space began to crack around him as his two magical powers intensified.

    Eventually, he calmed himself down again and pondered. He calcted a few things with his AI chip and found that the cost of setting up a space base was around 10,000 Etrans if he footed the bill alone.

    One should know, his current top-of-the-line base on earth only cost less than 100 Etrans to make. It was clear that the requirements and criteria that a space base needed were far more stringent, but the benefits were great.

    Dante did not have the same qualms in the real world as he did in the quantum worlds. He did not need to hold back, and if starting an intergctic war was necessary to take over, then he would do so.

    Dante suddenlyughed, and he felt extremely cathartic as he did so. He realized the stupidity of his tunnel-visioned thinking, and found it amusing.

    Why did he need to resolve everything with his own raw power like some brute? Was using hellfire or space spells the only thing he could do? Since when did he start thinking that everything had to be done through them?

    When he arrogantly nned to conquer both universes, all he had to his name was his foundation, Quantum Entanglement. Yet he had been so confident and had taken every step forward to the fullest of his ability.

    And he still was!

    His base on earth was equipped with everything needed to progress in this universe! Even if Quantum Entanglement disappeared today and he could not return to the Eternal universe, he could still dominate the home universe because he had copied everything needed over!

    Even if hecked something, a building, technology, orponent, he could build it!

    The universe was his oyster!

    Endless materials floated in space that could be used to build anything he wanted.

    Even the Eternal Universe, which was far ahead in technology and had been harvesting and mining for millennia, was not even 5% done with the resources found in space. That Thanos-like rubbish of limited resources was utter nonsense; could you evenprehend the vastness of space?

    Not to mention, each universe is expanding and taking on new space, producing new materials and lifeforms. There were millions ofs in the Eternal Universe that were like Earth,pletely habitable and tameable, that were void of advanced life and only had the most basic species maintaining the ecosystem.

    Much less the home universe.

    Fine, Dante might not be able to quickly deter all forces in his home universe using his raw martial power, but if that door was closed, then he would forcefully open the one where he would deter all forces using his technology.

    Dante smiled. "Sris, retreat to the edge of this spacer sector and maintain a permanent quantum scan. Update the central hub in the home base constantly with the details from your scans in real-time."

    Sris acknowledged the order and began moving. Meanwhile, Dante returned to his home base on Earth and nced at the four androids who he had told to wait for him.

    In truth, any of these fourdies could likely beat him to death in terms of raw SDI. When he bought them, he only requested a simple SDI sculpting of around 3000 points in all fields. That was even only because he bought from a very capable vendor on Etonia.

    ording to Beatrice, the highest metal-based lifeforms like androids, cyborgs, or the like could go was 8000 points. The Prime Human Council monopolized the special technology needed to make robots reach 10,000 points in all stats.

    However, robots could not use Bionics or Psionics, since they were already pre-equipped with them and were even why their SDI numbers could reach such high levels in the first ce.

    These four could likely tear apart arge number of these superpowered users at that ce on their own, since they did not worry about the void of space and had thrusters, dark matter cannons, and the like.

    But there was no need for hostilities. Intelligence was the true deciding factor in any conflict: how much you knew about your enemy versus how much they knew about you. Dante was in the dark, and they were in the light, so he would monitor the ce over the next period of time and gain an understanding of its working.

    For now, his base which was mostly rxed began to enter a period of high-intensity work. Androids, weapons, and ships were being manufactured by the hour, and Dante wanted to build an armada that would slowly spread out from Earth as a starting point and conquer the entire gxy.

    As for his fellow ignorant humans, they could stick to fighting over social media and reading fantasy web novels all day; it was best for them that way. When they were ready to enter the stars, they would find that this universe already had an owner, and his name was Dante, a human of Earth like them!

    Ambition burned in Dante, and he decided to channel it into his work. He was close to the next threshold anyway, so he dunked himself into his energy pool and began to soak in it while entering a sleep-like state.

    6 hourster, he got up and began to practice the Primal Ape technique. He spent 1 hour training, which granted 8% progress in the technique, then 6 hours recharging, and so on.

    From 73%, he went to 81% after one cycle, 89% after two cycles, and 97% after 3 cycles!

    A total of 21 hours had passed, and it was already the next day, but Dante did not feel tired in the least. The young man usually did not have any pressure when doing things, mostly driven by his ambition to step forward.

    So when pressure dide, though it was not necessarily a fatal one that demanded progress, it still galvanized him greatly and added on top of his already bustling work ethic.

    Dante stopped here and decided to rest for a bit before breaking through his Knight Breathing technique. He once again jumped into the energy pool, and while he soaked in it for a long time, he suddenly opened his eyes with a bright light.

    "I finally know what I am missing!"

 Chapter 150 Choosing A New Power System 1

    <h4>Chapter 150 Choosing A New Power System 1</h4>

    Dante sat up and immediately teleported into the Eternal Universe, right into the observation deck of the Inferno Dreadnought. There he saw Beatrice seated on her couchzily, half-naked as usual and veryfortable.

    Dante was about to speak when he simply swallowed his words and pounced. He immediately pressed Beatrice down and kissed her voraciously, digging deep into her mouth and merging their tongues together.

    Beatrice did not struggle and seemed to enjoy this deeply as she hungrily kissed back, igniting the fire of passion between the two. Their hands began roving each other''s bodies, Dante caressing her breasts that were soft like thin pillows in terms of the skin, but firm like a mattress when squeezed.

    As for Beatrice, she immediately skipped over Dante''s now hard rod and directly grabbed the precious family jewels, squeezing them extremely lightly enough to stimte, but not enough to hurt. While their arousal was ever increasing, they continued to feel each other out until Dante finally broke the kiss.

    Beatrice''s long purple hair was syed on the couch, and her beautiful amber eyes were filled with desire and love. Looking at her perfect face which could likely be mistaken for an AI depiction in the home universe, Dante felt his entire being sublimate.

    A woman this perfect was his soulmate, his partner in life and death, and lusted after him from the depths of her heart. This kind of feeling was something that could not be easily exined, but a surge of masculine confidence and pride entered Dante''s heart.

    Despite himself, Dante rather calmed down and simply caressed Beatrice''s face gently while his arousal receded. With the masculine confidence of possession came the masculine urge to protect.

    Dante had not felt it much before, but now that he recognized his affection for Beatrice, a sense of delicate gentleness and the urge to protect appeared in his heart. He usually only felt the urge to dominate and subdue when he was seeking a sexual partner, but now that he had secured a true partner, that urge disappeared.

    Dante felt like now, more than ever, he had truly matured from a boy into a man. He understood that what separated a man from a boy was how they channeled their aggression, which was a fundamental part of being a male.

    Boys channeled their aggression onto others for their own personal benefits or satisfaction while men channeled their aggression onto others in order to protect their kin and allies. Dante also knew that this feeling would strengthen if he became a father.

    "What''s got you so hot and bothered?" Beatrice askedzily, raising her hand to caress Dante''s broad chest.

    Dante was snapped out of his thoughts and smiled. "I took a Sris ship over to my side and traveled to where the Eternal Academy would be located if it existed over at my side. Guess what I found there?"

    Beatrice immediately became interested and sat up, sitting herself beside Dante as she smiled at him. "Tell me, I''m curious."

    "It was the Zero Gate that''s got everyone crazy over here. It''s like a gigantic ck hole without the suction effect or the crazy mass, rather spitting out endless Zero Energy for superpowers."

    "Around the Zero Gate are countless asteroids and smalls soaked to the gill with the energy. What''s truly shocking is that every inch of space is taken up by a random species or being from my universe, all wearing some type of inferior space suit." Dante borated with a calm tone.

    Beatrice''s eyes shed. "Something is going on there? An organized system? Same equipment despite the differences?"

    Dante nodded. "I thought so too, so I left the ship there to scan the area while I started constructing war units at my base. I don''t have the raw power to take them down now, so I''ll rely on the technological advantage to grind them down."

    "Oh? My Dante is so smart and handsome, definitely better than that trope Zhuge Liang or whatever." Beatrice praised while stroking his hair.

    Dante knew it was ttery but he liked it. It wasn''t only men who could give sweet words to women to boost their ego, but oftentimes the same happened right back if you had a girl that actually loved you.

    "Right now, I had a thought and realized I need your counsel Beatrice. I need to find a world that can allow me to cultivate or empower my soul." Dante pointed out what he realized hecked.

    "Hm? That''s right, you have two physical methods for your body and two magical methods that correspond to energy and the mind respectively. What you need is something to empower your soul or spirit so that supernatural methods cannot necessarily bother you." Beatrice assessed as she agreed.

    "But you have your hellfire right? It can burn negative thoughts, emotions or any spiritual rted method aimed at you right?" Beatrice pointed out.

    "That is correct but it''s more of a defensive thing. I want something that can manifest itself and attack, support, and defend all in one, as well as give me unique uses for my soul." Dante corrected with a shake of his head.

    Beatrice hummed and began browsing through her shortlist of worlds. She was moving through them at the maximum speed her AI chip could do with her Psionics activated. In fact, Beatrice''s current mental force was so strong that Dante felt like someone was pressing down on his brain.

    The entire Inferno Dreadnought that was slowly moving through space seemed to grind to a halt, unable to move due to some force keeping it in ce. Around Beatrice''s body, the world itself warped like a ss of water that was stirred, causing an effect like ripples to appear.

    Despite this, it took Beatrice about 20 seconds to finally return to normal and show Dante the list of worlds she had gotten. She seemed a bit haggard from activating her power which greatly increased her already delicate energy consumption.

    While Dante was prepared to look through, Beatrice opened his trousers and took out his proud young master. This made Dante re at her and ask: "What are you doing?"

    Beatrice arrogantly stroked it gently and smirked. "Recharging. I''m taking my energy consumption fees for helping you."

    After saying that, she lowered her head and began to work on extracting her ''meal''. Dante could only close his eyes and try to focus amidst the intense sensationsing from his lower body, checking the worlds that Beatrice had highlighted.

    They numbered 3.

    [World Name: Divine World

    World Owner: Eternal Academy

    World Creator: Eternal Academy

    World Size: Large

    World Type: Shared

    World Genre: Divinity and Faith

    Bionics Allowed: No

    Psionics Allowed: No

    Superpowers Allowed: Yes

    Requirements: Student ID

    Duration: Unlimited

    Description: This is a world that has the vor of advanced technology and a small progress in gctic conquest, but is heavily religious and ruled by a theocratic government. The power of the world lies in the hands of the Gods, Divine Beings that have ascended from mortaldom into divinity!

    Objectives: Be an Over God.

    Limitations: All Bionics and Psionics are not allowed because they are not necessary for godhood. You will not be able to choose your starting point and will be spawned with a random but fitting background.

    Provisions: You can use superpowers freely as they do not conflict with godhood and even enhance it. You are also free to use the full range of your AI chip''s abilities.]

    Dante raised an eyebrow. This was something he was familiar with, as the current depiction of deities in most games and books were a bunch of fellows who relied on the faith of their believers to not only grow, but also to survive.

    It was apletely new interpretation of godspared to the traditional where their powers were typically their own and they simply just liked to either fuck with humans, fuck humans or fuck around with humans.

    This new interpretation put the power in the hands of the humans and also showed the exploitative nature of gods as they needed to keep their believers aligned with a certain train of thought in order to survive and gather faith.

    To be honest, Dante did not favor this option. It was something that could be practiced in reality if he ignited the divine fire and set up his divine altar and divine spirit, thereby allowing him to smelt faith no matter where he was, but it still relied on external factors too much.

    In fact, he had a feeling that he could evenpletely rece faith with psion energy, which was a simr thing. Psion energy was the energy produced from the collective force of sentient consciousness.

    If it was alive and had a brain, thereby producing thoughts, it produced psion energy. The Eternal Universe had already excavated the totality of this energy sub-type many thousands of years ago, and their conclusion was only to use it for powering things, but never to obtain power.

    No matter how well you ''refined'' psion energy, it was energy formed from thoughts. If you absorbed that into your mind or soul, you would inevitably be influenced by those thoughts either subtly or overtly.

 Chapter 151 Choosing A New Power System 2

    <h4>Chapter 151 Choosing A New Power System 2</h4>

    [World Name: The World of Alchemy

    World Owner: Eternal Academy

    World Creator: Eternal Academy

    World Size: Large

    World Type: Instanced

    World Genre: Magical (Soul)

    Bionics Allowed: No

    Psionics Allowed: No

    Superpowers Allowed: Yes

    Requirements: Student ID

    Duration: Unlimited

    Description: This is a world that has the design of the medieval era of Europe, but with heavy steampunk technology. In this world, special people can awaken the ability tomunicate between their souls and the rules of the world, allowing them to transmute anything following the rules of equivalent exchange.

    Objectives: Discover the truth of the world.

    Limitations: All Bionics and Psionics are not allowed because they conflict with this world''s power system.

    Provisions: You can use superpowers freely as they do not conflict with the power system. You are also free to use the full range of your AI chip''s abilities.]

    Oh? Dante definitely knew the source and origin of this type of world. The idea of Alchemy was actually designed by Hermes Trismegistus, an ancient Egyptian who wrote the Hermetic Corpus on which this world was likely based.

    Dante did not like this power system either, though it was definitely cool. Firstly, there was a permanent limitation to the entire power system that was equivalent exchange. You cannot create something from nothing, and there was thew of the conservation of mass as well.

    If Dante was in the void of space, unless he spat out something from his quantum depository or used anything on his body, his alchemy would be useless. Given that he was targeting the Zero Gate of his home realm, which was in the void of space, his decision was not without merit.

    Secondly, this power system was limited. Its maximum level was controlled by the entity called ''Truth'' which would take your limbs away at the slightest provocation. It might also take your younger brother too if you were not lucky.

    Thirdly, unless you appeared before Truth and survived, you would need to perform alchemy with transmutation circles and raw materials. Only those who had stood before the gate and survived could perform alchemy on the fly, only needing raw materials.

    So no, it was out of the question.

    [World Name: The Spirit World

    World Owner: Eternal Academy

    World Creator: Eternal Academy

    World Size: Small

    World Type: Instanced

    World Genre: Spiritual

    Bionics Allowed: No

    Psionics Allowed: No

    Superpowers Allowed: No

    Requirements: Student ID

    Duration: 180 days.

    Description: This is a world that is limited to two locations, the physical city of Karmakura and the spirit realm of the dead. Karmakura city is gued by the spirits of the dead that either do not go to the afterlife or be twisted and harm innocent people. As such, a special group of defenders appointed by the government called the Spirit Lords are formed, using special techniques to empower and weaponize their souls against the forces of evil that hide beyond the veil.

    Objectives: Defeat the Soul Emperor of the spirit realm of the dead and restore peace to Karmakura city.

    Limitations: All Bionics and Psionics are not allowed because they conflict with this world''s power system. Superpowers are also banned because they do not fit the world''s setting, and nothing like AI chips can be used as well.

    Provisions: The force you will join, the Spirit Lords, is small but very rich and influential, giving you ess to many tools and items to empower yourself easilypared to other worlds.]

    Dante was surprised. He was more inclined to choose this world because it was small and focused, and it seemed like he would be able to maximize his various advantages there going in with his real body.

    However, he wasn''t in a rush to choose it simply because this kind of soul power was not 100% what he was looking for. The power system of this world was geared solely towards dealing with spirits and had little effect on physical beings because they weren''t the main threat in this world.

    As Beatrice said, if Dante wanted to deal with the supernatural, all he had to do was throw out his hellfire. Even at the 3rd level of the Inferno Ascension technique, Dante was confident he could solo that final boss and cook him to death.

    There was not much value. Heck, even the Magus World had a Spirit ne where Magi could contact and interact with spirits, as well as spells of all elements dedicated to dealing with spirits.

    When Beatrice chose those two worlds for him to go, it was based on the premise that both power systems had all their various criteria as well as being versatile. So if he wanted a new power system, it had to do something that his current ones could not in order to prevent redundancy and ovep.

    Dante rubbed his forehead and suddenly moaned as his body twitched. He slumped into the couch as Beatrice raised her head with a look of satisfaction, swallowing a mouthful of something that left a white streak on her cheek.

    She stuck out her tongue and licked that too while smiling yfully. Dante felt like he had run 300ps around the world while Beatrice lookedpletely refreshed and chipper.

    "So, what did you choose?" Beatrice asked with a smile.

    Dante shook his head. "They are all good, but not 100% there. I can make a choice among them, but I want to look further."

    Beatrice nodded and tapped her lip. "I guess we''ll have to look outside of the school''s worlds. This might be a problem because public Etraverse worlds have lowerputing power and can glitch easily unless they pay a high amount to the Etraversepany for a good quantum server."

    "What if I created my own quantum world in my base? You know, I have more than enoughputing power to create one focused world for my use." Dante asked with a hushed tone.

    Beatrice jumped with a look of fear and began to sweat as she looked around crazily. "Don''t even think about it. The technology of creating quantum worlds is patented and heavily protected by the Etraverse Corp."

    "Even the almighty Eternal Academy, who arguably have equal power to the Prime Human Council, obediently create their worlds on the tform and only use their quantum server to power it, which is why the school''s worlds are higher quality and far more stable." Beatrice exined.

    Dante was amused by her fear, but he understood. When they spoke about his special abilities and superpowers, even though they 100% knew no one was listening in, they were not bothered because the fallout was controble, especially given their current power.

    But whew, talking about the interests of the elite? Are you trying to die? On earth, around 10 years ago, a bunch of Redditors bullied the elite through the stock market. However, the retribution from the top was swift and brutal, also showing us just how much they controlled.

    The Etraverse represented even bigger interests than anything on earth as it involved the entire universe and all its races.

    "Sure, let''s try the public worlds." Dante suggested.

    In truth, he did not agree with Beatrice that they should stick to the school-made worlds. He did not have an overall good impression of the Eternal Academy and instinctively felt that

    even if their quantum worlds were better, it would not be by much.

    After all, the general public were still able to popte all those worlds without a problem, right?

    "Hmm, the options are far more plentiful here. Out of all of them, I like this one the most because you can eventually find something for yourself." Beatrice stated as she shared a screen with Dante.

    Dante looked at what Beatrice sent and could not help but be amused. He instantly noticed the difference between the school worlds and the public ones just by looking at the details.

    [World Name: The World of Myriad Eyes

    World Owner: Etraverse Corp

    World Creator: Uchiha_Rulez

    World Size: Tiny

    World Type: Instanced

    World Genre: Parody/Multi-genre

    Bionics Allowed: No

    Psionics Allowed: No

    Superpowers Allowed: No

    Requirements: Basic Etraverse Subscription

    Duration: 1 session.

    Description: Yo, people of the universe! This is daddy Uchiha_Rulez, and I created this world in order for us lovers of various eye techniques and powers to have fun! This is a battle royale-type world where you load into the transnt area where your virtual avatar would have the eye power of your choice transnted into them. Any and every eye technique conceived in history is avable, so pick anything you want!

    Objectives: Choose your eye power, load in, and drop on the battlefield. You have various stats to decide your utility of your eye powers and can find equipment to enhance your abilities as you go!

    Limitations: Meh, forget all those stupid add-ons, just choose your eye power and have fun! Also, forget superpower users, y''all suck.

    Provisions: My dude, just choose an eye power and drop in. Look, how many of these shitty fields do I need to fill in?]

 Chapter 152 The List of Myriad Eyes

    <h4>Chapter 152 The List of Myriad Eyes</h4>

    Dante nced at Beatrice who shrugged. Clearly, she felt that this was what he should have expected from digging through the filth that was the public worlds. In fact, Dante was lucky to get a rtively nice one like this as about 65% of public worlds were porn-rted or catered to porn fetishes.

    "Hmm, this one isn''t bad butˇ­ transnt? Isn''t that a bit risky?" Dante stated as he hesitated.

    He didn''t mind taking some risks, but very few sensible people wanted to mess with their eyes as losing your sight was one of the worst things that could happen to a person. Not to mention the eye was very close to the brain, so any mishap there could lead to further problems.

    "Yeah, but it''s the best option. There are hundreds of eyes in that world that the creator painstakingly recorded and recreated, not to mention he is using the most premium Etraverse Corp server to host." Beatrice exined with a smile.

    "Just so you know, it costs 100 Etrans a year to rent a top-level Etraverse Corp server." She added with a pointed look.

    Dante sucked in a deep breath. He had alreadypared the value of the Etran to the dor in his universe, and one Etran came to about $100,000 in the modern day.

    That was $10,000,000 a year!

    Dante paused. "But what eye would I even choose? There are so many with the power I need."

    Beatrice poked Dante''s chest. "That''s for you to decide, Dante. After all, I can only guide you to your destination, but I cannot pick the exact path for you."

    Dante nced at her askance but didn''t say anything, which made Beatrice snort and fold her arms. "Was there anything wrong with what I said?"

    "No, it''s just that I was surprised because you said something profound for once. I am used to the simplistic and depthless version of you," Dante stated with a smirk.

    Beatrice was left speechless.

    Dante decided to enter this quantum world and see the optionsid out before him. He directly entered with his real body and passed through the quantum barrier to descend upon this world''s loading area.

    When he looked around, he noticed that he was on an ind floating in space that was quite small. Dante looked to the corner of his eyes and saw that he was in an instanced world that was in the millions, with a maximum capacity of 100 people.

    Currently, this world was filled up to 56 people, with him being the 53rd. Unlike the chaos of waiting lobbies in most battle royale games, everyone here was silently standing in ce with dazed eyes.

    Soon, Dante understood why as soon as a screen appeared before him.

    [Wee to the World of Myriad Eyes, Dude or Dudette! Now, while waiting, you''ll need to select your chosen eye power from the marketce of eyes. You have an initial currency of 100 Eye Coins which you can use to buy any eye. You can also use Eye Coins to upgrade your eye even before the fight begins or to raise any of your stats. Stats affect everything, including your eye technique, so take note! Alright, have fun all!]

    Dante''s eyes shed. In truth, he had discussed this with Beatrice, whether to enter ''broken'' worlds like this and use the various freebies to raise his stats or other powers. There were billions of quantum worlds out there and more than a few thousand could do something like that.

    Beatrice''s answer was that even with a powerful superpower like Quantum Entanglement, he shouldn''t expect to swallow such benefits at a mere D Rank. Maybe if he reached S Rank or above could such things be materialized.

    However, while Dante trusted Beatrice''s judgment and also believed that things could not be convenient, he decided to try anyway since he was here. As such, he opened the marketce and saw the segment to buy stats and decided to buy one of each.

    Dante felt something surge into him, and he couldn''t help but feel excited. However, his expression changed when that energy leaked out of him with ease, returning to the world immediately as if his body spat out garbage.

    [Detected a problem with the infusion of stats. Your Eye Coins have been refunded. Would you like to make a report to the developers? Yes/No?]

    Dante sighed and chose no. As expected, even if something was powerful, it had toe with certain limitations or there would be no control or moderation. Whatever the case, as long as the eye transnt could work, he wouldn''t mind.

    Dante opened the list of avable eyes and was inundated with choices.

    [List of Eye Powers and their Sources/Requirements.

    1. Sharingan (50 EC): This eye technique allows the user to perceive energies, copy skills, and cast powerful illusions. It can evolve into the Mangekyou Sharingan, granting even more potent abilities. This technique originates from the series "Naruto".

    2. Byakugan (15 EC): This eye technique allows the user to see meridians as well as the flow of energy, perceive long distances, and see through objects. This technique originates from the series "Naruto".

    3. Rinnegan (100 EC): This eye technique allows the user to ess advanced skills, including the control of all forms of energy, revival of the dead, and maniption of gravity. This technique originates from the series "Naruto".

    4. Geass (60 EC): This eye technique allows the user to impose absolutemands on others, depending on the eye''s user. This technique originates from the series "Code Geass".

    5. Kotoamatsukami (30 EC): This eye technique allows the user to manipte others by subtly altering their thoughts and decisions. This technique originates from the series "Naruto".

    6. Alpha Stigma (80 EC): This eye technique allows the user to perform incredible magical abilities, including the power to analyze and manipte magic spells. However, theye with a significant drawback where users may lose control when they be emotional or enraged. This technique originates from the series "Legend of the Legendary Heroes".

    7. Jougan (30 EC): This eye technique allows the user to ess various powers, including sensing evil energy and seeing the flow of vitality. This technique originates from the series "Boruto".

    8. Devil''s Eye (90 EC): This eye technique allows the user to seal and unseal magic, manipte time, and use various spells unique to their eye sub-type. This technique originates from the series "ck Clover".

    9. Shinigami Eyes (5 EC): This eye technique allows the user to see a person''s name and lifespan above their head. This technique originates from the series "Death Note".

    10. Mystic Eyes (20-50 EC): This eye technique allows the user to ess a random eye from a group of unique eye abilities in the Nasuverse, such as Mystic Eyes of Death Perception and Mystic Eyes of Petrification.

    11. Falcon''s Eye (10 EC): This eye technique allows the user to acquire the unique elven eye that grants exceptional sight and the power to perceive distant events. This technique originates from the series "Lord of the Rings".

    12. Eye of Agamotto (75 EC): An artifact worn by the Sorcerer

    Supreme, This eye technique allows the user to ess mystical abilities, including time maniption and enhanced perception.

    13. Eye of Horus (15 EC): This eye technique allows the user to ess the ability to control all the elements as well as possess powerful healing abilities. This technique originates from Egyptian Mythology.

    14. Evil Eye (25 EC): This eye technique allows the user to directly curse anyone they gaze upon, bringing misfortune or harm to the target. This technique originates from various mythologies.

    15. Third Eye (20 EC): This eye technique allows the user to ess their inner knowledge, achieve enlightenment, and obtain insight into the world. This technique originates from Buddhism.

    16. Eye of Sauron (5 EC): This eye technique allows the user to remotely surveil any target in its range through its sub-bodies. This technique originates from the series "Lord of the Rings".

    17. Eye of Providence (40 EC): This eye technique allows the user to see the clouds of fate and fortune for a person, as well as manipte it to a small degree. This technique originates from various mythologies.

    18. Eyes of Medusa (70 EC): This eye technique allows the user to turn people to stone. This technique originates from Greek Mythology.

    19. Eye of Ra (50 EC): This eye technique allows the user to ess the power of the sun''s heat and light. This technique originates from Egyptian Mythology.

    20. All-Seeing Eyes of the Gods (65 EC): This eye technique allows the user to perceive supernatural entities, including ghosts and spirits. Users can also sense and interact with the thoughts and emotions of others. This technique originates from the series "Blood Blockade Battlefront".

    21. Abyssal Eye (100 EC): This eye technique allows the user to manipte time, including time travel, time maniption in battles, and the ability to summon multiple versions of themselves from different points in time. This technique originates from the series "Date A Live".

    22. Etcˇ­]

 Chapter 153 Eye Technique Chosen!

    <h4>Chapter 153 Eye Technique Chosen!</h4>

    Man, so many optionsˇ­

    Dante was spoiled for choice as he scrolled down into the hundreds, then the thousands, seeing various eyes from all sorts of mythologies, fiction, and even conceptual eyes designed by the world creator.

    Based on what Dantecked and needed, the Sharingan and its ilk were his best options, but Dante was not stupid. He was not a natural-born Uchiha, so even though he could use the Sharingan, he could not turn it off and it would drain more than twice the energy from a typical Uchiha to use.

    Kakashi''s suffering was a typical example. You think he wanted to walk around with one eye covered all the time? He had to cover his right eye because if he didn''t, the transnted Sharingan from Obito would suck him dry.

    Not to mention that the Sharingan had ridiculous demands. To unlock even one tomoe depended on luck and bloodline, and to increase from there you must undergo emotional and mental suffering. Let''s not talk about the Mangekyo which literally requires the pain of loss, genuine pain.

    Even then, you were at risk of going blind unless you dug out the Mangekyo Sharingan of a family member with your own hands!

    What the heck!

    The Rinnegan sounded great but was useless to him. Of its various six paths abilities, the Deva Path, which granted the ability to manipte attractive and repulsive forces, allowing the user to push or pull objects, repel attacks, and create barriers, could be achieved by his Magus abilities.

    Then there was the Asura Path, which enhanced the user''s physical abilities and allowed them to create mechanized weaponry and armor. He had Absorption in the Apocalypse World for stats and his base on Earth for tech.

    Next was the Human Path, which enabled the user to read the thoughts and memories of others by physically touching them, was useless given that Dante''s Inferno Ascension technique could achieve this, not to mention he now had telepathy from his high Intelligence stat.

    Even worse was the Animal Path, which allowed the user to summon and control various creatures and animals forbat or reconnaissance. If it wasn''t for hisck of necessity, he would have entered a Beast Taming world from the school and contracted a powerful beast.

    The only slightly useful one would be the Preta Path, which absorbed energy-based attacks and projectiles, rendering them harmless. It could even absorb physical attacks to a certain extent, but his Inferno Ascension technique once again had something for that.

    Finally, there was the Naraka Path, which summoned the King of Hell, a creature that could judge and interrogate souls. It was basically the same as the human path except for the fact that it could also heal injuries.

    Really, the only thing Dante might want the Rinnegan for was the ability of resurrection that came with it. Every other one of its abilities could be replicated elsewhere. Even the resurrection didn''t move him because it came with steep costs to the user, whereas he could just have his future protagonists farm such resources for him with low effort.

    Dante scanned through the other eyes and shook his head many times. The Alpha Stigma was useless and even had a w, the All-Seeing Eyes required a contract with a God to work, the Geass was not worth it since he could enve people with his hellfireter on.

    What made Dante feel a strong desire and greed were the Eye of Agamotto and the Abyssal Eye. Time maniption abilities were not easy to get, and it was something that Dante could say would be worth the cost.

    However, the issue was that Quantum Entanglement was not a space superpower, but a spacetime superpower. It had elements of time control ahead that Dante sensed when he tried to enhance his superpower to the C Rank.

    So he hesitated due to this fact. In the end, he continued looking down until he came to the conceptual eyes, in which he paused. He found that the creator of this world was probably someone who was thoroughly obsessed with eye techniques because he seemed to have the same issue that Dante did.

    As such, he generated many eyes that mixed and matched abilities from the others. However, due to bncing issues for his world, he gave them various limitations to make sure that he did not overdo it.

    Dante slowly went through them, noting the ones that were useful to him. Of course, at 1000 Intelligence, Dante''s ''slowly'' was sh speed to a normal person. Within the span of a second, he had highlighted three choices for himself.

    [Shortlisted options

    1. Eye of Truth (100 EC): This eye technique allows the user to not only see through all lies and barriers but also allows them to initiate binding contracts with other parties that cannot be easily vited.

    2. Eye of Soul (100 EC): This eye technique allows the user to see the soul bodies of others and manipte them depending on the soul strength between the two parties.

    3. Eye of Illusions (100 EC): This eye technique allows the user to be immune to all illusions, be able to see the supernatural and ce any and all beings under the effect of an illusion,]

    All of them cost the maximum amount because their utilities were great and the shorings were few. Of the three, Dante least wanted the first one and most wanted the second, but he was poised to choose the third.

    His Inferno Ascension technique allowed him to also perform illusions, but they were external illusions, like the afterimage technique. It did not hinder the mind of the opponent, only their eyes.

    This eye though, was basically on Itachi''s level of illusion control because it forwent the other Sharingan powers and reced it with only illusion power. You could imagine just how powerful it was from that alone.

    Dante breathed out and made his decision! He spent 100 EC and took the Eye of Illusions, mostly because unlike the Eye of Soul, its strength was based on his Intelligence stat which he could grow. The Eye of Soul required him to grow his own soul strength, of which he had no means to.

    The eye itself did not grow your soul power, only allowed you to use it. The best part was that the Eye of Illusions didn''t work only on minds but souls too. So even mindless entities like undead or evil souls without physical form could be dragged into an illusion.

    Once Dante made his choice, he felt a simr power descend upon him from the quantum world, only that this one was way stronger and more forceful. He immediately used his great control of his body to cut off his nervous system so that if there was any pain, he wouldn''t feel it.

    Dante was not a masochist, and he did not want to test his pain tolerance in this impromptu eye transnt. After all, everyone else here had virtual bodies so they could turn off sensory settings using their AI chips, but Dante could not use the same method since it was his real body oveid over his virtual one.

    Immediately, his eyes began to blur and darken as his sight disappeared, making Dante begin to lose his cool. It was something else to feel your sight suddenly disappear. Even if you were in a pitch-ck room where you could not see your own hands, you would feel uneasy, much less this.

    He tried to force himself to remain calm, but his heavy breathing betrayed him. Eventually, he felt a surge of something in his head that started from his eyes and coursed

    to his brain and then down to his body before going back to his eyes.

    Despite having sensory feelings switched off, this strange sensation bypassed that limitation, which meant that it was not something physical that Dante could ignore at his current power. Luckily, whatever it was, it did not hurt.

    When the sensation subsided, Dante felt his sighte back slowly, first going toplete white like he had been shbanged before hints of color appeared. Then these colors shed over and over as his eyes began to adjust the sensory information while his brain got used to processing this new very of information.

    He ignored the prompt that appeared to tell him the transnt had been a sess and focused on the reflective mirror that floated before him, provided by the game world so that he could inspect his new look.

    After all, no matter what, after getting a new eye power, one would want to see how that eye power looked on them, whether it enhanced their looks and coolness or ended up reducing it instead.

    Dante was no different as he nced at himself with curiosity. When he usually looked into a mirror was what he saw was a brown-haired, brown-eyed young man with hopes and dreams, but what he saw now was a young man with brownish-red hair and glowing yellow eyes that were mesmerizing.

 Chapter 154 The Power Of The Eye

    <h4>Chapter 154 The Power Of The Eye</h4>

    His eyes especially glowed likemps, making anyone who looked into them feel like they were being dragged into another world altogether. Dante blinked once, twice, and three times to see how he looked, then turned his head around at different angles.

    How to say this? There was nothing special about the design of the eye itself. It didn''t have the detailed styles and sigils of eyes like the All-Seeing Eyes of the Gods, the Alpha Stigma, or the Sharingan. It was actually very simple.

    Dante was satisfied. He immediately left the lobby of the World of Myriad Eyes with his true body and left his virtual body behind. He then opened his eyes in reality and realized that he still possessed the same power, which made him sigh with relief.

    Beatrice, seeing that he was back so soon, looked up with interest. When she saw Dante''s eyes, which were now the same color as hers but possessed a certain maic glow that gave him a divine as well as godly feeling, she was immediately excited.

    She immediately walked over and gently gripped his face, bringing it into focus as she tilted it left and right to get a better look at him.

    "Wow, Dante, you look so good! I really like this design you chose! Which eye did you settle for?" Beatrice asked with satisfaction as she sat on hisp.

    Dante curled his arms over her torso and brought her closer into his embrace. "It''s called the Eye of Illusions. It''s a custom-made eye by the world creator that I based off the Sharingan that Itachi possessed, but it enhances the illusion effects even beyond that as the various other powers like tracking, copying, energy flow sense, Amaterasu, Susanoo, and co have been sacrificed."

    "Oh? Use it on me and let me see. I want to see if a person with my level of power can resist it." Beatrice''s eyes lit up as she moved to sit opposite Dante.

    Dante was also itching to try it out, so he nced at Beatrice in the eye and activated his ability. Immediately, Dante felt a wave of mental fatigue, and his temples became veiny as they visibly throbbed.

    Meanwhile, Beatrice''s eyes dted slightly, but they returned to normal quickly. Her expression was full of shock and a hint of excitement.

    "My god, Dante, I actually fell for your illusion for a split second! Do you know what this means?!" She couldn''t help but exim.

    Dante rubbed his temples and breathed out lightly as he nodded. "Even though it taxed me to the limit, being able to affect someone with more than 20 times my stats, even for a split secondˇ­ these eyes are beyond godly."

    Beatrice nced at Dante with disdain. "It''s not just 20 times your stats. Even if I don''t activate my enhancements, I have 20,000 in all fields while you only have 1,000. You are trying to say that the gap between a person with an SDI of 1 in all fields and one with 20 in all fields is the same as the gap between 1,000 and 20,000?!"

    Dante''s face changed greatly as he realized his mistake. He, more than anyone else thanks to his growing stats, understood the gap in power with every increment. Every single stat was theoretically a linear increment from thest, but when it reached a certain point, what was objectively linear became exponential.

    A person with 1 point in all fields, for example, could easily have sex with a person with 20 points in all fields and not experience the problem Dante faced with Beatrice. However, he with 1,000 did not dare to try lest he be crushed to death.

    "Try it with your Psionics on at max." Beatrice suggested.

    Dante agreed and activated his level 1 student Psionics to the maximum, yielding a 10x boost that increased his 1,000 Intelligence to 10,000. Dante immediately felt like his brain had been injected with some sort of booster as his thoughts escaped his control.

    He activated his eyes on Beatrice using his full power, but this time he did not feel taxed, only a little strained. However, Beatrice''s eyes zed over and did not return to normal this time. She was clearly fully under the illusive effect and could not extricate herself.

    What surprised Dante was that unlike what he expected, using the basic illusion ability did not require ''continuous casting''. It was a ''one-time cast'' that could theoretically run forever, and its energy came from the victim.

    In other words, your own brain was powering the illusion spell whether you liked it or not, so unless you had the skill or power to break out of it, Dante could nce at you once and leave you in an illusion for the rest of your life.

    How tyrannical!

    Dante nced at Beatrice and then canceled his entry into the World of Myriad Eyes. His eyes gleamed as he entered the world of Myriad Eyes once more, entering a brand new lobby and instance with fewer than 20 people at the time of his joining.

    He opened the marketce, and to his delight, he had a fresh set of 100 EC. Immediately, he called up the upgrade menu and tried to upgrade his Eyes of Illusion. The first upgrade only cost 15 EC, and Dante felt a strange energy emerge from the world and surge into his body, heading toward his eyes.

    Just in case, he switched off his sensory abilities so that he wouldn''t have to feel any weird pain, but his face changed when he felt that familiar feeling of the strange energy being expelled from his body like it was trash.

    He could only sigh and nce at the marketce. He contemted checking whether he could transnt new eyes oryer eyes over each other, but that was even riskier than his initial attempt to try and get an eye.

    The system would not allow a yer to have more than one eye, but Dante could technically bypass that by entering a new instance and trying to buy an eye. However, he did not fancy trying it with his real body and decided against it.

    "My next power system or superpower should hopefully be something that can allow me to create realistic clones. That way I can test these things out and be certain without risking my life." Dante muttered to himself thoughtfully then logged out.

    When he returned to reality, he saw that Beatrice still had not escaped the illusion, which shocked him a little. He sent a message to her AI chip, and it imed that it did not detect any problems with Beatrice.

    She was in a simr state to the act of daydreaming, which was non-fatal to the human body. The fact shocked Dante because what he and Beatrice assumed was that her AI chip would trigger a shock to her brain to jolt her out or activate her Psionics, which would raise her Intelligence to levels that Dante''s illusion could not suppress.

    But if it bypassed the warning of even AI chips, then anyone with less than 20,000 Intelligence even in the Eternal Universe was susceptible to Dante''s mercy!

    This was huge! It meant that now, for the first time since he arrived here, Dante posed a genuine threat to everyone in this universe, even Headmistress Lara!

    One of the reasons he had not chosen those Abyssal Eyes that could control time or even the Eyes of the Soul that could directly attack souls was because Headmistress Lara

    had seven publicly known superpowers, of which time control and spirit body were part.

    One allowed her to freely manipte time in any way, and the other allowed her to enter the spirit realm to destroy the spirits of her enemies. Against a person who had a time-based superpower for years, Dante did not fancy using time-based eyes that had a huge price to use.

    But now that the Eyes of Illusion had proven its power, and the reason why the creator eliminated everything else to focus on one thing, it was truly worth the price. When one added the fact that Dante''s SDI will continue to grow in the future, this power had scary implications.

    Dante snapped out of his thoughts and sent Beatrice''s AI chip amand to activate her Psionics. As they were partners, he could make small, non-harmfulmands like this, left to the discretion of the AI chip in consideration of Beatrice''s safety, of course.

    The AI chip proceeded with Dante''smand for a bit before scanning Beatrice up and down to see if there would be any problems before slightly activating her Psionics. It was only a mere 2x increase, but her 40,000 Intelligence immediately allowed her to snap out of the illusion as her eyes came into focus.

    "Hm? What''s going on? Didn''t you return to the Apocalypse World?" Beatrice asked with confusion as she sized Dante up strangely.

 Chapter 155 The Fearsome Eye of Illusions and Quantum Vitality Serum

    <h4>Chapter 155 The Fearsome Eye of Illusions and Quantum Vitality Serum</h4>

    Dante shook his head. "You fell under the illusion and could not break out. So I got your chip to raise your intelligence with Psionics, and you just came out."

    Beatrice''s face changed greatly. "Impossible! Even if I sumbed to it, my chip should have pulled me out, right?"

    Dante then exined what happened as well as his realization, which caused Beatrice to seem like she had been hit by a pillow to the face. Dante couldn''t hold back his curiosity in the end and asked. "What exactly did you see?"

    "Wellˇ­ I saw you use the illusion and then I easily broke it. After that, we were intimate for a bit before you told me that you were heading to the Apocalypse World in order to raise your SDI. I was about to head to my chambers when I suddenly got pulled back here." Beatrice exined while rubbing her forehead.

    Dante was speechless. Just when he thought the Eye of Illusions had surprised him enough, it pulled this. What was the most fearsome kind of illusion? It was the type that was very reasonable and believable, not because it was vivid or true, but because it followed your personal logic and expectations.

    In fact, this was why Itachi was so fearsome. Most cheap illusions relied on suppressing the mind of the victim, reducing their rationality as well as their memories while cing them in a situation that invoked immersion like their childhood or some significant event of their past.

    However, Itachi''s eyes did none of that. You looked at him once, and things proceeded normally, but the entire time you were standing in one ce like an idiot. You could have an entire conversation or intense fight with him in your head, but he was sipping tea while watching you hit the air.

    These Eyes of illusion, which were based on that but magnified, were even more fearsome. While Itachi''s method required active maniption, Dante''s did not. Your mind not only powered the illusion but also followed what you expected events to be like.

    Dante could be in a fight with someone and activate his ability. He then left and went home to take a bath, have a meal, and y some battle royale games. Meanwhile, you, the victim, would finish the fight in your head and also began to live life how you normally would for an extended time.

    Dante coulde 3 yearster and wake you up, but to you, the real world would now be fake because nothing in reality followed what you remembered. You would believe in the memories from your illusion more than the reality of your situation.

    Now, thatˇ­ was terrifying.

    Now that Dante had some idea of the effect of his eyes, he was satisfied. The only issue, if anything, was that since these were custom eyes, they did not have a growth method. Basically, its power grew with the growth of his own strength.

    For now, that was not a problem since Dante was growing constantly, but he kept this in mind. He nced at Beatrice who still seemed hesitant, and his expression became distant. Even Beatrice, who had only been trapped for a few minutes, was severely doubting whether it was an illusion or reality, so how could someone trapped for an hour or a day react?

    "Why don''t you ask your AI chip for verification?" Dante suggested.

    Beatrice did so. When she got confirmation, her confusion seemed to clear, and she finally epted that this reality. Immediately, sweat appeared on her forehead, and she couldn''t help but feel a lingering fear when she thought about her doubts just now.

    "It reminds me of that historic movie from thousands of years agoˇ­ the one about dreams or something," Beatrice stated as she sped her hands together.

    "Oh, Inception? They also have that here? Nice." Dante nodded as he agreed.

    Dante got up and was about to go tease Beatrice when he stopped. He realized that she literally had an illusion of just that, and if he went up to repeat things, she might fall into confusion once more and wonder if she was in an illusion again.

    Dante''s face changed slightly as he realized that he could never use this power on loved ones lest he leave indelible trauma on their minds. As for his enemies, they woulde to fear this ability even worse than death.

    Dante was still in the motion of getting up, so hepleted the action and walked over to pat Beatrice on the shoulder reassuringly. "I''m heading back to my universe for now. I have some things to wrap up beforeing back."

    Beatrice nodded and smiled, and she seemed to be much more confident than before. Dante, meanwhile, teleported back to the home universe and dumped himself into his energy pool right away, sighing with tiredness.

    Activating his Psionics had drained a lot of his energy, not to mention submerging Beatrice in that illusion. He needed to take some time to not only rest but also recharge his tank so that he could continue his grind.

    This time, he didn''t spend a whole 6 hours, but only around 3 before he got out and decided to get back to work. Before he did so, he remembered he still had some things pending that he put aside because of his journey to the Zero Gate on this side.

    "Show me the results of the research on the Vitality Potion as well as the various techniques and methods that were to be created." Dantemanded his central nexus AI, and a huge amount of information was rapidly downloaded by his AI chip.

    Dante did not check the various techniques and methods, as he fully trusted the AI. Besides, it wasn''t like he was some professor of them that could immediately tell the authenticity, and he had his future ''protagonists'' to deal with that for him.

    Rather, he checked the results of the Vitality Potion with interest.

    [Vitality Potion Research Results

    Part 1: Magical Alchemical Recipe - Vitality Potion

    Description: The Vitality Potion is a coveted elixir, meticulously crafted by skilled wizards in the Magus World. This potion holds the power to elevate knights to higher realms by infusing them with pure vitality, which can be refined into life essence within their life seed. It primarily benefits Peak Knights but is effective for all knight ranks.

    Recipe and Production Process: To create Vitality Potions, follow these steps:

    1. Life Essence Extraction: Harvest life essence from rare magical nts, such as the Enlivened Iris and Fauna''s Blessing.

    2. Ethereal Energy Distition: Channel ethereal energy through enchanted crystals to purify and amplify the life essence.

    3. Vitality Infusion: Combine the purified life essence with extracts from the Heartwood of the Eternal Oak, known for its vitality-enhancing properties.

    4. Potion Base Creation: Mix the infused solution with a carefully brewed base, typicallyposed of distilled water from enchanted springs and pulverized Moonstone Crystals.

    5. Alchemy Catalyst: Add the essence of a Celestial Starflower as an alchemical catalyst to facilitate the fusion of life essence and potion base.

    6. Resonance Blessing: Conduct a harmonization ritual to attune the potion to the diverse knight ranks, ensuring its effectiveness for all.

    Note: Vitality Potions are versatile and can be employed by knights across all levels. The refinement process is what tailors the potion''s effect to the knight''s specific rank.

    Part 2: Sci-Fi Enhancement - Quantum Vitality Serum

    Description

    : The Quantum Vitality Serum represents a futuristic evolution of the Vitality Potion, enhanced through cutting-edge technology to boost vitality and life essence.

    Recipe and Production Process:

    1. Bioenergetic Matrix Mapping: Employ advanced bio-scanners to map a knight''s life energy matrix, identifying areas requiring vitality enhancement.

    2. Quantum Vitality Synthesis: Utilize nanotechnology to synthesize Quantum Vitality, a hyper-condensed, biopatible energy source.

    3. Nanobot Infusion: Administer Quantum Vitality via specialized nanobots directly into the knight''s bloodstream, targeting energy centers.

    4. Life Seed Activation: Employ quantum bio-resonance fields to activate the knight''s life seed, elerating life essence cultivation.

    5. Biomimetic Feedback: Implement neural interfaces for real-time monitoring and adjustment of vitality infusion.

    6. Energy Resonance Bncing: Fine-tune the serum''s resonance frequency to harmonize with a knight''s unique energy signature.

    Advantages over Traditional Vitality Potion:

    Personalized Enhancement: Quantum Vitality Serum tailors vitality infusion to the knight''s specific energy needs.

    Instantaneous Effect: Nanobots provide near-instantaneous vitality enhancement, bypassing traditional digestion.

    Bio-resonance Optimization: Neural interfaces allow real-time adjustments for precise energy bncing.

    Quantum Stability: Quantum Vitality maintains stability over extended periods, ensuring longsting effects.

    Note: The Quantum Vitality Serumbines magic-inspired principles with advanced nanotechnology, providing knights with superior vitality enhancement and life essence cultivation capabilities.]

    At this point, Dante was no longer able to be surprised. The AI had once again turned the magical resource he gave it into something easily attainable given the Eternal Universe''s standards of production, so he immediately had the alchemist bots began to crazily refine a batch of them for all ranks.

    He also made them create more Enhanced Energy Elixirs while they were at it. Dante then kept the one he took earlier before heading back to the Eternal universe, and then into the Magus World.

 Chapter 156 2nd Rank Space Spells

    <h4>Chapter 156 2nd Rank Space Spells</h4>

    Once within the Magus World, Dante descended into his virtual body anyway. He could havee here without using it, which was something he did n to do, but he wanted to head to the library and learn suitable 2nd Rank Space spells.

    Wait, his AI created hundreds of spells and techniques, right? Why doesn''t he use any of them? Why bother with what the Celestial Arcanists have?

    This had nothing to do with logic, just preference. It was half ''don''t get high on your own supply'' and half ''I want to learn spells the normal way, damn it''.

    Acquiring power was fun, not just because of having the power, but also the process of umting the power. Dante was just adding a hint of spice to his magus power growth.

    When he appeared in the library, the apprentices who were there greeted him respectfully upon seeing his 2nd Rank robes. Many had heard the name of the supremely talented yet reclusive wizard of their faction who was apprenticed under the faction leader himself.

    Dante also maintained his aura of distance as he right away came to the section for second rank space spells. He first learned the advanced versions of the 7 first rank space spells he had.

    1. Blink Step -> Spatial Blink

    - Description: Spatial Blink is an advanced space maniption spell that allows the caster to instantly teleport short distances, making them appear as if they''ve disappeared and reappeared in the blink of an eye.

    - Casting Time: 1 second -> 0.5 seconds

    - Power Rating: Low -> Moderate

    - Mental Power Consumption: 10% -> 5%

    2. Starry Shield -> Dimensional Shield

    - Description: Dimensional Shield creates a thin, protective barrier around the caster that deflects iing attacks and projectiles by temporarily shifting them into an alternate dimension.

    - Casting Time: 2 seconds -> 1 second

    - Power Rating: Moderate

    - Mental Power Consumption: 15% -> 10%

    3. Gravitational Grip -> Gravitational Anomaly

    - Description: Gravitational Anomaly allows the caster to manipte gravity within a limited area, either increasing or decreasing it, affecting objects and individuals within that space.

    - Casting Time: 2 seconds

    - Power Rating: Moderate

    - Mental Power Consumption: 20% -> 15%

    4. Astral re -> Celestial Rift

    - Description: Celestial Rift is a potent offensive spell that allows the caster to tear open a rift in space, creating a temporary portal to another dimension filled with chaotic energies. These energies are then channeled into destructive beams or projectiles, which can be unleashed upon the caster''s foes.

    - Casting Time: 3 seconds -> 6 seconds

    - Power Rating: Moderate -> Very High

    - Mental Power Consumption: 25%

    5. Quantum Distortion -> Spatial Distortion

    - Description: Spatial Distortion warps the space around the caster, causing iing ranged attacks and projectiles to veer off-course, missing their target.

    - Casting Time: 4 seconds -> 3 seconds

    - Power Rating: Low -> Moderate

    - Mental Power Consumption: 30% -> 12%

    6. Celestial Tether -> Temporal Lapse

    - Description: Temporal Lapse temporarily elerates the flow of time within a defined area, causing everything inside to move at an increased pace while the rest of the world remains unaffected.

    - Casting Time: 1 second -> 4 seconds

    - Power Rating: Low -> High

    - Mental Power Consumption: 15% -> 18%

    7. Warp Perception -> Phase Shift

    - Description: Phase Shift allows the caster to partially phase out of the material ne, rendering them partially intangible and able to pass through solid objects for a brief period.

    - Casting Time: 2 seconds -> 3 seconds

    - Power Rating: Low -> Moderate

    - Mental Power Consumption: 20% -> 14%

    Dante was impressed with the upgraded versions as they not only expanded on what was previously there but also added new utilities that could definitely make a significant difference in the long run.

    The best part was that it also came with very little repercussions. Dante did not miraculously forget the 1st Rank versions in a ''one...twoˇ­threeˇ­ poof!'' manner but could use them just as easily and freely as he could these new upgraded versions.

    Since these spells were an upgrade on his previous foundation, coupled with his great increase in intelligence as well as familiarity with the space element, it took him only two days to learn them all.

    Dante thought about it and decided that since he was here already, he might as well learn a few more useful 2nd Rank spells, but very few could catch his eye because they needed to do things he already could not do or would likely not be able to do.

    From the voluminous bookshelves, the picky young man found his choice and smiled with satisfaction. He selected 3 of them that fit his criteria perfectly.

    1. Wormhole Conduit

    - Type: Utility

    - Description: Wormhole Conduit creates a stable wormhole between two points, enabling instantaneous travel between them. The caster must visualize the destination clearly.

    - Casting Time: 5 seconds

    - Power Rating: High

    - Mental Power Consumption: 20%

    2. Spatial Reposition

    - Type: Support

    - Description: Spatial Reposition is a versatile support spell that enables the caster to reposition objects or allies instantaneously within a certain range. This can be used defensively to evade attacks or strategically to optimize battlefield positioning.

    - Casting Time: 0.5 seconds

    - Power Rating: Moderate

    - Mental Power Consumption: 8%

    3. Temporal Echoes

    - Type: Utility

    - Description: Temporal Echoes allows the caster to create brief, localized time loops in the immediate vicinity. This can serve various purposes, such as reying recent events, examining objects, or even experiencing moments of the past to gather information.

    - Casting Time: 4 seconds

    - Power Rating: Moderate

    - Mental Power Consumption: 15%

    Wormhole Conduit would solve his group traveling issues. He might want to move with more than one person or thing at a time, especially if Dante really does take up on the idea of going to the beast taming world to contract a beast.

    It definitely could not enter the Quantum Depository to move with him; otherwise, he would have long carried the OP Beatrice into these quantum worlds and torn their asses up. It would be troublesome if he was teleporting all over the ce with Quantum Entanglement and his ally/beast could not follow him.

    Spatial Reposition was not something he necessarily craved but took because it was useful. The one who designed this spell was thinking of acting like a chessmaster, deploying his knights or warriors to fight from him while controlling their position in real time on the battlefield.

    That was a great idea, but Dante was a solo fighter most of the time. If he dispatched his robot army to fight, he had technology that could replicate and handle this effect already, so the spell wouldn''t add or subtract much.

    What Dante wanted it was for its ability to grab objects from a distance and move them.

    Oh, it was a secret realm where there were dangers associated with rewards? You had to

    defeat xxx beast or xxx person to im that flower/fruit/liquid?

    YOINK!

    What was that? Theft? Unfair? Lacking martial virtue?

    Gonna cry?

    As you could imagine, Dante wanted this skill especially for the Zero Gate. If he found a tree and it was covered with danger, he could steal the fruit from afar and leave the defenders or whatever entity that it was that caused students to die during the exploration to fume.

    Even better if he and multiple students found the same fruit. While everyone was either cooperating or fighting to the death, he would collect it into his quantum depository form afar and leave the area with Quantum Entanglement.

    As for the final Temporal Echoes, it was a necessary skill for investigation and suspense shit. This was one of the most feared abilities in the Immortal World, and many cultivators worked to eliminate it, but that did not mean the same held true for reality.

    In fact, Dante didn''t know that Lara Sanguis, the headmistress, had once tried to reverse time in an area to see what happened to him when he was first attacked but failed because of the protection of his Quantum Entanglement, which still had the configuration of the higher-dimensional being.

    If he knew, he would probably have long learned this spell because while it allowed him to see events, it also allowed him to ''corrupt the tape'' so to speak of events in his area. Basically, it allowed one to peek and prevent peeking too.

    After getting his spells, Dante was satisfied. He did not go to Master ndor and returned to his mediation chamber before sitting cross-legged and beginning his practice once more. He checked to see that his quantum marker 1 kilometer away was still there and nodded.

    Dante exited the Magus World and left his virtual avatar behind. Once in the Inferno Battleship, he took a deep breath before using his Quantum Entanglement to send his quantum marker in the Magus World and directly teleporting there with his real body.

    For the first time, Dante felt something different. It was not like how it felt going through two universes or within a quantum world, but from a real universe straight into a quantum world.

    It was not ufortable, just new.

    He appeared in an alley 1 kilometer from his mediation room in the Celestial Arcanist''s territory. The moment he appeared, his AI chip worked on concealing his life signs while he quickly used the temporal echoes to thoroughly mess up spacetime here before teleporting away from the spot.

    The moment Dante left, a 6th Rank mage from the faction appeared here with a cold frown. He scanned the area and poked the space before him, trying to rey the details and see who dared to spy on them from so close.

    When he saw that he could get nothing, he snorted coldly and left.

 Chapter 157 Idyllic Scouting

    <h4>Chapter 157 Idyllic Scouting</h4>

    Dante himself appeared an indeterminate distance away, once again messing up spacetime traits in the area before leaving normally. He walked a short distance and observed the lush city that wasing to life around him.

    The first thing that struck Dante was the vibrant colors that adorned Arcanum Haven. It was as if an artist had spilled their palette across the streets and buildings.

    Crimson and azure banners fluttered frommpposts, and buildings were adorned with intricate mosaics of enchanted ss that shimmered in hues of emerald and amethyst.

    The entire city seemed to be alive with colors, a stark contrast to the drab and lifeless streets of his home world where everyone seemed to have a hard-on for ''minimalism''.

    As Dante strolled down the cobblestone streets, he couldn''t help but notice the delightful chaos of Arcanum Haven. People of various races and backgrounds bustled about, going about their daily routines.

    Wizards in flowing robes chatted slightly with knights d in gleaming armor. Merchants peddled their wares from enchanted stalls that seemed to sprout from the very cobblestones.

    The air was thick with the scent of exotic spices, arcane incense, and the tantalizing aroma of street food.

    He wandered past a shop with a sign that read ''Mystic Curiosities''. Peering through the ornate window, Dante''s eyes widened at the strange and fascinating artifacts on disy.

    Crystal orbs containing miniature thunderstorms crackled with energy, while delicate hoursses measured the flow of time itself. A silver, mechanical raven perched on a stand and seemed to follow him with its gleaming sapphire eyes.

    Dante made a mental note to return and explore the shop''s treasures.

    Further down the street, Dante encountered a street performer with skin as blue as the sky, juggling balls of fire with effortless grace. His performance drew a small crowd, and Dante joined them, amazed by the dancer''s skill.

    The mes danced in intricate patterns, casting warm and ever-shifting hues across the onlookers'' faces. When the performance concluded, the crowd erupted in apuse, and coins were tossed into the performer''s hat.

    As he continued his exploration, Dante''s attention was drawn to a nearby stall with an elderly wizard hunched over a table covered in parchment scrolls and dusty tomes. A card proimed, ''Fortune Teller: Past, Present, Future''.

    Intrigued, Dante approached the stall, and the wizard looked up with piercing blue eyes that seemed to see through the veil of time itself. Without a word, the wizard gestured for Dante to choose a scroll.

    Dante hesitated for a moment before selecting one at random. The wizard unfurled the scroll and began to read, his voice low and haunting. He spoke of past lives, hidden talents, and future challenges.

    Dante couldn''t help but be captivated, wondering if the wizard realized that he was spewing limitless bullshit. Nothing he said was rted to Dante at all, but Dante truly felt that this guy believed what he said.

    Then again, the quantum AI that powered this world could not calcte Dante''s life since it was not allowed to ess the Etr outside of this world.

    Arcanum Haven was a city of contrasts.

    On one corner, elegant airships glided gracefully through the sky, propelled by humming magitech engines that defied gravity itself.

    On another, a street bazaar was alive with the ng of cksmiths forging enchanted weapons and the soft hum of potion makers concocting mysterious brews.

    One particrly enchanting shop caught Dante''s eye. A sign above the entrance read, ''Elysian Emporium: Aetherial Attire and Enchanted Elegance''.

    Stepping inside, he found himself surrounded by racks of exquisite robes, cloaks, and essories crafted from fabrics that seemed to shimmer like liquid moonlight.

    The shopkeeper, a dignified elf with ageless beauty, approached with a knowing smile. She offered Dante a robe that seemed to shift colors with every step.

    When he tried it on, he felt an immediate surge of energy, as if the very fabric resonated with his essence. He decided to purchase the robe, realizing that it wasn''t just a piece of clothing but a conduit for magical abilities.

    As for the source of his money, he naturally had more than a few Astral Crystals given to him by the faction for cultivation. Since he had the Quantum Aetherium Conduit, he did not need it, not even factoring his ability to raise his stats.

    He mostly bought the robe not for himself, but for Beatrice. He wanted her to wear it so that when he reached the necessary stats, he could tear it off her andy the wood down on her properly.

    Leaving the shop, Dante found himself in the heart of the city''s central square.

    Here, a grand fountain dominated the scene, its waters sparkling with ethereal light. People gathered around the fountain, some tossing coins into the water while others simply enjoyed the serene ambiance.

    At the center of the fountain, a sculpted figure of a majestic phoenix rose, its wings outstretched as if ready to take flight.

    As the sun began to dip below the horizon, the city''s magical illumination came to life. Enchanted streetmps bathed the streets in a soft, warm glow, while floatingnterns drifted gracefully above, casting patterns of light and shadow on the cobblestones below.

    The night market came to life, with vendors selling everything from glowing crystals to magical trinkets that danced with inner light.

    Dante couldn''t help but smile as he soaked in the sights and sounds of Arcanum Haven. It was a city unlike any other, a ce where magic and technology coexisted harmoniously, where every corner held a new wonder waiting to be discovered.

    He admired the ce for a while long and then teleported to one of the quantum markers he had ced in the city. You didn''t think he walked up and down the whole day just to be a tourist, did you?

    He was currently in front of arge manor that had peopleing and going from it, a mixture of knights, wizards, and servants all at once. This manor belonged to the Arthur family, a powerful wizard family that was one of the sub-families under the control of the Underworld Magisters, the enemy faction of the Celestial Arcanists.

    In this manor was someone Dante was going to select as one of his protagonists in this world. As he had walked through the city today, he had browsed through many things and enjoyed many sights, but more importantly, he was scouting many different types of people for his purposes.

    He had checked over 50 people in just the span of a few hours, and only about 4 had entered his shortlist. Out of them, this fellow was his first choice because he fit the criteria Dante wanted and had some extra benefits that made him better than the others.

    Dante''s Spirit Sense spread into the estate wantonly as none of the magi in this world had the necessary power to detect this kind of power system''s usage. He detected many magi in the manor, with the strongest being of the 4th rank.

    Dante''s mental power, despite only being in two cores, was around the potency of a 5th Rank mage. This was another reason he dared toe here and select this fellow, as a magus of a higher rank being around would be problematic.

    Dante ced his quantum marker near the target and teleported over directly without a care. None of the magi in the area detected him, and they would not be able to detect him either, even if they were of a 9th Rank.

    What happened at the alleyway near the territory of the Celestial Arcanists where someone rushed out only urred because Dante entered the world directly with his real body using the superpower, which caused some slight fluctuations.

    Even then, that unfamiliar 6th Rank mage waste to arrive and could not even tell exactly what happened, in part because Dante wantonly ruined the flow of time in that area so that even if that mage''s space capabilities were higher than his, the fellow would not be able to restore it fully.

    It was possible to restore data from a hard drive that had been wiped, but it was not possible to restore data from a hard drive that had been shredded into fine dust.

    Dante cast his spirit sense into the room and was left speechless. He had to rub his forehead to calm his temper down and admit that despite this, the fellow was definitely suitable for his purposes so no matter what, he had to put up with it.

    Dante waited until it was done and the oue he expected urred. Then he waited for about 2 minutes after before phasing into the room quietly using his 2nd Rank Phase Shift spell, his eyes scanning what he had already seen with his spirit sense.

    He saw his target lying on the bed quietly, which made Dante nod his head with satisfaction. Everything was as it should be, and he could take over from here.

 Chapter 158 Young Master Jameson

    <h4>Chapter 158 Young Master Jameson</h4>

    About 3 hours ago...

    "Young master Jameson, your product has been delivered to your chambers. Do you require anything else?" A middle-aged butler in a ck and blue suit greeted a young man before him with a subservient bow.

    The young man, seated before a desk where he was pouring over some documents, raised his head and smiled slightly. "Finally, I needed a reason to ditch these shitty ass documents and have some fun!"

    He stretched his body, which was not very tall at 5''9 and was quite effeminate with jade white skin, nted eyes, a small nose, and thin, pink lips. In a way, he could be described as handsome, but his reputation waspletely ck, unable to give anyone a good impression of him!

    He stood up from the table and flourished his ck robes, which were meant for wizard apprentices, and strode out of the room without even acknowledging the butler, leaving him there in a bowing position until he came back.

    The butler seemed to have expected this and maintained a subservient expression, but a hint of hatred shed in his eyes as the fellow passed by. The young man either did not notice this or did not care as he hummed all the way back to his chambers.

    Two servants were posted outside, two young females with bleak eyes and slight bruises on their faces and exposed parts under their maid uniforms. When they saw Jameson appeared, deep fear shed in their eyes and their bodies trembled, but they respectfully bowed and called out to him.

    Jameson did acknowledge these ones, if not for anything but for the fact that he needed to verify something. "Haha, my beloved pets. Have my goods arrived?"

    "Y-Yes, young master Jameson. It is inside and waiting for you." One of the maids responded in a shaky voice.

    "Good! You guys can go and take a break and do whatever it is that lesser beings do to pass the time. Come back in about an hour or two." Jamesonmanded with impatience as he pushed the door open and walked in.

    The two young girls shared a look and a deep look of hatred showed on their normally sweet faces, but they lowered their heads and left the area, knowing what was going to happen next but not wanting to acknowledge it.

    When Jameson pushed open the door, despite living here almost all his life, his eyes were once again dragged onto thevish walls of his bedroom, adorned with rich tapestries depicting scenes of ancient magical battles, creating an aura of arcane grandeur.

    A grand four-poster bed dominated the room, its dark mahogany frame draped in regal crimson and gold silks that cascaded to the marble floor. A crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, casting a warm and enchanting glow across the chamber.

    A mahogany desk sat by the window, piled high with grimoires, scrolls, and alchemical instruments, a testament to the young master''s false dedication to his magical studies. Nearby, avish sitting area boasted plush velvet chairs and a low table adorned with mystical artifacts and a crystal ball.

    The room was perfumed with the delicate scent of exotic incense, and therge windows framed by heavy silk curtains offered a breathtaking view of Arcanum Haven''s enchanted forests and crystallinekes.

    In this chamber of luxury and refinement, young master Jameson of the Arthur n found respite and inspiration for his personal pursuits.

    Lying on his bed was one of them. It was a humanoid female with blue skin and gills around her neck, as well as fins on her elbow, behind her ears, and on the back of her calves.

    She was breathtakingly beautiful and was filled with allure given her skimpy form of attire. In terms of body proportion, she could even give the likes of Aisha a run for her money.

    The moment Jameson saw her, his breathing hitched, and his entire body became warm. He felt like he was about to explode and could not help but walk over quickly, intent on taking his prize.

    At this time, the youngdy on the bed was long awake, her eyes dazed as she was stilling to terms with the events of thest 24 hours. She was happily coaxing her father to buy her a new set of jewelry by acting cute, and she was about to seed as her father''s indulgent expression appeared.

    Then suddenly, a bunch of mages at the 3rd Rank and above descended upon their n and began ughtering everyone. This shocked both her and her father, the n leader, because they had a cooperative and friendly rtionship with humans.

    Why would they do this? Unfortunately, the attackers gave no answer and killed the older generation right away while capturing all the young ones, from infants to those freely pubescent like herself.

    Above that age, they were not spared, even though they could have use as captives. It was as if the humans absolutely did not want any evidence of their actions to leak out, and mature people of her ns were harder to control.

    Her father tried to fight, but he was besieged by more than ten of them and ughtered. Her mother cried, which caused the humans to all rush over with greed and collect the drops, shouting about the value of mermaid queen tears.

    Then they captured her mother, the only one of the older generation to be sealed, along with herself. Since then, she had been restricted and carted over to this ce secretly before she was tossed onto this bed.

    The moment she saw the pale and effeminate young man who was staring at her with undisguised lust and desire, with a tent in his pants, she understood her fate. Immediately, extreme hatred burned through her body as she understood why this happened.

    Why?! Just because of some human''s list, her entire n had to be ughtered? If that was the case, he could have made the request to her in private, and she would have dly eded if it meant sparing her people!

    Seeing the hatred in the mermaid princess''s eyes, Jameson moaned slightly. "Yes! That''s it, that''s exactly what I want!"

    He stepped forward and grabbed her face and brought it closer to himself, allowing the mermaid princess to see the craziness in his eyes. "Show me more of your hatred! This won''t be fun without it!"

    After that, the torture began.

    A few hourster, just as Jameson was about to finish up, he felt that something was wrong. His lower body began to burn up as if it were on fire, and it quickly rushed up to his torso and then his head.

    "P-Poisonˇ­! Ugh!!" He only had time to recognize what it was before he fell to the side on the bed, entering a state of shock that would certainly lead to death.

    The mermaid princess, who had been used and abused, rose up shakily, wiping the blood from her lower body and ring at the shuddering young master in hisst moments of life.

    Hatred shed through her eyes, but there was even more satisfaction at seeing his fate. She disdained this fellow and the entirety of his n. If her race could be killed and captured for ying around, would they have survived this long in a world with light and dark forces?

    They were either an ignorant, up-anding magus n or one who had be so arrogant they thought retribution would nevere to them. Whatever the case, now given a temporary leash on life, the mermaid princess knew she couldn''t stay here.

    She walked to his closet and took some usable clothes, wore them, and then climbed out of the window, falling towards the pool at the back of the manor. From there, hopefully, she would make her escape.

    At this time, while the room was silent, Dante passed through the wall and nced at the open window. Spirit sense could not hear sounds, but he could tell what went on in here using simple deduction.

    He didn''t pass anyments or judgment; that was not his job to do. He walked up to the bed and nced at the frozen body of Jameson, which only had a little bit of life left. Dante waited until that me of life was but a candle me and then injected Jameson with something.

    The nanites in the fluids coursed through his entire body, cing themselves in his organs and integrating thoroughly with his entire body to the point where he would never be able to separate himself unless he discarded his body.

    [Connecting to subordinate AI chipˇ­ done! Feel free to give anymands.]

    "Run a diagnostic on his body and begin repairing his functions," Dantemanded.

    Immediately, the nanites began to work, consuming the poison that was ravaging his body with ease and turning it into energy that was used to power them in repairing his body as they converted the poison to proteins.

 Chapter 159 Protagonist Template: Wastrel Young Master

    <h4>Chapter 159 Protagonist Temte: Wastrel Young Master</h4>

    The fellow''s body shuddered greatly, and activity seemed to return to him slowly. Dante then injected the Quantum Aetherium Conduit into his body and put it immediately under the control of the subordinate AI chip which was under him.

    Soon, Jameson began toe to, and his blurry eyes scanned around him to understand what was happening. However, he made contact with a pair of glowing amber eyes that shone like torches, and he felt his entire world change.

    He was no longer Jameson but Mark Thompson, an ordinary man leading an unremarkable life. Mark awoke in the small, cozy apartment he had known for years, sunlight streaming through the curtains to gently warm his face.

    A sense of familiarity washed over him as he sat up in bed, his tousled brown hair falling into his eyes.

    The aroma of freshly brewed coffee wafted from the kitchen, and Mark followed it, a contented smile gracing his lips.

    In this illusion, he had a loving family. His wife, Sarah, greeted him with a morning kiss, and his two children, Lily and Jake, giggled as they wolfed down their cereal.

    The illusion went on, weaving a tapestry of a life Jameson had never lived. He worked at a mundane office job, where he was well-liked by his colleagues.

    Weekends were spent in the backyard, teaching his kids how to ride bicycles, and evenings were cozy family affairs filled withughter and love.

    Years passed by, with Mark and his family growing together. His children graduated from school, and Mark, despite the monotony of his job, found a quiet satisfaction in providing for his family.

    However, every story has its twists.

    On one fateful day, Mark stepped out of his house, briefcase in hand, and the illusion showed him a glimpse of an approaching truck, its ring horn piercing the quiet suburban morning.

    Time seemed to slow as the massive vehicle bore down on him, and Mark had only a moment to realize the situation.

    His life, the family, the love, all of it was about to leave him forever. He would never see his beautiful Sarah again, nor his buoyant Jake and his cute Lily.

    In that final heartbeat of the illusion, Mark understood the cruelty of the world, its callousness andck of care for the weak. His body shattered as the truck collided with him, ending the dream he had never wanted to wake from.

    "URGHH!"

    With a loud gasp, Jameson sat up and felt like vomiting. Hisst memory was the truck about to hit him and take his life, as well as the regrets and feelings he had at that moment.

    He was currently sweating all over, and his pale and scrawny body was filled with pain. Before he could assess things, a flood of memories entered his head, telling him that he was Jameson Arthur, the young master of the Arthur n, who was the only son of the 6th Rank magus n head, Julius Arthur.

    That was fine, but when Jameson saw what he did all his life, he was filled with horror and disgust. He had assaulted and ruined so many women that his reputation was in the gutter, and his body was even suffering deficiency from it.

    Jameson could not stand those memories and locked them away, hyperventting as his pupils dted and expanded rapidly. Eventually, he managed to calm himself down and take stock of his situation.

    "That mermaid princessˇ­ there must have been a type of biological toxin in her body that infected me. That''s why the previous person in this body died, and I transmigrated here," Jameson muttered to himself.

    "Am I Jameson or Mark? Well, I''m definitely Mark, in the body of Jameson," Jameson muttered to himself.

    He was a mature man with a family, so he had good control of his mind and emotions. He quickly understood and epted the situation he was in but wondered why he had been brought here?

    [Ding!]

    [The God of Magic System has activated!]

    [Wee, host Mark. This is the God of Magic system, a tool chosen to apany you in this life in order to allow you to rise to the top of the Magus World!]

    [Ding! Your talent has been awakened: EX-Grade Rank Astral Absorption!]

    [Talent Name: Astral Absorption || Talent Rank: EX || Talent Description: Allows the user to absorb astral energy freely without the need for crystals.]

    [Ding! Your body''s stats have been tabted! Please check it!]

    [Host Name: Mark Thompson/Jameson Arthur

    Tower: None.

    Meditation Technique: None.

    Knight Breathing: None.

    Strength: 2.3

    Agility: 1.6

    Dexterity: 1.8

    Intelligence: 9

    Constitution: 0.7

    Vitality: 0.5

    Spells: None.

    Skills: None.]

    Jameson was stunned by what he was seeing. It took him a few moments to process the sight before him before he shook his head with a strange expression.

    This thingˇ­ was a system? He had heard of this thing; it was part of a rising genre of fiction called web novels meant for losers who liked power fantasies. It was nothing like the refined and mature e-books that Jameson personally preferred.

    He even only knew about this because Sarah had wasted a lot of their money buying coins on some Web novel app to pay for romance novels about trial marriages and werewolves. Some of those books had these systems, and Jameson had tried it out.

    Disgusted, he curiously tried the male side of the spectrum, and while it was more ptable, it also had problems. Too many boring and edgy main characters, too many female side characters who were created to be objects, and too many young masters who wereˇ­

    Suddenly, Jameson stopped his train of thought with a weird expression. No wonder he felt that his body''s situation was familiar; wasn''t he one of those crackpot young masters who never believed in consent?

    Jameson palmed his face and knew that digging this idiot''s reputation out from the mud would be harder than a normal person entering the 1% without being killed.

    First things first, he had to understand this system and what it entailed. Only then could he decide his next step.

    "What are those stats? What do you mean by talent? What does it specifically do? How do I strengthen my stats further?" Jameson asked mentally, knowing that these systems usuallymunicated through thoughts.

    [Ding! The stats on those sheets refer to your current level of effectiveness in each category. The stats are based on the average of your species in this world, meaning that 1 point is the average human''s value in this world.]

    [Your talent is a unique ability you have awoken as a result of your transmigration! Your soul is special as it possesses the memories of two people, but cannot manifest itself due to the world''sws, so it has been condensed into this talent!]

    [Your talent allows you to directly absorb astral energy regardless of your location as long as it is present. Astral energy is a precious resource that mages use to increase the speed of their growth and is indispensable at the higher levels.]

    [To strengthen your stats, you can practice the Knight Breathing method for physical enhancements or the Meditation techniques for spiritual and mental enhancements. You can also ess the system

    shop to purchase resources and techniques of various types using System Points.]

    Jameson rubbed his eyebrows as he followed up to this point. He had more questions and worries, especially about his talent, which seemed extremely overpowered and valuable, but he stifled them and asked what was more important.

    "How do I ess the System Shop? What can I buy from there? And how do I earn System Points?"

    [You can only ess the System Shop after youplete your first task. The things you can buy in the shop range from techniques of all kinds, to information, and special resources that are rare like the Quantum Vitality Serum, which will enhance your knight power by at least a major realm.]

    [You can earn System points bypleting System Tasks assigned to you randomly. Tasks and their difficulties depend on your rtive strength, your location, and the breadth of your knowledge. Endeavor to expand all three!]

    Jameson digested this knowledge for a short while before beginning to contemte his next set of actions. Before he could think too much, a hurried knocking sounded on his door.

    "Young Master Jameson?! Are you alright!? We just discovered that your product has escaped from the surveince!" A hurried female voice asked.

    Jameson was startled, and a hint of disgust appeared in his eyes. As Mark, he could not tolerate the idea that Jameson treated everyone other than himself and his family as lesser beings and forced his servants to even refer to them as such lest they suffer pain.

    Jameson finally knew what he was going to do. He would right all the wrongs that his previous body''s host hadmitted and restore his reputation before seeking the path of power and strength, so that he could prevent others like his previous self from existing!

    Sighing with relief, he spoke in a hoarse voice. "I am fine, but I need to take a bath."

 Chapter 160 Advanced Knight And Martial Blood Realm

    ?

    Dante watched up to this point with his spirit sense, his expression cold. After walking through Arcanum Haven the whole day, he had been subjected to many beautiful and thrilling sights than anyone from modern Earth would kill to see and feel.

    Likewise, he had also seen the dark parts of this bustling city that hid underneath the veil, as well as the wealth of evilmitted by a small group of people that overshadowed all the good and neutral actions by the normal people by a long shot.

    So why, why oh why, did Dante choose such a horrible and despicable person to ''benefit from his power? Even if the fellow fit the temte of a typical web novel protagonist, that temte had been used across many archetypes.

    He could have chosen a young beggar, a down and out schr, a gang member who was betrayed, or even a crippled young genius who was now being scorned. Heck, he could have even chosen that very mermaid girl who was just here; she fit a protagonist temte much more than this freak!

    It seemed bizarre that Dante would do thisˇ­ until you realized that Dante was not, in fact, giving out charity. Even if this ''Mark Thompson'' changed Jameson Arthur and made him want to repent, that had nothing to do with Dante.

    His first round of protagonists in the True Martial and Magus worlds were not chosen because he wanted to groom them into subordinates; they were experimental subjects for him, testing out the utility of this ''God of Technology'' idea.

    Even then, as experimental subjects, they were mostly tools for Dante to do what he did not have time to do in this world. They would set up a faction, dominate a piece of this world, and acquire necessary items and resources he could get himself but did not have the time to, or did not dare to take lest he alert the quantum AI.

    Basically, the reason Dante chose them was not their goals or his goals, but their endpoint. As his first generation test subjects, he had the least control over them.

    By the time Jameson became a 4th Rank Peak Knight, he would be able to sense the nanites in his body. By the time he became a 4th Rank Elite Wizard, he would be able to sense the Quantum Aetherium Conduit in his body and know the source of his ''talent''.

    He would also know the true face of his ''system,'' though not why it was there. And unlike in the stories, this system he had was not omnipotent because by the time he reached the 7th Rank of Archwizard, he couldpletely remove the two from his body, no matter how tightly bonded they were.

    So, as you could imagine, Dante had no ns of allowing him to reach that stage. His job was to quickly set up a faction using the techniques that Dante had his Research AIs craft. This faction would not have a library but would inject everyone with progressively moreplex subordinate AI chips.

    Right now, the data from this chip would be collected from every stage. That way, future chips would have better control and concealment effects from the specifics of the power system of this world.

    When the time was right, Dante would naturally ''harvest'' his faction. As for those who joined it, they would not experience much change, but Jameson could not go on living. So one of Dante''s criteria was that the person must have done something or did something he personally did not like.

    That way, ''harvesting'' him or her at the end of their usefulness would feel less troubling on his thin moralpass that was begging for water while crawling in a desert.

    Hypocritical? Maybe. Dante was not sure. However, he did not n to judge or spout lines about the magnanimity of his actions. He had epted that it was purely for his own benefit and not a sense of justice.

    Done with his first choice, Dante hesitated and left the Magus World. Originally, he nned to create two protagonists for each world but decided against it for now. One was enough, and more than one would create troublesome variables, especially if they met behind his back.

    He didn''t go to the True Martial World right away, rather entering the Apocalypse World as he told Beatrice in that illusion. It was time to raise up his stats once more.

    He hadn''te to the Apocalypse World in over a week, bearing on almost 2 weeks, so his body was quite stiff. However, it didn''t matter once his real body entered and took over.

    While Dante was stretching, he couldn''t help but wonder if he should generate a protagonist here. The power system here was so weak that his protagonist could probably only take technological drugs to raise his stats.

    After all, apart from the superpowers for the students, the natives had to rely on their bodies and technology to get by. A native with his system could theoretically be a powerhouse, but without superpowers, they would be easily beaten by students.

    He passed the thought away. He currently had control of too few power systems and magical knowledge to expand wantonly in quantum worlds. When he expanded his portfolio more, he could y around in such a manner.

    Dante teleported to his quantum marker back in the spider cave and was greeted by the sight of hundreds of spiderlings that were bustling about, sealing the cave while moving captured prey down below.

    It seemed the entire nest had been spooked by his repeated bullying and was nning to fortify themselves down below where the stronger ones were. Unfortunately, since theirir covered the entire dungeon and the forest outside, this had taken time, enough that despiteing back sote, Dante caught them red-handed.

    When Dante appeared in their midst, he immediately spread out a ring of mes in all directions as a precautionary measure to prevent ambushes, so every inch of rock a kilometer around him in all directions was filled with mes.

    This practically filled the entirety of this small cavern at the top floor, causing all the bustling spiderlings and their various quarries to die immediately. Dante nced at this and did not bother.

    Rather he checked his progress in his two physical methods.

    [Physical Powers: Raging Blood Halberd Technique (Martial Warrior, Mastery level 44%), Primal Ape Technique (Level 2: Beginner Knight, 97%).]

    Since he was here, he might as wellplete thest bit for both his techniques and absorb a wave of stats!

    Dante started with the Primal Ape Technique, opting to use his body''s natural energy for now, even though he had both the magical Potion of Vitality as well as its mighty technological recement, the Quantum Vitality Serum.

    From a full tank, an hour of practice could grant him 9% of progress, so in just about 20 minutes, Dante felt the barrier that was limiting him from the next realm and then broke through it with the ease of poking a pen through paper.

    In a way, you could say that Dante was talented, because although his genes were ''weak'' and ''unstable'' ording to the Eternal Universe''s standard, they also allowed him to breakthrough such bottlenecks with ease, which the True Martial World and Magus world quantified as geniuses.

    So those ''trashes'' were simply those with better and perfected genes? Then even if they struggle to breakthrough realms in the True Martial or Magus world, one gene serum from the Eternal universe should greatly boost them, far better than it did Dante.

    Dante''s expression couldn''t help but change. So, should he find a trash person who cannot make any progress and then feed them a gene serum from the Eternal universe? How explosive would their growth be? Would they immediately be young emperors who could fight for the heaven''s will?

    He put this exciting idea aside and decided to try it out when he was done here, for he felt that this too could be another path.

    Now that Dante had broken through his Knight realm, he didn''t really bother to check the powers it came with before popping an Enhanced Energy Elixir and began to practice his Raging Blood Halberd technique.

    As he swung his high-quality halberd that he usually kept in his quantum depository around wantonly, Dante felt his blood energy boil as it followed the various paths of the practice and then condensed into blood Qi within his heart.

    His ocean-like blood energy seemed endless, but it was converted in bulk, like a giant kettle was lit and boiled all the impurities out of it. The rest that was left looked so perfect and filled with so much power that Dante felt fear just looking at it.

    It felt like if he used it to actually attack someone, they might just be drowned to death and squashed beneath the high pressure before they even suffered from the physical blow or the hot nature due to the specific External Martial Art he used.

    Boom!

    Breakthroughplete!

 Chapter 161 1500 Point SDI!

    ?

    When Dante broke through to the Martial Blood realm, he felt a wave of perfection sweep over him. His blood energy had always been elusive and uncontroble despite its plentifulness and potency, and he could not use it forbat.

    This was the downside of blood Qipared to life essence from knights. The moment one became an Official Knight, they could use their life essence to perform various magical skills and obtainbat effectiveness right away, whereas with the martial system, one could theoretically fight at the Body Tempering and Martial Warrior realm, but it was clumsy and not effective.

    Only when blood energy was fully condensed into blood Qi at the peak of the Martial Warrior realm could one im to havebat effectiveness. Because of this limitation, blood Qi was far more versatile and stronger per each stagepared to the same stage for a knight in terms of life essence.

    Dante could definitely be qualified to say this as he felt the power of his blood Qi as a Martial Blood Realm martial artist, which was the 3rd realm,pared to the Advanced Knight''s life essence, which was also in the 3rd realm.

    Still, both had their own uses.

    After performing the dual breakthrough, Dante put away his halberd and sighed deeply, releasing a cloud of red and white mist from his mouth which were remnants of tainted blood energy as well as unpurified life essence.

    He cricked his neck and teleported downwards using Spatial Blink, appearing on the next floor. He spread out his spirit sense and saw that there were no spiders on the floor that used to belong to the E Rank Spider Warriors.

    Smiling strangely, Dante teleported to the next floor, which was meant for the D Rank Spider Lords. Finally, he met a barricade made of broken wood that was webbed together using their webs, and about 74 new Spider Warriors hurriedly working and patrolling while under the control of about 25 Spider Lords.

    When they saw Dante appear, they froze like children caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Then they dropped what they were doing and entered formation, all of them taking different positions on the barricade while raising their two front legs, their mandibles cking as they hissed threateningly.

    The Spider Lords seemed grave, and they stood at the back while ring at Dante with murderous intent, their hatred clearly dripping from their eyes. Usually when outsiders came, they would fight them all at once and either die to be their nourishment or clear them out and force their queen to run.

    Since when had they been bullied like this?! This fellow just came and went as he pleased, killing their low-level members and then leaving beforeing back to do the same as if they were toys for him to y with!

    Dante took in all of this and shook his head. He simply activated his new 2nd Rank spell, Celestial Rift.

    A huge hole in space was ripped open by him, disying a starry sky on the other side in the void, like one was looking at space through a telescope. It was very simr to the 1st Rank version which was Astral re, only that this was ten timesrger.

    Not to mention, the stars were far brighter and when they began to move, the spiders felt a fear that went deep into their souls. They screeched with horror and tried to fight back by shooting out their web as well as their poison projectiles, but they were like flies in front of rockets.

    Huge beams of astral light fired out from the portal like it was a gatling gun,nding on the opposite side and sting everything to pieces. If not for the fact that the projectiles did not contain heat and only physical force, Dante was certain that explosions would have urred, as well as disintegration.

    As it were, he could only stand there in slight stupefaction, looking at his horrible handiwork. The entire opposite side of the cavern waspletely ruined, like a behemoth had thrown a terrible tantrum here and smashed everything.

    What made Dante hesitate was the fact that the spiders that had defended against him were sted into so many pieces he wondered if they qualified for absorption. He began to regret using the 2nd Rank spell and wished he simply used the first rank one.

    He had underestimated the power boost that came from having Intelligence on par with a 5th Rank mage while at the 2nd Rank as well as two spiritual cores of the space element, each of which boosted space element spells by 150%.

    His 2nd Rank spell was no weaker than a 4th Rank one. Dante could only sigh and use his various abilities to gather the corpses as best as he could into one heap and then ce his hand to absorb them.

    Unfortunately, his Absorption in this 3rd run of this world was still at the F rank, so he only got 10% back. He actually preferred it like this since he killed by quantity, so even after conversion, there was more than enough to send him to his limit.

    Even so, he was still overloaded with power that caused him to groan and step back as his body shone with a ckish-red light mixed with purple spiritual light as well as a hint of golden light that grew with intensity as Dante trembled with pain.

    Eventually he exploded with power, causing a huge heatwave to spread through the cavern and sear the walls, while space around him trembled and cracked even further, as well as his two eyes shining like torches as a golden, hazy light shot out from them.

    Dante panted deeply as he knelt on one knee while his other hand was pressed to the ground, his rampant energies going into resting mode. He couldn''t help but feel a hint of fear and finally understood the limitation the universe had ced on one person obtaining too many power systems.

    Dante knew that he had to slow down now, otherwise the next time he raised his stats like this, he might actually explode like a nuke and create a forbidden zone in the location he erupted, regardless of quantum world or real world.

    That forbidden zone would contain the power of hellfire, blood qi, life essence, and spatial magic, all centered around his illusion abilities that would guide everything. Knowing the power of his eyes, anyone who entered such a zone would be finished.

    However, for now, he had achieved his goal. He nced around and left a quantum marker here before teleporting his virtual body back to the ce he spawned at and exited the world.

    Once back on the Inferno battleship, Dante first checked his new SDI.

    ?User: Dante (ID Number: DANTE10998-03-15)

    Age: 21 (Converted to Earth years)

    Race: Pure Human (99.9% gic perfection)

    Strength Index: 1500 (15000)

    Agility Index: 1500 (15000)

    Dexterity Index: 1500 (15000)

    Intelligence Index: 1500 (15000)

    Constitution Index: 1500 (15000)

    Vitality Index: 1500 (15000)

    Bionic Level: 1 (Unique Student Version 10.)

    Psionic Level: 1 (Unique Student Version 10.)

    AI Chip Level: 1 (Civilian Category)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement (Rank D).

    Physical Powers: Raging Blood Halberd Technique (Martial Blood, Entry level 1%), Primal Ape Technique (Level 3: Advanced Knight, 1%).

    Magical Powers: Inferno Ascension Technique (Level 3: Lustful Ignition, 28%), Void Speaker Chant (Level 3: Adept Wizard (2nd Rank), 2%).?

    Dante nodded with satisfaction. Seeing that Beatrice was not around once more, he directly returned to his base on earth. Dante then entered one of his constructed Faraday Cages underground in the Vitality Pools area, which was meant to contain his explosive abilities when he practiced them.

    He sat cross-legged in a meditative posture like some famed Daoist and began speaking the Inferno Ascension technique''s mantra, and once again, a huge bonfire of ckish-red light emerged around his body. The heat was so intense that it definitely reached around 1500ˇăC, which was kind of intriguing given his stats.

    Was there a corrtion? Dante had never consciously measured the temperature of his fire because fire was fire, it was hot regardless. However, now that he had gotten a dedicated Faraday cage for this, he could measure the heat urately.

    Dante remained like this for about 4 hours before the fire that was around him was suddenly sucked into his body, and his form began to glow with a bright light. Immediately the fires of his body spread outwards, their ckish-red light containing a hint of malicious intent that caused energy forms to tremble.

    They seemed to grab the very essence of the world itself and drag it back into Dante''s body to be simmered under the intense me and purified intoˇ­ something. Dante could not yet tell what it was, but he finally knew he had reached the stage he craved the most.

    He quickly opened his SDI interface to check if his feelings were true.

 Chapter 162 Gluttonous Inferno And Advanced Wizard!

    ?

    [Magical Powers: Inferno Ascension Technique (Level 4: Gluttonous Inferno, 45%)?

    [Level 4 - Gluttonous Inferno: The mes of Gluttony empower the user to devour the life, spiritual, and mental force of chosen targets for themselves, refining it with the purest hellfire to form nutrients for themselves. The users can also grant this converted and purified essence to others with varying effects.]

    That''s right, Dante had achieved the fabled devouring all on his own!

    Did this mean he could ditch the Absorption of the Apocalypse World? The answer was unfortunately, no. The Gluttonous Inferno did not give him energy that raised his body''s quality or stats.

    What it did was allow him to turn anything that had energy into purified essence for himself. The essence in this case was used for sustenance as well as to power his various abilities.

    So basically, it allowed him to ''digest'' faster whether it was energy bars or the energy pool. Whereas Dante had to lie for 6 hours, he could now directly absorb it and rely on his own ability to absorb it faster.

    Dante decided to test it out. He left his Faraday cage and began practicing the Primal Ape technique, Advanced Knight chapter.

    Dante''s Advanced Knight training regimen was not for the faint of heart. It was a grueling and demanding routine that pushed a person''s physical and mental limits, though not much for Dante given his stats surpassed even the most talented Advanced Knight for his stage.

    The sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows across the training grounds. Dante stood at its center, his body poised and his mind focused.

    With a slow, deliberate inhale, he grounded himself, seemingly connecting with the very essence of the world around him. His stance mirrored that of the Silverback Ape, a posture of unwavering strength and readiness.

    It was the foundation upon which the entire technique would unfold.

    Dante began his routine by adopting the Ape''s Resilience stance. He stood firm, his legs apart, mimicking the unwavering strength of the Silverback Ape.

    This form cultivated his endurance, allowing him to withstand even the most grueling of battles. As he held the pose, his body pulsed with energy, a testament to the method''s effectiveness.

    With a deep inhtion, he transitioned into Echoing Roar. In this stance, he unleashed a mighty shout, echoing through the forest.

    The vibrations resonated within him, strengthening his vocal cords and lungs. It was not just about the sound but the control over his breath. His scream reverberated with the power to unnerve foes.

    Dante then moved into Graceful Swings. This form emphasized fluidity and bnce.

    He swayed gracefully, emting the Silverback''s agility despite its immense size. Each movement was like a dance, strengthening his control over his body.

    Entering the Mighty Bellow form, he inhaled deeply, channeling his inner energy.

    With a thunderous exhtion, he released a powerful shockwave of breath, mimicking the Silverback''s ability to repel adversaries. The technique taught him to harness his breath as a weapon.

    Thunderous Pounding followed, where Dante''s fists struck the ground with force, sending tremors through the earth. It honed his physical strength, mirroring the Silverback''s earth-shaking might.

    In Branch Breaker, he focused on precision.

    His hands moved with calcted intent, smashing through imaginary obstacles like a Silverback tearing through thick jungle foliage. This form sharpened his ability to target vulnerabilities in his foes.

    With Agile Assault, his movements became swift and precise, as if he was navigating the dense canopy of the jungle. His footwork was a blur as he dodged imaginary attacks. This form enhanced his agility and reflexes.

    In Ape''s Embrace, Dante practiced the art of grappling.

    He visualized himself entwined with his opponent, using leverage and technique to gain the upper hand. It was about control and restraint.

    Raging Fury was a culmination of his training.

    He unleashed a relentless barrage of strikes, each movement flowing seamlessly into the next. It was a dance of aggression and control, a testament to his mastery of the Primal Ape technique.

    Finally, he transitioned into Tranquil Reflection.

    As the sun dipped below the horizon, he stood still, like the Silverback at rest. It was a moment of meditation, where he absorbed the lessons of the day and connected with the spirit of the Ape.

    The life essence tempered his body, making it even more robust. While his physical stats remained unmatched in his current realm, this practice fortified him further. It was a relentless pursuit of perfection, even if it couldn''t augment his already astonishing stats.

    The hour flowed by like a river, and as Dante lowered his arms, he evaluated his progress. The Primal Ape technique, a peak knightly skill, was bing an extension of himself. Despitecking any special resources, his advancement was impressive.

    [Physical Powers: Primal Ape Technique (Level 3: Advanced Knight, 4%).]

    He did not possess his full energy, only about 2/3rds. Yet he managed to climb by 3%, which meant that at full tank, his progress per hour should be about 5%. This was a drop from 9% per hour at the previous realm, but was a great retention given that practice was harder at each realm.

    Now that he was drained, Dante teleported to the energy pool and jumped in. Before his body could passively absorb, he activated his Gluttonous Inferno and began spreading his hellfire throughout the pool.

    The greenish-blue water that sparkled with energy was coated with a ck film that made it seem like oil. The fire zed above the water and Dante felt torrents of energy enter into his body, far more purified and perfect than even what he passively absorbed.

    His face changed greatly as he became saturated in just about 15 minutes of work. In just fifteen minutes, he was back to full tank with more energy per percentage than before in terms of quality, meaning his efficiency of consumption was higher.

    Compared to the previous 6 hours it took when he had 1000 in all stats, this was truly shocking since he now had 1500! His tank had gotten way bigger and his consumption too had increased, yet the time it took to recharge was shortened exponentially.

    This was the value of the 4th level, Gluttonous Inferno!

    Dante rose from the pool that was immediately recharged with energy as it glittered like crystals. He stretched and felt his body was in great shape, which was perfect for what he was about to do next.

    He teleported to his Faraday cage once more and sat cross-legged, this time delving deep into his mental world. There he saw two huge spiritual cores that shone in a dark purple light, filled with the elements of space.

    Around them, new clumps of uncondensed spiritual power hung around, waiting to be gathered. That is naturally what Dante did, instantly gathering them into a third spiritual core and then polishing it so that it would be very firm.

    Now, he was a half-step third-rank mage, and he naturally did not waste timepleting the upgrade process. As usual, he directly reached outside of the boundary of void that protected his spiritual cores, which was his body, and then bullishly grabbed the space elements.

    Even when he was at 500 points, he could easily do this, much less now. The space elements could only be dragged over whether it was willing or not, bing a part of Dante''s spiritual core.

    In no time, the third spiritual core was filled to the brim with space elements, and a small shockwave of purple light was released from it as it was perfected. It resonated with the other twopleted spiritual cores, and they pulsated at the same wavelength.

    Dante felt his connection to the element of space increase even greater, and he wondered if it would have any benefits whenprehending his Quantum Entanglement.

    [Magical Powers: Void Speaker Chant (Level 4: Advanced Wizard (3rd Rank), 4%).]

    [Level 4: Advanced Wizard (3rd Rank)

    Advanced Wizards gain a fundamental understanding of spatial maniption. They can warp and distort space on a small scale, allowing for teleportation short distances and the creation of pocket dimensions to store items. Offensive spells be more formidable, with firestorms, freezing cyclones, and electric torrents within their capabilities.]

    Dante was thoroughly satisfied. With his current spiritual power and intelligence, he was equivalent to a 7th Rank Archwizard in terms of power. At first, he hadn''t been sure, but he simply searched the student forums for the Magus World to find a detailed list of Intelligence point values for the different ranks.

    [Intelligence Point Average of Wizards in the Magus World - By: Lester Orhin-Jut

    Unranked Apprentice Wizard: 1 - 50

    1st Rank Novice Wizard: 100

    2nd Rank Adept Wizard: 300

    3rd Rank Advanced Wizard: 500

    4th Rank Elite Wizard: 700

    5th Rank Master Wizard: 1000

    6th Rank Grand Wizard: 1300

    7th Rank Archwizard: 1500

    8th Rank Sage Wizard: 1700

    9th Rank Grand Sage Wizard: 2000.]

    When he was at 500 points in all stats, Master ndor stated he was equivalent to a 3rd Rank mage. When he hit a thousand, it was said that Dante was equivalent to the 5th Rank.

    Now that he had 1500, it was clear which level he was at.

 Chapter 163 Goals And Recap

    <h4>Chapter 163 Goals And Recap</h4>

    Dante sighed. He was now one step closer to achieving his short-term goal of 2000 points in all stats so that he could qualify to try to have sex with Beatrice.

    His other goals were:

    1. Conquer the Zero Gate in his home universe and monopolize itpletely, not even giving any other species - including his own - a chance. (Highest priority)

    2. Spelunk in the Zero Gate of the Eternal Universe, which has been developed and researched, using it to understand the rules andyout of all Zero Gates. (Highest priority)

    3. Slowly expand the technological capacity of humanity. (Extremely low priority)

    4. Increase the grade of Quantum Entanglement and unlock new powers. (High priority)

    5. Grant his parents and loved ones enhanced gics, Bionics, Psionics, and AI chips. (Low priority)

    6. Have a child with Beatrice. (High priority)

    7. Resurrect Beatrice''s mother. (Medium priority)

    8. Conquer all alien races of the home universe. (Medium priority)

    9. Enter the upper echelons of the Eternal universe and discover advanced secrets. (High priority)

    10. Conquer the Eternal Universe. (Low priority)

    11. Find the high-dimensional being that saved him and find out why. (Low priority)

    12. tten that damned academy and piss on the debris. (High priority)

    13. Acquire new power systems. (Low priority)

    14. Master his current power systems. (Highest priority).

    15. y around with this ''God of Technology'' and system-granting idea. (High priority).

    After sorting out his goals, Dante finally returned to the Eternal Universe, specifically to his residence in the academy grounds. When he arrived, he wantonly spread his spirit sense around in the homes and abodes of everyone, freely scanning them and discovering all their secrets without their knowledge.

    Right now, he had seen enough to potentially manipte or ckmail many of his fellow students and even the factions behind them. Unfortunately, he could not do anything with this information except dupe or ckmail, as he couldn''t record them.

    Yes, the Eternal Universe had the technology to extract memories and even condense dreams, but Dante was not going to allow anyone into his head for such a trivial reason. If he was that careless, he might as well head to the Student Enhancement Center and inject the gene solution, rather than resorting to these methods.

    He was quite interested in this, as these were hispetitors, and his expression became slightly surprised when he noticed that more than half of them nced his way. At first, he thought his spirit sense probing had been discovered, but after a bit more monitoring, he realized that they were using some aspect of their superpowers to also monitor his movements.

    It was not as clear as his spirit sense in most cases, from what Dante could tell. This made him feel fortunate that he had maintained some level of apprehension when he first came here because of the rude orientation, so he had never really trusted the school.

    Now that he was back in the school, he first checked his residence for anything that could monitor or track him using his current updated knowledge. To his surprise, he found none, but he did not truly believe that this was the case.

    Dante had arrived in the Eternal Universe on the 14th of March and had been registered on the 15th. About a weekter, he had arrived at the Eternal Academy and been admitted, which was on the 21st because he spent 3 days going to Earth to get his registration and another 3 days going to the Eternal Academy''s site.

    The 22nd was the fateful orientation. They had about 3 days until their first ss, which was on the 25th.

    Dante then used 10 seconds to rank up, and his troubles in the school began from there. While he was theoretically unconscious, it didn''t prevent the others from spending their full 7 days there.

    During this time, he woke up and went to Etonia to do the shopping and learn the history of the universe as well as themon sense, which took about a week, so that time was covered.

    He then started the basic training for every Eternal Universe resident and took two weeks to reach mastery thanks to his high stats. He spent another 2 weeks going through the advanced training routines of the Eternal Universe.

    So the time for the ck Land came again. This was the 29th of April. 7 days passed, and Dante reached 75% of the next round, meaning it was the 6th of May.

    After that, many things happened, including going home to win the payout at the casino, buying cars for himself and his parents, setting up on the ind, being targeted by operatives andter Aisha and her group, defeating them with ease, and capturing them.

    Going back into the Apocalypse World and then wantonly absorbing stats until he reached his first limit of 250 in all fields. Then he went into the Rising Star world to train but abandoned itter.

    Anyway, he pondered if he should try some things in there. It was an instanced world, so everything paused when he left and would resume when he came back if he chose for it to. He could totally take a nuclear rifle and then nuke all the kingdoms, but eh.

    The world had little value to him as there wasn''t magic or anything, just humans and killing.

    Anyway, he then confronted Beatrice, and they cemented their feelings after they came clean, and Beatrice had been helping him acquire powers using her knowledge since then.

    The next time he entered the cknd, it had been June 3rd. There he got his current Quantum cement for the markers and Quantum Depository for the storage space.

    And now, more than 4 weeks had passed since that date, and it was July 6th today, meaning that he was two days away from his next session. That was the main reason Dante hade back here, to prepare for his next spelunk into the ck Land.

    Dante checked his messages on the Etr and found two from a while back.

    Harold Poton (Third year, Normal Batch): "Hello Brotherˇ­ no, Boss Dante. You said we should meet up a while back in the Apocalypse World? When should we meet?"

    Lucian Havian (Second year, Elite Batch): "Hello Mr. Dante of the Portinari n, it is Lucian Havian and the Havian Merchant Family. You made a request to meet me in the past, and I would like to fulfill it as soon as possible. May I have a date?"

    Dante scratched his head. He remembered these two fellows who had spawned with him during his second run. At that time, he was still building up his power and had yet to even reach 250 in all stats, so he was extremely cautious in everything he did.

    He did not want to directly offend them, so rather than tell them to get lost or that he would fly solo, he simply told them to meet him in reality for some ns. He originally did have ns for them, but his rapid rise in power and hisplete confession to Beatrice made them useless.

    If it was before, he would have cast them aside. Just as well, he needed live test subjects to do some things for him, so he responded to both of them for them toe over.

    Unsurprisingly, the two responded immediately? that they woulde over. Dante had to wait for a short while as they were both forced to use public transit to get here, not qualified to use teleporters like the Unique Batch students.

    Dante invited them into his residence cordially, which made the other students monitoring him suspicious. Dante had gone more than four months straight without meeting a single student, and now he invited two random nobodies into his ce?

    They immediately began to report to the factions behind them to dig deep into the backgrounds of Harold and Lucian, even finding the secrets they thought they had never revealed to the public.

    Immediately, assassins and mercenaries were hired through dark sites to rush over and capture the members of their families or to hinder their various businesses. When those twods came out, they would extract all the information from their mouths, or they shouldn''t me them for what happened to their families.

    Normally, this wouldn''t fly, but it was a sensitive period. The Zero Gate had less than 5 months to open, and the ''strongest'' candidate to enter looked to be Dante. What they feared was that he would use his superpower that was ahead of the others to monopolize the Fruits of Condensation and hand them all over to the Portinari Family.

    If that happened, the power bnce would break between the various factions for a significant period of time, and since Dante could be a student for up to 5 years, it meant 5 years of losing out on the number 1 benefit of the universe.

    How could they tolerate this?!

 Chapter 164 Two â€™Little Demonsâ€™

    <h4>Chapter 164 Two ''Little Demons''</h4>

    As for Dante himself, he currently had Harold and Lucian sit opposite him. The two were silent and seemingly eager to talk to him, having learned the value of Dante during this off-time and how the families behind them were pressuring them to make use of their connection, no matter how slight.

    Dante casually crossed his legs in a gentlemanly manner as he sat opposite the two and then sipped a ss of tea with a yful smile. For some reason, that smile made them shiver and want to run.

    Before they could act on that thought, Dante''s eyes became a little brighter, and they couldn''t help but stare into them in a dazeˇ­

    In the darkest depths of the Abyss Realm, where suffering and torment were the very essence of existence, there was born a demon unlike any other.

    This wretched creature, known only as Grix, emerged from an egg amidst a sea of millions, each one wing and tearing at the others for the slightest advantage in the brutal contest for survival.

    Grix was not strong or imposing like some of his fellow demons, nor was he gifted with the allure that some used to manipte their peers.

    He was average in every sense, a creature of meager power and unremarkable appearance. But what set him apart was his relentless tenacity, an unyielding spirit that refused to bow to the cruel whims of the Abyss.

    From the moment he hatched, Grix found himself in a nightmarish world of constant struggle. The very air was thick with the stench of sulfur and the agonized wails of tormented souls.

    He fought tooth and nail for every morsel of foul sustenance, for every inch of ground to im as his own. It was a ceaseless battle against his fellow demons, who showed him no mercy.

    As the years passed, Grix''s existence was one of suffering.

    He endured torturous trials, both physical and psychological, with a grim determination. He witnessed countless atrocities, each one more grotesque than thest.

    The Abyss Realm was a realm of horrors beyond imagination, and Grix was a witness to it all.

    Despite his unimpressive stature, Grix did manage to eke out a meager existence. He formed alliances of necessity with other downtrodden demons, and together they navigated the treacherousndscape of the Abyss.

    They clung to the fringes of this nightmarish world, always on the brink of annihtion but somehow managing to survive.

    But survival in the Abyss was a fleeting concept. In a realm where the strong devoured the weak without remorse, Grix''s time eventually ran out. He fell victim to a more powerful demon, hisst moments filled with agony and despair.

    Grix''s life was a testament to the relentless cruelty of the Abyss Realm, a ce where suffering was the only constant and survival was the highest aspiration.

    At this moment, Lucian and Harold gasped as their eyes came to life. Both of them werepletely different from before, going from ambitious youths to vicious predators with no shame and no bottom line when it came to survival.

    Harold and Lucian went through the same illusion but with slight differences and obviously different names. To them, they had reincarnated into the human world and had gained new lives, only remembering their true natures now.

    Dante sipped his tea with a smile as he spoke. "Two little trash demons that did not even manage to raise their bloodline grade once. You want toe and chat with me? Hahaha!"

    The eyes of Harold and Lucian flickered as they shared a look and seemed to understand the true nature of the other. However, they presented confused expressions as they nced at Dante.

    "Err, Boss Dante, is everything alright? How can demons exist here?" Harold asked with confusion.

    "Don''t y coy. I sensed the dormant aura of the Abyss Realm on your souls when we met, which is why I told you to meet meter," Dante revealed with a smile.

    He then nced at them mockingly. "If I didn''t awaken your dormant souls, you would still be walking about as two human fools who didn''t know any better."

    The faces of the twods changed greatly, and they tore off their disguises. Their expressions became malevolent and crooked, which would be funny to look at through a screen but was actually very frightening when done in person.

    "Hmph, big talk! Who the fuck are you, and why did you call us here?!" Lucian demanded as he bared his teeth.

    Harold did not say anything but also showed a posture of hostility. They were currently testing Dante to see whether he posed a threat or not. If he didn''t, they would either tear him apart or control him, and if he was, they would either flee or submit.

    As low-level demons, they had the flexibility of low-level demons. There was nothing like pride or ego; all such demons among their batch in the Abyss Realm had long died before they could even take their first breath.

    Dante nced at them and smiled before lighting up his finger with a hint of his hellfire. Seeing that pure ckish-red me, the pupils of the twods constricted to the extreme, and their vicious postures turned into hurried kowtows full of despair and regret.

    "D-D-Demon Supreme! Lord Demon Supreme!" Harold choked out with fear.

    "Oh Will of the Abyss, what have I done?!" Lucian wept as he almost soiled himself from fear.

    Their reactions might seem exaggerated, but the context made it reasonable. A demon supreme was more than 5 bloodline realms above theirs and practically at the top of what they knew!

    If it was just death, they wouldn''t be so fearful, but as Dante had said earlier by awakening their souls, Demon Supremes had methods to make them unable to escape after death and prolong their suffering.

    The reason why they hadn''t submitted at first was that any rank of demon higher than thest could control those below to some extent. So Dante could either have been 1 rank above them or 5 ranks above them.

    The only way to tell was to provoke him, which they did, and now they were regretting it since the logical chances of Dante being such a high-level demon were next to zero. Yet, like striking the lottery of misfortune, they had actually hit that chance!

    Dante extinguished the hellfire and sipped the tea. "Enough with the groveling; just get up. Do you think someone of my stature cares about the actions of a low-level demon?"

    Harold and Lucian immediately sat down like obedient children, partly relieved and partly respectful. Now, they truly wondered what this fellow had brought them here for.

    "Don''t you think it''s beautiful? This universe? Sorge, so powerful, and so full of mystery?" Dante began, looking up with a hint of admiration.

    Harold and Lucian shared a look and seemed to understand. "My Lord, you wish to conquer this universe and submit it to the Will of the Abyss?"

    Dante nced at the two with a hint of amusement. "You tell me. You have those bodies which have intricate knowledge and memories of this universe''s power, so tell me how that would be possible."

    The two fellows became speechless. Of course, they knew, which was why they had not shown greed or excitement. It was impossible for the Abyssal Realm to take over this universe, even if they spat out every demon in existence.

    Forget the cyborgs, androids, dreadnoughts. Forget the dark matter, psion, or disintegration weapons. Just nuclear weapons equipped by normal beings would be able to thoroughly decimate the Abyss Realm until they cried for their mother.

    Then, there were those superpower users, especially the almighty headmistress who seemed like she could destroy the Abyss realm on her own.

    Seeing that Dante did not have any intention to court death, the two sighed with relief. However, they were now even more curious as to what he wanted to do.

    "What I want to do is none of your business. What you are to do is bepliant every step of the way. Do you understand?" Dante spoke with a cold look at the two, a hint of ckish-red fire emerging around him like an aura.

    This immediately chilled the hearts of Harold and Lucian, who began to sweat. They naturally professed their understanding of Dante''s instructions and ''indentured'' themselves under him as hisckeys.

    Seeing that they had fallen for the stick, Dante did not bother to throw the carrot over because he didn''t n to work with these two long-term. His goal in bringing them here was simple: to run some experiments he didn''t dare try with people he cared about.

    To that end, Dante smiled widely. "Alright, you two wait here while I prepare something. Soon, you will understand everything, and especially, your value to me."

    Dante teleported back to the base in the home universe and ordered his engineer bots to begin building something he had long drafted for this situation.

 Chapter 165 Human Experimentation 1

    <h4>Chapter 165 Human Experimentation 1</h4>

    It was not costly to build nor did it take long with his level of resources. It was done and exported immediately, and Dante had ordered the building of ten copies of the same thing.

    What was it? Well, look at the specs!

    [Pod Multi-Utility Specification Sheet

    Product Name: MultiPod 9000

    Manufacturer: FuturaTech Innovations

    Product Overview:

    The MultiPod 9000 is a cutting-edge, multi-purpose, portable pod designed to cater to a wide range of humanoid needs, from cryogenic sleep and rapid healing to immersive virtual reality experiences and advanced body scanning capabilities. Thispact and versatile pod is equipped with state-of-the-art technology to enhance the overall well-being and convenience of users.

    Key Features:

    1. Cryogenic Sleep Chamber:

    - Temperature Control: Adjustable cryogenic temperatures ranging from -180ˇăC to -60ˇăC for safe, long-term preservation of biological functions.

    - Deep Sleep Cycle: Initiates and maintains a deep sleep state, ideal for extended space travel or medical recovery.

    - Sleep Monitoring: Continuous monitoring of vital signs and health status during cryogenic sleep.

    2. Healing Module:

    - Nanotech Healing: Utilizes nanobots to elerate the healing process, repairing injuries and illnesses at an elerated rate.

    - Biometric Feedback: Constantly adapts to the user''s unique physiology to optimize recovery.

    3. Virtual Reality Chamber:

    - Immersive VR: Provides a fully immersive virtual reality experience with haptic feedback, ideal for entertainment, education, or therapeutic purposes.

    - Etraverse Connection: ess to a vast library of VR experiences, from games and simtions to educational programs through the Etraverse.

    4. Body Scanning Module:

    - Medical Diagnostics: Utilizes advanced scanning technology to provide aprehensive analysis of the user''s health and bodyposition.

    - Health Reports: Generates detailed health reports, including rmendations for improvements and potential issues.

    5. Portability:

    - Compact Design: Lightweight and easily transportable, making it suitable for both personal and professional use.

    - Quick Setup: Can be set up within minutes, allowing for on-the-go convenience.

    Technical Specifications:

    - Dimensions: 2.5 meters (length) x 1.5 meters (width) x 1.8 meters (height)

    - Weight: 450 kg

    - Power Supply: Quantum Psion battery (Unlimited power as long as sentience exists.)

    - User Interface: Fully operable using the AI chip.

    - Connectivity: Permanent connection to the Etr for picosecond updates.

    - Safety Features: AI chip authentication, emergency shutdown, and fail-safes for user protection.

    Applications:

    - Space Exploration: Ideal for long-duration space missions, providing cryogenic sleep and health monitoring.

    - Healthcare Facilities: elerates patient recovery and offers advanced diagnostics.

    - Entertainment Industry: Immersive VR experiences for gaming, movies, and simtions.

    - Fitness and Wellness Centers: Body scanning and health monitoring for clients.

    Avability: The MultiPod 9000 is avable formercial and professional use. Contact FuturaTech Innovations for pricing and inquiries.]

    Cough, ignore that bit at the end. Dante knew thatpanies were very adamant about promoting while disiming, but thispany even attached it to the spec sheet of their design which had be public use after it was eliminated!

    What? Dante actually used out-of-date designs?

    Well, yeah, what else could he do? All thetest and protected designs using Intellectual Property were heavily defended and inessible even to him nor could Beatrice ess them.

    Luckily, the tech of the eternal universe was over 8000 years ahead of the home universe, and their longest protection duration was 200 years. So Dante was using tech that was 7800 years ahead of the home universe, which was almost no difference.

    Dante collected the pods into his quantum space and returned to the Eternal Universe. Seeing him pop right back before them, the two fellows were not too startled as they had an idea of what the people of this universe could do.

    "Now, you will participate in a series of experiments with me. If they seed, I will reward you with the ability to unlock your hellfire and be medium-grade demons. If it fails, I will not punish you and even resurrect you," Dante stated, finally painting the carrot so that they wouldn''t run and would cooperate fully.

    Harold and Lucian shared a skeptical look. While they feared Dante, they had to make their doubts known, so Harold bit the chomp and decided to take charge.

    "Ermm, your highness Dante. Your terms are quite generousˇ­ very generous," he said shakily.

    Dante nced at the two knowingly. "Such a good deal, how can I, a demon, be so kind? Is that what you''re trying to say?"

    "Noˇ­Iˇ­ wellˇ­" Harold stuttered, but Dante shut him up.

    "It''s not because I care about you. I have not found any reincarnated demons in this universe, and the denizens are too powerful for me to forcefully subjugate. That has raised the usefulness of the two of you to never-before-seen degrees, so make the most of it," Dante suggested with a smile.

    Harold and Lucian rxed greatly. If Dante told them he was giving them such good terms because he cared about the demon race and their unity, they would not believe it even if they were beaten to death with toothpaste.

    Rather, they were more inclined to believe it was because he was helpless and had no other choice. Otherwise, why would he not only wake up two little demons like them but even talk so much to them like they were friends?

    In hell, a flick of his finger could have high-level demons and above frolicking to fulfill his wishes. They didn''t even have the qualifications to be cannon fodder for such an entity back at home.

    Thinking like this, the two were calm and ready to obey. Not only was there no real penalty, but they could even gain benefits if it seeded! What more was there toin about?

    Dante nodded and waved a hand. Two of the pods he made appeared andnded on the floor, making the faces of the two fellows change slightly. They did not know how or where it came from, and this increased their awe of Dante.

    "You, Harold, get in," Dantemanded, and Harold obeyed without a second of hesitation, entering the pod and lying down.

    Without exining anything, Dante switched the pod on and put Harold in cryogenic sleep. When the procedure waspleted and his body was scanned for no anomalies or problems, Dante performed his first experiment.

    **Experiment Number 1: Can a human survive in his Quantum Space if they were protected?**

    Dante put the pod into his quantum space, and it switched into battery consumption mode as there was no psionic energy in his quantum space that was as still as death. The battery couldst for years upon end, so there was no worry about that.

    Dante waited for 30 minutes before taking the pod out once more. It was still functional and switched to charging mode since there was abundant psionic energy in the Eternal universe.

    He had the pod scan Harold''s body, and his brows furrowed as he heard that Harold was alive, but he had contracted a strange disease. The pod could not identify this disease as it did not exist in any database of the Eternal universe.

    Dante had Harold released, and he woke up normally and coughed a little, a hint of a strange purple-ck mist escaping his mouth with each exhale that was imperceptible to the normal eye.

    Dante stood up and walked to Harold, who was standing firm and seemed untroubled except for that initial difort. Dante sized him up and down, then ced a hand on his chest, where the pod had scanned the anomaly in him to be.

    Dante''s face darkened slightly as he felt a resonance in both his Quantum Entanglement superpower and his space spiritual cores. The spiritual core''s response was one of fear and rejection, telling him not toe into contact with that, while Quantum Entanglement was like, ''snack?'' as it throbbed.

    At least the good news was that he now knew what it was as both his spatial spiritual cores and Quantum Entanglement exined what it was through his subconscious, one in the form of a warning and one in the form of a desire.

    Quantum Poisoning!

    Dante understood everything now. Why did other people with spatial abilities not have the chance to enter quantum worlds? Why had the Eternal Universe, with all their progress in quantum science, not yet devised ways to enter the quantum world?

    Even that freak, Antman, could do it. Why couldn''t they?

    It was because of the restriction the universe had put in ce to prevent living organisms from crossing the world boundaries. Whether it was bringing fellows like ndor, Jia Susu, or his protagonists out, they would experience ''real-world'' poisoning and deteriorate until they died.

    Likewise, taking anyone into quantum worlds, even with stats like Beatrice, would yield quantum poisoning that would slowly kill them. The length of your poisoning would vary based on your stats, so someone like Beatrice would suffer for a very long time before dying in pain.

    Thinking like this, Dante couldn''t help but exhale with a hint of fear and thanked the fact that he was careful enough not to fall into the obvious temptation of thinking her stats made her invincible to everything.

 Chapter 166 Human Experimentation 2

    <h4>Chapter 166 Human Experimentation 2</h4>

    Dante... had a confession to make.

    In truth, he had slowly been bing arrogant after seeing his stats rise like the sun. He made breakthroughs in methods that took even the most talented natives of quantum worlds years in mere seconds.

    Even if he was reasonably more sensible than most youths his age, he was still a hot-blooded young man with endless ambition, which was his driving force. It was inevitable that this would happen.

    The scary thing was that changes like this never happened in the frontend, but in the backend. It was like bing fat as an adult. When youpleted high school, you might not have been fat or were even skinny, but after years of being mostly a NEET, you put on weight.

    The rtable part was that you would not notice it until it was toote. It seemed to happen in the background as your body always constantly adapted to the new weight, so you didn''t feel awkward until it was hard not to notice or someone pointed it out.

    However, now, especially after first seeing how powerful the Eyes of Illusion was even on Beatrice, and now knowing that something like this existed, Dante was wary. He was wary that he would look at his bloated stats and think he could ovee anything.

    Stats were the foundation of all powers, that was indisputable, but certain methods could ignore them like a curse, fate, divination, and more. Unless he had methods or powers to counter such things, he could easily fall to them.

    Speaking of ignore, Dante also understood why he was immune to this. His Quantum Entanglement superpower was obviously protecting him from this. No, protecting him was not enough to describe it.

    It was as if Dante was like Danny Phantom. While Danny was half ghost and half human, Dante was half quantum and half ''real''. If this was a typical xianxia novel, Dante could be described to have a ''transcendent'' physique called the Quantum Body.

    This allowed him to ''cultivate'' quantum techniques and methods with ease and not face any bacsh.

    It also exined that strange energy that infiltrated his body when he first transnted the illusion eyes and tried to upgrade them. Dante had assumed this and feared this, which was what he shared with Beatrice, but there had never been any confirmation before.

    Now, there was.

    What was it? It was the danger of various quantum worlds!

    Or rather, in taking in the powers of different quantum worlds into his body.

    Quantum worlds came in different forms and qualities. It depended on the level of quantum AI that presided over the world as well as the level of design and realism that went into it. Most importantly, it depended on the hosting of the quantum world and its energy source.

    Like a website, the quality and speed of the site depends on the server hosting it. The more powerful the server, the more ''resources'' the site will have when dealing with multiple users, same with quantum worlds.

    In this case, the servers are graded in different categories by the Etraverse Corp and sold to world hosters at different tiers.

    But we already knew this. How it affected Dante though, was that entering a quantum world was subjecting himself to its rules which he would then imprint on himself before taking it out to work in the ''real'' world.

    Errˇ­ to put it aptly, it was like going under for surgery. However, going to quantum worlds owned by the school was like going to world-renowned doctors with near-perfect sess rates while going to public worlds was like going to cheap quack doctors in a third world country.

    It was even more impossible to create his own quantum worlds. Not only was the infrastructure required massive, more than his little base could handle, even the simplest design for a quantum hosting server was absolutely protected byyers ofws.

    So essentially, only the Etraverse Corp could make them, so they had an absolute monopoly in this regard. Even the Eternal Academy could onlymission extremely high-end servers and then modify them using superpowers to achieve its current perfection.

    Dante was not even 0.1% qualified toe into contact with the ability to create quantum worlds like those. If he wanted something like that, realistically, his best chance was to advance Quantum Entanglement as a superpower.

    It might unlock something along those lines at the higher levels.

    Back to the problem at hand. Despite sensing the quantum poison in Harold''s body, Dante could not do anything about it. He couldn''t suck it out or eliminate it because he was only immune to it, it did not mean he could control it.

    So this put a dent in Dante''s ns. He definitely was not going to bring his parents over nor was he going to send Beatrice over until he could find a reasonable way to eliminate this problem lest he take down his loved ones with his own hands.

    Dante sighed and beckoned to Lucian. Even though this had stumped him, since Harold and Lucian were not yet dead, they could be used for further experimentation until it was too dangerous to continue.

    As for the quantum poisoning, he would find a way to eliminate it when he got stronger. Either that or if they died, he would casually find a resurrection resourceter on and bring them back.

    Lucian entered the pod obediently andy down. Dante repeated the same process as before and put him in the quantum space, but this time for only one second before bringing him out.

    Unfortunately, Lucian was still poisoned, but the quantity was only a very tiny clump. He would likely survive much longer than Harold at this rate.

    Dante sighed, it seemed that until he either developed a special method for it or gained a power to negate it, he would not be able to find shortcuts. Hm, just as well then, he would continue.

    **Experiment Number 2: Can humans be taken into Quantum Worlds and survive?**

    Dante put Lucian back into his quantum space while asleep in the pod and then entered the True Martial World. His body had been lying in his residence for almost a month or more without moving since he had been busy with other things.

    His virtual body had never been trained before and was still a weakling, so Dante experienced a slight bit of agony from his muscles before his real body oveid upon it and took over.

    He released a bit of sweat as he sat up and decided that no matter the quantum world he entered, his virtual bodies could not be left as is. He might not be able to train them but if he could find a way to split his mind or create clones, it should be possible.

    Anyway, he did not bother to leave his room and released the quantum pod that was on battery mode. It seemed to malfunction a bit before sessfully entering charging mode, as psion energy technically existed here in this quantum world.

    Only that the quality was not only sub-par, but it was mixed withˇ­ something. That something was what caused the pod to almost go kaput but barely recovered itself after limiting the energy intake and mixing it with the battery consumption.

    Dante checked on Lucian in the pod and his face changed greatly. A thick cloud of the purple-ck mist was visibly pouring into his body, causing him to deteriorate rapidly like a human turning into a withered corpse.

    Dante quickly collected Lucian back and left the quantum world before hurriedly releasing his body in reality. Despite being quick, the damage was done. Whaty in the pod was not a handsome young man with lush white skin, but an

    aged being with barely any hair and its bones peeking out everywhere on its body.

    There was also a copious amount of quantum poison mist lingering around his body. When Harold looked over and saw him like that, his face nched and he could only ask himself what the hell the demon supreme was experimenting with.

    He looked up and saw Dante frowning and understood that things had likely failed. Well, in that case, it was probably better to die quickly and then be resurrected than to prolong the suffering, right?

    That was what Harold thought, but unfortunately for him, Dante decided to end the experiments here as further testing would be pointless without dealing with quantum poisoning first.

    As such, he simply made Harold enter the pod and be put into sleep. He then collected both pods into his quantum space and then returned to the Inferno Battleship.

    Dante then removed the bodies and gave them to the Research AI of the ship. Since they were now incapable of helping directly, it was best to have the AI dig into their bodies and thoroughly research this quantum poisoning phenomenon and find out if something can be done about it.

    If an answer could be found before they died, they could be saved. If they died, the promise still held true, and Dante would revive themter on.

 Chapter 167 Aftermath

    <h4>Chapter 167 Aftermath</h4>

    Dante sighed and left the Research Wing of the Inferno. That test had not gone well at all, and there were unfavorable results. As for the oue of Lucian and Harold''s peopleing to look for them, he was not worried.

    There was an anti-surveincew in not only the Eternal Universe, but in the Eternal Academy. A citizen could not willingly or intentionally surveil another in their private space, but could report to the authorities if something was up.

    The authorities had millions of ways to surveil such a person. The purpose of thisw was to prevent citizens from having their privacy breached due to the advanced technological nature of current society, as well as the presence of superpowers.

    At least, on paper. There was another reason for this but there was no need to delve into it for such aw.

    Long story short, even if the students in his area came forth and said that these two entered his residence, they wouldn''t have a problem because it was in the open. However, if they stated that they never saw the two leave Dante''s residence, that was a problem.

    The only way they could know was if they surveilled 24/7. For Dante could say he escorted them out at a random time and the others would not be able to prove it. So if they did bring evidence that they didn''t leave, they would be taking themselves down with Dante basically.

    The problem was that this wasn''t even enough to get Dante a p on the back. The crime wasn''t serious enough for the Prime Human Council to take such actions and the factions against or monitoring Dante would not waste their aggression on this.

    They were not aware of the closeness between Dante and Beatrice, nor Dante''s act of having researched the entire social structure of the universe intricately. To them, they were in the dark and Dante was in the light, minus those factions whose teachers acted.

    Besides they didn''t think Dante did anything harmful to the two because it was too unnecessary and random. Even when he could act with impunity on Etonia with the backing of the Prime Human Council, all he did was eat, sleep and then buy some stuff, lewd androids included!

    That was exactly what a country bumpkin who did not understand how society worked would do! Dante also knew this but it couldn''t be helped, he had no vested interest in the social or political climate of this universe.

    So what they assumed was that Dante used that superpower of his that involved space to either hide the two away or send them somewhere else, which was quite urate. Of course, this realization came wayter when a few days passed and the twods hadn''t been seen.

    As for Dante, the fellow himself only nced at the two incapacitated bodies for a short while before leaving and heading into the True Martial World. Before he did, he left a message for Beatrice exining the results of his experiment and his worries.

    This time, when Dante entered the True Martial World, he didn''te with his true body. As such, he had to experience the stiffness and pain from lying on the bed for almost a month straight, unmoving at all.

    Luckily, this was the True Martial World, so all Dante needed to do was chant the mantra for the Inferno Ascension Technique, which caused only a little bit of heat to emerge from his body, like he had run in the hot sun and someone touched his skin, or like he had a high fever.

    After all, while the talent was the same, the stats were not. Dante was now experiencing the difficulties that normal denizens of this universe faced. However, this did not bother him as he was not nning to suffer at all.

    The moment he ran his internal art for a short while, he managed to barely initiate himself. He did not automatically condense a bead of hellfire and enter the first level, but was in the area before that where he first had to condense enough hellfire to form the bead.

    However, this was enough. Dante used the small hellfire he had to run through his body''s muscles and meridians, easing the pain and giving them life once more. He could finally get out of bed and stand shakily, seeming like a person who had overworked themselves and was thoroughly sore all over.

    Dante pulled out an Enhanced Energy Elixir form his inventory and downed it right away. The voluminous energy within was enough to match a pure level 6 blood energy soup, but Dante did not feel any stress or pain.

    The nanites within the concoction would automatically break the energy down for his body to absorb painlessly, so all he had to do was practice. He began the Body Tempering Realm movements of the Raging Blood Halberd art that he was familiar with, going through them with ease.

    Immediately, Dante felt the difference between having high stats already at this stage and not. He felt endless power and strength fill him as the energy he needed to ignite his blood in order to temper it was perfectly provided at a rate that his body could handle.

    The sheer efficiency was mind-boggling, and Dante could intimately feel it. In just one session, he was sure he had climbed from uninitiated to Body Tempering Realm, Minor Completion peak.

    This was only barely 30 minutes of practice too, so Dante was filled with awe. One should know, this was a virtual body with average talents suppressed to 1 point in each field.

    To put it nicely, Dante was the most average fellow among every denizen of the True Martial World, and so too were other students when they entered here. Of course, Internal Art talent could not be suppressed and varied from person to person.

    If Dante could climb this fast, then how much more a normal person? Dante finally seemed to understand just how crazy the effects of the creations of his research AI were.

    It was one thing to see it on paper and use it when he already had high stats and another to use it in the mind and body of an average person. It was sort of the difference between seeing 1 million dors on paper and 1 million dors in person.

    They had an immensely different impact as well as a wholly different understanding that came with them.

    Dante breathed out and rxed his body. He then checked his previously dropped quantum marker nearby and prepared to test his theory. His virtual body moved to the side and watched as space warped and Dante''s real body appeared beside him.

    Luckily, his background in the True Martial World was lower than the Magus World, so there was no one strong enough to detect the intrusion of the main body.

    Dante''s main body and virtual body nced at each other, and Dante felt amazed. This was the first time in his life he was seeing himself soˇ­ intricately. His virtual body looked different from his true body, bearing the former makeup he had before he gained all these powers and acquired the Eyes of Illusion as well.

    Dante was here in his main body but his AI chip could still connect to the quantum world outside. As such, Dante''s main body closed his eyes and ''logged'' into his ount and immediately his dull virtual avatar came to life and looked at him.

    Dante was once again shocked to see his true body from his avatar''s eyes. No mirror in the world could replicate the feeling of seeing yourself in the flesh. His main body opened his eyes and the two looked at each other.

    "It''s doable." They both said at the same time, before frowning.

    "It''s basically like an? echo. Unless I find a technique to split my mind, it is impossible to multitask. Both bodies would just mimic the same actions." They both said again, sighing.

    Another test failed.

    Dante left the quantum world with his true body with his Quantum Marker and then descended on his virtual body using his Quantum Transposition. In other words, it was the good old way of ''descending'' that he had done up to now.

    Feeling the power of his main body, he had a lot more confidence now. He exited his room and came to the courtyard, only to see a bored Jia Susu who was sweeping the ce listlessly.

    When she heard the door open and Dantee out, her face was filled with shock, then ecstasy. She ran over like a little rabbit and then hopped with joy.

    "Senior Brother! You''re back!"

    Dante smiled and patted her head. "That''s right. Tell me what happened since thest time I was here."

    A hint of fear appeared on Jia Susu''s face as she remembered the events of a month ago. Dante had exploded with so much power that she was sent flying and if not for her robes being buoyant and acting like a parachute, who knew what would have happened?

 Chapter 168 Protagonist Template: Caring Beggar Boy and Ill Younger Sister

    <h4>Chapter 168 Protagonist Temte: Caring Beggar Boy and Ill Younger Sister</h4>

    Dante listened to Jia Susu as she recounted the events, and his expressions eased. Unexpectedly, there was no big fallout. The three elders who made a move back then disappeared and were soon reced by new ones.

    It was said that they were sent out on important missions to the province capital, but all those who understood the Supreme Martial Hall''s hierarchy knew that this was impossible.

    However, no one came out to save or defend these elders. The core disciples especially seemed to enjoy what was going on as if watching a show. It was clear that each of them had likely been wronged in some way by these elders, so their affinity for them was very low.

    Especially Shui Binn, who was the most vicious. The Supreme Martial Hall released that information in order to give the elders face and not escte the issue, but the young woman directly said that it was likely those elders had betrayed the faction and had been sent for judgment.

    This caused those old fellows to lose facepletely, and as you could imagine, they were utterly furious but unable to do anything. Da Bo and Xia Bingyin, though, knew better and simply kept their heads under the water this time.

    As for Hao Donglei, he hadn''t been seen in a while. It was likely that he was working on what those three dead elders promised to cough up, though Dante did not much care for it.

    Dante nodded and nced at Jia Susu. The young girl tilted her head in puzzlement, not realizing that Dante was wondering whether to make her the protagonist of this world, but decided against it because this thing was still in the testing stage.

    As such, he gave her an Enhanced Energy Elixir and told her this was a treasure that Hao Donglei gave him, and after using it, she was not allowed to tell a single person about it.

    Excited, Jia Susu nodded her head rapidly like a cannon, and Dante had to quickly hold her lest she snap her own neck. After that, he left his residence but did not appear on the grounds.

    He simply teleported into the city and strolled around with a smile. Naturally, his Gi was a deterrent force to all onlookers, and they became greatly muted in his presence.

    Dante walked around the city once and then selected his target. It was a beggar boy who had a bedridden little sister that he was raising and protecting by indenturing himself to a local gang.

    Dante stopped beside the boy who was lying in a pool of his own blood as he had been beaten by his gang handler for trying to hide some money. Dante squatted and used his natural psychic abilities from his stats to read the boy''s mind and discover his history.

    Within the slums of Green Wind Cityy the humble abode of a beggar boy named Liang.

    Liang had known nothing but hardship from the day he was born. He came into this world clutching the hand of his frail younger sister, Mei, and fate had intertwined their lives ever since.

    The slums of Green Wind City were unforgiving, especially for orphans like them. Abandoned by their parents as mere infants, Liang and Mei had learned to fend for themselves in this hostile environment.

    From a young age, Liang had understood that to survive, one had to adapt, and adapt he did. He had be a familiar sight in the city''s bustling marketces, his tattered clothing and dirt-smeared face a testament to his life of begging.

    With his quick wit and earnest eyes, he often managed to coax a few copper coins or scraps of food from sympathetic passersby.

    But Liang''s life was not his alone to live. His devotion to Mei was unwavering. She was bedridden, gued by an ailment that had weakened her frail body.

    Every day, Liang would make the arduous journey to collect whatever meager provisions he could, and every night, he would sit by Mei''s side,forting her with tales of the city''s martial heroes and warrior legends.

    The city''s underbelly was rife with illegal martial halls, trashy gangs, and vices, but Liang had learned to navigate these treacherous waters.

    He had developed a keen sense of when to avoid trouble and when to seek help from the formidable martial artists who asionally passed through the slums.

    These warriors, with their awe-inspiring techniques and mysterious powers, often left Liang in awe.

    As the seasons changed and the years passed, Liang''s unwavering love for Mei only grew stronger. He dreamed of a day when he could afford to take her to a renowned healer, a day when she would rise from her sickbed, her sweetughter echoing through their modest dwelling.

    Liang wanted nothing more.

    Dante sighed. Thed was in a daze of pain and despair, since all the money he had saved to call a healer for his sister had been taken away and his already malnourished body was beaten to an almost crippled state.

    If he didn''t get medical help soon, he would never be able to recover, and his sister would never get to be healed.

    Dante sighed and injected the body with his subordinate AI chip nanites, which entered his body and began to repair the damage andy a foundation. Meanwhile, as the boy''s eyes began to regain their light, Dante looked into them, his own glowing amber eyes shining like the light from the heavens.

    In the shadowed annals of the modern world, there existed an assassin, a man of legend and whispers, known only as the Whispering Death.

    His name struck terror into the hearts of those who knew it, for he was the best in the world at what he did. The governments, the powers that be, even secret societies, all sought his services, but few dared to utter his name aloud.

    Born into a world of espionage and intrigue, the Whispering Death''s journey began in the dirtiest of alleys and the bleakest of underworlds.

    From a young age, he disyed an uncanny talent for stealth and an unquenchable thirst for skill. He was the perfect killer, a ghost that left no trace, a whisper that could silence even the most powerful of figures.

    His path was a trail of death and despair, his legend woven into the very fabric of the world''s power structures.

    Whether they were kings, queens, dictators, or generals, they all paid the Whispering Death''s exorbitant fees to eliminate their rivals and secure their reigns. He moved like a phantom through the world''s dark corners, his identity a mystery to all but a select few.

    But even the most elusive shadows are not immune to the ravages of time.

    The Whispering Death, for all his skill and cunning, could not escape the clutches of a terminal illness that slowly consumed his body.

    His strength waned, and his once-supple movements grew stiff and painful. The world watched as the feared assassin, who had toppled empires with a single stroke, withered away.

    In the dimly lit room where he spent his final days, the Whispering Death reflected on his life of shadows and silence.

    He had been a perfect weapon, a supreme tool, a peerless instrument of destruction, but now, as he faced the inevitability of death, he wished for something more.

    He longed to be born in a world where strength could be acquired through martial prowess, where he could have honed his body and spirit into a force to? be reckoned with.

    As his breaths grew shallow and his vision dimmed, he realized that in the pursuit of power and wealth, he had sacrificed the very essence of what it meant to be alive.

    In the end, the Whispering Death would not be a name etched in history, but a mere tool that had lost its edge and had to be sent to the scrapheap.

    And so, like this, the world''s greatest assassin met his demise, his body failing him, his legacy one of fear and shadows.

    In his final moments, he wished for a different life, a chance to be something more than a killer in the night, rather to be the bright stars that shone across thend.

    But as the darkness closed in around him, he found sce in the hope that in another world, another time, he might find the strength he had always yearned for.

    When he opened his eyes, he found that he was lying in a pool of blood, just like many of his victims had. He pushed himself up and felt that his body was much smaller and still weak, but he could feel the endless vitality and potential held within.

    "I amˇ­ Liang." The Whispering Death spoke for the first time in years, and it was to establish his identity.

    The Whispering Death was no more. He was Liang, the beggar boy whose only family was his little sister Mei, whose survival depended on him. Not only that, but his dream hade true; he was in a world of martial power where one could increase their personal strength to the limit!

    Clutching his fist, Liang stood up and sorted out his memories before knowing his first target; the gang that he had been working for. He would use their blood and corpses to pave the way for his rise, but he needed a way first.

    Just as Liang pondered what to do, a screen appeared before him with a familiar sound.

    [Ding! Detected that the host has awoken and decided to rise to the top. The God of War System has activated!]

 Chapter 169 Bottleneck

    <h4>Chapter 169 Bottleneck</h4>

    Dante left Liang to his devices. If Jameson was the type to develop silently while trying to fix his reputation, then Liang was going to be the ruthless n-genociding type who offended everyone and was chased up and down, but only got stronger and stronger.

    He was done here, so he returned his virtual body to the bed and left the True Martial World with his real body. He had less than two days until his next ss, so he spent them rxing in his room, something he hadn''t done in a long time.

    After doing this, he felt much better overall and seemed a bit refreshed. It was important to take a break every now and then. While attaining magical powers was intoxicating, it did not make you immune to stress and mental illness.

    In fact, it could be said that the rapid attainment of extraordinary power rather made a person more susceptible to mental issues because why else would anyone shout ''impudent'', ''arrogant'', or ''junior, you dare'' if they were mentally sane up there?

    When the day came, Dante exited his residence and saw the other students once more. This time, they didn''t dare to look at him directly, but it made no difference since Dante had reined in his aura and fully controlled his two magical powers.

    They took the teleporters to their destination and stood before their teachers. As usual, the teacher nced at Dante with greed and probing, but the events from thest session still weighed on their minds.

    Not only did Dante have some strange ability rted to fire, but that fire even struggled with the headmistress head on, meaning that it was not simple. Five teachers had been crippled by it, and the headmistress only needed to exert a little strength to end their lives.

    As it were, there was no value in trying to capture Dante until they were 100% sure they could escape. Now, with every week this damned boy came here, his superpower became stronger and stronger, catching up to them.

    If they knew that Dante''s SDI was higher than theirs, they would likely freak out and abandon all thoughts of capture unless he was outside the school and they could surround him with an armada of dreadnoughts.

    The teachers led their wards through the formal procedures and then through the gate into the cknd. Having seen the true Zero Gate and ck Land in his home universe, Dante began to observe this one carefully.

    He had assumed that this cknd was naturally formed, but he knew better. This expanse of soot-colored rock that extended as far as the eye could see was likely man-made, gathering all the fragmented asteroids as well as the deads andpressing them into a ne-like structure.

    But where was the gate?

    Dante had seen it with his own eyes, and even millions of kilometers away, he could not take the entire gate into his limited field of view as a mere human. No matter howrge this cknd was, one should be able to see the gate, even from outside the Eternal Academy.

    Unlessˇ­ they used technology to hide it? Maybe the entire horizon that was sunny and full of blue skies in front of him was fake? Yeah, that was damn obvious, how could there be a horizon on a ne?!

    Dante thought like this until Xue Bing and co brought them to the cabin. He could have teleported here, but there was no point in skipping the school bus by driving. It made you stand out, and your fellow students may cheer you on, but they would actually resent you inside.

    Moving to their familiar rooms, they each sat down on the cushion and switched up the incense.

    He immediately went into a trance and connected with the essence of his Quantum Entanglement superpower, which was like an endless void of emptiness, where only the thinnest strands of ethereal threads crisscrossed the darkness.

    These threads were the very essence of existence, the lifeblood of the universe, and they held the power to shape reality itself. However, grasping these threads, let alone understanding them, was a task of near limitless difficulty.

    Dante spent countless hours in meditation, delving deeper into the mysteries of his power. He knew that with each passing moment, he inched closer to unraveling the secrets hidden within these threads.

    His senses extended outward, and he felt the sturdy threads brushing against his consciousness, like strands of industrial-grade steel rope. He reached out tentatively, trying to establish a connection, in order tomunicate his will.

    The threads resisted, as they always did the past few times he tried this. They were elusive, slippery, like trying to catch a gust of wind with bare hands.

    Dante''s brow furrowed with concentration as he focused his mental energy, both from his high SDI and from his spiritual cores into the task. They gave him a huge advantagepared to others, but that advantage was negated because Quantum Entanglement was far more powerful than others.

    It was an annoying bnce, but it kinda made sense. If Dante could use powers from quantum worlds to increase his superpower - which allowed him to cultivate those powers in the first ce without dying - it would be like an infinite money glitch.

    Minutes seemingly turned into hours, but Dante persisted. What was painful was that unlike mindlessly absorbing energy, he was actively trying to understand and control the superpower, so he felt every minute passing, sort of like how it felt when it was time to study.

    He pushed his mind to its limits, exploring the intricate patterns and structures that made up the threads. He sensed their vibrations, their resonance with the universe, and he knew that they held the power to weave any reality he desired.

    A small breakthrough came when Dante felt a faint response, a quiver within the threads. It was like a whisper in the dark, a subtle acknowledgment of his presence. Hetched onto it, nurturing it, coaxing it to grow stronger.

    However, he was at his limit, and if he looked outside, he would see that smoke was literally wafting out of his ears as his brain was overheating, and his spiritual cores were trembling, small cracks forming on their crystal bodies.

    Dante opened his eyes and grabbed his head, rolling on the floor with his mouth open in silent agony. His body flushed itself and tried to knock him out in order to repair itself, but he knew this would take a while, so he opened his bloodshot eyes and teleported back to the home universe base, right into his Vitality Pool.

    The moment he entered it was like bacon touching hot oil as the water began to sizzle around Dante''s skull area, but the man himself only sighed with endless rxation and relief. In the end, the sheerfort made him rx and fall asleep, which elerated his recovery.

    Given his monstrous stats, he was not out for a few days, but only a few minutes before he was back in tip-top shape. Dante jumped out of the pool and spun in the air beforending easily, looking very cool as he did so.

    He flexed his taut muscles and checked his mind to find that everything was back to normal. His brain was fine, and his spiritual cores were shiny and pristine.

    After this experience, Dante was speechless. He had hit a small bottleneck in the acquisition of power systems because his body could not bear more until his stats and gic power were raised, and he had hit a bottleneck in the raising of his superpower because his body could not explore more until his stats were raised.

    What the heck!

    Dante was thoroughly embarrassed because the universe had given him a face p. Wasn''t he the same one who went on about how stats were not the most important thing and that superpowers as well as other abilities could negate stats?

    Now, wasn''t he the same one who was knocked out not because his superpower couldn''t take it, but because he himself couldn''t? Tsk, tsk, how embarrassing. This was why 21-year-old young men should not think they knew everything even though they had superpowers.

    Welp, his actions now were clear. He needed to get up off his ass and practice his physical methods to the limit as quickly as possible and then grit his teeth and head to the student enhancement center.

    While he may not have enough Supercoins to get thetest one, he had enough to upgrade his AI chip, Bionics, and Psionics by one level, which should increase his output.

    Also, he had to go for his free gene treatment and use that to stabilize himself. Dante would have to make some backup ns for that to protect himself from the greedy teachers who might attack him the moment he went under.

    After all, the gene treatment process, while easier than breaking through in External Martial Art and Knight Breathing, had the inescapable limitation of needing him to go under for about 24 hours.

    That was a long time to be vulnerable.

 Chapter 170 Danteâ€™s Power Is Revealed

    <h4>Chapter 170 Dante''s Power Is Revealed</h4>

    He scratched the back of his head and checked the time. It had only been about 3 days since the session began, and he was quite impressed that he was able to hold out for so long despite overheating.

    He felt that it had a lot to do with both his high Constitution and Vitality protecting his vitals and rapidly restoring them even as they were damaged. Dante was certain now that the reason he had to leave was not entirely because he was weak, but because he ran out of juice.

    It also made sense as to why the Energy Pool restored him because it did not possess any healing effects, just energy restoration. The healing was done by his body alone.

    However, Dante looked at the progress he made, which was about 10%, and was left speechless. All that effort just for this? Then there was no point in rushing toprehend until he raised his stats higher as he thought.

    Since there were 4 days left in the session, Dante decided to return and absorb zero energy instead. After all, whileprehension was required for the C rank and above, there was also a requirement for energy absorption, otherwise those alumini would not care so much about the ck Land.

    As such, he teleported back and spent the next four days absorbing zero energy while in a peaceful trance, reaching about 40% of the requirements needed to hit the C Rank. Dante was beginning to understand why it was so hard for students to even reach the C rank by graduation.

    They got about 10 weeks a year to go to the ck Land. Their stats were leagues lower than Dante''s, so even if their superpowers were mediocre, they could notprehend as easily as he did.

    Most had poor absorption speed so by the time they reached final year, they might only just have reached the D rank. There was literally no one who reached the D rank as fast as Dante, except anomalies like the headmistress who reached the A rank before graduation.

    Even Humphrey and Slessor were still at the E rank, still struggling to absorb enough to reach the D rank, much less startprehending in order to reach the C Rank. Whether it was in terms of talent or growth potential, Dante had never felt pressure from his peers.

    When the session came to an end, the students were gathered by the teachers but were not dispersed. Instead, Xue Bing came forth with a smile and spoke straightforwardly.

    "Today is July 15th, and we are halfway through to the opening date of the Zero Gate. As such, it''s time for you lot to start your targeted training for the expedition into that dangerous ceter this year."

    The students were not surprised by this as this was stated in their sybus. Besides, it wasmon sense to train them a little before they went in; otherwise, they would just be throwing lives away.

    "Well, the content of your training is twofold. You will first enter a virtual world that is replicated from the true world behind the Zero Gate and the various known dangers inside. There is the instanced version where you will be made to fulfill various objectives on your own, and the shared versionter where you will directlypete against each other."

    "The second part is the survival training. This one is a mixture of training, and the school giving you some free benefits and enhancements in exchange for resources you will be tasked to bring back from the Zero Gate."

    Xue Bing nodded to the students. "I assume you all understand because I can''t be bothered to repeat it. First things first, all of you will follow us to the Student Enhancement Center to record your current SDI and level of enhancements you that we can gauge how to train you optimally as well as how much you can grow."

    Many students did not seem worried by this, but Dante''s eyes narrowed. Just as well, he wasn''t scared because his circumstances pushed him to go back to that ce in order to further his power, but he made sure to send a message to Beatrice just in case.

    Xue Bing led the students to the student enhancement center, which was - as usual - choked to the brim. When the students saw an entire ss of Unique Batch fellows being led in by a teacher, they seemed startled and realized that yeah, it was that time of the year again.

    Of course, this was only for those in the second year and above. The smattering of students from the first year Normal and Elite Batch were absolutely clueless and craned their necks to see what was going on.

    Luckily, the student enhancement center had a special VIP room reserved for such things and handled the students quickly. Rather than rely on their AI chips, they performed a full-body scan that was more in-depth than what the AI chip could surmise.

    Dante was around the middle and went up into the scanner calmly. The other students naturally looked over, curious to know the stats of the so-called number 1 student with endless talent, while the teachers did not care.

    After all, Dante''s fellow students did not have ess to the central AI and could not be authorized to see his stats that he uploaded when he first came here, but the teachers could.

    And oh, you could be sure as hell that they researched the shit out of Dante when he first showed his brilliance. Seeing that he had 10.5 in each field, they understood that he was not a weakling but was also not someone they needed to worry about.

    When the machine scanned him, it beeped and disyed the results, which was natural for schools in order to galvanizepetition between students.

    No matter how much you wanted to hide your results, your teachers would still announce them. However, when the students and teachers saw Dante results, there was a period of silence as everyone''s jaws collectively dropped.

    It was only when Dante got down from the scanner and walked casually to stand by the side, away from his fellow students and teacher, that everyone reacted.

    Gasps and whispers filled the air as the Unique Batch of students crowded around the holographic disy.

    "Look at that SDI!"

    "It can''t be real, can it?"

    "That human''s stats are off the charts!"

    "Did he cheat somehow?"

    "Is this some kind of joke?"

    "He''s broken a record or something, right?!"

    "He''s a monster!"

    "Oh God, what the fuck!"

    "How? How?? HOW???"

    The shock in the room was palpable as they all stared at the screen, unable toprehend the incredible numbers disyed for Dante''s Standard Disy Index.

    The five teachers, including Xue Bing, gathered around the holographic disy, their expressions a mix of disbelief and astonishment.

    "Look at those numbers..."

    "This is unprecedented!"

    "Is this some kind of error?"

    "Dante... He''s a true prodigy."

    "I''ve never seen anything like this before."

    Their hushed dialogue mirrored the astonishment of the students, as they tried to make sense of Dante''s extraordinary Standard Disy Index.

    At this moment, even the headmistress, Lara, who was casually rxing in her seat in her office, received a ping from the central AI about Dante''s stats since she had put it to monitor him.

    When she saw his changes, her eyes narrowed but she did not seem too impressed. Rather, what she said next would shock anyone who knew how explosive Dante''s growth was.

    "Too slow. He''s so weak it''s disgusting to look at. Should I stop bothering with him?" she muttered to herself.

    She hesitated for a short while before lowering Dante''s priority to just above low, which was a huge drop from high. Still, he was still second on the list as the first was, quite shockingly but understandably, Beatrice Portinari!

    At this time, Dante did not know that he had been disdained and almost cklisted by the headmistress for his results which caused his peers to froth at the mouth and his teachers to feel fear for the first time.

    Then again, it was a matter of perspective. The height that Lara stood was not something that either Dante nor Beatrice could understand, and frankly, very few in the Eternal Universe did.

    Just what was her goal? If she was so strong and awesome, why the heck was she sitting in this position of headmistress and not frolicking with people of her power level, whatever level that was?

    The question was unanswerable at the moment. What could be answered though, was that Dante''s strength revtion had put to bed many of the hostile thoughts against him by the teachers.

    The reason they usually saw him as easy prey was that his SDI was so low that they could pummel him a hundred times before he could even react to a single fart of theirs.

    Now, that was clearly no longer the case.

 Chapter 171 The Despair Of The First Years

    ?

    Whatever the case, Dante could rest slightly easier. As long as he stayed away from obvious traps, he was mostly fine.

    The show went on as other students went up to have their SDI scanned, but how could anyone be proud even if the numbers were quite high? Compared to Dante, they felt like trash.

    However, as more and more students went up, the initial hype and excitement died down as the students became grim, realizing something their young minds failed to ount for while they were making noise about Dante''s ability.

    And that was the simple fact that Dante was not someone they should idolize, but fear! He was their directpetitor in the Zero Gate, a ce where technology and weapons did not work, only one''s SDI, special characteristic, and superpower!

    They should not be cheering or eximing but rather be plotting how to deal with him. After all, precisely because technology did not work behind the Zero Gate. What went on within was unknown to the school or outside forces minus what those who came out verbally shared.

    So if they met Dante within, their oue could be imagined. It didn''t matter if they had ultra superpowers that were super amazing, because there was no point if your head was crushed to paste before you could even think of using it.

    This was also Beatrice''s confidence in defeating the seemingly overpowered headmistress of the Eternal Academy. She could have a hundred or more superpowers if she wanted, but unless those superpowers could raise her stats to the same level as Beatrice or grant her some form of invincibility as well as immunity to death, Beatrice could just walk over at a speed that Lara''s mind could not follow and twist her neck off her head.

    By the time the test came to an end, the atmosphere was oppressive. The stats of his ssmates hade out and coupled with their superpowers, Dante marked the top 5petitors he would face in the Zero Gate.

    **?Student: Slessor Mckailen**

    **Age: 18 (Converted to Earth years)**

    **Race: Lamia**

    **Strength Index: 76**

    **Agility Index: 34**

    **Dexterity Index: 43**

    **Intelligence Index: 122**

    **Constitution Index: 55**

    **Vitality Index: 102**

    **Bionic Level: Unknown**

    **Psionic level: Unknown**

    **AI Chip level: Unknown**

    **Superpowers: Spatial Folding (Rank: E, Potency: SS, Potential: SSS.)?**

    **?Student: Humphrey Lottin**

    **Age: 19 (Converted to Earth years)**

    **Race: Elf**

    **Strength Index: 33**

    **Agility Index: 89**

    **Dexterity Index: 109**

    **Intelligence Index: 128**

    **Constitution Index: 15**

    **Vitality Index: 77**

    **Bionic Level: Unknown**

    **Psionic level: Unknown**

    **AI Chip level: Unknown**

    **Superpowers: Aerogenesis (Rank: E, Potency: SS, Potential: SSS.)?**

    **?Student: Zara''el Ziran**

    **Age: 22 (Converted to Earth years)**

    **Race: D''Rak''Shi**

    **Strength Index: 94**

    **Agility Index: 112**

    **Dexterity Index: 65**

    **Intelligence Index: 166**

    **Constitution Index: 121**

    **Vitality Index: 98**

    **Bionic Level: Unknown**

    **Psionic level: Unknown**

    **AI Chip level: Unknown**

    **Superpowers: Psionic Control (Rank: E, Potency: A, Potential: S.)?**

    **?Student: Grak''tar Thal**

    **Age: 25 (Converted to Earth years)**

    **Race: Xylothian**

    **Strength Index: 134**

    **Agility Index: 23**

    **Dexterity Index: 88**

    **Intelligence Index: 72**

    **Constitution Index: 112**

    **Vitality Index: 145**

    **Bionic Level: Unknown**

    **Psionic level: Unknown**

    **AI Chip level: Unknown**

    **Superpowers: Energy Absorption (Rank: E, Potency: S, Potential: SS.)?**

    **?Student: Fre Rovik**

    **Age: 20 (Converted to Earth years)**

    **Race: Vortarian**

    **Strength Index: 78**

    **Agility Index: 92**

    **Dexterity Index: 64**

    **Intelligence Index: 105**

    **Constitution Index: 97**

    **Vitality Index: 84**

    **Bionic Level: Unknown**

    **Psionic level: Unknown**

    **AI Chip level: Unknown**

    **Superpowers: Phase Shifting (Rank: E, Potency: A, Potential: S.)?**

    Apart from Humphrey and Slessor, there were obviously some talented fellows among Dante''s batch. It was just that he did not have time nor energy to care about them before because they were not as ''exemry'' as the top 3.

    However, to others, they were titans of their field. When Dante saw that most of the students had such high stats - converted into the average for pure humans, of course - his expression became serious.

    Imagine if he never unlocked the power to enter Quantum Worlds and never got the Absorption superpower from the Apocalypse World. How was he supposed topete in terms of SDI when he only had 10.5 points back then and his genes had yet to stabilize?

    Even if he managed to squeeze in another injection before the actual event started, he would at most reach 30 points in all fields, which would make him easy pickings for these other students.

    And thinking like this, Dante could understand how his fellow students felt in regards to his existence since he was a monster. The gap he would have had between them would have pressured him day and night toe up with strategies to deal with his strongerpetitors, but now they were the ones having to draw up strategies to deal with him!

    This difference in perspective and situation made him understand the importance of power deeply.

    In truth, as a young man from peaceful little Earth, Dante had loved watching shows and reading novels with deep power systems and power-focused main characters, but he had never been able to truly understand their craving for power.

    Yeah, they had a big bad to defeat at the end of the season/series, but then whates after? Whates when you reach the top, when no one can say no to you and no one can challenge you nor get your blood pumping?

    But now, looking at the faces of despair on his ssmates at the thought of dealing with him, and thinking about the despair he would have been feeling had he not forged forward with determination due to his own personal ambition, Dante somewhat understood.

    He still did not agree to the idea of bing limitlessly powerful or having eternal life, but he understood that for his goals to be achieved, he needed to be sufficiently stronger than the biggest obstacle in his path.

    And that would be his way forward.

    "Well, you fellows look like you''ve seen a ghost haha. Is Dante that scary? I don''t think so," Xue Bing said with a smile.

    It couldn''t be helped, although Dante was her student, she couldn''t just ignore the rest and leave them in the pits of despair. She was generally in charge of this entire batch because of her mentorship of Dante so if they had poor results, even if Dante seeded she might face repercussions.

    Hearing what Xue Bing said, the other students nced at her with skepticism. Even Dante looked over with amusement, wondering what lie she was going to tell them in order to lift their spirits.

    "In truth, Dante cannot easily be beaten, so you are right to be scared. However, just because he cannot be beat directly doesn''t mean that you have to fight him."

    Xue Bing smiled pointedly. "If you cannot beat him, why not join him? Not only do you guarantee your life and safety, but he may even give you some benefits on the side."

    The students were thoroughly stunned by what she said and even Dante himself was stupefied. The other teachers though, had their expressions change greatly as they flew into a thunderous rage.

    "XUE BING, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

    "HOW DARE YOU?!"

    "REPORT HER! REPORT HER FOR MANIPULATION!"

    "DAMN YOU XUE BING!!"

    They roared with fury and indignation, but Xue Bing seemed unbothered. After all, what she said, while a bit hical, was not wrong. Why should she care that these teachers and the factions behind them hated to hear that their ''workers'' would all serve one person unaffiliated to them?

    However, the students didn''t see it that way. Those in the top 10 naturally felt resistant to this and had their own ns, Slessor and Humphrey especially throwing the very notion out of their heads.

    Although, the normal students were more inclined to this as their eyes shed with a deep light. Many were sponsored toe here by various factions, much like Dante, and those factions were not like the Portinari n who did not dare make demands of Dante because of Beatrice.

    Their ns or factions had put various restrictions and methods on them to ensure that they got what they wanted after sponsoring you. In the eyes of the ns and factions, you are already a natural-born superpower holder, what do you need a second one for?

    You would struggle to even raise your main superpower to the A grade in this life, so why have two and be mediocre in both? Rather, was it not more logical that you get to cultivate in the Eternal Academy with our sponsorship and then fight for more Fruits of Condensation so the faction can produce other superpowered members?

    This was the arrangement for nearly all the students, from the first year to the fifth year. This was also what all the factions assumed Dante was under, so they nced at the Portinari n enviously and sourly, but how could they know that the Portinari n was basically a simp for Dante, paying the bills without getting even a single kiss back?

    Sigh, the Portinari n was so sad!

 Chapter 172 Zero Gate World Descent!

    ?

    "Anyway, let''s begin the exercise now, shall we? In the real Zero Gate, you will have 30 days from the 1st of December to explore the realm before rushing back to the gate and returning to this side, or you would have to survive there for an entire year."

    Xue Bing sneered. "Don''t think you can be smart and hide in there to cultivate for the rest of your life. The Zero Gate''s opening suppresses the power of the lifeforms and dangers within, so after the 30 days pass and the suppression ends, even the headmistress cannot guarantee her life."

    The faces of many students who had a devilish twinkle in their eye changed as fear filled them. They had nned to be like visa deserters, obtaining a temporary visa to enter another country and then disappearing into the crowd when they got there.

    However, hearing that even the mighty headmistress who was seen as a symbol of invincibility by all beings of the universe could not survive for long, they immediately tamped down their arrogance and extinguished that thought.

    Dante''s brow furrowed as he nned to leave a quantum marker in the Zero Gate and teleport in at his leisure to explore as well as learn more. However, if the dangers were so severe, then he would have to elerate his power growth in all aspects and stop wasting time.

    "Right, so in this simted Zero Gate world, you will also spend the next 30 days from today in there, so you can opt to use the provided pods to secure your bodies or use your own method, we don''t care."

    "Just do not leave the world no matter what because we are going to act like it''s the real thing, obviously. If you can log out at the slightest inconvenience, you will definitely die when the real thinges."

    Xue Bing waved her hand boredly when she saw that many students had questions. "Also, you can flout the rules, we don''t care, however, your eligibility to enter the Zero Gate will be removed. Also, I am not answering any questions, just get in there and seed however you can."

    Many students were left speechless. What azy and ipetent teacher. Looking at the smug and disdainful faces of the other four, it was clear that they had no intention of answering any questions and would rather leave them to find the answers themselves the hard way.

    If it wasn''t for the fact that they were not sure of how strong she was, many would have attacked Xue Bing on the spot and pummeled her face into the ground. As for Dante, he naturally rubbed his chin and decided to leave his body in Beatrice''s care because one never knew.

    "Right, you lot can go to wherever you n to enter the Etraverse from. You will notice that a new world has opened up for you to select called the Zero Gate World. Select that and queue up for descent in at most 30 minutes!" Xue Bing instructed and walked into another room with pods.

    Many students followed her in but a few left the student enhancement center, nning to entrust their bodies to someone or something much safer. As for Dante, he saw a teacher walk over to him with a friendly smile.

    "Student Dante, why don''t youˇ­ hey!"

    Dante ignored the fellow and teleported away into the Inferno Battleship. He had no intention of listening to garbage that woulde from the fellow''s mouth, as after all, the only thing he would do was solicit Dante.

    The other teachers nced at the ignored one who had an ugly expression and could not help but feel a hint of pity and disdain. Obviously, the Portinari n had brainwashed and secured the fellow thoroughly given his talent and power, how could his meager attempt at solicitation work?

    Meanwhile, on the ship, Dante told Beatrice about the ss details, and she graciously led him into a pod. Since the technology came from this universe anyway, she gave him a pod simr to his vitality pool which continuously injected high-grade energy into his body to maintain his high requirement life functions.

    Once he went in, Dante red at Beatrice who had a victorious expression and stated very straightforwardly. "I''ll make sure to use my hellfire to cover my lower body so don''t try anything."

    Unfortunately, it backfired greatly as Beatrice sneered. "With my power, that little bit of fire cannot do anything."

    Then her expression became lecherous as she closed the pod on Dante. "Besides, I like my sausage a bit hot~"

    Dante''s expression shifted, but he could only pray for providence as he went under. He scrolled through the avable school worlds and saw the one for the current world they were about to enter.

    [World Name: Zero Gate World (Beginner)

    World Owner: Eternal Academy

    World Creator: Eternal Academy

    World Size: Small

    World Type: Instanced

    World Genre: Survival/Exploration

    Bionics Allowed: No

    Psionics Allowed: No

    Superpowers Allowed: Yes

    Requirements: Student ID

    Duration: 30 days

    Description: This is a recreation of the world behind the Zero Gate that has been refined countless times over the centuries to suit the true nature of what exists. The world behind the Zero Gate is randomly shuffled each time upon entry, but the archetype of the dangers and benefits that exist are traceable after so many voyages within.

    Objectives: Survive for 30 days to pass and acquire as many Fruits of Condensation as possible.

    Limitations: No Bionics, Psionics, or AI chips like in reality. One cannot leave the world until they either die orplete the tasks.

    Provisions: Your body is perfectly scanned and replicated to its truest extent, allowing you to use all your powers and abilities freely. This world is instanced, so there is nopetition with other students.]

    Dante entered the world and descended immediately. He found himself within a lush forest with strange colorations. Unlike the greenish color of a typical forest, this ce was mostly a lustrous ck with hints of deep purple.

    It was strangely beautiful and aesthetic in a way that Dante could not easily describe. He then scanned his body to find that his full 1500 points SDI was present given his strength, and he could feel his hellfire and spiritual cores perfectly.

    Dante''s expression changed slightly, and his eyes shed. Now he was certain that there was no way the Eternal Academy worlds were built using just quantum code because it was impossible to replicate things this well.

    There was likely a superpower or two involved in the creation and stabilization of these worlds, which would make so much sense given abnormal quantum worlds like the Apocalypse World.

    Why did Dante say this? Well, he had entered other worlds where superpowers were allowed before, but none could replicate his two magical methods. Otherwise, he wouldn''t have to enter with his real body all the time if he wanted to use his special powers.

    Also, his quantum body was the reason he could use power systems of quantum worlds, so this world had to be able to replicate his quantum body from his real body. Without his quantum body, Dante would have long been burned up by his hellfire or crushed by his spiritual cores.

    Not to mention his almighty Eyes of Illusion. Dante blinked twice and could feel them working at full power, which made him all the more serious. However, everything was predicated on his survival first.

    And more than the monsters or ambient dangers of this world, what Dante feared was running out of energy. Luckily, he was spawned at full power because it was assumed that he would be smart enough to recharge his tank before he actually entered the real thing.

    Dante released a bit of hellfire on the surrounding vegetation and then retracted it. He smiled when he found that his Gluttonous Inferno could extract the vitality of these nts to supply him with energy for sustenance, so as long as life existed here, he should be like a perpetual motion engine.

    What surprised him, though, was the fact that even after being drained, these nts did not die but quickly recovered. Due to his superpower, Dante could obviously sense the endless Zero Energy in the air, or at least, the Zero Energy replicated by this quantum world.

    This energy was absorbed by the nts, and they returned to full health. This gave Dante an idea as he quickly entered with his real body and tried to absorb the Zero Energy in the quantum world to fill his tank.

    However, he obviously ended up smacking his lips with a wry smile. It would be too easy to expect such a thing to work, and he would be insulting his superpower and all superpowers if he thought such a thing would work.

    He returned his real body to the outside world and began to survey the area with his spirit sense that reached 1500 meters, making a full spherical scan that went into the sky and down below into the earth.

    Immediately, his face changed as he noticed extensive underground activity by what looked to be millions of giant termites that could manipte the earth like it was water.

 Chapter 173 Exploring The Virtual Zero Gate World

    ?

    Hm? What was that? How was it possible for these termites to control the earth element?

    Brother, you must be joking. These fellows originate from the world in which superpowers were born; of course, they had superpowers themselves. Otherwise, how could they even be a threat to the students or even Headmistress Lara?

    Dante''s expression became serious. Without his AI chip, he could not identify them using the database or gauge their stats, but had to do it manually using his own estimation. He found this quite refreshing and interesting, but his face changed slightly when a group of 10 giant termites rushed towards his location.

    They broke out of the earth and then faced Dante with their mandibles cking with amusement and malice. Dante''s expression changed slightly when he felt a wave of earth begin to climb up his feet rapidly and try to trap him.

    He exploded with hellfire that surged into the area 15,000 meters around him wantonly, burning the ground and vegetation in the entire radius without scruples.

    Because he had unlocked Gluttonous Inferno, his fire immediately ''devoured'' anything in the range without wasting it, so when Dante retrieved it using his spirit sense, he got a huge boost of energy.

    His foes, though, were not pleased. They screeched in agony as they were roasted alive, quickly covering themselves withyers of earth to suppress and douse the fire. It did not work since Dante had also unlocked the level 3 Lustful Ignition, which ignored all physical defenses and directly burned the mind.

    So unless you were a being like a wizard from the Magus World who specifically refined the mind or went down the mental path, you would have your consciousness burned to a crisp.

    What was interesting here, though, was the fact that by doing so, the hellfire Dante sent attached itself to the hivework that governed these termites and began spreading like a gue.

    You could view the mindwork to be like a typical spider''s web, with various nodes, connections, and passages. Now you could picture that one or two nodes were lit on fire and then the fire began crazily spreading across the entire web, burning everything as it aimed to consume it all.

    In reality, it meant that the giant termites standing before Dante had their beady ck eyes light up in fire, like a cartoon rendition of a person who was ''fired up'' or excited, but it actually meant that their brains were turned into ash.

    They slumped to the ground, dead as you would expect. However, through an invisible connection, we couldn''t see in our ne of existence, that fire spread elsewhere.

    Through Dante''s spirit sense, he saw the hundreds of termites below who disdained to deal with him suddenly stopped and screeched in agony as their eyes lit up in mes, their bodies slumping as smoke exited those now scorched sockets.

    An entire hive was destroyed just like that, and there should have been more at their nest, including their queen, who was also affected by this. Dante suddenly understood the terrifying effect of his magical methods, but he knew that the Inferno Ascension technique should not have an effect like this normally.

    Otherwise, Internal Arts would be surpassing even Immortal Cultivation techniques. To achieve this kind of kill, one needed to have Golden Core Dharma power at the least.

    ording to themon sense of the True Martial World, when Dante reached the 10th level and generated True Qi, he would be equivalent to a peak Foundation Establishment at best and could grow endlessly, but very slowly.

    So Dante knew that this effect of ''leaping over'' was probably due to the nature of Quantum Entanglement which hosted his magical and physical methods. If one thought about the nature of Quantum Entanglement and Quantum Networks, then it kinda added up.

    Whatever the case, Dante had an understanding of his power. While he couldn''t exactly scale the true power and hierarchy of the beings in this virtual Zero Gate world, he could tell that a person with around 30 points in SDI could not take down even one giant termite unless they had madbat skills.

    So for now, he would personally grade them at the ''F'' rank in terms of danger. This ranking was not objective but was based on his ability to deal with the monster, so it was personal to him.

    Dante nced at the extremely withered ''clearing'' he had created by crazily unleashing his mes and felt like an arsonist. He had to refine hisbat senses a bit more and be efficient with his usage of power because he couldn''t always fight like he was on the street.

    Luckily, he still had his space element spells, which were easier to control since they directly used mind power and mental control. Even then, he had to be careful and factor in the fact that he was now a 3rd Rank Advanced Wizard and had three fully condensed 500-point intelligence spiritual cores full of space elements.

    So even his 1st Rank Space Spells will hit like genuine 4th Rank space spells. With that in mind, Dante first cast the 2nd Rank Dimensional Shield, which formed a wave of purple shes around him, looking simr to Ichigo''s multish when he first unlocked his bankai.

    However, the ones that formed the shield moved much more slowly and stayed visible for a while before disappearing. Dante found that his movement was naturally unhindered by this and charged forward while keeping his spirit sense active continuously.

    In the end, he found that there was a surprisingly high density of lifeforms around him, either in the air or in the vegetation around him. Since he was moving at speeds bordering madness.

    Ever since he reached 1500 points in all fields, hisprehensive power was no longer simple. To find descriptions for them, Dante had to dig deep.

    In terms of strength, Dante could use the wind from his fist to crush a diamond into dust. If a pure human of this universe had a punching power of 800-1000 pounds of force, then it meant that Dante could punch with 1,200,000 pounds of force!

    No, that wasn''t just a big number; its implications were serious. This was strength literally on par with Superman in modernics, able to punch beings into outer space from earth or to create a giant dent in the crust.

    Hm, it was about equivalent to Vegeta''s full power at the end of the Buu Saga. That was how devastating it was.

    In terms of Agility, if he took even a baby step forward, it could end up being like a full-power shunpo, with him appearing miles away. His current max speed was lying at mach 61.5, at 75,000 km/h.

    Without special clothing he was given when he dropped, he would have likely burst into zing mes and been left naked. Even more shockingly, thendscape of the Zero Gate world was not pressured by the force of his movement nor his momentum.

    In terms of Dexterity, well, it was hard to give aparison here. Basically, in the span of a second or in the eyes of a normal person with 1 point in all fields, Dante could make himself look genuinely like the thousand-armed Buddha just by moving his hands a bit.

    Like the sh, if he spun his arms in a circle, he could probably create a tornado that could wipe out half of a continent. If he spun his arm counter-clockwise, then he could create a mini-ck hole area with the gravitational force of at least Jupiter.

    In terms of Intelligence, Dante was not much smarter in terms of cunning or logical processing. Critical thinking, which was what most expected Intelligence in this case to refer to. His Intelligence here was basically rawputing power, meaning that his brain could do things faster.

    The ''hardware'' - his actual brain itself - was upgraded, but the ''software'' - his IQ,mon sense, and logic - was the same. So it was entirely possible to have 1 million intelligence and still be the biggest idiot in the universe.

    However, a powerful brain did have great benefits because it could now use the waves it emitted to control the world around it, which formed various psychic powers. Previously, Dante only had telekinesis and telepathy, but now he could perform simple transvection if he wanted to.

    In terms of Constitution, well, Dante could take a full-power massive rasengan to the gut and not even feel dizzy from the cutting and spinning force. He could also block a kamehameˇ­ okay no, that was a bit much.

    If ki sts could destroys, then a full-power energy wave would turn Dante into ash. However, Dante could go toe to toe with the likes of Superman and co. He could tank their punches, be sent crashing through countless buildings, and still not bleed, but he was not invincible.

    As for Vitality, in this regard, he would probably be able to regenerateˇ­ well, not from a drop of blood, but with enough energy, he could return from anything outside ofplete disintegration.

    Even beheading was not enough, and he no longer had any fatal zones on his body.

 Chapter 174 The Treacherous Zero Gate World

    <h4>Chapter 174 The Treacherous Zero Gate World</h4>

    At his current speed, Dante had already crossed more than 300,000 kilometers while running for just about 4 hours. Yet, despite this, he did not see an end to the forest he was in, nor did he reach the end of the world.

    This confused Dante as he stopped, his body smoking and releasing waves of heat that caused distortions in the air. This had nothing to do with his hellfire but from the heat he had built up traveling at such speeds with no real barrier around him except his skin.

    He panted slightly, like a person who had run for a bit and was only lightly exhausted. There were slight beads of sweat on his forehead due to the exertion, but it was quickly evaporated by the heating off him due to the friction.

    Dante sighed as he gauged what he had seen with his mind on the way here, making full use of his powerful brain to calcte everything. It should be obvious that at this level of Intelligence, Dante had a photographic memory.

    By doing this, he smiled as he had found a problem. There were many beasts and scenes that he had seen on repeat as he traveled the entire distance until he got here.

    In other words, Dante had fallen into an illusion that was based on looping circumstances!

    The very idea was ridiculous if you thought about it, but reality was often that unfunny and obnoxious.

    Dante, with the most powerful illusion ability with his eyes, his SDI that was in the top 1% of the Eternal Universe, his hellfire which automatically resisted such a thing by burning them in his mind, and his spiritual cores which made him resistant to all mental rted effects regardless of his element, was caught in an illusion.

    It was as if one were being told that there was a mysophobic pig or that a fish had drowned in the sea.

    Dante analyzed that whatever put the illusion on him was truly fearsome and powerful. This could only be the effect of a superpower, and it made sense since superpowers were naturally stronger than magical methods.

    After all, every one of Dante''s magical methods was only as strong as his Quantum Entanglement, which was partly why he wanted more superpowers.

    Dante realized that he was probably not seeing a fake realm but rather was running in circles. It was likely that the illusions should have been the type topletely incapacitate him and leave him free for the caster to kill at their leisure.

    However, Dante''s various methods and defenses reduced the effect till it reached the stage where he was only directionally confused. Dante wondered two things, what rank the assumed superpower was and how it had been cast on him.

    Dante decided to stop relying on his legs to move and spread out his spirit sense to decide his direction. This illusion could barely mess with him, only hindering his sense of direction, not even hindering his vision so it definitely could not hinder his spirit sense which was esoteric.

    Dante scanned himself and his area to see that regardless of moving in circles or not, he had traversed quite a distance because as we all knew, unless it was strictly nned and maintained, it was impossible for a human to run in a perfect circle more than a set number of times.

    Without lines like those on Olympic tracks to guide you, one would deviate slightly with eachp, and when you considered how fast Dante was going, his current location was definitely a few hundred kilometers away from where he dropped.

    All he scanned was the endless forest around him and arge monster that was trembling in its nearby cave that was up on a nearby cliff as it looked down on him, wondering why this monster of lotion had stopped.

    The monster was in the form of arge badger with huge ws that could likely tear steel apart. If any student met it, they would have to fight a desperate ranged battle in order to prevent it from getting closer and mauling them into pieces.

    Dante had an idea as he looked at it. He used his 1st Rank Blink Step to disappear from where he was and appear behind the carefully scouting monster that was looking over the edge.

    Dante was pleased that his spatial senses at least were not messed up and that as long as he could knuckle down the coordinates through his spirit sense, he could safely teleport anywhere even when his sense of direction was messed up.

    This showed the versatility and the spirit sense and also told Dante that he had to learn how to protect it from outside influence. He would definitely need to pay the Immortal World a visit and acquire some spirit sense cultivation methods.

    Those ones didn''t require a spirit root, but only a spirit sense, so it should be possible for him to practice it.

    Anyway, he focused back onto the monster that was now puzzled as to where he had disappeared to and then cast the 1st Rank spell, Celestial Tether! This allowed him to link his mind to another andmunicate in a two-way manner as well as share thoughts and images.

    Dante was amused by its mental questions as to what he was and the fact that it named him a ''lotion demon''. Since he cast the Celestial Tether and had control over it, he could decide whether or not to share his thoughts to the other but the monster could not do such.

    "Hey, tell me all you know about this world, this area and where the nearest tree is and I''ll let you live." Dante spoke mentally, making his voice thunderous and oppressive in its mind.

    The beast froze as blood leaked out from its ears and it slumped to the ground in pain. Its thoughts were jumbled, but it cycled through many things like its life, its mate, its knowledge, and the scene of it peeking through some bushes at a group of stronger monsters fighting near a giant tree for the single golden fruit that hung off its branches.

    Dante did not even need it to reply; he got the answer on his own from its thoughts. As such, he cut the connection and left the beast there while teleporting away. If he had been in the real Zero Gate, he would not let a potential future threat live, whether it seemed pitiful or not.

    However, this was just a virtual world created to replicate the environment of the Zero Gate. It would suffice that he had an understanding of it, but if he based the real thing 100% on what he saw here, he would be harming himself when the time actually came to enter.

    After all, the real Zero Gate world, upon each opening, shifted up greatly. One could say that it was procedurally generated every single instance, though the entire world was shared for the students who entered it.

    Dante sat down and meditated, using the force of his various techniques to whittle down the remnant effect of the illusion on him. When he checked to see that he could move correctly byparing his directional movement with his eyes along with his directional movement with his spirit sense, he was satisfied.

    As for actually falling, he was not worried. The main reason was that his SDI and various methods were not high enough. When he was done with this spell of training, he would naturally advance them further and also advance his stats.

    When his Inferno Ascension technique reached the 10th stage and generated True Qi, he would like to see who could outmaneuver him under an illusion, superpower or not. When he had 10 brilliant spiritual cores full of potent space elements, he would like to see how any mental influence could bypass them!

    Dante began moving toward the location of the tree in the badger monster''s memory rapidly, and it was not too far from here given his speed. It was less than 200 kilometers away, which, given Dante''s speed, was crossed in seconds.

    Since this environment was to simte when the Zero Gate opened, it meant that the fruits were already ripe and could be taken. This was perfect for the students who only needed to swipe it and leave.

    Of course, Dante now encountered what was the biggest headache of the students who entered this world during their 5-year tutge. A bunch of powerful and menacing-looking monsters surrounded the tree, manifesting their potent superpowers to each other to ward the other off.

    It was a tense and frightening scene, full of gunpowder. The slightest disturbance could set the entire ce off.

    It was with that in mind that Dante calmly walked into the clearing. At first, his diminutive sizepared to the monsters here went unnoticed, but they were forced to acknowledge his presence when he pped his hands and caused a shockwave so strong that many of them were blown back a few meters.

 Chapter 175 Superpowers And The Zero Gate

    ?

    Superpowers.

    They were the thing that formed the subtle driving force of the Eternal universe, and in some ways, even the home universe.

    People of both universes sought them and craved them, though less than a zillionth of a decimal point percentage of both universes could have them. In a wide universe with numbers sorge that even a powerful AI forced to do a census would break down, the number of superpowered users might not be more than 20,000.

    Of that small number, many would never cross the F Rank. A few who were lucky enough to have some talent might hit the E rank in the small time they were given in the ck Land. Even fewer would be like Dante and hit the D rank, and that was for the exceptional ones who spent every moment they had in the ck Land fully focused and hard at work.

    Those who would reach the C rank out of them were not just magnificent geniuses, but powerhouses who decided the fate of the universe. Even just at the D rank, Dante had acquired such powers and abilities that made our hearts tremble, and those only required mindless energy absorption.

    What kind of abilities would one gain at the C rank when they literally had to both absorb energy andprehend their superpower to a certain limit? It was a true breaking point and when the name ''superpower'' started to cause fear.

    As for the B Rank, even in the entire history of the Eternal Universe and when they started recording from more than 6000 years ago, there were a two-digit amount of people who managed to achieve it.

    Portia Portinari, the Mother of Beatrice, was one example.

    At such a level of power, unless they literally came to a favorable location, with their superpower publicly known and researched, along with needless resources and weapons to take them down, it was impossible to kill them.

    This was why Beatrice med herself for her mother''s death. The ambush and all those countermeasures were nothing much for Portia, but the opening that gave their enemies the chance to take her out was Portia''s almost obsessive need to protect her daughter and make sure not a scratch came to her.

    That was what killed her.

    A rank superpowers? Well, only Lara in history, and we saw her current position. If we called her the grandmaster of the universe, it wouldn''t be too far off, given the respect and fear shemanded, as well as her seemingly limitless political power.

    As for S rank and above? There was a reason why the Apocalypse World made it near impossible for even the best and cunningest students to reach the S rank in their superpowers, and it was because they simply did not know what that was like!

    Even what they knew of the B rank and A rank came from the mouths of Lara and the few others who got there. The S Rank seemed to be a solid barrier that blocked everyone from moving forward, forcing Lara to focus on quantity rather than quality by acquiring seven superpowers.

    However, what was required for the S rank was something only she knew.

    Whatever the case, superpowers transcended technology and any known special method. They had a ruleset that was indecipherable to only those who had them and they were like a closed circuit while at the same time being an endless void.

    Closed pursuit in the sense that there were no loopholes or openings that would cause logical or unexpected failures or problems. Like Dante''s Quantum Entanglement being able to deposit him at correct spatial coordinates while ounting for the movement ofs and changes in space.

    Endless void in the sense that despite themselves, they had limitless possibility. A simple ability that was able to allow its user to travel two universes using a quantum tunnel safely had evolved into something that let him enter quantum worlds and open a pocket quantum space.

    Who knew what magnificent things Humphrey''s Aerogenesis or Slessor''s spatial Folding could beget?

    And that brought us to the situation in front of Dante. A dense amount of superpower monsters stood before him, all of them having been born and living in the Zero Gate world for who knew how long.

    Unlike students who only had 10 weeks a year to work on it for a total of 5 years, making 50 weeks, these monsters had unlimited time to absorb the dense Zero Energy to upgrade their superpowers and evenprehend.

    So really, what advantage did students have over them? No wonder even the mighty Lara didn''t dare to run rampant here.

    Even if we are to say that these beasts and monsters were unable to be enlightened and did not have sentience, so had difficultyprehendingpared to humans, they still had much, much more time to do so than humans did by far.

    Despite the nonsense fiction put forth, the simple fact was that it was a universal truth that quantity could make up for quality once it reached a certain point. With enough time, these beasts likely had superpowers no weaker than Lara at her prime, at the B and A Ranks.

    However, for one month every year, these beasts suffered from some sort of tide or rule of the Zero World that weakened their superpowers to the E-C rank. So those who had A rank now had C rank superpowers, those who had B Rank now had D rank and so on.

    This was not necessarily an objective fact, but an assumption by Dante given the small tidbits of information he heard, saw, and researched here and there, as well as his continuous scanning of the environment and lifeforms since he came here.

    His main evidence? Well, given what had just been exined about superpowers, do you think any student could survive not only 30 days, but also snatch Fruits of Condensation from these trees and the mouth of these beasts if the denizens of the Zero Gate world had superpowers at the B Rank and above?

    When the real descent came, it wouldn''t just be first years entering the Zero Gate, but 1st to 5th years all going in at once. The most inexperienced are the first years and they are usually made to follow the seniors while the most crazy and desperate were the fifth years whosest chances were that session.

    The fifth years are likely to either have D rank or C rank superpowers depending on their talent. How could first years with E and F rank superpowerspete?

    If the beasts were too powerful, whether fifth or first year, everyone could only hover on the outside and watch the beats fight and im the fruits, then chew them on the spot like cuckolds watching their wife being ravaged by a mandingo.

    Dante stood before these 9 beasts that were ring at him with two parts fear and eight parts hostility. They did not know where this tiny being came from but they felt a great and fatal threat from him, especially those enthralling amber eyes that seemed to hint at a deeper truth.

    Not to mention that his casual p just now sent them all flying a bit. Given that Dante''s size was the lowest of the group here, they naturally understood that this tiny two-legged beast was hiding great power in that small form.

    They definitely could not treat him like they did the other humans that came before, or they would suffer defeat. This made the beasts, who were fighting against each other just now, take a step back and nce at each other subtly.

    There was a faint intention to team up and deal with the biggest threat in their eyes, but there was also a hint of refusal due to ack of trust and a bit of pride in their power that stopped them from taking that step.

    Dante smiled and created a Celestial Tether with each of them. The moment he did so, they sensed that something was wrong given their superior power. After all, even if their superpowers were suppressed, they had entered their own soul spaces andprehended their superpowers through the C, B, and to the A rank.

    Their minds might not be the focus of their powers, but it definitely wasn''t as weak as that badger monster that could only be toyed with by Dante. As such, they felt the connection but could not block nor terminate it.

    However, they could guard their minds and prevent Dante from passively reading their thoughts.

    Anyway, Dante was obviously not interested in doing such a thing. Rather, he reached out to them and introduced himself as Dante, with the superpower of D Rank Quantum Entanglement, which allowed him to teleport.

    Seeing that Dante had straightforwardly greeted them and even introduced himself, the beasts were bewildered, but they soon processed the information and tentatively reached back, replying to Dante with a simr greeting.

    Dante smiled widely when he got what he wanted.

 Chapter 176 The 9 Beasts

    <h4>Chapter 176 The 9 Beasts</h4>

    You see, this was obvious enough to most people, but it was a fact that beasts thought differently from humans. There were elements of treachery and deception in them, yes, but that was a trait limited by species.

    All species were influenced by their instincts first of all, whether they thought so or not. Even humans were often influenced by instincts but draped fancy words and philosophies over it in order to seem enlightened.

    It was the same for beasts. Unless they were like hyenas or foxes who were known for being cunning and treacherous, they were mostly straightforward and honest. One could even say - inparison to humans, of course - that they were naive.

    As such, Dante''s act of self-introduction without hiding anything prompted them to also share their details in the same manner. It wasn''t that they didn''t know to guard this information, but their thought process was that it would be unfair for them to know Dante''s info without him knowing theirs.

    Based on the responses, Dante nced at the 9 beasts here and sorted out their information in his head. From left to right, there were:

    1. Stereon (C Rank - Cosmic Shift): It was a strange mix of a luminous panther and a meteor, its iridescent fur reflecting the stars, probably granting it the ability to vanish into the night. ording to it, it could teleport instantly from ce to ce, appearing as a streak of cosmic light.

    2. Dracoray (C Rank - Sr Scorch): This fellow who called himself Dracoray had shimmering, dragon-like scales and floated above the group, seeming like the king of the skies. It imed to be able to breathe ethereal fire that could burn even in the vacuum of space, and it could alter its size, bing as colossal as a meteor or as small as Dante himself.

    3. Lunafin (C Rank - Gravity Tide): This one was basically a giant, sentient jellyfish with purple-gray lunar tentacles. Lunafin imed to prefer to glide through the ck-colored oceans of the Zero Gate world. Apparently, it could control tides and manipte gravity, creating ethereal spatial whirlpools that drew prey into its deadly embrace.

    4. rechirp (C Rank - Transcendent Screech): This beautiful and peacock-like bird was simr to the legendary Phoenix in that it was ming red and glowed with simmering heat. It imed to like hot areas, and its superpower was the ability to unleash a radiant sonic scream that could shatter anything it came across and even temporarily disrupt thews of physics.

    5. Quasariant (C Rank - Ultimate Replusor): This fearsome creature had a thick armored exoskeleton while physically resembling a rhino, having a de-tipped tail that could extend and retract. It imed to be able to generate a gravitational pulse, sending foes hurtling backward with their bones crushed like an Almighty Push, while its exoskeleton absorbs starlight to replenish its energy.

    6. Nebulion (C Rank - Dreamy Illusion): This was a whitish-blue, cloud-like, ever-shifting being that could take any form it wished. Nebulion imed to possess the power to manipte thoughts and dreams, ensnaring prey in illusions and making them lose their way among the expanse of the forest.

    7. Cometess (C Rank - Searing Rays): This was a giant ckish-red snake with a sleek, serpentine body adorned withet-like patterns. It imed to be able to project energy beams from its eyes, vaporizing living beings on the spot while its tail could slice through bodies like a de.

    8. Astrafin (C Rank - Celestial Roar): This one resembled a cross between a lion and aet. Astrafin had indigo-colored fur and imed to be able to summon and control meteors through its roars which had the fury of a supernova, unleashing shockwaves that can tten entire areas.

    9. Vortexion (C Rank - Temporal Volume): This was a colossal, amoeba-like entity that drifted through the upperyer of this ne, which was a cosmic storm ording to it. It imed to be able to alter time, causing it to speed up or slow down in its vicinity.

    Dante''s eyes naturally narrowed after he heard all this, and his heart couldn''t help but skip a beat. Assuming that these fellows were not lying - but were definitely exaggerating or hiding some parts - then they were truly fearsome foes.

    Even if they were just at the C Rank, they were still potent enough to wipe out any arrogant student who walked up like Dante did. To be the only 9 qualified to stand right in front of the tree and fight for the fruit, they were the most outstanding among the monsters in the nearby region.

    Then Dante''s eyes narrowed. Or could there be some other reason or metric? He did notice one almostmon trait, and that was the fact that most of these fellows possessed space-rted powers.

    He looked deeply at the nine and pondered. He didn''t care about his life and death in this realm since it was a VR body and only his actual performance in the real Zero Gate mattered, so he wanted to test some things now that he could possibly useter in the real deal.

    Dante didn''t bother to chat with them anymore. While their eyes were on him, he activated his Eyes of Illusion to the fullest of his ability, the golden glow piercing through the souls of his victims.

    The eyes of the 9 - or what passed for their eyes - were dull and zed over, showing that they had fallen into a trance. This excited Dante deeply because he feared that since his eyes were hosted by Quantum Entanglement, which was D rank, it would not work on C rank superpower wielders.

    However, in truth, the answer was both yes and no. Yes because if the two superpowers were exactly the same, like one to control wind at the B rank and one to manage wind at the C rank, the B rank would suppress the C rank one.

    No because superpowers did not directly affect each other. If party A had the F rankser beam and party B had the A Rank ice generation, even if they threw up a wall of ice, thatser beam could theoretically pierce through if it had enough time to melt its way through.

    And then, as always, stats were the most important base. Even if you had the almighty EX rank superpower to manipte reality like you had the power stone, it was useless if your stats were at 50 points in all fields because you would get tired before you turned a person into a frog.

    However, if someone was like Dante and had 1500 points with a mediocre F rank superpower of shooting strings from his fingers, it would go from a joke to a fearsome killing power, akin to what Donquixote Domingo had.

    Likewise, against these powerful beasts with awesome superpowers one tier above his - and even truthfully at an even higher tier that was suppressed down here - they simply did not have the SDI to match Dante, seeing as his p alone sent them flying without being able to resist.

    Even Nebulion, who Dante suspected was the one who cast the illusion on him previously through a widespread use of its superpower, only struggled for slightly longer before bing still.

    Dante was able to sense whether someone was put under his illusion without relying on just looks, so he knew that all of them had fallen. Once again, Dante strengthened his resolve to raise his SDI and acquire more diverse and useful powers, then stuff them into his quantum body.

    While they were under the illusion, he sighed with fatigue. In order to make sure he wouldn''t fail, he had burned all his energy at once. So he couldn''t tell how much he had wasted, if any at all, in activating the illusion.

    This was problematic because it would lead to inefficiency during battle, but after the illusion was done, he would be able to investigate everything as he pleased, so he was not too worried.

    The first order of business was to walk to the nearby stress and spread out his Gluttonous Inferno fire for the full range and devour the energy from everything nearby to replenish himself to full, which took about a second.

    The moment it was done, as he had noticed before, the withered trees quickly recovered as they absorbed the ambient Zero Energy and were back to normal in seconds. This phenomenon made him understand once again the uniqueness of this world, and he couldn''t help but think of how it could benefit his Gluttonous Inferno.

    After all, it still had the potential to be faster as Dante raised his Intelligence stat higher. That was something to look forward to as he could casually release-destroying attacks while constantly releasing his fire to absorb ambient energy to keep him in a state of ''Infinite mana''.

    While he fantasized, he was not idle. He opened his quantum storage space, which was full of many things, including technology that was useless and various resources or magical items he transported between universes or quantum worlds.

 Chapter 177 The Space Tree

    <h4>Chapter 177 The Space Tree</h4>

    In the heart of Seattle, in a cozy apartment overlooking the bustling city streets, there lived a man named Dante.

    He was a kind and gentle soul who had always found sce in thepanionship of animals.

    Among the many pets he had cared for over the years, there was one who held a special ce in his heart, a little cat named Whiskers.

    From the moment Dante brought Whiskers home, a tiny ball of fur barely old enough to open her eyes, a profound connection was forged between them.

    Whiskers knew she had found her forever home, and Dante, in turn, had found his most loyal friend.

    As Whiskers grew, her bond with Dante deepened. She would curl up on hisp while he read his books, her purring filling the room like a soothing melody.

    They would explore the apartment together, Whiskers yfully batting at her favorite toy mouse while Dante chuckled at her antics.

    Each day, he would make time to sit with her, gently stroking her soft fur, and telling her about his day.

    Dante was a man of simple pleasures, and he found immense joy in the simple act of caring for Whiskers.

    He ensured she had the finest food, the coziest bed, and regr visits to the veterinarian.

    However, more than anything, he gave her his love and attention, which she cherished above all else.

    As the years passed, Whiskers remained a constant presence in Dante''s life.

    Through the ups and downs, the trials and tribtions, she was there, a source of unwavering support and love.

    She was his confidant, his cheerleader, and his greatestfort.

    However, as the inevitable march of time went on, Whiskers began to show signs of aging.

    Her once-quick paws became a bit slower, and her naps grew longer.

    Dante, ever the attentive caregiver, adjusted their routine to amodate her changing needs.

    He would gently lift her onto hisp, mindful of her arthritic joints, and they would spend their days together, savoring the moments they had left.

    One sunny afternoon, with Whiskers nestled in his arms, Dante noticed her breathing had grown shallow.

    He knew that the time they had spent together, though beautiful, wasing to an end.

    He held her close, whispering words of love and gratitude.

    In those final moments, as the golden rays of the setting sun bathed them in warmth, Whiskers looked into Dante''s eyes with a love that transcended words.

    She knew that he had given her the most beautiful life any cat could hope for, filled with love, care, andpanionship.

    With a soft sigh, Whiskers closed her eyes for thest time, her head resting against Dante''s heart.

    She passed away in the arms of the man who had been her world, leaving behind a legacy of love and a bond that could never be broken.

    Dante held her lifeless body, tears streaming down his face, but he knew that their love would endure forever.

    Whiskers had been more than just a pet; she had been his confidant, his friend, and his family.

    And though she was gone, the memories of their time together would live on in his heart, a testament to the profound love between a man and his beloved cat.

    ...

    Stereon''s eyes became clear again, and its face changed in the light of the lifelong memories it had experienced. When it nced at Dante, who was smiling at it, there was no longer a look of vignce and caution, but endless love and dependence.

    The other eight beasts also felt the same as they had gone through simr but different memories where they had been Dante''s beloved pets or partners in their ''previous lives'' on an earth-like world with normal technology and no superpowers.

    So seeing Dante now, they understood that they had likely reawakened their memories of him after they introduced themselves to each other through the still-active Celestial Tether.

    Only Nebulion felt like something was wrong, as its superpower kept pulsing in a weird and irregr rhythm as if trying to tell it something. However, even if this was a subtle warning, it did not think that there was anything wrong with its memories.

    This was the frightening effect of Dante''s eyes. The memories did not feel imnted because you totally lived through them in your own mind and your brain did not filter them or suppress them.

    A person who started doubting his own memories was surely on the pathway to madness. And most people, whether they knew it or not, did not like to be mad or thought of as mad, so even if they had suspicions, they would refuse to heed them.

    Even if Dante told them right now that it was all a lie and it was the effect of his eyes, they would not fully believe him. They might doubt it, but they would not ept. Even Beatrice, who had such a high SDI and knew the full details of the powers, had to be reassured continually before she could believe it.

    "I need your help, guys. Apart from this fruit, I need you to show me the location of the others, and I also need you to help me try some things out," Dante requested gently, knowing they would agree just looking at their faces.

    Naturally, they did, with great joy too. They all rushed up and wanted to cuddle him in different ways but noticed that they butted in each other''s ways, which made them nce at the others with confusion.

    After all, in their minds and memories, they were each raised by Dante alone, devoid of the presence of the others. As such, they could not understand why the others would want to get close to Dante until they had a thought that they might want to attack Dante.

    Immediately, the 9 beasts became hostile to each other and leapt back, ring at one another with limitless killing intent, willing to fight to the very death to protect Dante if necessary.

    Dante himself was amused and did not stop them immediately. How was he to exin himself? One should know that he had already exhausted his energy to put them in the illusion so he couldn''t control what they saw to the fullest degree.

    Otherwise, he would naturally synchronize their memories and make it such that they were one big happy family, cultivating camaraderie between the group.

    Now, though, he could only let them fight it out. If he dared to butt in, he would have to provide an exnation, which he didn''t have. Better to let the misunderstanding propagate and the issue solve itself before making his next move.

    Besides, for what he required next, Dante did not need all 9 of them alive.

    A battle soon broke out with nothing stepping in to stop the issue. Seeing the 9 fight amongst themselves ruthlessly while purposefully avoiding hurting him, Dante stood a safe distance away and monitored everything with both his eyes and his spirit sense.

    This was his actual first time seeing superpowered users fighting head on since he arrived in the Eternal Universe. He did not obviously count his scuffle with the deceased Luo Yue and Killian because they were a disgrace to superpowered users.

    Even if they were beasts, they were likely just as adept, if not far more skilled in the usage of their superpowers, so there was much to learn from watching them like this. Especially since most of them had spatial superpowers which were the most troublesome of the lot.

    While spectating, he wasn''t idle.? He walked over to the rtively small tree that was just as big as a backyard oak. Interestingly, this tree was simr in ways to Stereon and Astrafin in terms of aesthetics.

    Its bark was dark to the point of almost being ck, with a ''background'' of a starry sky within looking like blood vessels that crisscrossed through it. Its leaves were even more magnificent as they were purple-ck and highlighted through the midrib to the veins with a glowing white light that pulsed rhythmically.

    If trees had elements, then this one definitely had announced to the world that it was a space element tree. Looking at the palm-sized purple-ck fruit with a simr design to the tree, Dante was speechless.

    My Brother in Christ, wasn''t that a Devil Fruit?

    While the design was not the same, the feeling it gave was simr. It was essentially a fruit that gave superpowers, but this one did not have any noticeable costs. The downside was that there was a sess rate for acquiring the superpower within, and it was not possible to know beforehand.

    However, looking at it, Dante was not sure if the people in the Eternal Universe were empirical heavy or whether this virtual world was joking around. Looking at the design of the tree and the fruit, he was willing to bet all his money that the superpower within was space element-rted.

    Like a silly tourist who was too curious for their own good, Dante walked up to the tree and phased his body upwards to reach out and grab the fruit that was dangling oh so very attractivelyˇ­

 Chapter 178 Blood Battle Halberd

    <h4>Chapter 178 Blood Battle Halberd</h4>

    And he easily got it. There were no hidden surprises nor sudden plot twists, he just plucked the fruit from the tree, and nothing seemed to change about the fruit or the tree. This made him sigh with relief and remember that Xue Bing had told him that students could bring the fruit out and hand it to their factions.

    If the fruit deteriorated rapidly, then how could students take it out after 30 days and then hand it to their factions, who were now going to fight internally and deliberate as to who was going to use it?

    Dante nced at the fruit contemtively. He first tossed it into his quantum space but then realized that this was foolish because his quantum space was meant for nonliving things and did not contaminate them.

    So there was nothing to test. If there was anything, it would be whether he could bring it out of the quantum world and use it in reality. This would require him to gather more fruits from this virtual world and test his theory out on them, which was on the agenda.

    Dante turned to the ongoing fight and saw that each of them were panting as they were thoroughly tired. Dante became slightly impatient and decided to elerate things so that he could achieve his goals, for he had other ns.

    Using his Celestial tether, he sneakily asked the 9 beasts for the locations of the other tree, its design, and the monsters likely to covet it. After they fed him all this information, Dante immediately told them to look at him once more.

    All 9 nced over at once to see Dante''s eyes shine again. They were put under a brief illusion that their fight had rampaged for a while and the aftershocks had killed Dante, with the me lying on the foot of the other 8.

    Dante used this time to teleport away, heading in the direction of the nearest tree based on the information he received from these fellows. If if they scanned around, they would not be able to detect him with how far he had gone in this short time.

    When their senses came back, each of the beats roared with unwillingness and agony, their heart-shattering at the thought that they had been cruelly separated from their master by fate again after just reuniting!

    As such, their eyes became bloodshot with hatred and they pounced on one another, swearing to fight until the death and even unleashing their deepest hidden trump cards to take the other beasts down for good.

    The carnage that went on here would be remembered by the other beasts that inhabited this area for years after today. If this particr world was only a single-yer instance type, it would have a very interesting historical report after this event.

    Dante himself traversed the rtively small Zero Gate world and came upon the next tree before a minute was up using his spatial magic. Here, he found another group of beasts confronting each other that numbered only 5.

    However, they were muchrger and more varied than the previous group. Dante wanted to test hisbat capabilities against these ''suppressed'' beats without having their information in case he was ambushed or forced into a battle in the real Zero Gate world without having his usual privilege.

    Of course, in the real Zero Gate, his first option would not be to fight like an idiot but to use his illusion abilities to the maximum, but this test also assumed that some miracle urred and his illusion abilities were either blocked or could not work.

    As such, Dante pulled out his Blood Battle Halberd from his quantum space.

    The Blood Battle Halberd was a masterfully crafted weapon, a true work of art, forged by the skilled hands of Weapons Elder Ah Jin from the True Martial World.

    Its most striking feature was its deep blood-red hue, resembling the very essence of boiling blood itself.

    The halberd''s shaft wasposed of a rare, sturdy wood that seemed to pulse with power, resonating with the user''s blood qi.

    Intricate designs etched along the de and shaft depict scenes of blood flowing through vessels, showcasing Ah Jin''s exceptional craftsmanship.

    Whenbined with the Raging Blood Halberd Technique, it became a formidable weapon. The vessel-like designs on the de enhance its cutting power through the infusion of blood qi but the user, allowing it to cleave through even the toughest of defenses.

    With each swing, it even absorbed the blood essence of the opponent, channeling it into a surge of energy that temporarily bolsters the user''s power. If Dante found a way to pair this with gluttonous Inferno, that could yield excellent results.

    Dante flourished the halberd he had recently collected from the Weapons Elder since he was only qualified to use a blood martial weapon at the Martial Blood Realm when he could finally use blood Qi freely.

    Dante was still at the entry point of the realm, but with his stats, it was not he who benefited from the practice of External Martial Arts inbat but rather his External Martial Arts that benefited from him.

    The young man charged forth with his halberd, igniting his blood Qi and letting it flow into the de edge. The weapon lit up like it was on fire, or had turned into a Supa Sayajin with its glowing aura, but did not have the lightning aspectˇ­ yet.

    The beasts instantly reacted to Dante''s presence, but could not react to his attack. After all, 1500 points of Agility were not for show. It was nonsense to think that the sh would lose in a fight against anyone except fellow speedsters or Superman given the speed he moved.

    Just like that popr meme video pointed out, he could entirely have a round with your woman right in front of you, and the only way you would notice was by how raggedy she looked after.

    As such, the first monster that Dante targeted was, almost poetically, an ape-like creature. It had golden fur and thick arms that were full of muscles that were corded like steel wires used for constructing buildings.

    It could only change its expression slightly but the time Dante appeared and cut off its left leg with a single swing of his halberd, a blood-red light forming an afterimage that seemed to stick itself onto space itself for a few seconds before dissipating.

    Meanwhile, the oue of the ape was not so beautiful or moving. The force of the blow caused it to fly backward and crash into a nearby thicket, its lower leg turning into mush that could not be used for anything but mincemeat with spaghetti.

    Dante nced at the nearest monster which was a quadrupedal type that was simr to a horse. It had simr aesthetics to the previous monkey with a golden mane and a coat that was polished yellow.

    It neighed with a hint of shock and anger at the sudden interruption and its eyes glowed with malice. It suddenly charged forth at Dante, a golden light erupting from its body.

    Dante was surprised to see that its speed was no joke, and he would rate it as being around 400 or 500 points of Agility, enough to blindside any normal student. However, to him, it was like being Usain Bolt and watching a penguin waddle towards you furiously.

    Dante easily sidestepped its charge and then swungzily. His blood Qi once again left a huge mark, this time a vertical slice that cut the void.

    The horse-like beast that was about the size of a small building stopped and turned around, ready to charge again. However, it suddenly noticed that its body became light and it could not even remain standing as both halves of its body fell to either side.

    With its strong lifeforce, it was still alive, so it screamed in agony as its blood spurted out wantonly while its guts and innards began to fall out like rotten sludge from an over-filled fridge.

    The other three monsters that were about to attack were shocked into silence and nced at Dante with fear. Dante himself did not stop to admire the scenery and charged towards the next monster with the intent to kill.

    He was not the type of monologue during his victory or wait stupidly to give his foes time to activate their special power. He had seen how many winners who should have clutched their battles rapidly turned into losers due to this fact.

    The final three did not put up much of a significant fight. They had superpowers yes, but it was useless even if you had to power to destroy the cosmos if you couldn''t defend against your attacker.

    Of course, this was only possible because Dante smashed them and took the preemptive strike method. If these guys attacked first and used their various powers first, who knew if he would be the one to die.

    Even as he stood victoriously before the now golden colored tree that shone with an alluring light, Dante did not feel much of an aplishment, rather feeling the need to be more versatile and skillful.

 Chapter 179 Clearing the World!

    <h4>Chapter 179 Clearing the World!</h4>

    He nced at the monsters he had just mauled, all of them adorned with a golden color somewhere on their bodies. He then nced at the golden tree that sparkled with a strange color, and he reached out to grab the fruit on it.

    To Dante''s surprise, the fruit actually avoided his grasp!

    It wasn''t that it got up and moved, but it seemed that the wind had shifted it slightly, and made it quickly leave his reach. This made him raise an eyebrow as he analyzed the tree once more and had a guess in his heart, though it seemed strange.

    Initially, he thought that this tree must be of the gold element, rting to either wealth in western ideology or sharpness in eastern ideology, but it was neither.

    Rather, somehow bizarrely, it had to do with the power of agility. In all honesty, Dante thought about it and found that it should have urred to him at the beginning.

    His movement speed was so great that him casually walking at his full speed should be like time had stopped for all other beings. Like a certain famous time-stopping vampire who liked throwing road rollers, while Dante moved, everyone should be frozen in ce, unable to even notice that they were unable to move.

    For Dante though, this was not due to actual time-stopping powers but the rtivity of time in rtion to speed. It was basic physics.

    However, not one, not two, but all of the five golden colored monsters had been able to not only see him but also react to his presence. The horse-like one even charged at him and disyed exceptional speed in its movement.

    That alone should have clued him in. Dante had initially thought he had ambushed them and not allowed them to use their superpowers, but the obvious question was that if the five were confronting each other with a battle about to break out, how could they not be using their superpower?

    This fact made Dante frown as he casually caught the fruit by using his maximum speed and plucked it down. He held it in his hand and turned it over and over again, his mind lost in thought.

    It seemed like this was a lesson. He should not assume that others with abilities or methods would not always have them active, or at least some part of them active.

    If he, Dante, was smart enough to always leave his Spirit Sense on as well as have his 1st Rank or 2nd Rank space element shield spells mostly active in case of an emergency, why wouldn''t others be just as smart to activate their methods?

    After all, Dante was not the only one who unlocked new sub-abilities with every rank up of his superpower. Whether it was humans or beasts, their base ability would be upgraded with each rank, and they had a chance to unlock new sub-abilities.

    It was only for Dante that the sub-abilities were guaranteed because of how high quality his superpower was, but others could also have them too.

    Dante thought back to the first 9 beasts and finally understood what he felt was wrong back then, and what they were hiding from him. He also nced at these 5 beasts and felt sorry for them.

    Even if they unlocked new sub-abilities, they werepletely suppressed by Dante''s whose base speed surpassed anything their superpowers could boost them up to. Since sub abilities only followed the same type and element as the main ability, their sub abilities would likely be agility rted.

    And to think, Dante had not yet activated his Bionics or Psionics which would boost his stats by a maximum of 10 times. Once he reached 15000 in all fields, his energy consumption would be crazy, but with Gluttonous Inferno and the infinite energy of the Zero Gate world, he could maintain his full power for a long and active great power!

    This was also another path for him in the real Zero Gate if his superpower could not grant him invincibility. He could just raise his stats and bulldoze through everything like a barbarian.

    He held the golden fruit and popped it into his mouth. Now that he had more than one fruit, he could use one to test if he could take it out through his quantum space and he could eat this one to see if he could use his quantum body to gain new superpowers.

    Dante swallowed and waited for a bit, then his smile became bitter. He only felt zero energy gather in his Quantum Entanglement, raising his progress by 10%. This brought the total progress to 50% energy required for the next rank, which was worth about a day of nonstop absorption in the ck Land for Dante.

    Despite that, he couldn''t be happy. After all, he felt the entire process and knew that the fruits themselves were the problem, not himself. He had downloaded and absorbed a lot of knowledge and information rting to the topic of quantumputing and virtualization due to his superpower for obvious reasons.

    At first, some things didn''t make sense or were spections by him, but this experience made him understand the problem. It was because the code used to create the zero energy in this world as well as the fruits were wrong.

    It wasn''t that Dante could not absorb Zero Energy in a quantum world or could not gain superpowers through fruits, but because firstly, they needed the precise code to perfectly replicate the quantum information of those two things, and secondly, they needed the right amount of energy to manifest the items in their full power in the quantum world.

    Both of these things were not present here, at least not in full. Because the form for the Zero Energy was wrong, basically replicated from the same energy source powering this world, it could not be used for superpowers.

    However, the fruits had a hint of correct coding in them due to the fact that Dante''s assumption that most of the school''s worlds were crafted by a superpower user was likely very true.

    In fact, Dante had a sinking feeling that he had underestimated the amount of resource and effort the school had put into crafting all those stable quantum worlds where he could plunder their power system and resource without repercussion.

    Especially the Apocalypse World, Dante was beginning to suspect the true purpose of that world and how the school made it. It literally meant that to quantum code the superpowers, they had to have some of the details of the real superpowers and how they worked.

    In fact, they did not just have some. Given how urate the superpowers were and the fact that Dante could even use his stably and see it in his soul space, temporarily forming a mirage as if it truly existed in another realm, he felt that they likely had more than 95% of not all of the quantum code of the various superpowers in the database.

    The question was then, how did they get this information? Even if the current Dante was cruelly tortured to his limit and questioned, he wouldn''t even be able to answer and reveal such intricate details about his superpower.

    While some superpower users reached the C and above rank, it didn''t mean that they hadprehended such intimate details of their own superpower, so once again, how would the school know this?

    Dante began to feel like there was a huge conspiracy behind this, but he currently knew too little, and many things were just confident spections at this point. In the end, he could only take the energy boost from the fruit and move onto the next one.

    From there, Dante soon encountered the other 8 trees after spending a whole day crossing the realm. He fought the monsters that were guarding? them viciously and carefully, while also confronting each other in their numbers who were of simr element types of powers, so one could outright kill the other.

    When Dante usually involved himself in such banal and meaningless disputes, they tended to be resolved rather directly, with either one of 3 oues happening.

    Firstly, the beasts were hypnotized by him and made to fight each other.

    Secondly, if he felt their power was interesting and could grant himbat experience, he would take them out with his physical methods.

    Thirdly, if he felt that their power was interesting and not something easily dealt with, he would use his two magical methods to change the fate of many local fauna, turning them into endangered species!

    At the end of it all, Dante grabbed all the other 8 fruits with ease, and only a single day had passed since hended here. He definitely had won an award for being the fastest to gather the fruits in a virtual world, but that was not within his current concerns.

    With so many fruits in hand and having fought so many monsters, his experiences made him notice some simrities and differences in the entire matter. He rapidly parsed through them while taking the various fruits out and inspecting them one by one.

 Chapter 180 8 Fruits and Some Tests

    <h4>Chapter 180 8 Fruits and Some Tests</h4>

    The first one was a fruit that resembled a miniature sun, radiating intense heat and light. Its skin was a fiery red-orange, and tiny mes danced across its surface. It was likely that anyone who consumed this fruit gained the power to create and control fire in bursts, erupting with mes in a spectacr disy of pyrotechnics.

    The second one was a fruit that was like a swirling vortex frozen in time. Its exterior was a deep shade of indigo, and a perpetual miniature storm with miniature bolts of lightning raged within it. Dante was willing to bet that those who partook in this fruit would develop control over the wind and storm elements, allowing them to summon gusts of wind and unleash lightning bolts at will.

    The third fruit was as dark as the abyss, with a deep ck exterior that seemed to absorb all light. There was a good chance that anyone who tasted its flesh could probably blend into shadows effortlessly, bing nearly invisible in darkness and gaining the ability to move unseen.

    The fourth fruit deeply resembled a thundercloud that was shrunken down. Unlike the second fruit, this one boasted a dark gray-blue skin with tiny arcs of electricity that yed across its surface like SSJ2 and above. There was a good reason to believe that ingesting this fruit granted a person the power to summon thunderstorms, manipte lightning, or even be an electric conduit.

    The fifth fruit was honestly a stunning spectacle of geometric brilliance. Its exterior was transparent like crystal, refracting light into a rainbow of colors. Dante could not be sure whether this fruit would give one the power to control gems or crystals as an element or bend and manipte light while making themselves invisible at will.

    The sixth fruit in Dante''s hands looked like a miniature mountain range, with a rough, earthy surface that resembled thendscape. This one was a no-brainer, it definitely granted its consumer the incredible power to cause earthquakes and manipte the very ground beneath their feet.

    The seventh fruit was rather strange, and it was a study in silence. Its skin was a deep, velvety ck, and it had feathers that resembled the wings of an owl. Dante was not sure, but due to the fact that he couldn''t even hear the reverberation when he smacked the fruit, it was likely that eating it granted the ability to silence sound in a specific area, rendering it utterly silent and undetectable.

    The eighth and final fruit was the most magnificent, resembling an intricately designed hourss. This fruit had a grayish-ck exterior with a ssy, transparent center. Dante was willing to bet once again that those who consumed it would gain control over time, allowing them to slow, stop, or even rewind time within a limited radius.

    Holding them, Dante''s eyes narrowed, and he was not excited. In fact, he finally understood how the school had gained the information for these fruits to be able to partly replicate them.

    It was likely that these virtual fruits were modeled after fruits that were brought out of the Zero Gate in the past and had been researched using special methods, allowing them to extract a part of what made them special!

    The reason for Dante''s confidence was especially thest fruit, the time one. A time-rted superpower fruit of condensation had only ever been brought out once, and that was obviously by Lara Sanguis, the headmistress!

    At that time, she was in her fifth year as a student, but she had already reached the A Rank in her initial superpower which was Pyrogenesis. It was said that her mes could even reach the temperature of an exploding star, so battleships and the like were useless against her because she could burn them into g in an instant.

    When she had brought it out, the entire universe was like a boiling keg and many began to froth at the mouth. The ability to control time was too overpowered, and while many coveted it, what they feared the most was that their enemy would acquire it.

    After all, who knew how they could be toyed with in stopped time, or have time continually rewind when they made a victory for their enemy to turn it into a loss? It was too problematic to be left out there, especially for the political powerhouses.

    So a lot of pressure fell onto the shoulders of the young Lara, who did not seem fazed and basically in non-verbal terms, told the entire universe to fuck off. Naturally, many attempts were made on her, but all were ughtered publicly and brutally, to the point that even the cruel serial killers felt nauseous.

    Eventually, everyone was left speechless by her power and her willingness to use it so ''creatively'', so they left her alone. The legends about Lara Sanguis were never overexaggerated and were mostly underexaggerated because the things she had done embarrassed the others.

    She probably even had the arrogance to drop her fruit off at the school''s research institute for them to check it out for this world''s details before taking it back and eating it before unlocking that time superpower of hers.

    That would probably exin why this fruit was here.

    He then took the fire fruit and decided to begin his first test. Dante converged his hellfire over the fire fruit and began to refine it using Gluttonous Inferno, trying to see whether he could discover some unique utility or way to absorb such virtual fruits for his own use.

    In the end, he speechlessly found that his fire did nothing to the fruit despite its high temperatures, and to his embarrassment, the fruit had eaten a lot of his hellfire and significantly depleted his Internal Force without him being able to get it back.

    In fact, the fruit looked even more radiant and lifelike, making Dante feel robbed. However, he did take out his space element fruit and imbue raw space element from his core into them, noticing that it also consumed them without any rejection.

    This fact made Dante ponder. Would this also ur to real fruits? Could they be empowered by filling them with energy from a simr element as themselves? And if so, what benefit did it yield?

    Did it increase the sess rate of unlocking the superpower on consumption? Did it increase the rank of the superpower itself, granting it more potential? Did it make the user advance from F rank to E Rank right from the start in terms of potency?

    Too many questions, too little answers. He could only know the full story using the real fruits, so he directly imbued both fruits with more elements for about a day of 12 hours each and then consumed them.

    The reaction was the same, he didn''t unlock anything, but he felt a surge of energy enter his Quantum Entanglement superpower. Unfortunately, his hours of imbuement seemed to be a waste as the range was still 10% per fruit.

    He now had the level raised to 70% of the needed amount for the C Rank, but that did not make him feel happy as he could make this progress on his own just by meditating in the ck Land.

    He gave up on this train of thought and tried another. He went over to the golden tree''s area and found the copsed golden ape which had lost its entire left leg. It was still lying there unconscious in a pool of blood.

    Dante cast his Celestial tether and connected his mind to that of the ape.

    "I know you''re awake, stop pretending," he said with amusement in his voice.

    The Golden Ape was stunned by the voice in its head and the fact that it could perfectlyprehend it, but it forced itself not to move for fear of being discovered. No matter what, it did not want to tangle with Dante again after seeing his power.

    "Alright then, since you''re dead, I shall cut up your corpse and roast it for barbecue," Dante stated menacingly, walking over while his Blood Battle Halberd began to glow with an ominous light.

    Immediately, the Golden Ape trembled and jumped to its feet, entering a begging posture as it bowed its head. "Ying ying ying ying!"

    It made a strange amusing sound that could be roughly tranted into ''spare my life great one!'' or something like that and continuously remained in a kneeling position.

    Satisfied, Dante put his weapons away and nced at it up and down. Apart from its stump where the left leg should be, it was rtively unharmed. Dante did this intentionally when he first attacked because he wanted to leave one monster alive to test his various theories on, and what better than an ape which was said to be closest to a human?

    In fact, Dante himself only resonated with the Primal Ape breathing technique because of the 0.01% of his gic makeup that still contained traces of his evolutionary path from the ape to a human over the course of generations.

 Chapter 181 Strong! Dante Is Too Strong!

    <h4>Chapter 181 Strong! Dante Is Too Strong!</h4>

    "Don''t worry, I have a very simple task for you. Eat this fruit and let''s see what happens," Dante prompted the Golden Ape as he took out the Thunderstorm fruit, a merger of wind and lightning.

    The Golden Ape was stunned and looked between Dante and the lightning fruit repeatedly, as if making sure it wasn''t mistaking the situation.

    Wasn''t this one of the fruits that it was fighting for just now? It had already reconciled with the idea that it wouldn''t get any fruits this session after Dante came and bulldozed through their group. In fact, it was even up in the air whether it would keep its life, much less get a fruit to munch.

    Now, after being beaten up and losing a leg, it was being given one for free? There was such a good deal in the world?

    The Golden Ape became troubled.

    Should it... allow Dante to cut off the other leg? Then maybe it would be able to get another fruit?

    When Dante heard its thoughts through the Celestial Tether, he was rendered speechless. In the end, he could only prompt the Golden Ape to hurry up and eat the fruit so he could get on with his nned business.

    Remembering that it was in the midst of a life and death situation, the Golden Ape cowered and immediately swallowed the fruit obediently. Right away, it roared with power as a torrent of Zero Energy was dragged into its body, and a light shone over its fur.

    Lightning appeared in its eyes, and its fur began to stand on end. Power swelled through its body, and it felt like it was going to reach the heavens in one step!

    It actually grew one size bigger, and a hint of a cloud-like halo formed behind its back, making it look like a Divine Ape God descending into the mortal world to pronounce judgment.

    Its eyes fell on Dante, and a hint of arrogance and disdain appeared in them. Now that its power had swelled with the addition of a new superpower, and a powerful one at that, it no longer felt like it necessarily had to be scared of Dante.

    In fact, there was a good chance he couldn''t even touch it! What was the use of unlimited speed if you didn''t dare to connect with your foe because you would get shocked to death?

    Thinking like this, the Golden Ape was about to make a move to subdue Dante and turn him into its human ve to vent its anger and humiliation during this period of time. However, before it could move, Dante smiled at it, a smile that made it halt.

    Sweat formed on its brow as it remembered his power and hesitated. Was it really worth it to provoke this humanoid behemoth who could move like he was a ghost?

    Dante didn''t give the Golden Ape much time to specte anymore. He simply waved a hand toward the right and cast his 2nd Rank Celestial Rift, his main offensive space spell.

    Unlike the house-sized portal that appeared when he was at the second rank, the size of the portal was now as big as a small shopping center and disyed a starry sky on the other side as usual.

    However, what was fearsome was the fact that these stars seemed attracted by some pulling force on this side and rushed over to the portal, eventually bursting out of the portal likeser beams from a giant ship''s cannon, causing devastation in its wake.

    Thend was torn asunder, and the previously sturdy and seemingly invincible trees were ripped apart as if a nuclear bomb had exploded beside them in terms of the shockwave effect alone.

    Unfortunately for the trees, these astral stars also contained the heat effect of the st due to their nature and momentum, so everything was burned up as well.

    The area now looked like the destruction that Cell wrought when he showed the world his power at the TV station. To the left of Dante, which had been typical forest, was now a huge gully that extended for miles away.

    Anything that had been there or even briefly passed through that area during this period of time had simply been unterally obliterated without a chance to even argue their case.

    The Golden Ape looked at the destruction with bulging eyes, its demeanor that was reminiscent of a Divine Ape gone, reced with sheer stupefaction as its jaw almost fell to the ground. Its entire skin had gone pale, and it looked like all the blood had been drained from its body.

    "What do you think? You were about to do something, right? Why don''t you continue?" Dante prompted while folding his arms confidently.

    Dante''s voice snapped the Golden Ape out of its stupor, and it shook its head rapidly. Any faster, and it might snap its own neck and send its face towards the back.

    The Golden Ape was like an unruly son who had seen its father reach for the belt. All rebelliousness in its heart was reced by honesty, kindness, and the willingness to do the right thing.

    Dante didn''t bother to y and told the ape to disy its new power. It stood to the side and released storm clouds from its body that could both enclose a foe and then strike them or just directly strike them head-on.

    It also showed other variations of its ability, but Dante was more thoughtful about something else. So virtual beasts like the Golden Ape could actually obtain powers? However, he could not, despite being a quantum being.

    No, that wasn''t right. The ape was a full quantum being that could not be brought out unless he linked it to his Quantum Entanglement superpower and gained protection from the corrosive effect of entering the real world.

    Dante, meanwhile, was half and half, which allowed him to exist in both ces without repercussion and use some things from both as long as they could be directly linked to his body and not rejected by his Quantum Entanglement superpower.

    So theoretically, it was possible for Dante to acquire superpowers from these fruits too, but he would have to give up his ''real'' side and be full quantum. But then obviously, that would be thoroughly dumb as his friends and family were all ''real'' and would never be able to interact with him directly again, forced to use virtual avatars.

    Besides, with his current ability, he could definitely get more than a few fruits from the real Zero Gate if not dominate the entire ce. The reason he was still unsure was that, at the end of the day, this was a simtion in which he could not lose his life.

    In reality, anything could happen. Dante still had the appropriate caution and awareness he should possess.

    Suddenly, Dante''s face changed as a terrifying thought surged into his mind. Since he was unable to get superpowers from quantum fruits due to his ''real'' side, would he be unable to get superpowers from the real world due to his ''quantum'' side?

    Of course, logic stated that this could not be possible as the real fruits - in terms ofpleteness, quality, and universalw - could not bepared to these meager virtual ones, but Dante could not be entirely sure.

    Dante decided to verify this when the time came, which was the only way to do so actually. As he nced at the Golden Ape which was satisfied with its power and its arrogance began to return, he decided to end the experiments here and continue with the next stage.

    Dante called forth to the void, and his superpower answered.

    His real body descended from the pod it was in, right onto his avatar, and oveid itself over it seamlessly.

    The moment he did so, Dante paled as he felt like his body was weak all over. He fell to his knees and noticed that his crotch area was burning like he had beaten off one too many times, and along with that, his sex drive waspletely shot, like he had busted out everything he possibly could.

    Thinking like this, Dante couldn''t help but be furious. That evil subus didn''t even wait a day before she attacked, how could she be so unscrupulous?! Not to mention that barely a day had gone by and she had already drained him to this extent!

    If he had actually dared to leave his body with her for 30 days, what would hee out to see? A desated husk with naught but a single weak me of life left in his body?!

    Dante shuddered at that. It seemed like leaving his body with the school might be better than leaving it with Beatrice. At least, he knew that the school only wanted to study him and not drain him to near death.

    Well, now that he waspletely down here, Dante rubbed his shoulders and began stretching, loosening his muscles and getting into position. Meanwhile, the Golden Ape that was lost in its reverie suddenly realized that something was different.

 Chapter 182 Focused Practice 1

    <h4>Chapter 182 Focused Practice 1</h4>

    It nced at Dante and felt that he was moreˇ­ vivid. It was as if it had been looking at a very realistic painting of him and was now watching a video of him; he was much more ''high resolution.''

    It also felt like Dante was moreˇ­ vulnerable. It was like if it killed him before, it would only be like taking out a mirage, but if it attacked and won now, it would actually take out this fellow for good.

    However, despite this, the Golden Ape trembled even more. It was simply unable to even fathom the idea of making a move, because even if Dante was technically more ''vulnerable'' now, he also felt far more dangerous in equal measure.

    Dante nced at the ape askance and shook a hand. "You can leave and do whatever you want, but make sure toe back here 29 dayster."

    The Golden Ape was surprised and nodded profusely before bolting away like thunder. Every moment it spent near Dante was another moment that death coulde for its monkey life, and it really did not want to die.

    Dante watched it leave and then focused on his own matters. He had brought his real body down here for one obvious reason, to continue training his physical methods until they broke through!

    After all, he nominally couldn''t leave this ce for 30 days and only a day had passed. What was worse was that this would continue until December. 30 days in this first round which was a solo instance, then one week in ck Land, 30 days in the second round, and one week in the ck Land, and then another 30 days in the third round and one week in the ck Land.

    Today was July 16th, so starting from today, they woulde out of this world on the 15th of August. One week in the ck Land would make it August 22nd, and they would start a new round on that date.

    That would be September 21st, and then one week in the ck Land would be September 28th. The third round would begin from there and end on the 28th of October. Their final week in the ck Land would lead to November 4th, and the rest of the time would be spent preparing physically.

    Dante wanted to make sure that not only did he reach the pinnacle of his two Physical Methods as a Grand Knight and a Martial God, but he would also reach the peak of his magical methods as a Grand Sage Wizard and a Paradise Awakening Inferno Ascender before he entered the actual Zero Gate.

    He would be ying with his life if he didn''t increase his strength by any means necessary when he still had time. As such, Dante took out an Enhanced Energy Elixir and consumed it on the spot before beginning the Martial Blood Realm Raging Inferno Halberd practice.

    He began with the first move of the new realm, known as ''Blood Awakening''.

    With a graceful swing of his halberd, he channeled his blood Qi, awakening its dormant power. His movements were deliberate and fluid, as he focused on the feeling of the energy coursing through his veins.

    The second move was called ''Crimson Surge''.

    This one required him to move the halberd in a circr motion, drawing energy from his core and infusing it into the weapon. As he executed the technique, he felt his blood Qi surging, bing denser and more potent.

    Dante moved on to the third move, ''Scarlet Torrent''.

    This was a stance that involved quick and precise strikes with the halberd. Each strike released a burst of blood Qi, creating a dazzling disy of red energy. He repeated the sequence, his body moving in perfect harmony with the weapon.

    The fourth move, ''Inferno Whirl'', was a moreplex technique.

    Dante spun the halberd around him in a mesmerizing dance, drawing in energy from his momentum. It was a test of his ability to control the flow of blood Qi, and he executed it with finesse.

    Next was the fifth move ''Sanguine Embrace'', a move that required Dante to hold the halberd close to his chest, focusing on drawing blood Qi inward. It was a moment of meditation in the midst of action, as he felt his sea-like blood Qi converging within him.

    The sixth move, ''Eclipsing Shadows'', was more of a defensive technique.

    Dante extended the halberd in front of him, forming a barrier of swirling blood Qi. It was a shield that could deflect attacks and absorb enemy energy, and its cycle was important for the refinement of blood Qi when done actively like this.

    As for ''Verdant Surge'', the seventh move, it involved grounding the blood Qi into the earth. Dante thrust the halberd into the ground, channeling his energy downward. It was an exercise in bnce and stability, connecting him to the earth''s vitality.

    Finally, he concluded his training with the final move, ''Crimson Resonance''.

    This movebined all the techniques he had practiced, allowing him to unleash a devastating wave of blood Qi. The ground trembled beneath him as he executed the technique, and the air was filled with the resonance of power.

    Dante repeated this sequence for 36 cycles and then stopped, which took him about an hour and a half. He felt much more powerful and aplished, his entire body crying out in joy. The Enhanced Energy Elixir he had consumed was fully digested and turned into Blood Qi that increased the quantity.

    That was it, that was basically the modus operandi of the Martial Blood Realm. This was the realm where you unlocked Blood Qi after converting all your Blood Energy from the previous Martial Warrior realm, and your focus was now to increase its quantity while also increasing its purity.

    So this realm was where resources mattered the most. If one probably consumed like one or two bowls of blood energy soup of the lower levels at the Body Tempering and Martial Warrior realms, then one would be a voracious beast in the Martial Blood realm.

    Here, ironically, the less you drank, the more talented you were. This was because those with lower talents wasted a lot of blood energy in the conversion upwards to blood Qi. Those with better talents obviously wasted a lot less or even none, so they would achieve the same amount of progress with fewer bowls.

    This was a change from the previous two realms where the more you could drink, the better your talent. Naturally, the Enhanced Energy Elixir ignored all of that and worked the same regardless of peak talent or shit talent.

    It was the kind of overpowered resource that guaranteed perfect sess and efficiency at all tiers and ranks.

    Dante checked his progress for this session.

    [Physical Powers: Raging Blood Halberd Technique (Martial Blood, Entry level 50%).]

    Dante nodded with satisfaction. Making a whole 50% progress in the entry level in just one and a half hours was absolutely amazing and was more thanks to the Enhanced Energy Elixir than his high stats or any talent he might have.

    After all, the universal rules were set. No matter how high your stats or OP you were, those things could only benefit one in the lower realms. The higher the realm, regardless of physical or magical method, the harder it was to progress.

    Dante still had some advantage, naturally, but his practice would have entered the stage of months while requiring quite a few resources to continue on. Now that it could still be squeezed to within a week thanks to the OP resource called the Enhanced Energy Elixir, Dante had no reason to be impatient orin.

    Since he had started, there was no reason to stop. He consumed another Enhanced Energy Elixir and began working again. After another hour and a half, he was at the peak of the Entry level.

    Dante did not stop and spent another 3 hours of two 36 cycles of practice to reach the peak of Minor Aplishment. Unfortunately, while the spirit was willing, the body needed rest. It wasn''t necessarily strenuous on him and his stamina was more than enough, but rather that his Blood Qi was surging and needed time to settle.

    As such, he naturally switched to the practice of the Primal Ape technique. He had hit the Advanced Knight realm, which was the 3rd level. If he wanted to reach the 4th level, which was the rank of a Peak Knight, he would naturally need to use his alternative to the 4th Rank Vitality potion, the Quantum Vitality Serum.

    Taking one out from his inventory, Dante looked up to the now darkening sky as more than 6 hours had passed in his training and decided to try one round of practice before sleeping. He injected the serum into his body and felt the sheer life energy course through him, itching to be life essence unique to him.

    Dante did not see the need to pretend or hold back as he immediately began the practice of the Primal Ape Technique''s Advanced Knight level.

 Chapter 183 Focused Practice 2

    Chapter 183 Focused Practice 2

    As the sun began to dip below the horizon, casting long shadows across the partly devastated area where the left was a giant gully and the right was a lush forest with strange ck-colored trees, Dante stood at the center calmly, ready to embark on his first practice of the Advanced Knight Realm chapter of the Primal Ape Technique.

    This particr realm focused on harnessing and extending one''s life essence outside the body more adeptly, using it for offense, defense, and support. It was a realm of greater power that seemingly connected the knight to the vitality of the world.

    Dante naturally started with the first technique, ''Primal Resonance''.

    With the grace of a Silverback Ape, he moved his body in a rhythmic dance, feeling the life essence within him resonating with the natural energy of the world. It was as if he were attuning himself to the heartbeat of the earth.

    The second technique was ''Foliage Ward''.

    Dante extended his arms, palms outwards, as if mimicking the protective embrace of the Silverback Ape towards its family. He channeled his life essence into a visible shield that mimicked the form of a silverback ape, looking a little like a susanoo, basically creating around himself a barrier that would ward off attacks but could not attack back at this stage.

    With ''Vitality Surge'', the third technique, Dante unleashed a burst of life essence from his life seed.

    It surged through his limbs, enhancing his strength and agility. He moved around a small area of about a hundred or so meters with the power and grace of the Silverback Ape, his every action infused with newfound vitality.

    The fourth technique was ''Nature''s Embrace''.

    Dante knelt and pressed his hands against the earth, connecting with the life force of thend. He could sense the flow of life energy beneath him, drawing strength from the very ground he stood on. While he couldn''t extract it into his body yet, it was torrential in nature and helped temper his own meager life essence inparison.

    ''Resilient Echoes'', the fifth technique, allowed Dante to create echoes of his own presence.

    He moved with such speed and agility that afterimages trailed behind him step by step, confusing his enemies. It was a technique of misdirection and evasion, much like the evasive maneuvers of a Silverback Ape. Visually, it looked simr to the Neon Run of Delsin Rowe.

    With ''Mend the Fractured'', the sixth technique, Dante focused on repairing his own wounds and fatigue.

    He channeled his life essence into his body, elerating the natural healing process. It was a move that allowed him to recover swiftly from injuries. It was one of the main selling points of Knight Breathingpared to External Martial Arts after all.

    ''Thicket''s Grasp'', the seventh technique, allowed Dante to manipte life essence into tangible tendrils that could ensnare and immobilize his foes.

    He extended his arms, and from his fingertips sprouted ethereal silver-green vines that moved with a mind of their own. It was a very useful move for controlling foes, another thing he could not do as a Martial Blood realm martial artist, at least not until he became a Martial Grandmaster.

    Finally, Dante concluded his round of practice with ''Eternal Vigor''.

    This technique allowed him to temporarily extend his life essence to enhance the abilities of those around him. He stood at the center of a radiant aura, invigorating his allies and bolstering their strength and resilience.

    Another specialty of the Knight Breathing technique was a focus on group enhancements the higher it went, higher knights buffing lower knights as they formed cavalries and armies.

    Obviously, the arrogant martial artists would never trust another soul with pieces of their power and focused on self-empowerment. In fact, the knight''s system only worked because of their dedication to the Knight Code.

    If it was just another power system focused on strength without a code of ethics that was strictly followed, it would never go down this path of camaraderie and leadership.

    Right now, King Breathing had never actually been used in battle by Dante because the Martial Artist equivalent was always better. It was so much so that he hadn''t even bothered to craft a special knight armor or weapon for himself from Soulforged Steel or the researched sci-fi equivalent.

    However, that was only temporary. Once Dante got himself a group of subordinates or clones, the Knight Breathing technique would reach its peak with each one amplifying the other till they became a behemoth.

    Dante cricked his neck with a smile as hepleted his two-hour training session and felt a lingering connection to the world''s vitality. If he could find some way to sneak his Gluttonous Inferno into it, he would be able to extract energy from anyary zone or ne by just touching the ground and achieve infinite energy for his body.

    Naturally, this was useless in space and made him hesitate because even if he did get this, his futurey mostly in spatial conquests and battles. Right now, his army on earth in the home universe was under rapid construction, to the point where the materials he ported over were almost done.

    Harvester-type and research-type ships had already gone out of earth''s orbit to start mining resources of the nearbys of the sr system. As for the people of earth, they were naturally none the wiser.

    Whether they used their eyes or any technology, they would never find a trace of Dante''s movements until their technological capacity jumped 8000 years at least.

    When it was January next year he would return from the Zero Gate with fruits new superpowers and probably an enhanced body that could take in more power systems from quantum worlds.

    With a quantum marker in the Zero Gate - which he would obviously ce when he went inside - Dante would no longer care about or need the Eternal Academy apart from maybe the Student Enhancement Center and the high-quality quantum worlds.

    As such, his second year would be mostly spent in the home universe personally leading his conquest of the various systems and gxies. Interesting members from different races he met would be contracted under his ''protagonist'' system and empowered through various means, bing his hard-working bees.

    Of course, Dante was not going to randomly enve people, he hadn''t fallen that far yet. To him, it was a simple transaction, the protagonist fulfilled tasks for Dante and they got their ''exp'' reward and ''leveled up''.

    As for whether the protagonist would grow arrogant and no longer want to serve Dante - or rather, their system - after being stronger, Dante was fine with that. After all, no matter how much they worked, they would never achieve the same level of power and knowledge as himself.

    If they decided to stop working, with their obviouslycking natural talents, they would stop growing on the spot. If they wanted to experience that easy and fast growth they had enjoyed till then, they could only rely on Dante.

    As for the protagonists experiencing some sort of cosmic event that made them special and overcame Dante''s influence, allowing them to either learn ways to empower themselves without him or achieving more power than him in a short timeˇ­

    Well, Dante was not a fool. He was confident it wouldn''t happen, but it was not impossible.

    Just 7 months ago, if you asked him whether he would have superpowers or be able to perform his current magical methods, he would have felt that it was cool, but his heart would be filled with doubt.

    It wasn''t that he didn''t believe it could happen, but rather that it would not happen to him specifically, because what was special about him? But it happened anyway, and here he was.

    Besides, the simple fact was that risks were ever present in life. Going out to buy food yielded a 0.0001% chance you could get run over, stabbed, or something. Driving to work or to go somewhere had a low chance of being in a fatal ident or knocking someone''s kids over and bing a murderer.

    Most of us had such a worry in mind, but it didn''t stop people from living their daily lives and doing what they wanted because the chances were so low they were negligible.

    Likewise, even though Dante''s idea could backfire, the chances were just as negligible as the examples above while being just as fatal. If a person in the above situation could push forward, Dante could also do the same.

    Dante shook his head and decided to postpone such thoughts until he came out of this virtual world and could pop back home to make a check-up on the progress of his army.

    As for right now, he checked the progress of his Primal Ape''s technique for the Advanced Knight realm during his short 2-hour session just now.

    [Physical Powers: Primal Ape Technique (Level 3: Advanced Knight, 10%).]

    Alright, a 10% increase in 2 hours of practice with the right resources. That meant he needed a total of 18 more hours of consistent training to break through.

 Chapter 184 Focused Practice 3

    Chapter 184 Focused Practice 3

    Dante did not continue but settled in for the night. He did not dare to send his real body outside again and leave it in the hands of the evil Beatrice. After being denied her meal once, who knew what crazy actions she might take to get her fill?

    As such, Dante cast some space spells to secure his area like the 1st Rank Quantum Distortion to create a sturdy personal pocket space, then dual-casting both the 1st Rank Starry Shield and the 2nd Rank Dimensional Shield.

    After securing himself, he then made himselffortable and slept soundly. He only slept here to keep himself in the mood for training and to make sure that nothing untoward happened to his avatar.

    When he woke up, it was barely midnight. He had only rested for about 4 hours, but he was more than lively enough to continue, but his blood Qi had still not settled. As such, Dante could only repeatedly practice the Advanced Knight Realm version of the Primal Ape technique.

    Because he always assumed that one day he might be trapped somewhere that didn''t allow him to get back to his base easily, he had already mass-produced many Quantum Vitality Serums and Enhanced Energy Elixirs for his two physical methods.

    As such, even though he swallowed one every two hours, he did not feel any worry looking at the hundreds still in his quantum space. Dante started at midnight and spent 10 hours practicing 5 sets of the Primal Ape technique, leading him to reach 60% towards the next realm.

    He only stopped becauseˇ­ well, what do you expect? Even if his body could handle it, Dante did not yet have the mental tempering and drive to push himself so hard, especially when he was already so strong.

    Maybe those other main characters could endure great pain and spend every minute seeking power, but that was mostly because there was some overarching threat like a demon king, an apocalypse world, or a cutthroat world with nows.

    Dante did not have much, if any, external pressure. Every task he had taken on was due to his own ambition to rise to the top, so what empowered him was his ambition, not fear of death or harm.

    And there was a limit to how much ambition could push him forward. He was still a 21-year-old young man pushing 22. He was driven yes, and he understood the necessity of power and the lucky chance he got, yes.

    However, he simply could not enter machine mode. Training arcs were only training arcs because the protagonist needed to rapidly umte power to match the super-high power level of his enemy, so they take shortcuts and use pain-inducing means to get there.

    Compared to Dante whose main motivation for acquiring power was to devastate his significant otherˇ­ yeah.

    Anyway, the fellow took a break and justy down on the ground while thinking, staring at the sky. His mind was upied by many thoughts and ideas about his future, while he thought about his past and things he had to do on earth.

    However, not even an hour passed before he got up and continued. It wasn''t that he was trying to push himself, but because his mental fatigue washed away very quickly given his high Intelligence stats.

    What would take others days of such silent solitude to wear off took only an hour. If Dante had ess to some form of entertainment, he would probably have gotten rid of it much faster.

    What was interesting though, was that while he did not have any limitations in practicing the Primal Ape technique due to its ''softer'' nature in terms of being more about stability and vitality, it even had the extra benefit of calming his surging blood Qi that was more tyrannical and violent, more fit for direct killing and strengthening.

    So Dante could continue with the Raging Blood Halberd technique, and he did so without hesitation. He spent another 6 hours of 36 cycles each to break through from Minor Aplishment peak to Mastery peak.

    He only needed 3 hours of practice to reach the peak of the Martial Blood Realm and break through to be a Martial Master. However, his blood Qi refused to be tempered anymore as it was surging in his body due to the rapid growth and practice.

    However, he no longer worried as he knew that his Primal Ape technique could alleviate the surging stage with enough practice. However, a whole 17 hours had passed since he woke up, 10 spent on the Knight breathing, 1 spent resting, and 6 spent on the External Art.

    Dante decided to rest once more and enter thend of dreams in order to let his body resist the umtion of fatigue from repetition. This time, Dante put himself deep under and slept for exactly 8 hours before he came up.

    He did this because he knew that if he slept, his superior stats would make him rest for a short while, and while that was fine, he wanted time to pass a bit so that he could bnce his own sense of progress.

    The funny thing about the human mind was that slow progression in any field of interest caused depression and declining motivation, but rapid progression in any field of interest caused boredom and unappreciation.

    Dante woke up feeling much better and more ''normal''. He felt his motivation climb higher as he knew breakthrough was near and he could finally consider attempting one of his ideas without any feeling of regret.

    As such, he spent the next 8 hours finishing up the Primal Ape technique and bringing it to the peak of the Advanced Knight level, just a hair-thin distance from breaking through to a Peak Knight.

    After that, he naturally rested for an hour before continuing with the Raging Blood Halberd technique which he only spent 3 hours bringing to the peak of the Perfection realm, ready to break through to enter the Martial Master stage.

    Now that he was finally at the peak of both stages, Dante could break through and stabilize his genes once more. While this was an exciting thing to do, one was forgetting the huge problem.

    You see, for Dante''s self-growth system to work, he had to be able to enter the Apocalypse World with his real body oveid on his avatar to ess the free Absorption superpower that was given.

    And currently, there were two things stopping him from doing this.

    Firstly, he could not ''log out'' of this world; otherwise, the school would count it as a failure. His consciousness had to be present in this avatar body 24/7 with not a single break for the entire 30 days.

    Dante wouldn''t usually care about such a thing even if it involved his scores. After all, his performance in the real Zero Gate would be so thunderous that who could care about the mock version? Would a school still whine about poor results on mock exams when you scored all A''s in the main exam?

    But in this case, failing this one could affect his entry into the actual Zero Gate. It should be obvious that for ''safety'' reasons - but mostly for efficiency - the school would not let every first-year enter the Zero Gate if they didn''t match up to a certain standard.

    That was what these ''mock'' exams were for.

    Secondly, Dante''s time in the Apocalypse World was long up. He had started his third run long ago and extended it for as long as he could, raising his genes twice in this one session, but his 30 days were up and the avatar he left in there was naturally dead and gone.

    Of course, he could use his quantum markers to forcibly enter the world with his real body, but he would not be given the privilege of having the Absorption superpower because only his avatar could have that.

    And to get that avatar, he would have to log in and start a new session in the Apocalypse World, which he couldn''t do because he couldn''t log out of this one. It was quite the conundrum indeed.

    This was why Dante wanted the split soul or multi-mind ability so much. If he could find a way to leave part of his consciousness in his virtual body while the other part was in his real body, not only could he achieve two things at once, but he could also avoid issues like this!

    Currently, he did not have the abilities to aplish this in any way, so he could only sit down and ponder. His initial idea was to let the AI chip try and control his body, but it was only the first version of its model, unable to handle such a task.

    As for upgrading it, if Dante could have easily done so, he would have long done it. Unfortunately, only the gene treatments were free, only up to 15 times across all 5 years. Bionics and Psionics from the school were only free the first time which Dante had already redeemed, and AI chips were paid for right from the get-go because the government supplied you a basic one already.

    In order to upgrade any of them, Supercoins were needed. It was why, despite Dante always bluffing and saying he didn''t care about his Supercoin earnings, he still humbly worked hard and obeyed the rules.

 Chapter 185 Unpredictable Fortune!!

    ?

    So herey the conundrum. If Dante wanted to increase his stats, he had to leave. If he left, the school would have an excuse to ban him from entering the Zero Gate legally, and you know for sure that those factions out there would pay any price for that.

    They had difficulty sleeping or eating because they were racking their brains to think of how to deal with Dante. Even fifth years were warned about him, told to be very careful when encountering or dealing with him in the real Zero Gate.

    In fact, none of them expected him to fail these mock exams, just like they didn''t expect him to fail in the real Zero gate. Their minds hadn''t even gone there, so if Dante did that, there would be a great upset.

    Also, Dante was a young man. One thing he had always hated in the fiction he enjoyed while daydreaming about being special was the main characters who either inadvertently or consciously did something that brought negative public opinion or disgrace in order to further their goals, and while everyone was mocking or insulting them, they would sneer and call them shortsighted.

    Now that Dante was happily enjoying his period of being ''special'' like those characters, he had no ns to take their paths. Call him shallow and vain, but he did not fancy the idea of any random Tom, Dick, and Harry insulting him wherever he looked or walked.

    So no, he wouldn''t quit the Zero Gate and make not only the entire student body, but even those integrated factions continuouslyugh and mock him, feeling that they had overestimated him greatly.

    So Dante could not leave, which meant he could not increase his stats. This was because hecked the ability to split his mind or create quantum clones, which had less to do with sub-abilities and more with superpowers.

    This then led Dante to sigh and think about the idea he had earlier that he wanted to try. He hesitated a bit before taking out one of the six remaining fruits. He had eaten the Golden Fruit from the second tree, and then eaten the Space and Fire fruits from the first tree and the third tree.

    Then he gave the fourth fruit from the fourth tree to the Golden Ape, which was how it got its current thunder and wind superpower. Dante now had the Darkness, Lightning, Gem or Light, Earthquake, Silence, and Time fruits left.

    Right now, the one he took was the Earthquake. He wasn''t aiming for the superpower within, for he knew that no matter what, his Quantum Entanglement could not let him simte a full superpower using one of his sub-abilities.

    Dante popped the fruit into his mouth and immediately sat down in a meditative posture. Rather than passively wait, he immediately entered his Soul Space which still had the giant quantum gate that allowed him to traverse two universes, the smaller quantum gate by the side that let him traverse between quantum worlds, and the third smaller gate which showed an empty void in which many items floated within in a frame of stillness.

    Dante did not spend much time admiring the visual representation of his current superpower and rather felt the flow of Zero Energy that was currently feeding into him from the virtual fruit.

    Dante immediately rushed behind the gate and saw the entanglement of threads that he usuallyprehended when he entered the ck Land after reaching Rank D. If you wanted an idea of how these threads looked, try to picture a server room with LAN and power cables crisscrossed over each other.

    Dante noticed that he had a different feeling towards them since he was meditating without using the incense from the special cabin in the ck Land. His mind was more lucid, of course, but also less focused.

    When he used that pink incense, the threads were not tangled and were rather organized and loose, allowing him to see where they led and even try to move them. Right now, with how tangled and messy they were, it would require herculean effort toprehend anything.

    In fact, you were more likely to waste more time sorting things out thanprehend anything. Dante finally understood the value of the pink incense, and this was probably another reason why graduated superpower users wanted to get back into the ck Land, students be damned.

    Dante had the idea of researching and replicating it for himself, but then he realized how stupid and arrogant that was. If he was going to research it, he would have to use technology he got from this very universe, and there were already hundreds of thousands of denizens with better tech and qualifications than him who craved it.

    They had ess to it before and probably tried to research it but failed, otherwise the alumni group wouldn''t still want to bash the new students to the side and monopolize the goods for themselves.

    Dante had a strange feeling that the materials and ingredients for the pink incense mighte from somewhere special, maybe even be from a higher dimension.

    Whatever the case, Dante now had to deal with the mess before him. But then again, not really since this was exactly why he consumed the fruit in the first ce. Not only did he collect its flow of Zero Energy but a certain state ofprehension came with it that Dante needed.

    He noticed this when he ate the fruits previously, but some spark of enlightenment entered his mind when he ate the three fruits, just that it was overshadowed by the torrent of Zero Energy.

    Now that he was focusing on it, Dante knew he had underestimated it. He also understood what it was and where it came from.

    It was not surprising, as Dante had already long realized that these fruits were crafted using the research from actual real fruits. While the Eternal Universe could not crack the entire code for the fruits, they cracked enough of it that made these fruits near real in quantum worlds.

    These insights were priceless for Dante, who used them toprehend his Quantum Entanglement further. It manifested itself in the way of strange tendrils that emerged from Dante''s soul body andtched onto the tangled wires, ripped them apart from each other, and spread them out.

    This went on for an unknown amount of time until the flow of Zero Energy ran out, and Dante opened his eyes. His face changed greatly as he realized that he had split the wires by only about 1%, leaving 99% still entangled.

    However, hisprehension progress had shot up from 10% to the C rank to 45%!

    Dante checked the time and was left bbergasted to know that only about an hour had passed. My Brother in Christ, he spent 3 full days of 72 hours in the ck Landprehending his superpower at full st with the help of the pink incense and only reached 10%.

    Even then he was stopped because his brain overheated and almost melted into goo due to how much he pushed himself. Yet in an hour, he wasn''t even mentally tired, had no help from ambient Zero Energy or incense, and made 35% progress?

    Dante sighed and simply thanked any listening deity that his Quantum Entanglement was so special. Even if he was given a list of much cooler superpowers to choose from, he would still pick this one any day.

    Still, Dante thought with amusement, his Quantum Entanglement was OP. Putting aside how it allowed for this to happen through clever loopholes, there was also the fact that only 1% of sorting out the wires yielded 35% progress at the D rank heading up to the C Rank.

    One should know that sorting the out threads was not the same asprehending the threads or trying to control them. Sorting out was justying the groundwork for theprehension, yet it yielded more progress than actuallyprehending.

    Dante could think of many theories for this, but he simply thought of the saying: ''cleanliness is next to godliness''.

    Dante then looked to the sky. A hint of malicious greed appeared in his eyes as he wished he could simply skip the next 30 days and enter the next virtual mock session and gather the ten fruits there too.

    Luckily for him, he still had five remaining on his person, and Dante took the lightning one out without hesitation. He initially wanted to keep them forter experimentation, but he decided to only keep the time one.

    The rest, even if he could acquire their abilities, did notpare to even a hint of his Quantum Entanglement and were better used to work on it. You could not change Dante''s mind on that, sorry.

    He threw it into his mouth and then performed the same sequence of events, entering the soul space, checking out the tangled threads, and using the next hour in which he was flowing withprehension as well as Zero Energy to sort them out.

    When next Dante opened his eyes, they were full of excitement as he had climbed to 80%prehension towards the C Rank!

 Chapter 186 Upgraded Quantum Entanglement

    <h4>Chapter 186 Upgraded Quantum Entanglement</h4>

    Dante sucked in a deep breath and calmed himself down after celebrating mentally for a bit. It was impossible for a young man like him to be indifferent before such a great benefit, and he didn''t n to be.

    However, he did need a calm and cohesive mind to continue, so he regted his scattered emotions and popped the next fruit in, this one being the Darkness one.

    Since he was somewhat familiar with the process, Dante immediately got to work sorting out the threads before him, eventually spending about 30 minutes before he felt a huge change.

    An explosion seemed to ur in the depths of his soul space, towards the void where the threads that were connected to the back of the main quantum gate led to.

    All this time, Dante had been unable to see where the threads led to, like their endpoint was situations in another dimension. However, with this silent explosion, he could finally see what it connected to, and it was marvelous.

    Amidst the boundless expanse of the void in his soul space, there existed an entity that was shaped like a tree but was unlike any one Dante had seen before.

    Its form defied the ordinary, being akin to a celestial wonder of the universe. It was a tree made up solely of the threads that Dante had been sorting out up until now, extremely intricate and intertwined. They formed its very veins, which glowed with an ethereal radiance and even pulsed with each second, as if they were beacons of guidance in the darkness.

    The tree itself was a harmonious blend of being very translucent, its visible bark and leaves glowing with vibrant purple hues, strongly possessing a sense of the otherworldly. It seemed to transcend the boundaries of the physical, existing as both a part of the universe, his soul space, and an entity beyond it.

    Dante guessed that it was a higher-dimensional existence, probably the very one that saved him and granted him this power? All the threads he had connected to it, but they only formed a small part of it.

    It was no wonder that trying to control or move those threads yielded so little progress. Even if he had 5 million Intelligence SDI, he still would not be able to use his mind to control this tree because the threads were too few.

    It was more likely that even if he did have the mental force, he would just snap the threads and sever his connection to this tree. Dante also now understood why sorting out the threads yielded so much more progress than controlling them.

    It was like a water hose. When the hose was tangled and bent, the water flow was constricted and slow, but if you separated them and straightened the hose out, the water flowed out smoothly.

    Dante''s Quantum Entanglement was a standalone ability, Dante realized because even if he snapped the threads, his superpower would still exist. However, its grade would quickly reduce, and his future would be limited.

    This tree represented endless possibilities for his Quantum Entanglement, allowing him to ess higher-dimensional abilities and simplify them into his superpower. This was why he always causedmotions when breaking through and also gained mind-boggling powers that many could agree were broken.

    The universe struggled to bnce out Dante''s abilities most of the time, and even with that, Dante could find clever loopholes like using the virtual fruits to progress.

    Dante could also tell that this was just a projection of the tree. His little lower-dimensional mind could obviously not fathom or process the actual nature of the tree, so this was a virtual replica made in a form that he could understand.

    Dante hesitated but did not contact it. It was not that he wasn''t curious, and it wasn''t that he wasn''t wary, but it was mostly because he doubted he could actually speak to it with his current ability.

    It''s more likely that his mind would explode on attempted contact, and unless he was like those reckless main characters who had cosmic luck to save them, that would be the end of the road for him.

    Dante reined in his curiosity and rather dealt with a more pressing issue. He had received a wealth of feedback from the tree in terms of possible abilities he could acquire for the C Rank of Quantum Entanglement.

    They numbered ten, and when Dante parsed through them, his breathing became heavy. First, he saw a brief history of his superpower up until this point.

    [F Rank: Base Ability

    Quantum Entanglement - This superpower allows the user to teleport between two different universes using a quantum tunnel, allowing him to appear at any spot in which he had initiated the teleportation from. ces where teleportation had been initiated were termed ''Quantum Markers''.]

    [E Rank: Upgraded Base Ability

    Quantum Teleportation - This upgraded ability took the F Rank base ability and added a new feature, which was the ability for the user to now travel between ced quantum markers instantly, regardless of distance or location in both universes or through both universes.

    E Rank: New Sub-Ability

    Quantum Transposition - This was a new sub ability that allowed the user to enter Quantum Worlds with their real body, able to go in ande out freely, even obtaining abilities and powers rted to the quantum lifeforms within those worlds.]

    [D Rank: Upgrade Base Ability

    Quantum cement - This upgraded ability took the F rank base ability and the E Rank upgraded base ability and added a new feature, which was the ability for the user to now consciously ce quantum markers down at any spot within their mind''s reach, allowing them to teleport there at will using Quantum Teleportation.

    D Rank: New Sub-Ability

    Quantum Depository - This new sub-ability opened up a special portable space that the user could store inanimate objects in for any length of time, the objects preserved in the exact form they were put in. They could then retrieve the items at will from any ce, whether in either universe or even within quantum worlds.]

    And then after that came the list of possible upgrades, split into those for

    [Quantum Upgrades for the C Rank

    C Rank Upgrade Paths:

    1. Quantum Flux: In this upgrade, the user can manipte the flow of time around quantum markers. They can slow down or speed up time, allowing for strategic nning, elerated training, or even aging or de-aging objects and people.

    2. Quantum Transportation: The user can now establish a stable connection between two quantum markers they ce. This allows them to teleport back and forth between these two points at will with more than one person, creating a stable pathway for instantaneous travel. The user can set up multiple pairs of quantum markers, greatly expanding their mass teleportationwork.

    3. Quantum Banishment: The user can remotely trigger any quantum marker causing all targets be they living or non-living within a certain range to be unterally sucked into a quantum tunnel that leads into the void in between universes, guaranteeing instant death regardless of their power.

    4. Quantum Fissure: The user''s teleportation tunnels be unstable on impact, creating small, localized quantum fissures. These fissures can be triggered remotely, creating sudden and unpredictable disruptions in spacetime that can rupture living and non-living things. It is an insta-kill unless the target also had significant spatial ability.

    5. Quantum Clone: This upgrade enables the user to split their consciousness between quantum markers, effectively allowing them to be in two ces at once. This could be used for multitasking, reconnaissance, or coordinatingplex actions simultaneously

    in different locations. This creates a quantum clone at the target spot that possesses 10% of the main body''s power.

    C Rank New Sub-Abilities:

    1. Quantum World: The user gains the ability to create a permanent Quantum World in which they own and control, with their own custom rules andws within that may or may not be essible in the real world. The Quantum World can be superimposed onto the real world for a short time, allowing the user to use the power system within externally for a short while.

    2. Quantum Healing: The user can now heal any Quantum Poisoning on any person, allowing them to fully recover from the disease. The user can also heal the Reality Poisoning on quantum beings that enter the real world, effectively preventing both sides from perishing.

    3. Quantum Bestowment: The user can bestow a pseudo-quantum body on any real being, allowing them to enter quantum worlds and ess the power systems within permanently, but they are not immune to quantum poisoning. The same goes for quantum beings towards reality.

    4. Quantum Replication: The user can create duplicates of any quantum item they have in their possession, and these items can be taken into reality. Depending on their quality, they can be merged with reality''sws, and their functions usable by all beings.

    5. Quantum Imprint: The user can leave a temporary mark on objects or individuals they touch. These marks can serve various purposes, such as tracking,munication, or mobile quantum markers when activated through quantum teleportation.]

 Chapter 187 Tough Choice

    <h4>Chapter 187 Tough Choice</h4>

    Dante floated in the void, frozen in ce as his expression changed multiple times in a second. Eventually, his entire face became red, his eyes bloodshot, and his breathing akin to that of a wounded beast.

    His greed was spiked beyond human limits, and as one would expect, he wanted it all! After all, some of them synergized with each other too well, like Quantum healing and Quantum Bestowment.

    However, Dante knew that not only could he choose one from each, but these other abilities that were not chosen may not appear when he reached the B Rank.

    What he gained at each level depended on what he had done during the period of time and what he focused on. This made the options even more important for Dante, and he had to choose the absolute best for him at this moment.

    Dante went through the options one by one.

    Quantum Flux was definitely useful, but Dante did not fancy it much. The ability to alternate time around quantum markers, when paired with his ability to drop quantum markers willingly anywhere, could allow him to virtually obtain the ability to control time.

    That had greatbat utility and could even be used like the famous training montage/time skip protagonists do to rapidly catch up to the enemy''s power level. Dante, who wasining about ack of time for raising his various sub-abilities and powers, could use this to reach the peak rapidly.

    However, he did not necessarily need that right now. He had more than enough time to reach the peak before December, even if he couldn''t leave this world for 30 days. Likewise, the ability to control time forbat did not mean much because he already had a wide range of powers that could do better than that.

    To even counter his previous reason for not choosing this Abyssal Eyes that gave time control powers, he could definitely find a power system that granted time control. Technically, it wasn''t even impossible to get it now, as long as he found a time-rted meditation technique and absorbed time element into hister Spiritual Cores.

    The slots for powers at each stage were precious because they CANNOT be switched if they became useless or redundant, so you were stuck with them even if youter reached the EX rank and got other abilities.

    Quantum Transportation was definitely something Dante wanted because he could not only take Beatrice to his home universe and decimate all his obstacles, but she could meet his parents, and they could officiate their rtionship.

    He could also bring his parents over and increase the quality of their genes and grant them a longer life through better technology present here. However, despite how good this sounded, Dante wasn''t too hot about this one because he could achieve something like this anyway.

    Firstly, his Quantum Depository allowed him to store people so he could take them cross-universe; he just needed to resolve Quantum Poisoning, and everything would be fine. The second method was to reach the 9th Rank of Magic with all his Spiritual Cores being of the space element.

    With a powerful 9th Rank space spell, Dante could create a miniature world and then store it in his quantum depository. He had a theory that if he was clever enough with it, he could prevent his ''passengers'' from contracting Quantum Poisoning.

    Basically, it was like being stuck in front of a swamp that was full of toxic miasma that you had to cross. You could either apply a serum that immunized you, wade through it while coughing and then take the antidote after oryer yourself in thick hazmat suits to pass through safely.

    The second idea was simr to the hazmat method while his first idea was simr to the antidote after method.

    Quantum Banishment was amazing, but did not really touch Dante now. All the enemies that stood in his path could be taken down using his current powers - or his current powers if they were strengthened further - as well as his resources, so he was not under some great threat.

    The only ones who could make this ability useful were Lara or higher-dimensional beings, but neither of the two were his enemiesˇ­ yet.

    Quantum Fissure was the same and was even worse than Quantum Banishment. One was a sure kill regardless of power level while one could be resisted by those strong in space abilities like Slessor or the Magi above the 5th Rank in the Magus world.

    It waspletely out of the question.

    Quantum Clone was something that made Dante''s eyes bloodshot. It was like being given a thermal nket in the midst of a snowstorm, able to provide you constant heat to beat the terrible temperature out there.

    He had just been agonizing about how much time would be wasted if he had to wait the 30 days, but with this, he could log into any quantum world he needed and be in two ces at once. He could create a quantum clone here, in the Zero Gate World with 10% of his power and then take his real body to the Apocalypse World and farm stats.

    Also note, it said between quantum markers, not quantum worlds. This meant that he could leave a clone in the home universe with 10% of his power to handle his technological expansion while his main body remained here to umte power and prowess!

    The best part was that he and his clone could alternate positions at any time, and even be at the same ce if they wanted, the only requirements were for there to be a quantum marker at the location to generate the clone, not maintain it.

    As for the sub-abilities, Quantum World was something Dante also craved. Putting aside how great it would be to be able to create a stable quantum world with a custom power system he could attach to himself, being able to ovey it into reality and force others to use that power system could make a big difference.

    For example, aren''t there quantum worlds with rules that did not allow virtual avatars to use superpowers? Dante only bypassed that because he externally used his superpower to enter the world, and due to the imitated power of the Quantum AI over his real body, he could use his superpower freely within the world.

    If he could ovey it into the real world, within its range, even the almighty Lara would be a toothless dog that would be forced to bark for him, not to mention his ''ssmates'' or any Zero Gate World beast.

    Of course, Beatrice and her mother would be immune since their superpowers granted them great stats so it did not do much.

    As for Quantum Healing, it might look useless at first nce since it did not immunize a person from quantum poisoning, that was thinking too far. Its basic ability could allow Dante to transfer people from one universe to another.

    Though they could not enter quantum worlds, that was not something to be worried about. Without a quantum body, entering quantum worlds was useless anyway, so that should not even be factored into this skill''s utility.

    Just its ability to work in tandem with quantum depository made it very useful since Dante could just port a whole battleship of superpowered people over and then heal them before wreaking havoc.

    Quantum Bestowment was also something that looked interesting. If Dante could ess it in tandem with Quantum Healing, he would be able to take Beatrice or any of his trusted confidantes into quantum worlds to umte power just like him and be stronger.

    It would be very useful if he wanted to create a force of pseudo-superpowered beings with Internal Force, Magic, Life Seeds, and Blood? Qi along with Sharingans or Rinnegans. Just the very thought caused Dante to shiver down to his bones.

    Quantum Replication made Dante pause because this was actually secretly the most useful and powerful of the list. With this, if he ever gained those resurrection resources, he didn''t even need to take them out, but just replicate them.

    He could then throw them back for others to fight over while holding the replicated item andughing with mockery at the rest. More importantly, didn''t he have some fruits on his person right now?

    If he could replicate them and take them out, and they worked, wouldn''t Dante be a lesser god of superpowers? Putting aside whether he could acquire the superpowers himself due to his quantum body, he could make all his people, like Beatrice, his parents, and even Beatrice''s parents possess 10-20 superpowers each.

    Even if it didn''t work, fine, Dante could swallow them and use them as replenishable resources to advance his Quantum Entanglement further, so there was no real loss.

    After all, it was inevitable that no matter how advanced the Eternal Universe was, some quantum items could not be technologically replicated. The resurrection resources might fit into this category, not to mention the fruits that could not be fully researched.

    As for Quantum Imprint, Dante did not really see the value of it. It allowed him to track a person across universes and quantum worlds, but he had other ways to achieve this, especially if he chose other options.

    Maybe he could use it to track his protagonists in the quantum worlds and make sure they don''t rebel. Or he could leave them on Beatrice and his loved ones to teleport to them if they were in danger.

    So the utility wasn''t very high.

    Dante looked through his options and gritted his teeth before resolutely making his choices!

 Chapter 188 Quantum Clone and Quantum Replication

    <h4>Chapter 188 Quantum Clone and Quantum Replication</h4>

    Naturally, what else would he choose but Quantum Clone for his base ability upgrade path and Quantum Replication for his new sub-ability.

    Dante could list many reasons for his choices, but it simply came down to the fact that both of these choices ticked more boxes in his goals list than the others within the same category.

    (A/N: Check chapter 163 for the goals list.)

    The moment Dante made his choices, he felt a surge of knowledge and power encode itself into his very being, at a ce deeper than his soul, spirit, body, or mind. It was as if superpowers were linked to one''s very existence.

    Just like his previous abilities, there wasn''t much to it except instinctively knowing how to use these abilities. However, unlike any superpower in existence, the potency of Dante''s Quantum Entanglement abilities - whether main or sub - were not based on his stats.

    Dante looked at the resplendent tree in the distance and understood that this was like a phone with a data cable connected to a PC. His superpower was the phone, and the tree was the PC, able to supply ''data'' - which were the powerful abilities - as well as ''power'' through the cable.

    No wonder even with his crappy stats he could teleport between universes. Imagine the energy consumed by Dante every time he casually ported back and forth, moving through the void between universes for an unknown distance.

    Even if he had 10 million stats in all fields, he might not be able to provide the needed energy even if he sucked himself dry. Not even the explosion of a million stars could supply enough energy for such travel, not to mention keeping the quantum tunnel stable for the ransomer while making it instantaneous rather than take hundreds of millions of millennia.

    If you were a scientifically-minded person, the more you thought about Dante''s ability, even just the base one, the more you would pull out your hair at the sheer calctions and requirements needed for it to work.

    But now, the answer was clear, Dante had a sugar mamaˇ­ er, a sugar higher-dimensional being? Something like that.

    Of course, the universal rule was that there was never a free lunch and there was always a price to pay, but Dante didn''t want to think about that too deeply right now and give himself existential dread.

    He opened his eyes as he left his soul space, and his expression became dark. The area within almost 500 meters around him had been ravaged as if a giant had bellyflopped onto the earth, or rather like an atomic bomb had been set off.

    Dante was now sitting in the middle of a very deep crater. He stood up and leapt out of it simply, ncing back into the hole that was created by his breakthrough.

    Dante couldn''t help but think to himself that it would only get worse when he broke through to the higher ranks of Quantum Entanglement. Not to repeat what had already been said a million times, but the reason for this was likely excess energy from the tree that supplied him power.

    Dante nced around and then pondered. Apart from the changes in his superpower in terms of the new abilities, Dante found that his body had ''loosened'' slightly. In other words, he could now ept one more power system in his body that originated from a quantum world.

    He had no thoughts about that yet, rather casting his 1st Rank Quantum Distortion to ce his body in a pocket world. Then, Dante sent his main body back into reality and left his avatar behind with his consciousness within.

    On the heels of that, he activated his new main ability, Quantum Clone, and split his mind into two, one into his avatar and one to his main body. Immediately, the avatar was oveid with his main body, meaning that it was no different than when he used his actual main body.

    So even in quantum worlds where avatars could not ess superpowers, Dante could still use this method to gain ess to such superpowers even though it had just 10% of his main body''s power.

    Dante opened his eyes in two ces, in reality within the pod and in the virtual world within his avatar. He was very pleased to see that this did not trigger the quantum AI for the Zero Gate World to know that he had logged out.

    However, Dante immediately realized a slight problem. His quantum clone did not have its own AI chip, nor did it have his Bionics or Psionics. It just had 10% of his current stats, so 150 in all fields as well as his superpower.

    However, the good news was that his superpower was not nerfed in his quantum clone. After all, power for it was supplied from somewhere else, so even if it was a replica of him, it still had the ''infinite energy''.

    The clone had ess to his quantum space, and both bodies could ess it from anywhere at any time, even at the same time. Likewise, all his abilities were there, so the clone could ce markers for both of them, teleport to any known markers, and even replicate items using his new sub-ability.

    Even better was the fact that the clone had the full extent of Dante''s prowess in terms of his magical methods. So despite having such low stats, it still had 3 Spiritual Cores of 500 points of Intelligence condensed into them, level 4 Gluttonous Inferno-tier hellfire, Martial Blood realm Blood Qi, and Advanced Knight Life Essence.

    It also had the full Eyes of Illusion, but its effectiveness depended on his stats, just like the main body. This was certainly a lifesaver and increased the value and strength of his clone greatly.

    Of course, there were limitations as well. The clone could not practice these methods to grow on its own, and its power could not be remotely ''updated'' if Dante broke through. He would have to recall it and then recast it from scratch to obtain any new updates to his power and abilities.

    Dante could not help but be amused. His clone with 10% of his power was more in line with fairness for the entry into the real Zero Gate for the students. He would still be a top-notch candidate, but he could be challenged by a few others reasonably.

    Anyway, Dante''s clone sat down in the quantum distortion and took out the remaining fruits that were from this quantum world, which were thest 3, Gem or Light, Silence, and Time.

    He first held the diamond fruit that glowed, which was the assumed light or gem one and activated his quantum replication. Dante felt energy draining from his superpower that came fromˇ­ somewhere as the fruit in his hand split into two on the spot, like a hyper-fast render of two cells splitting apart.

    Dante''s eyes narrowed as he put aside the original one and held up the replicated one. With a thought, he ced it into his quantum space and began to focus on replicating the others.

    Meanwhile, Dante''s main body exited the pod and nced at Beatrice who had been rushing over in a thin nightgown after receiving an alert that Dante''s body had returned to the pod.

    When she saw him awake, her face changed, looking like a child that had been caught red-handed about to steal a dor from their mom''s purse for a pack of candy. Soon, she quickly fixed her expression and folded her arms.

    "Oh, you''re out early. I thought you said you couldn''te out for 30 days no matter what?" She asked nonchntly.

    Dante''s expression darkened when he saw her like this and his heart couldn''t help but feel cold. If he had been even a moment too slow, who knew what this greedy subus would have done to him?

    She was clearly an addict, a junkie addicted to his semen and the energy contained within that was biologically superior, being of a way higher grade than average humans. If he gave her the slightest chance, she would milk him dry with no remorse, and there was even a chance that she might get so ''lost in the sauce'' that he would end up as a desated husk.

    However, Dante epted it because he secretly liked being intensely sexually desired by his partner like this not to mention that there was a certain feeling of arrogance knowing that he had the ability to drive her crazy like this.

    "I found a way to avoid that. It''s called bing stronger by upgrading your awesome superpower." Dante retorted with a twitch of his lips.

    "Oh? Tell me. Anything new?" Beatrice''s curiosity was spiked and she quickly rushed up to him, pressing herrge and soft breasts against his chest. She hugged him around his torso and looked up to his face with a smile, and Dante looked down simrly.

    "Sure, here''s what happened. When I entered the Zero Gate World, I first discovered thatˇ­ etc." Dante began informing her of what went down after he entered the Zero gate world. Much to Beatrice''s shock and delight.

 Chapter 189 Martial Master and Peak Knight

    <h4>Chapter 189 Martial Master and Peak Knight</h4>

    "Oh! Interesting!" Beatrice''s eyes sparkled.

    "There are so many items in various quantum worlds that not only myself, but many others in the universe want. If you could replicate them and allow those items to achieve their functions, you could amass wealth and power beyond that of even my n." Beatrice hypothesized as she tapped her chin thoughtfully.

    "Meh. The current standing I have is enough." Dante replied with ack of interest.

    Naturally, he had considered many times whether to start an enterprise or business in the eternal universe, but he did not see the need. He was just here to pilfer and giarize their technology to conquer the home universe.

    This was also why he did not invest much effort in Earth''s society anymore, nor did he bother to set up some sort of business in the home universe featuring advanced technology.

    The entire ce would soon be under his rule, and all entities and businesses would be paying taxes to him, so what was the point? Even the very currency the business universe-wide wouldter use to transact would be created and controlled by his power.

    Beatrice nced at Dante askance with a twitch of her lips. "Dante, you are neglecting one simple fact. No matter how strong your home universe is and how many fellows you conquer there, its power would never match up to this one."

    "You''re thinking of raising an army using tech you copied from this universe as well as a few special methods you possess, but that is fatal. At the end of the day, the tech originated from here, and they likely have more than one way to deal with it in a critical situation." Beatrice pointed out helplessly.

    Dante frowned and then nodded. He had been thinking too simply; this was not something that could be solved by throwing bodies over. The scale of universes was toorge, so if he tried to use the attrition method, unless he wanted to live forever, he might not even conquer 40% before he died.

    And as Beatrice was saying, if he wanted to use the blitzkrieg or overwhelming method, wellˇ­ he wasn''t qualified. Neither he nor his entire home universe were.

    "And you think bing a business mogul is the way? Wouldn''t politics be far better an approach?" Dante eventually asked Beatrice as he thought it over, wanting to confirm from her.

    After all, she was the true native here and might know things that Dante did not. In fact, scratch that, she definitely knew things that Dante did not, so her perspective would be far wider than his in this regard.

    "No, politics is the end goal, but you have no tform to bounce off of to reach that level. You have some qualifications to fight like your superpower and great talent as well as the Portinari n''s backing, but those won''t push you too far or even that Lara woman would have named herself Goddess-Queen." Beatrice pointed out.

    Dante nodded. "Okay, I''ll take your advice, Beatrice. So how exactly am I to get started with this business?"

    Beatrice smiled. "Well, we need to see how powerful your replication ability is. Why don''t you try replicating some items now from various quantum worlds after you work on your power and we''ll see how viable it is."

    "If our replication has no limit per item, then we can take the path of mass production. If your replications can only work a limited amount of times based on a certain rule, then we''ll take the path of high-profile auctions." Beatrice concluded.

    Dante felt it was not a bad idea, but he nced at Beatrice strangely and asked with a weird smile. "And what about the danger that wille our way once people learn that not only can I enter quantum worlds freely, but I can bring items within out and even replicate them?"

    Beatrice sneered. "Whoever dares to stand in your way is my enemy. If they try to even harm a single hair on your head, I will exterminate their entire lineage from family to friends, and then exterminate those friends'' families."

    Beatrice''s eyes shed with a hint of chilling coldness. "If they dare to take it even a little bit too far, I will simply exterminate a part of their race within my authority and leave them alive to bear the consequences."

    Dante was deeply chilled because he could sense the purity and sincerity in Beatrice''s words. She would absolutely do that to the person who dared to cross him regardless of their standing, so Dante knew that he had to be stronger than all his foes so they couldn''t hurt him.

    Otherwise, their fate would beˇ­

    Dante then focused and noticed that Beatrice was still dressed skimpily, showing more than 90% of her lush and wless skin, and her womanly assets were barely concealed from his greedy eyes.

    Seeing that she had dared toe here like this, how could Dante not teach her a lesson? Immediately, he grabbed the unsuspecting Beatrice whose face changed when she was hoisted up and carried away to a corner of the room.

    Soon, weird erotic sounds akin to a person mixing a bowl of macaroni sounded along with stifled moans that were full of lust and excitement. Dante made sure to put in the world so that Beatrice would be out ofmission for a while, so you know that he held back nothing.

    After dealing with her, he took her to his chambers and left her in his bed, the woman toozy to even move due to satisfaction. Seeing her like this put Dante in a good mood, and he sat down beside her as he entered the virtual world and created a new session for the Apocalypse World.

    He descended into the area of another new city, which left him in a barren wastnd with nothing in sight for all directions. Dante rolled his eyes and used his superpower to teleport to the quantum marker he left in the spider cave.

    When he appeared in the top level, he saw that

    there were only Spiderling eggs strewn about the ce. Clearly, the spiders had tried to rebuild in the week or so that Dante had note to disturb them, probably thinking that their worst nightmare was over.

    Well, it was about to begin again. Dante did not kill the Spiderling because they were very important to the Spider Queen. They were cost-effective foot soldiers who could bring her food and prey from outside to help her regain her power back to the S rank.

    In fact, Dante thought that it might not be a bad idea for him to grow this spider queen himself. He could toss some powerful quantum resources filled with bio-energy for her to let her create more underlings and then harvest them each time he needed to raise stats.

    It was basically sustainable harvesting. Rather than ruthlessly plunder thend until it is barren, toss down some fertilizer and water after each harvest so that the next batch is just as good.

    Anyway, while Dante was here, he didn''t waste much time on the top floor. He reached the passageway that led to the area with the Spider Warriors and cast his expanded spirit sense down.

    He saw that the entire nest was just as he thought, in a state of recuperation and rebuilding. Even the Spider Queen looked exhausted after giving birth so many times, and she had doubled the number of C rank Spider Champions and D Rank Spider Lords.

    Rather, the number of E Rank Spider Warriors was not really increased. It was more likely because the Spider Queen was smart enough to know that such troops could not stop Dante, so it was better to invest in stronger types.

    However, Dante frowned. Looking at the Spider Queen and sensing her aura through his spirit sense, she was so weak. She was probably really drained from buffing up her high-level forces and was on the verge of falling down to the C Rank herself.

    Dante realized he definitely had to give her something to power her up after this harvesting session or she might be weakened to the point where some other yer who stumbled across this ce could clear the entire hive with ease.

    Dante stretched his legs and broke through using the Raging Blood Halberd Technique and the Primal Ape Technique as well. He easily became a Martial Master Realm Martial Artist as well as a 4th Rank Peak Knight.

    After doing so, he cricked his neck and descended upon the poor Spider Warriors that were slowly and effectively trying to rebuild their area. When they saw Dante walk over with a casual smile, the entire nest froze like time had stopped, endless fear coursing through the hivework that bound these arachnids together.

    There was only one thing that spread through their hivework like crazy, and it was a simple set of words.

    ''It''s Him! It''s Him! By the Spider Goddess, it''s him again!!''

 Chapter 190 2000 Point SDI... finally.

    <h4>Chapter 190 2000 Point SDI... finally.</h4>

    While Dante did not attach a Celestial Tether between himself and the spiders in order to understand what they were thinking, he actually didn''t need to go so far given the bodynguage of the arachnids after he appeared.

    Even he himself felt a little bad about what he was doing, for it was a little overboard ethically. However, it would take too long to move about and hunt different D Rank and above monsters in the wild given how they were spread out, so this ''dungeon'' was truly the best bet for him.

    Of course, Dante didn''t n to take long anyway. He took out his Blood Battle Halberd and attached his recently expanded Blood Qi that had changed its form after it broke through.

    It was now thicker and more malleable, feeling a lot less like ''water'' and more like ''jelly''. From the Martial Master realm ongoing, martial artists could change their blood Qi into shapes and create armors, weapons, and even projectiles to use, but the quantity and quality depended on the specific realm.

    Dante did not want to use his space rank spells like thest two times because while it would guarantee an instant kill, it would destroy everything on this floor, rendering the hard work of the spiders moot.

    Call him sentimental, but he felt that it would be better to use a less environmentally destructive method to deal with his targets so that they could continue where they left off when the Spider Queen gave birth to the next batch.

    Dante took one step forward as his body blurred. A sharp wind raged around the small cavern, and before a normal human could blink their eye, all the Spider Warriors who had not taken even a step since they appeared were shed into two, split at the middle.

    Dante casually used a space spell to gather the corpses together and absorbed them all at once. However, surprisingly, Dante did not let the huge wave of power enter his body but rather into his avatar first.

    In Dante''s opinion, it was better to have a stronger avatar, so that even if he left it somewhere dangerous while he did other things, it would be strong enough to weather any blow. His foes could attack his lifeless quantum avatar all they wanted but be unable to even leave a scratch.

    After dealing with the E ranks, Dante nced down and made a simple move to appear in the next level. The Spider Lords were already aware of his presence and had formed a battle group meant to deal with him.

    Unlike the crass Spider Warriors, these Spider Lords were far more refined in appearance and looked far more deadly. They even had far better habitations and some semnce of a civilized settlement here.

    Dante shrugged and did not give these fellows the same respect that he did for the Spider Warriors and cast the 1st Rank Astral re. He didn''t dare to use the second rank version after seeing what it did in the Zero Gate World.

    If the oue was the same, then only ashes would be left of these Spider Lords, which was obviously not something he could absorb, now could he?

    The spell did its magic and released potent light rays from a void portal thatnced everything in its way to death. The projectiles were small enough to leave ruined corpses behind, not enough to disintegrate themˇ­ yet.

    Dante shook his head and gathered the corpses into two different groups, one small and onerge. He had already checked the stats of the Spider Lords and did the calction, so the smaller pile should allow him to gain just a bit over 500 points in all fields after absorption.

    And this was only because the Spider Lords had rtively bnced statspared to their lesserpatriots. If it were up to the usual method, Dante would have to over-absorb stats in many fields, and he hated that the most because it caused a very painful reaction each time.

    Dante brought his hand to the small pile and absorbed the stats into his main body directly. Immediately, he felt his power soar by more than a quarter as his body became full of power.

    When the absorption was done, he only had to fire a beam of reddish-purple lightning with golden hues out towards the side which contained the excess. This greatly pleased him because it meant that his control over his body had increased to the point where he could willingly suppress the excess energy explosion and release it through an alternate means.

    As for his SDIˇ­ well, did you need to be told?

    [User: Dante (ID Number: DANTE10998-03-15)

    Age: 21 (Converted to Earth years)

    Race: Pure Human (99.9% gic perfection)

    Strength Index: 2000 (20000)

    Agility Index: 2000 (20000)

    Dexterity Index: 2000 (20000)

    Intelligence Index: 2000 (20000)

    Constitution Index: 2000 (20000)

    Vitality Index: 2000 (20000)

    Bionic Level: 1 (Unique Student Version 10.)

    Psionic Level: 1 (Unique Student Version 10.)

    AI Chip Level: 1 (Civilian Category)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement (Rank C).

    Physical Powers: Raging Blood Halberd Technique (Martial Master, Entry level 1%), Primal Ape Technique (Level 4: Peak Knight, 1%).

    Magical Powers: Inferno Ascension Technique (Level 4: Gluttonous Inferno, 45%), Void Speaker Chant (Level 4: Advanced Wizard (3rd Rank), 4%).]

    Dante couldn''t help but feel emotional when looking at his current SDI. He still vividly remembered when he first got this and all his stats were below 1 point, leading Beatrice to call him a Neanderthal.

    He still remembered how excited he was when Beatrice gave him the gene changer that set his stats at above 2 points, even bowing to her in gratitude.

    He still remembered when Xue Bing gravely warned him about terrifying fellow students who had SDIs that could even reach the 300-point level among some of the top students, telling him to be cautious.

    It was an experience that changed one''s entire mentality, looking back on where you came and understanding how far you''vee from there. Especially when it was the kind of journey that caused a great change in power and status, something that the previous you could never have even dreamed of.

    Dante sighed deeply and sent his main body out before absorbing the remainder of the Spider Lord''s corpse into his avatar. Since this one did not have a stat point limit, his stats easily broke through the 5000-point limit.

    However, this was of little value to Dante as he took out an Enhanced Energy Elixir and sent it right in front of the cowering Spider Queen who was terrified by the sudden execution of all her Spider Lords at once.

    When the Enhanced Energy Elixir suddenly appeared before her,nding on her huge F-cup breasts since her upper body was mostly that of a human woman - she should actually be fully humanoid with spider legs on her back at the S Rank but she deteriorated and became more spider-like each rank she fell - it bounced on them and fell into her hands.

    While she was obviously stunned, Dante transmitted his thoughts through a telepathic wave using his high Intelligence passive ability, informing her what the elixir did and how to use it.

    The Spider Queen wanted to ask who he was and why he was doing this, but she had grown too weak to use psychic power like before. As such, Dante naturally left the world - and his avatar - without giving an exnation as to why.

    This left the Spider Queen feeling extremely confused and conflicted.

    Dante himself did not think too much about it and logged out. He found that Beatrice had fallen asleep while curling into his bed, and he couldn''t help but give her forehead a light peck before choosing to enter the Magus World next.

    Now that he had raised his stats again, he had to go and update his spells, inform his faction for better treatment and ess to information as well as check up on his little protagonist he left here and how they were doing.

    Dante closed his eyes and beamed down into the Magus World. His avatar was still in his meditation chamber without being disturbed, which was something Dante expected. After all, unless the Celestial Arcanists were uprooted one day, no one woulde and disturb their star pupil.

    Besides, much like those funny Immortal Cultivators, Mages were often able to seclude themselves from the world for years upon end. They would not be surprised that the 3rd Rank Dante could disappear for a few years, much less a month or two.

    The moment Dante entered his avatar, he realized how weak it was. He had never meditated or tried the Knight Breathing technique in this form, so he decided that much like his avatar in the True Martial World, it was time to train this one too.

    As such, before he even thought of doing anything else, he first opened his quantum depository and took out a Quantum Vitality Serum to begin practicing the Primal Ape technique.

 Chapter 191 Jamesonâ€™s Progress

    <h4>Chapter 191 Jameson''s Progress</h4>

    Dante''s practice and progress with the Primal Ape technique were pretty rapid. By the time he had spent about 10 hours practicing, he was already at the peak of the Beginner Knight level.

    He stopped here and didn''t bother to start meditating because that would take time. He simply nted a Quantum Aetherium Conduit into his avatar that would allow it to passively absorb Astral Energy to generate spiritual essence.

    After doing this, he brought his main body onto the clone and felt the true power and familiarity course through him. Interestingly, his AI chip instantly received a ping from the subordinate chip in his protagonist that immediately filled Dante in with the details of the fellow''s actions during this time as well as a few requests.

    Dante did not take long to parse this information and when he did, he was thoroughly speechless.

    To summarize, Jameson, who thought he was the reincarnated family man, Mark Thompson, hadpletely changed his ways. He stopped with his sexual overindulgence in non-consensual intercourse and began to practice one of the best Meditation techniques that the AI chip gave him which was called the Primal Chaos technique.

    It allowed him to generate higher quality spiritual cores using the Astral Energy he absorbed using the Quantum Aetherium Conduit which he thought was his ''natural'' talent. This allowed him to grow far faster than the average wizard, reaching the peak of the 3rd Rank Advanced Wizard, the same realm as Dante.

    Of course, this was only because of Dante''s elitist behavior with his condensation of 500-point intelligence spiritual cores, not to mention he practiced his meditation technique practically never, unlike Jameson who had it running passively at all times.

    His knight''s progress was much slower, being at around the peak of the 1st Rank Beginner Knight because Jameson focused on that less, just like Dante. The Knight system was tempting to people with no power, but anyone who could practice the Magus system would not take it too seriously because they could see how wed and limited it was.

    Not to mention that Dante did not allow Jameson to ess or use Quantum Vitality Serums. This was only his test-run protagonist, why would he give him such benefits? Not to mention that Dante did not have the ability to anyway.

    He had no way to link his subordinate AI chip to his quantum depository to use it like a store. So the ''system shop'' that had been promised Jameson actually never opened because the subordinate AI chip gave him an impossible first task.

    If Dante took the Quantum Imprint ability, this wouldn''t be a problem, but he definitely was not going to invest much into his first round of MCs any time soon.

    Jameson had reached his limit, and it was time to get rid of him. After all, if he became a 4th Rank Elite Wizard, he would be able to detect his ''special talent'' which was the Quantum Aetherium Conduit and that was not eptable.

    After all, once he did so, he would begin to have some doubts about everything. Right now, Jameson was a typical MC, distrusting his system but fully reliant on it and believing it was from a higher power.

    If he knew that the talent he was given after ''transmigration'' was simply a strange device, he would begin to doubt heavily. After all, the original Jameson would not know what it was, but ''Mark Thompson'' who came from Earth knew about technology and could make some guesses.

    Dante shook his head and cut off the rest of the information. Jameson had actually aplished much; he had turned around his public perception to that of a ''born-again'' genius while he even created a hidden faction that obeyed only him through his Tradeskills.

    To make up for theck of a system shop, the AI chip allowed Jameson to acquire the best potioneering and forging skills, among others. With its meticulous help, his technique was naturally godly, and he had made a lot of money behind the scenes.

    He had even gone through the usual scenes of being followed by the buyer, killing the goons in an alley, then meeting the beautiful young miss of the faction who was in a disadvantage against her brother who mysteriously believed in him as her savior, then supported her to win, and she was now yandere for him who led his faction in the shadows.

    This was why Dante was speechless. There was a lot more to Jameson''s story and what he had done, but Dante did not bother to care because if he invested himself in it, he would feel heavy-hearted when the time came for him to be ''deleted''.

    Dante did not do that right away though because Jameson was currently not in the city. He was out doing the task that was impossible, which was to find the location of the Nirvana Fire of a Phoenix.

    Dante did not want to interrupt him since if Jameson was sessful, it would benefit Dante. He might have been previously worried and scared about taking on 9th Rank mages, but Dante did not care much anymore.

    With his current base SDI, he had the same Intelligence as a peak 9th Rank mage, which meant that, putting aside all his other methods, his illusions could easily work on them. You needed to have at least twice the intelligence value of Dante to bepletely immune to the Eyes of Illusion, not to mention Dante could boost himself to 20,000 using his Psionics.

    Not to mention that he was now less worried about bringing in the ''big guns'' in the form of powered-up androids from outside due to the growth of his personal power.

    Anyway, Dante first walked to Master ndor''s office. The elderly half-elf sage was poring over documents as usual and nced at Dante who arrived with a hint of surprise. Usually, he could detect everyone who came over from miles away, but sensing Dante felt simr to trying to scan another 9th Rank mage, which should be impossible.

    He put his documents down and smiled at Dante. "Well, well, how are you doing, my apprentice?"

    Dante bowed respectfully before sitting down at the behest of Master ndor. He then smiled and replied to the greeting.

    "I''m actually doing more than great, Master ndor. I came here today to let you know that I have advanced to the 3rd Rank," Dante revealed casually.

    Master ndor nodded and couldn''t help but give Dante an appreciative nce. In less than a year, he had sted through 4 levels, from the unranked Apprentice Wizard to the 3rd Rank Advanced Wizard.

    "Not only that, but I am about to break through to the 4th Rank," Dante added on.

    At this point, what could Master ndor say? He simply nced at Dante as if he was looking at a humanoid beast, then remembered that Dante was ''half-demon,'' which probably exined everything.

    "Do you need anything from me?" Master ndor asked as he nodded his head.

    Dante pondered and nodded. "I need somebat experience. I want to go on a ughter of our foes, the Underworld Magisters."

    Master ndor smiled strangely. "It''s great that you spoke about this because there is something that has been bothering us which we have no idea how to deal with."

    "The Underworld Magisters seem to have unearthed a talent of your caliber among their ranks, a previous wastrel known as Jameson Arthur. His growth, while not as great as yours, is almost on par and it has left us old guys pulling our beards all day," Master ndor stated with distress.

    Dante''s eyes narrowed as he listened to Master ndor''s words. This was exactly what he was hinting at when he said those words to Master ndor because he wanted to officiate a fight between himself and Jameson so he could take him out overtly.

    After all, while Dante may have created the so-called protagonist and recorded every action he made with the subordinate AI chip, he was not foolish enough to be wholly confident in it.

    Just like in the book about mages he read where that bloodline warlock tricked the serpent ancestor of his bloodline due to her overconfidence in her ability to control him and eventually broke through the bloodline shackle and freed himself, who knew what ns Jameson had hidden by the side to protect himself?

    It was difficult to kill a protagonist? Not really. If you fought them head-on in apetition-like manner and acted like a typical antagonist, they would typically lower their guard because they could fight above their level.

    Unfortunately, Dante was not at his level. When Jameson''s guard was at its lowest, he would strike. Alternatively, Dante could just go guns zing and execute the fellow using his full power which Jameson definitely couldn''t resist, but that was ast resort though it was easier.

    Dante wanted to use the harder and more cautious way first, so no one could say he was a brash idiot if something went wrong. If something did go wrong, it was not toote for the easy and domineering way.

 Chapter 192 Upgraded Space Spells

    Chapter 192 Upgraded Space Spells

    "Perfect. Such a so-called genius would be a perfect whetstone for me to establish myself in public and also prevent the Underworld Magisters from gaining a possible 9th Rank Mage," Dante stated with a hint of arrogance.

    Master ndor seemed pleased by this but also troubled. "Are you sure? It''s fine if we risk it, but if we lose youˇ­"

    Danteughed. "Master ndor, even if Jameson has better magical talent than me and betterbat prowess, it''s fine. After all, don''t I have something to rely on?"

    He revealed his potent hellfire, which made even Master ndor feel a hint of threat, and the elderly sage was astonished. After that, he broke into joyfulughter full of mirth.

    "That''s right! How could I forget?" Master ndor chided himself.

    Dante was ''half-demon'' after all, so his bloodline abilities could be used in such a contest. It would not be illegal nor immoral. If Jameson was so great, he could squeeze out his human bloodline and manifest abilities from it as well.

    "Alright, I''ll send a challenge letter to the Underworld Magisters and the Wizard Council. I bet they will ept it because both factions do not want to see us getting stronger and are probably racking their brains day and night to think of ways to eliminate you," Master ndor stated.

    Dante nodded. The Underworld Magisters did not dare send a challenge letter because they thought that the Celestial Arcanists would refuse. After all, Dante was slightly better than Jameson on paper, so why should they risk their ''superior'' genius on this?

    That was why Master ndor was sure that they would ept because it was like giving them a pillow when they were about to sleep. How could they let this chance pass them by? Even if Dante was superior, couldn''t they cheat and use underhanded methods?

    With a name like ''Underworld Magisters'', did you think they were a kind and jovial group? Not to mention that they had the backing of this city''s ''government'', the Wizard Council.

    Even if they cheated and got caught, they were willing to pay the reparations and damages because at the end of the day, it wouldn''t bring Dante back to life. A dead genius was no different from waste while their alive genius would grow over time to reach the 9th Rank.

    At that time, they could squash the Celestial Arcanists with ease and take back all the reparations they paid. What was there to hesitate about?

    Meanwhile, Master ndor nced at Dante. "We need to get you prepared anyway. Those fellows will definitely y tricks and even use the Wizard Council to try and make some moves, so what do you need?"

    "Me? I can resurrect back in the abyss realm if I die here, so they cannot truly kill me. What I need is just to continue as if and not draw any suspicions because they definitely have spies in here, no?" Dante replied while ncing around suspiciously.

    Master ndor''s eyes shed. Dante could resurrect in the abyss? Then his demon bloodline was high. Master ndor believed him because he too had a simr ability to be resurrected by the Tree of Life of the Elves if he perished, but he never told anyone.

    As for the spies, of course Master ndor knew them. He even personally let them in and ced them in different positions. It was better to have spies you knew and could identify than secret ones who were in more key areas.

    "Alright then, you may do as you will. I will inform the other elders of our discussion, and we wille up with a list of possible reparations to pay the Underworld Magisters after you deal with Jameson Arthur," Master ndor stated with a nod and a smile.

    Dante left the office and went to the library in order to update his spells. Much like before, he first updated the seven 1st Rank spells he got from the 2nd Rank to the 3rd Rank.

    1. Spatial Blink -> Quantum Leap

    - Description: Quantum Leap is an advanced space maniption spell that allows the caster to instantly teleport moderate distances, making them appear as if they''ve disappeared and reappeared in the blink of an eye, with even greater precision and speed. It can also pass through smaller worlds without having to use a spatial channel.

    - Casting Time: 3 seconds

    - Power Rating: High

    - Mental Power Consumption: 15%

    2. Dimensional Shield -> Aegis of Eternity

    - Description: Aegis of Eternity creates a protective barrier around the caster that deflects iing attacks and projectiles by temporarily shifting them into an alternate dimension. This upgraded version allows the user to cast the shield over multiple other targets to protect them as well.

    - Casting Time: 1 second

    - Power Rating: Moderate-High

    - Mental Power Consumption: 10%

    3. Gravitational Anomaly -> Quantum Singrity

    - Description: Quantum Singrity allows the caster to manipte gravity within a limited area, either increasing or decreasing it, affecting objects and individuals within that space. This 3rd-rank version offers finer control and a more potent gravitational effect as well as the ability to tie the effect to an area permanently.

    - Casting Time: 5 seconds

    - Power Rating: Peak

    - Mental Power Consumption: 20% (45% if made permanent)

    4. Celestial Rift -> Cosmic Nova

    - Description: Cosmic Nova is a potent offensive spell that allows the caster to tear open a rift in space, creating a temporary portal to another dimension filled with chaotic energies. These energies are then channeled into destructive beams or projectiles, with even greater destructive potential and control. Each projectile is about asrge as a space rocket at the 3rd Rank.

    - Casting Time: 10 seconds

    - Power Rating: Extreme Peak

    - Mental Power Consumption: 50%

    5. Spatial Distortion -> Dimensional Warp

    - Description: Dimensional Warp warps the space around the caster, causing iing ranged attacks and projectiles to veer off-course, missing their target. This 3rd-rank version offers the ability to return the projectiles back to the sender from any area around them.

    - Casting Time: 5 seconds

    - Power Rating: High

    - Mental Power Consumption: 18%

    6. Temporal Lapse -> Chrono Mastery

    - Description: Chrono Mastery temporarily elerates the flow of time within a defined area, causing everything inside to move at an increased pace while the rest of the world remains unaffected. This 3rd-rank version provides the abilities to slow time briefly but is very taxing.

    - Casting Time: 15 seconds

    such)

    - Mental Power Consumption: Above 60%

    7. Phase Shift -> Ethereal Passage

    - Description: Ethereal Passage allows the caster to fully phase out of the material ne and enter the sub-space void, rendering them fully intangible and able to pass through solid objects for a brief period. This 3rd-rank version offers the ability to pass through all non-spatial barriers.

    - Casting Time: 7 seconds

    - Power Rating:

    Moderate-High

    - Mental Power Consumption: 16%

    Dante naturally noticed that his 6th original spell was developing toward a time-based power, but it was rated as dangerous not only because of his low level but also because even 9th Rank mages didn''t dare y with space.

    Unlike his Quantum Flux ability, which was more like a bloodline, the heavy work done by the higher-dimensional tree supporting him, Dante would have to do the calctions and the work himself if he used spells.

    To simplify using an analogy, it was the difference between having a world-ss heavyweight champion helping you deadlift 300 kgpared to you deadlifting 300 kg yourself without any spotter or assistance.

    Actually no, in Dante''s situation, it was more like having Superman help you lift the weight where he lifted the thing himself and you stood by the side pping.

    Regardless, Dante also then upgraded the three 2nd-rank space spells he learned the previous time.

    1. Wormhole Conduit -> Astral Gateway

    - Description: Astral Gateway creates a stable wormhole between two points, enabling instantaneous travel between them. The caster must visualize the destination clearly. This 3rd-rank version allows one to leave a spatial mark where a portal has once been made, allowing one to skip the visualization process.

    - Casting Time: 8 seconds

    - Power Rating: Peak

    - Mental Power Consumption: 25%

    2. Spatial Reposition -> Quantum Shift

    - Description: Quantum Shift is a versatile support spell that enables the caster to reposition objects or allies instantaneously within a certain range. This can be used defensively to evade attacks or strategically to optimize battlefield positioning. The 3rd-rank version offers the ability to forcibly relocate targets that do not have any spatial protection, cing them in dangerous locations.

    - Casting Time: 1 second

    - Power Rating: Peak

    - Mental Power Consumption: 25%

    3. Temporal Echoes -> Chrono Insights

    - Description: Chrono Insights allows the caster to create brief, localized time loops in the immediate vicinity. This can serve various purposes, such as reying recent events, examining objects, or even experiencing moments of the past to gather information. The 3rd-rank version offers the ability to immerse oneself in the scene and even obtain details that were hidden in spacetime.

    - Casting Time: 15 seconds

    - Power Rating: Dangerous (All high temporal spells are rated as such)

    - Mental Power Consumption: 12%

 Chapter 193 The Tale of Liang

    Chapter 193 The Tale of Liang

    He was satisfied with the state of his spells, and the new uses would make a differenceter on. He decided to get some new 3rd Rank space spells, but he could not find any that provided new and unique usespared to the ones he already had.

    As such, he skipped learning the rest and came out of the library after spending less than a day. With his current SDI, learning spells did not take nearly as long as before, especially the more familiar he got with the space element and the magic system.

    Dante informed Master ndor that he would be entering seclusion to break through to the 4th Rank so he could schedule the fight with Jameson to be when the fellow returned from his trek.

    Dante left the Magus world and entered his avatar that was still sleeping in the True Martial World. Since he had trained his avatar''s body, it was not stiff like before and felt pretty okay, but he wasn''t here to waste time on it.

    He descended with his real body and collected all the information about the protagonist he created in this world, the one called Liang. He had been a gentle beggar boy fighting to survive in the crags of the city by working for lowly gangs to maintain his sister''s poor health.

    If Jameson''s actions and oues had been somewhat simr to his archetype minus the interferences by Dante here and there, then Liang was basically a copy and paste of his archetype.

    He did everything you expected him to. After receiving power and reawakening himself, he first ughtered everyone in the gang using his ''advanced assassin skills'' and then had a tough fight with the gang boss who was a peak Body Tempering Martial Artist.

    He was forced to use a technique that harmed himself to ughter the boss, who revealed that his gang was a subsidiary of a low-level Martial Dojo that was led by a Martial Warrior Peak powerhouse.

    The fellow pretended not to care but felt the pressure. Using the technique he was given by the AI chip for his kills, Liang progressed rapidly while adding his own scientific knowledge from Earth.

    As an assassin, he knew the human body as well as a surgeon because of the precision needed. One needed the knowledge and precision to save while the other needed the knowledge and precision to kill.

    Not to mention that he had raided the gang of their money and resources of which he used to boost himself. Of course, this led to a new problem, which was the fact that the gang was gone but he survived.

    He was not the only beggar the gang used, so the Martial Dojo behind the gang used the brutal method of torturing them all to find information, which was naturally illogical on paper, but the gang leader of that shitty gang was the younger brother of the Dojo leader.

    Obviously, when it came to Liang''s turn, he was initially willing to bear the punishment and act the part of a scared beggar boy, but naturally, the goons sent to deal with him saw his ill sister and had nefarious ideas, so Liang went crazy and killed them all.

    Liang knew that he couldn''t hide anymore and was also in a tough spot because he dared not move his sister much lest her barely maintained illness erupt. Then, here came the system that granted Liang a top-notch alchemy technique in exchange for all the ''killing points'' Liang rued from his actions so far.

    After all, just like Jameson, the ''system shop'' was supposed to provide Liang with resources like the Enhanced Energy Elixir at a cost so that his progress would be fast and clean, but Dante did not have the power to set up such a thing yet.

    But the system had to give him a way out, hence this development. With the alchemy technique given, coupled with Liang''s own precision as an assassin and calm temperament, he joined the Alchemy Association of the city.

    After all, apart from the Supreme Martial Hall that hunted demon beasts themselves and produced their own blood energy soup within their walls, every other faction could only rely on the Alchemy Association and their exorbitant prices to survive.

    This made them number 1 below the Supreme Martial Hall and the City Lord''s Mansion in Green Wind City in terms of power and influence. Naturally, Liang went to sign up and disyed his exquisite alchemy skills, making everyone''s jaws drop and their brains explode.

    Even the old elders rushed out, and there was a shortedic scene where everyone fought over Liang, but Liang calmly stated that he was not seeking a master, making them allment.

    However, they all looked at him positively and stated he could visit them anytime and even gave him some gifts that were very valuable. Liang took them and was told toe for his alchemist registration details the next day.

    When he got back, he was horrified to find that the Martial Warrior elder brother of the gang leader was in front of his shack and about to break it down to capture him. Thinking of his feeble and weakened sister within, Liang''s eyes became bloodshot, and he unwisely charged over and ughtered two of the fellow''s goons who were at the peak of Body Tempering.

    After all, Liang himself was at peak Body Tempering after consuming all the resources he got from the gang. Naturally, the quality of his Body Tempering was far better than even some of the talents in the Supreme Martial Hall, surpassing the level of Shui Binn and co when they were at that stage.

    This shocked the others as they felt fear and horror. How could a mere beggar boy who was the dog of their subsidiary gang be so strong? Those who were in the Body Tempering realm felt their legs shake and did not dare take a step forward.

    Only the elder brother of the gang leader and two others stepped forward, seeming shocked but calm. After all, they were the Dojo Master and two Vice Dojo Masters of the Bone Breaking Dojo, all Martial Warriors!

    The two vices were early Martial Warriors while the dojo leader was a peak Martial Warrior. They were confident in the suppression of realms, and even if they felt Liang was a bit special, they did not believe he could defymon sense.

    Unfortunately, Liang did, and using a mixture of assassin tricks as well as his own talent, he killed the two Vice Dojo Masters amidst their shock, forcing the dojo master to take him seriously as his heart thumped with fear.

    He then felt that if Liang were given a chance to grow further, he coulde back to exterminate him so he must nip the problem in the bud!

    No matter how special Liang was, he couldn''t yet disy senseless overpoweredness and barely managed to keep his life against such strong realm suppression. When things were not looking good for him anymore, Liang used his dangerous technique with a bacsh and overwhelmed his foe.

    Seeing that he was about to die and was severely injured, the dojo master went crazy and used some forbidden pill that was ouwed by the state. In a surprise twist, it turned out that the fellow was allied with demonic martial artist factions that refined human beings into pills for blood Qi boosting.

    Naturally, once he let go of his inhibitions, the dojo master began to overwhelm Liang and looked to be about to win. However, it was at this moment that Shui Binn, the actual Shui Binn, just happened to pass by and saw what was going on.

    As a great talent in the Martial Warrior realm perfection, her ability was not something that a mere dojo master could match even with the illegal enhancement he was using. After all, Shui Binn was also the only disciple - as well as the only other person in the entire city apart from Dante - who could use Internal Arts.

    She easily defeated the dojo master like a war goddess,pletely engraving her valiant image in the heart of Liang, who had neveratose young sister as he slowly took out some of the healing items that alchemist elders had gifted him.

    tasted love in his two lifetimes. Although he pulled himself back and regained his calm demeanor, his soul was quivering.

    Shui Binn only found thisd pleasing to the eye, but she embarrassedly remembered that they were the same age, so why was she acting older? The two of them chatted for a bit, with Shui Binn inquiring how things came to this point while Liang exined while leaving many things out.

    Shui Binn nced at him deeply and told him that she would handle the rest before leaving the area. Liang then took his bruised and battered body back into the shack, opting to lie near hisatose young sister as he slowly took out some of the healing items that alchemist elders had gifted him.

    Thinking about his battle just now, Liang swore to be even stronger. He then nced at his War God system and knew that he had to break through to the Martial Warrior realm and begin to hunt demon beasts in order to rue more killing points for better rewards.

 Chapter 194 Orb of True Force

    <h4>Chapter 194 Orb of True Force</h4>

    Dante was quite satisfied with Liang''s growth. Since then, Liang mostly spent his time going between the Alchemist Association to make money and fighting outside the city to gather killing points.

    The Enhanced Energy Elixir was priced at 1 Killing Point for the Body Tempering version, 10 Killing Points for the Martial Warrior version, 100 Killing Points for the Martial Blood version, and so on.

    Now that Liang had be a Martial Warrior and had even reached Great Completion in this time, he only had two more sub-realms to go before he became a Martial Blood realm powerhouse, a growth speed that surpassed Dante and Shui Binn.

    However, he still did not have an Internal Art because neither Dante nor his system could test for Internal Arts talent. A special item had to be used, one that only an Internal Arts master could produce, and while Dante was quite advanced in the Inferno Ascension technique, he did not possess the specific information needed to craft that item.

    In fact, acquiring it was very difficult, so he couldn''t even take it out for his AI to research and replicate a way. Of course, with his recent acquisition of Quantum Replication, this was no longer an issue.

    With that in mind, Dante got out of his bed and entered his courtyard. As usual, the diligent and cute Jia Susu was working hard in her practice. Dante had given her an Enhanced Energy Elixir thest time, and this had allowed the poorly talented youngdy to progress greatly in a short period of time.

    She was now at the Perfection of Body Tempering, and while her talent would normally not allow her to ever progress beyond this level, Dante could still push her up. Still, Dante did not do so because Jia Susu was still very young and had a bright future ahead of her as his personal servant disciple.

    If she advanced, she would likely be epted by the hall as a proper disciple, probably an inner one, and her poor talent would be exposed in no time, leading to mistreatment and ostracization. She would go from being seen as a genius to trash, and who knows what that could do to her mental state.

    Right now, she was very happy in life. Her Senior Brother Dante was very kind and doted on her, and her family''s situation had improved because of her affiliation with him. Not to mention that her own growth in power gave her more security and joy.

    When Dante appeared, Jia Susu stopped her practice and ran over with a look of happiness.

    "Senior Brother Dante, you''re here!" She chirped with joy.

    "You have done well, Susu," Dante praised as he gave her a gentle pat on her head.

    "Hehe, it''s all thanks to you. That concoction you gave me was much better than Blood Energy Soup," Jia Susu revealed while enjoying the acknowledgment.

    Dante nodded and folded his arms across his much broader chestpared to when he first came here. "I obtained that from a secret cave left by a top alchemist. It''s part of the reparations owed to me by those elders who tried to assassinate me."

    "Ohˇ­ then, isn''t it very valuable?" Jia Susu asked with hesitation.

    "For me? Not really. But I have no one else I like in this hall, so you were the perfect choice. Keep being yourself, Susu, and you will go far," Dante remarked kindly.

    Dante chatted with her for a bit, getting an update on the hall''s current actions. The only thing of interest was naturally the apprehension of a demonic martial artist by Core Disciple Shui Binn, and the entire hall was buzzing about it.

    Dante smirked and left his courtyard, heading towards the Administration Hall. Many disciples he met on the way greeted him respectfully upon seeing his gi, but they also had strange expressions on their faces.

    Dante had already read their minds and knew that after Shui Binn had captured that demonic martial artist, many were beginning topare the two of them. Obviously, as the only two core disciples who were directly recruited into their positions, they stood out greatly.

    Not to mention that they were both the only ones who cultivated Internal Arts too. Many disciples had been there when Dante first cultivated the Inferno Ascension technique and caused a big disturbance, and the assessment by Hao Donglei had already subtly spread.

    Shui Binn had Martial Blood realm blood energy before practicing, but Dante had half-step Martial Grandmaster realm blood energy before practicing! Shui Binn took a few months to initiate herself in her Internal Art, but Dante exploded with fire and achieved the first level in just a few seconds!

    As such, Shui Binn had been seen as second to Dante for the longest time up until now. When Dante publicly revealed he was breaking through to the Martial Warrior realm back then, it even set off more quakes, though the theoretically took 1 and a half months to do it, but it was far shorter in reality.

    However, after this, Dante had gone radio silent as if he was dead. Even though he had returned here many times, only Jia Susu knew that. To the others, Dante had secluded himself from the world and had made himself mysterious since then.

    Since no one could figure out his current depth or what he was doing, many soon forgot about him. Now that Shui Binn was in the limelight due to her capture, many subtly felt like she was the number 1 core disciple withoutpare.

    However, seeing Dante walk around startled them and made them remember his prowess, which led them to wonder if Dante was purposefullying to surpass Shui Binn. No one would feel good having someone they surpassed suddenly catch up and even be viewed favorably above them, which was what many felt was the truth.

    Dante calmly entered the office of Hao Donglei, where therge, tanned-skin Hao Donglei sat with his bald head shining due to the sunlight reflecting off of it. He was boredly looking through some scrolls until Dante entered.

    Seemingly happy to have an excuse for a break, he put them aside and then focused on Dante with a smile. However, his smile disappeared once he sensed Dante''s blood Qi, which was as thick as a veryrge ocean.

    This made Hao Donglei stand up with shock. "Youˇ­!! You''ve be a Martial God??"

    Dante smiled and calmed Hao Donglei down. "I just broke through to the Martial Master stage a few hours ago. Due to a special synergy with my Internal Art, I have more than double the blood Qi I should have."

    Hao Donglei sat down and seemed to ept this, though he knew there were holes in it. However, he would go mad if he didn''t have some reasonable sound excuse for how Dante could breakmon sense so casually.

    "Hmm, that''s amazing. You''re pretty much qualified to head to the province now that you have reached the Martial Master stage. Normally, I would advise you to wait a bit and consolidate your power before going, but you''re probably more or less what yourpetitors should fear, rather than the other way around," Hao Donglei remarked with amusement.

    Dante folded his arms. "No need, I have no ns of leaving the city yet. There are some things I need to do and achieve here, so I will be sticking around for a while."

    Hao Donglei was surprised and then nodded. "Alright, then what did youe here for?"

    "I want one of those things you used to test my Internal Arts talent, or at least the method to create it," Dante stated his desires straightforwardly.

    Hao Donglei opened a drawer and took out the Orb of True Force that Dante had once used to test his talent and then ced it in Dante''s hands without pause. Dante was surprised by the ease at which he got such a rare item, for he remembered that Internal Arts users had to be at least level 5 before they could create this stably.

    He was still at level 4 right now, but would obviously be leveling up to level 5 soon. Still, knowing that Hao Donglei gave it to him without hemming or hawing made Dante feel strange.

    "Don''t be surprised. Your talent is greater than even the founder of our Supreme Martial Hall. You are destined to either reach his level or surpass him, so why should I calcte the gains and losses with you?" Hao Donglei simply pointed out.

    Dante sighed and nodded. "What about the production method?"

    "It''s nothingplex, just condense your Internal Force and try to remove your elemental affinity. So, basically, raw energypressed into the form of the orb you''re holding," Hao Donglei shrugged as he borated.

    Dante nodded and nced at Hao Donglei before he left the office. "Also, as for the things those foolish elders promised me, you can use them however you want. Think of it as my gift to you for your care."

    Hao Donglei''s eyes gleamed as Dante passed that statement before leaving. Here he was thinking of how to present those things to Dante in a suitable manner, but they were now his? Now that was the definition of ''reap what you sow'' in a positive sense, for there was one item among them that Hao Donglei desperately needed.

 Chapter 195 What Is My Reason To Fight?

    ?

    Dante left the Supreme Martial Hall and entered the city. For the first time since he had entered the True Martial World, he casually strolled to the city gates and actually exited. The gates were guarded by city guards who were at the Martial Warrior realm, demonstrating the strength of the City Lord''s Mansion.

    Once outside, Dante realized that there was arge radius of ins and grasnds around the city, not because it was naturally so, but for two reasons. Firstly, the lumber used to build most of the buildings in the city was harvested from nearby, and secondly, no city allowed forests within arge margin of its territory because armies and bandits could potentially hide in them.

    As soon as Dante was sufficiently far from the city, he broke into a wild sprint that picked up speed as he went. Dante careened through forests, ran over bodies of water, and surged through rocky mountains head-on like an unstoppable force.

    Dante''s mind was not on his actions, but on his intentions. He was a 21-year-old young man with the ambition to seed in society and prove that his bourgeoisie background wasn''t the source of his sess.

    So he created an app that - at the time - he thought would stand out. It led to a strange ident where he was transported to this universe, and a lot of things had happened since then. He had initially been awed by everything, but now he took everything as normal.

    What was bothering Dante was a growing sense of detachment and alienation. His mind and heart were unable to settle down, bouncing around various objectives like he was a character in a single-yer RPG with an endless board of quests.

    He came to this universe and was given a vi on futuristic earth worth so much, staffed with maids as well as caretakers who were on payroll. He was made a vice admiral of the 34th Fleet, but the fleet only existed in name and had no personnel because Beatrice was xenophobic.

    He had some properties on Etonia that were gifted to him, but they were just another quantum marker to him. Even the Inferno battleship that housed his partner, Beatrice, was slowly just bing another quantum marker.

    Everything was just bing a quantum marker, a ce he could teleport to for a short time to further his goals and then head to the next point without investing time or energy into them.

    This was the detachment he was feeling. Even worse was his home universe and earth. When was thest time he even went back? He felt like he had recently been in and out of the Eternal Universe and Quantum Worlds.

    Especially earth. When he had first gotten his powers, he went home and fulfilled some of his parents'' dreams. He enjoyed that moment and found the will to go on, but after that, when was thest time he even interacted with them?

    He just fashioned together an android and tossed it over to rece him in his daily life. Honestly, given the circumstances he was in, it logically made sense for him to do that, but no matter how logic-oriented a person was, one could definitely identify something wrong with the idea.

    Dante thought of his stoic father who, even though he was not happy that his son did not inherit his legacy, did not try to stop him or hinder him from achieving his own goals, and then his lovely mother, who was overworked throughout her life but made many sacrifices so that Dante could never feel neglected.

    Why exactly did he chase power? Why did he work hard on those physical methods to increase his genes and his SDI? Why did he practice his magical methods to enhance his esoteric power?

    Why did he go to the Eternal Academy and brave the dangers there to increase the potency of his superpower? Dante did not have the same excuse as those in the novels he read because they had no other choice.

    They were in scenarios where they could die at any time, even if they hid away from it all. Even if one hid in the most remote area, a passing behemoth could casually burp and wipe it out. They lived in apocalyptic worlds where beasts had mutated into monsters or demons were descending from the abyssal ne.

    However, Danteˇ­ even if he decided to nevere back to the Eternal Universe today, nothing would change. He could live the entirety of his life, even as long as it was now, in peace on earth and watch the generations change.

    So what exactly was he fighting for? In his mind, it was for his ambitions, for his family, and for Beatrice.

    Butˇ­

    His ambition was only to stand out among his peers. Given the reactions of the factions in the Eternal Universe, he definitely stood out and more. Many of his peers tossed and turned in their beds day and night, having nightmares about him.

    Heck, even his seniors were all sweating, locked in meetings day and night to find ways to survive. Even the graduated alumni had ced a big red ''X'' symbol on his picture, stating that no one was allowed to engage him head-on until they found another way.

    So he had technically achieved that.

    His parents? If he wanted to, he could bring them to his base and upgrade their quality of life tremendously, granting them power beyond what any other earthling could hope for.

    Besides, could he really say he was fighting for them when he hadn''t even bothered to see them for so long?

    And Beatrice? Was he really fighting for her? Did Beatrice need him to fight for her? The majority of his time and effort had been spent getting here, to 2000 points in all fields so that he could achieve basic intimacy with her.

    Despite how lecherous it sounded, it was not a bad goal, and Dante did not feel ashamed of it. The problem was that, why was Beatrice still at 20,000 points in all fields? Her genes were not weak like Dante''s, and her passive abilities allowed her to grow her stats endlessly like her mother and be the humanoid behemoth she currently was.

    Soˇ­ was Beatrice deliberately limiting herself and holding herself back for him? This was something he had wanted to ask for a while, but he didn''t even know how to start because he wasn''t sure he would like the answer he would hear.

    Dante eventually came to a stop. He noticed that he was currently in the midst of a valley and an unknown distance away from Green Wind City, and given his movement speed, he might not even be within the Great Song Kingdom anymore.

    Out of habit, he left a quantum marker here and was about to leave. Unfortunately for Dante, unlike in the novels he read, he did not suddenly find epiphanies to the problems he had identified and resolve them internally.

    He had raised them, but how to deal with them was not clear to him entirely.

    However, he paused and thought about something. He stood there and took out a single Enhanced Energy Elixir from his quantum depository and held it in his hand silently.

    Dante looked around and surveyed the area before finally smiling a little. He used more than 90% of his spiritual energy to create a powerful Pocket Dimension within a cave in this valley, cing hundreds of Enhanced Energy Elixirs within.

    Dante patted his hands and had his AI chip issue a mission to the subordinate chip in Liang''s brain that a great destiny had been found at Dante''s location. The young man needed to secure his sister with someone trustworthy and then embark on the journey here.

    After all, apart from the elixir, Dante had left one of the portable pods used by the Eternal Universe to treat injuries on the go within. If Liang could get it, he could save his sister and finally break the final shackle holding him back from going all out.

    Dante found that he was quite looking forward to what Liang would do when he had no burdens on his shoulders. Would he be like Dante himself, simply fulfilling tasks to acquire power stage after stage? Or would he choose a different path? Would he stop and settle down to create a family? Would he turn into a hero who enlightened or protected the masses?

    The future was a mystery.

    Dante had a feeling that when he saw and understood Liang''s decision, it might significantly help him with his own confusions. For now, he decided to treat the problem at the root and head back to his home.

    Maybe some time spent with family and friends would help him clear his head and remind him of what exactly he wanted from this life of his.

    As such, Dante sent his virtual avatar back to his room within the Supreme Martial Hall and then left the Eternal Universe with his main body.

 Chapter 196 The Darkness Of The World

    <h4>Chapter 196 The Darkness Of The World</h4>

    When he appeared, Dante found himself in the Vitality Pool of his base on Earth. He didn''t rush to get out immediately but simplyy within, contemting what he wanted to do now that he was back.

    Dante found it amusing. Many of his friends and peers had been talking about the difficulties they faced in finding a reason to push forward in today''s challenging world, where every meaningful resource seemed to have been divided up, and all that remained was a slice of the shared cake that had to be acquired forcefully.

    Back then, because he had always had a clear idea of the life and future he wanted, he had secretly scoffed at their struggles while outwardly consoling them. Now, karma had decided to teach him a lesson as he found himself experiencing the same confusion they had felt.

    Well, first things first, it was time to catch up on the updates from the home universe while he had been away. Dante began by checking on the Sris AI and asked for an update on the Zero Gate.

    "Master Dante, there have been significant changes in the area since you left. As the time for the Zero Gate to open annually approaches, weaker species have been driven away from the area where the Zero Energy emanates, in favor of factions and races that havee together to share the benefits," Sris AI revealed prudently.

    Dante narrowed his eyes. He had wondered if the ''backward'' home universe would even notice that the Zero Gate could be entered during that period, but it seemed like they too had their period of trial and error.

    "Continue monitoring and let me know what happens in real-time. I will be here for a while, so you can forward reports to me directly and not the base AI," Dante instructed before focusing on the reports from his android clone.

    These reports weren''t verbal but were conveyed through snippets of updates like a diary. When Dante saw that they were mostly green at first, then slowly became yellow, then red, his eyes turned cold, and he immediately leapt out of the pool.

    Dante realized immediately why he was feeling unsettled without having a reason for it. He had been going along just fine until now, and he suddenly felt mncholic and emotional, wanting toe back here to check on his parents.

    Dante wondered whether it was some sixth sense brought about by his high SDI or some hidden passive ability from his quantum entanglement that allowed him to feel certain things across spacetime.

    Whatever the case, Dante was d he came back. He immediately instructed the base to create 10 androids of peak strength and power, along with some basic nuclear weaponry and mostly electromaic weapons.

    Dante himself did not wait for them and teleported to his apartment in the luxurious district, standing before what was now a ruined and ckened patch ofnd. That''s right, the ce he had gone into debt to rent had been sted to pieces!

    Dante looked around at the other houses nearby that had some damage and were now uninhabited. Even the entire affluent estate that was closed off to the world was now truly sealed by red tape.

    It was ironic, wasn''t it? When Dante had created the three AIs back then, his goal was to further humanity so that they could enter the gctic ying field with him at the helm. He had even used a very gentle method to achieve this, giving the carrot first before bringing the stickter.

    However, he had underestimated humanity, especially the elites. The moment Dante began to delve into truly lucrative and useful topics, they immediately descended upon him. His life changed overnight, and he became world-renowned.

    Various papers and blogs like the NYT, WSA journal, Vice, etc., dug up his history, which had no real blemishes, and painted him as a rising genius who could change the world. The next Einstein, Newton, and so on, they said.

    Any young man''s head would swell to the brink. Of course, there were haters worldwide who nitpicked his history or his veracity, but they were drowned out by the masses who saw hope for the sci-fi dreams they had toe true.

    After all, Dante covered things like curing cancer, immunizing against HIV, increasing the body''s gic value, controble nuclear fusion, truly perfect Artificial Intelligence no different from in the movies, and, most importantly to the nerds, Virtual Reality akin to SAO.

    The world had been buzzing these past few months, everyone bloodshot behind their screens waiting for the next announcement, hoping that it would be a release date and not just theories that were close to the mark.

    However, they were destined to wait indefinitely as Dante was now being tested.

    It was funny; Dante had thought that he was being benevolent by using the carrot before the stick method, as he could have easily be an autocratic ruler and eliminated any opposition on Earth.

    Yet the factions that ruled the world in the shadows were also thinking the same. They allowed Dante, a young man, to be blessed with positive influence, fame, and even growing fortune. This would give him a taste of the sweet stuff and get him hooked.

    Dante was allowed to attend high society events ande into contact with the true elites who ruled the world. They were initially surprised that Dante easily adapted to their various decorum and mannerisms, but how could they know that they were dealing with an android controlled by a quantum AI?

    After a while, Dante was summoned to a super-secret offshore meeting on a yacht where the various powersid down their cards. They offered him wealth, fame, and power to stop the actions he was taking and hand it over to them.

    He would be a puppet, the face of the operation, while they were the true controllers. To show how effective this approach was, they mentioned many names that would not shock a modern ''conspiracy theorist'' but then revealed other names that would floor even the most paranoid individual.

    Dante''s clone was already privy to all this and even knew about what was going to happen before it did. This was around the time it started to send yellow warningbels to him because it knew that conflict was inevitable given the rules Dante had outlined for it.

    Of course, the android didn''t immediately be hostile but instead looked a bit moved and scared. They also revealed their stick at this moment. They controlled the entirety of the worldwide media, so just as they had set it up for Dante to be a positive icon, they could also turn him into a person hated and despised by the world.

    They pulled out their most sessful example, and without even mentioning the name, anyone living in the modern world would know who that was. When Dante''s android saw this, it showed the right amount of fear and worry and promised to consider it.

    However, they pressed for an answer, trying to get it to break, but it navigated the danger with ease and left the yacht, making the elites feel satisfied that this kind would soon be another sess story of theirs.

    So what did Dante''s android do when it got back? First, he got his parents and uncle to transfer all their assets to him and sent them out of America using a cloaked ship, something which shocked his family, but he promised to exinter.

    Dante''s android then released a huge amount of files on various sites and linked them to social media, using ''bots'' to bombard various pages and new ounts. He even hacked popr TVworks and had them broadcast the video of his meeting with the elites, something that could not be turned off by the elites who? were panicking.

    Even if BBC, for example, shut down power in the whole building or cut off the antenna, Dante did not need them to maintain the broadcast at the endpoint, which was the users'' TV.

    For an entire week, everyone in the world was forced to watch the video on rerun, so even those who were very skeptical and demanded evidence while refusing to watch were left speechless.

    One of the biggest questions asked was that if all this was true, how could these elites slip up and let Dante record them? Obviously, the answer was that they had searched Dante thoroughly from head to toe, but how could they ount for the fact that the android had a flesh-based mechanical brain that, through its eyes, was no different from a high-quality camera.

    While many were furious and took to the streets after hearing the shocking list of names and how they were subdued, many more were hesitant and did not want the world to change even if it was not the best.

    Many refuted the video and called it the product of AI. If Dante could craft virtual worlds that were so close to reality ording to his theories, then he could fabricate such a video too.

 Chapter 197 Battle Of Public Opinion

    <h4>Chapter 197 Battle Of Public Opinion</h4>

    This im got many to pause and hesitate because it seemed sensible. However, there were those who were not moved and knew that even if it was true or not, this was their only chance to topple the world''s powers while everyone was incensed.

    As such, they continued to make noise and galvanized others with the same logic. Along with them, mixed in like runts in a pack, were those who just wanted to riot and have fun, stealing things while the rest fought for what they considered to be a stupid cause.

    They naturally did more damage than good in the long run, but it would be a luxury to expect them to have the foresight for something soplex.

    While the world bickered, the elites began to fire out various distractions, having those who were called out during the videoe out to denounce the video and Dante for making it.

    They even imed that there was no such invitation to Dante and he had made everything up from top to bottom.

    Dante went silent and let them make the various rebuttals that seemed more and more reasonable as they built up momentum, even mobilizing the police forces of various countries as well as the armies to suppress the people.

    While they were spraying spittle on television, podcasts, and radio stations about the falseness of these ims, Dante''s android finally came out to ask a simple question.

    "Who said I released it or recorded it?"

    This naturally seemed kind of stupid. Who did he expect to be moved by such a simple maneuver?

    Did Dante think we were all in kindergarten and this was some big own?

    But then a problem cropped up in the form ofˇ­ logic!

    Because Dante had never actually physically or digitally attached himself to these videos. In fact, his name wasn''t even mentioned in the video - coincidentally - and since it was recorded through the eyes of the android, one could not see Dante''s face or presence.

    Of course, the voices were a dead giveaway, but countering their point that it was AI-produced, could the voices not be so as well?

    On paper, Dante ''iming'' that it was not him should rather give the elites more leeway and fuel to im that it was all a fake, because ''see, the person himself has no idea'' would be all they needed to say to absolve themselves.

    But the problem was that they had made so much noise and revealed information that irrefutably made it seem like they were sure it was Dante in their attempts to damage control that they were in an awkward position.

    It was the kind of self-own that made one facepalm.

    Those who were vocal against them did not need a cue from Dante to point this out and a new round of debate ensued. Those who believed that this was true and those who believed that this proved nothing.

    This gave the elites a headache, so they decided to use tried and true methods. Dante was gaining too much support so they needed to render his argument moot, and there was an easy way to do so.

    Cue a weekter, pretty much every girl Dante had been seen walking with throughout his life came out to im that he either raped or sexually harassed them.

    With numbers reaching more than 70, the entire world was speechless.

    This had definitely set a record of some kind, and even those who knew it was just a ploy to discredit him wavered.

    It was the same bullocks mentality that there was absolutely no way that so many different women from different walks of life woulde together to lie about this for one guy right?

    I mean, that was just crazy. Maybe one or two could be refuted, but 70+ women at the same time? There had to be smoke where there was fire.

    Immediately, peoplepletely forgot about the debate as well as the issue at hand and the new topic was whether or not the ims were true and if so, whether Dante should be arrested immediately then put on trial.

    Naturally, some particrly vocal activists on social media even screamed for Dante to get the death penalty without a chance to defend himself, because he had sinned worse than Hitler.

    Of course, there were many who weren''t fools because even if they may have believed such things in the past, it was too damn coincidental, and really, did the elites think they were that gullible?

    The answer was yes.

    Because as long as the usation was made, the women themselves didn''t even need to provide evidence, the public - or one specific part of the public - would do all the heavy lifting for them.

    So what was Dante''s android''s response to thismon tactic that had been used hundreds of times since the global culture war began?

    Naturally, there was a mass release of videos and screenshots of texts between himself and the ''victims'' showing their ''suffering'' under his hands. The dates and times they imed they were assaulted were stated by them in the initial usation, so to see almost weeks worth of texts that were normal and even suggesting for more left many tongue-tied.

    The girls themselves were speechless. They had only just gotten their paychecks when it was quickly rescinded by those who convinced them to do this and promised no bacsh would be suffered.

    What made them panic was that Dante''s android initiated a mass defamationwsuit. Soon, almost all the women were put on trial where there was a lengthy battle that went back and forth, but one side had only word of mouth and the other had hard evidence.

    With the world itself watching, even the judge could not easily y tricks and undermine the justice system. They had to at least keep a semnce of fairness to appease themoners so that they wouldn''t know that it was one of their most potent tools to deal with their enemies.

    As such, the women were all made to pay hundreds of millions of dors in damages collectively as damages for defamation were calcted based on the level of fame of the defamed and the level of harm done.

    This was naturally something that made many of the girls who just saw a quick buck with no consequences break down and reveal the truth.

    Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and those bastards who told them toe out and say this had disappeared after their ims seemed to be refuted.

    Some sympathized with them while more were furious because they had not only been duped and used emotionally, but also because they were aware of the consequences Dante would have faced if he had not been prepared.

    Those who were looking to make a move then reminded the world of the pressing issue of the previous tension, but the steam had already died down.

    Even though people were ''aware'', the simple and blunt fact was that the momentum had been lost due to the distraction, which was exactly what the elites wanted.

    This made various rebel leaders feel helpless because once the steam died down, the elites woulde and deal with them one by one for daring to cause trouble.

    At that point, those insurgents realized that the world could not be saved as it was because humans seemed to have collectively be stupider the more the poption worldwide grew.

    They were so easily distracted like babies who were crying and after being cooed by their mother, suddenly forgot what they were doing before.

    Dante''s android also realized this issue and sent out a red alert to the base. After calcting for a bit a wicked n was formted.

    Dante publicly announced that he would appear at a hearing to handle the various usations as well as ims once and for all, as well as release his technology and his ideas to the world in order to spite the elites.

    This excited the world because more than caring about Dante himself, they cared more about his discoveries which could change their lives being lost due to the influence of the elites. If he publicly released it, how could those blood-sucking lizards at the top suppress it anymore?

    Naturally, the elites were furious. They never thought Dante would do this because every genius was proud and arrogant. How could he let the core of his hard work be swallowed up by the masses when he could personally profit from it as well as be recognized for it?

    While the public anxiously awaited the day of the hearing for which the information would be released, while the elites were hurriedly thinking of countermeasures, a shocking event urred that shook the world.

    There was a huge firefight and explosion at Dante''s residence, and the man was seemingly killed in the st while his area was reduced to rubble.

    Immediately, the already anxious and angry world exploded once more, this time looking like they were not going to settle down until rivers of blood flowed.

    The elites were left totally speechless. They thought they were the ruthless ones, but it turned out that Dante was even more ruthless than them as they immediately saw through his scheme.

    But just like a person who had been framed for a crime and did not have any evidence to prove his innocence, the elites also had to swallow this huge L and deal with the boiling public that would not be satisfied until they saw blood.

 Chapter 198 The Fate of The World

    <h4>Chapter 198 The Fate of The World</h4>

    ?

    This was the present-day urrence, and the world was still in turmoil as riots erupted everywhere. Many countries were even going through a brutal French Revolution-style change, and the carnage going on could realistically set humanity back many years at once.

    What made the android send plenty of red alerts to Dante recently was that the base AI had deliberately foiled many attempts by various countries to unleash the nukes. After all, the elites who were about to be killed and even implicate their families no longer cared about martial virtue.

    "If you want to kill me, then everyone shall die with me!!" This is what they roared as they entered the nuclear codes and pushed the button with bloodshot eyes full of hatred. But their entire minds copsed the next second when the nukes did not activate at all. After all, the systems of the world belonged to Dante, and no technology could work without his permission.

    Dante passed a hand through his hair and sighed. It was amazing how destructive humanity could be to its own benefit. However, he also med himself for being too naive in thinking he could emte those urban novel protagonists who easily changed the world.

    In order to change the world as it was, one had to ount for so many things that martial power alone could not solve. Unless you could mass brainwash the entire world, there would be endless troubles in taking over, whether through the shadows or through the light.

    Interestingly, Dante had the power to do exactly that. In fact, he had a wealth of optionsid out before him, various paths he could take to resolve this situation with various levels of effectiveness.

    The first was to simply go all out and release his androids, using force to subdue the entire world. It would be bloody even if everyone surrendered because, to truly take over, Dante would have to execute everyone part of the previous regime and their families as well as friends.

    That''s right, in choosing this option, Dante could only walk the path of protagonists that came before him, bing a fledgling n genocider.

    The second was to make use of his death and wait for the world to settle down. This time, rather than enlighten the world, he would truly take over from the shadows, either recing people in power with androids he created, chipping them with subordinate chips to make them obey, or using illusions to rewrite their lives as his ves.

    This one was an okay choice, but it was full of uncertainties. With the current state of the world, it would not be the same society that existed after World War II that would emerge. If his AI hadn''t stopped those crazy fellows, Earth would have be post-apocalyptic already.

    Not to mention that, even more than using the genius path, this one would take a lot of time to implement and would also require a lot of ''maintenance'' as leaders changed due to elections/death/etc.

    If not for these various problems, the previous regime would have long had Earth underplete control. There would never have been a chance for those two troublemaker countries to exist.

    The third option was to announce his existence as the God of Technology and change society. In the beginning, forcefully chip everyone with subordinate chips and let them see their SDIs, making them feel as if they had received systems.

    Then after that, implement the famous sectarian contribution point system to make humans achieve tasks he set out. The rewards would be bottom-level technology and things like basic gene enhancers that could raise their stats by one or two points.

    By making even the most useless items super expensive, humanity would be stuck working for him like dogs for a long while, and they could even advance and strengthen themselves at a rate Dantepletely controlled.

    Dante did like this one because not only would it make him not have to waste too much time with humanity, but his base AI couldpletely coordinate everything and handle humanity ording to his instructions while he conquered the universe with his space fleet.

    The fourth option was to naturallypletely ignore everything and let humanity do as it pleased. Even letting them nuke each other was fine as long as nothing happened to the base, and with the level of interference and shielding it had, naturally nothing would happen.

    Dante was not in a rush to make a decision. He waspletely annoyed by the events that had transpired and thankful for the quick reaction of his android. Currently, his parents and uncle were at the base livingfortably.

    And among Dante''s friends, none really showed any value and stood out. Only Valeria, who he had spent most of his sexual encounters with as a young adult, had note out to join all those girls earlier in denouncing him.

    In fact, she hadpletely disappeared, and Dante could not trace her using technology. This made his eyes narrow, as Dante was not one to ignore such clues, and he remembered that he had once mentally joked that Valeria might be more special than he thought.

    Still, it was not much of a big deal. While he did have some feelings for Valeria, her mysterious disappearance was not one of danger, but seemingly abandonment. Whether she had hidden in some faction on Earth or even among the stars, that was up to her as long as she did not be an obstacle.

    In fact, what was more pressing was to meet up with his family, pacify them, and let them know some things. They had been very patient and hadn''t pushed Dante''s android for answers, opting to trust their son/nephew fully.

    Otherwise, they wouldn''t have abandoned their social lives, their friends, their properties, and belongings and fled here on the first notice from Dante.

    Dante breathed out a light sigh and teleported into the lounge area of the Vitality Pools. There he saw his father ying with a holographic screen that showed some interesting tidbits of info about the Eternal Universe, while his mother was crazily going through many forms and scientific theories that were ahead of the time.

    As for his uncle, he was staring at a star chart of the universe with an intoxicated look. The aged man was like a young boy who had found out that there was a big world out there for him to explore.

    When they saw Dante appear, they paused. However, Aileen immediately got up and walked over, standing before Dante with her diminutive height and staring him up and down. She then touched his skin, his chest, and his face, looking into his eyes and everything.

    "Ugh, mom, it''s me," Dante could only say helplessly.

    Aileen was surprised. "Well, I initially hoped to be able to find some difference by touch, but then it wouldn''t be advanced technology if little old me could see through it so easily."

    She then rubbed Dante''s face with a smile and held his arms. "How''s my darling boy?"

    Dante felt emotional. His mother had always been supportive of him all his life, even when he had a small conflict with his dad. She always trusted him and never asked questions, opting to leave Dante to speak himself.

    It was not - realistically - the best way to parent because some children would abuse the privilege, but it worked for Dante because he never hid anything from his mother. He was a proud person who didn''t like to sneak about when doing things, due to his dad''s stoic nature, so he often directly came out with things.

    Dante nced over at his father, who was looking over from the corner of his eye while trying to act like he wasn''t interested, and his uncle, who had torn his eyes away from the ''masterpiece'' before him to smile at his nephew.

    He nodded to them and sat down on a sofa opposite his dad, his mother and uncleing to sit beside his father as they all trained their eyes on him. Dante nced at all of them and smiled.

    "You guys have seen some basic information about the Eternal universe, so I''ll tell you how I got all this. Slightly over 6 months ago, a day before I moved out to my former apartment, an ident urred simr to those in superhero stories."

    "Though, rather than be bit by a spider or be struck by lightning infused with chemicals, I was taken through a quantum tunnel to a whole other universe that is about 8000 years ahead of us in terms of time and development."

    "Also, due to the benevolence of a higher-dimensional being - yes, they exist - I retained the ability to go back and forth. Since then, I have been doing just that, establishing myself on that side and umting power, influence, and connections, as well as high-level technology."

    Dante nced towards the outside with a strange look. "Meanwhile hereˇ­ well, you saw what happened. I tried to be the catalyst to induce the next technological revolution, butˇ­"

 Chapter 199 A Glimpse Into The Past

    <h4>Chapter 199 A Glimpse Into The Past</h4>

    "You shouldn''t have done that, Dante," David stated calmly as he shook his head.

    Dante was surprised and paused. "What do you mean, Dad?"

    Peter, his uncle,ughed. "Your dad is being straightforward, Dante, my boy. I can understand the kindness in your heart when you chose to use non-violence to promote humanity, but it is wasted on our species."

    Dante was naturally shell-shocked by this. He simply sat on his sofa, and despite all his Intelligence SDI that made his brain faster, he didn''t know what to think or say.

    David sat forward and sighed when he looked at his son. "It''s partly my fault. I have been too taciturn with you when growing up because I didn''t want you to be like Peter and me."

    "Whether it is your uncle or myself, we have seen enough of the dark side of humanity to know that this is a race that can never be saved through kindness, but only force," David stated simply.

    Dante did not know what to say. He expected things to be like in the books and the movies - which were the only things which had a frame of reference for him - and expected his parents to be heavily adamant against violence and try to save humanity through the kindness path.

    This showed Dante''s age in this regard though. Fiction in general was heavily limited by the world view of the author itself, but even more heavily limited by what the author thinks the audiences want to see.

    For fear of criticism for being warmongering and violent, no author would try to openly have parental figures in the fiction advise their kin to choose violence, but would rather use events like the parental figures being killed to push their protagonists down that route.

    So it was sort of ''well, he''s not like that and I''m not like that, but sigh, the world forced him to do this, so it''s neither of our fault,'' which was obviously not a problem when done once or twice, but when most popr fiction do this, it created youths like Dante who assume that this was the fact.

    This was the reason for the young man''s reaction.

    Dante had heard about his parents'' past but he did not know too much because he was too young to hear the ugly part. David and Peter shared a look and nodded, deciding that it was finally time for Dante to know what the world was really like.

    "Dante, you know about your grandpa, Gustavo Alighieri, right? He was once a mafia boss of a rtively small family in Florence but was usurped by his young protege when he became old."

    "Luckily for him, the young protege was raised by him and still had some feelings, so he only exiled your grandfather to Africa to live the rest of his days. Your grandfather still possessed his assets and wealth, so when he changed his Euros into the local currency of your ancestral home country, he was already in the top 5% of richest men."

    "Going from top dog in a better country to some forgotten old fellow in a third-world country made your grandfather indulge himself, believing that he was obligated to spend all his money on enjoyment until he finally died."

    "Cue your grandmother, a down and out attractive model who needed to leap into higher society in order to change her life. She was soon ''indulged'' in by your grandfather and gave birth to your eldest aunt."

    Dante was speechless. "Wait, what?! I have an aunt?!"

    Peter passed a hand over his hairless scalp. "Can you call her that? She is our biological sister, but we don''t recognize her."

    Ohˇ­ family conflict then?

    "After she was born, grandfather decided to marry our grandmother and then the rest of us came. We have one other older sister apart from the firstborn, and then it''s your uncle and I," David continued calmly.

    "We had a pretty benevolent upbringing until your uncle turned 13. Our grandfather was really old by that point, and he began to favor the two of us more as his sessors."

    "Your aunts didn''t care as they had married into rich families and were taken care of. However, their husbands had only married them with the intention of eating into our father''s wealth."

    "Seeing us being favored at such a young age, they were not happy. Our father was an ex-mafia boss, so how could he not see their tricks? This was why he pushed us to the front quickly, introducing us to all his partners and letting the financial advisors at the banks see our faces, as well as all his main colleagues and workers."

    "At that point, your uncle and I were no longer allowed to be boys, We were trained heavily from that point on to be sharp, ruthless and m at all times."

    David nced at Peter with a hint of sadness. "Do you know, we don''t typically have balding genes in our family. None of us showed any sign of hair loss, but your uncle lost all his hair by the age of 25."

    Peter smiled bitterly but did notment. This was enough to tell Dante how stringent not only the training his father and uncle faced, but the difficulty of the waters they had to navigate after.

    "I''ll cut the story short and say that our father passed away at age 88, when I was 23 and your uncle was 25. With an official will with the right executors, it was a closed-and-done deal. When it was read out, Peter and I saw the expression of our sister''s husbands and even our sisters were not too happy."

    "They could not challenge it in court, so they used other means. Collective social pressure, sabotage, corporate espionage, and more. The nail in the coffin was when our sister came out to lie that our father sexually abused them from a young age."

    "It was at that point your uncle and I understood. We met and decided to liquidate all of our assets and emigrated from our home country to America back in 2005. We left what we could to your aunts and their families but promised not to associate with each other anymore."

    Dante was silent. He knew the rest from here, his father and uncle came to America with nothing but a bit of money that was hastily changed at low rates and was not much. It was easy for a middle-lower-ss American to emigrate to Africa and turn into an upper-ss person, but an upper-low-ss person from Africa going up would barely turn into a middle-ss person.

    David and Peter had skills, Peter in business and David in architecture, so they managed to start apany and eke out a living. They both got engaged, David to Aileen and Peter to Jacqueline.

    Only David got married though, as Jacqueline simply left with a richer man to get married and broke it off with Peter. This was why his uncle never remarried and had no children of his own.

    "And what about you mom?" Dante asked as he turned to the silent Aileen.

    After all, from what David and Peter revealed, they had gone through enough that they were not going to bother with the idea of ''promoting humanity'' at all. In fact, they were inches away from outright saying that Dante should wave a hand and send androids to smash everything to paste.

    Aileen was startled being called upon, but she ced her hand sin herp and spoke candidly. "Personally, I would have enved everyone at the top and then had them expose themselves beforemitting mass suicide. After that, you are open to controlling the rest of humanity however you want."

    David and Peter did not look surprised by Aileen''s answer, but Dante was even more shocked than when the two men revealed their opinions. It was one thing for them to say what they did, but Dante could ept it because of their pasts and their already tough natures.

    But his mother had been the beacon of kindness since he was young. In his mind, she was standing on a pedestal that no saint in history could ever match, so to hear her say this was no different from a person being told they were adopted in their adulthood.

    However, Dante soon calmed down when he realized something. His mother had always been kind, yesˇ­ but that was to him. He had never actually seen her be as benevolent to others as much as she was to him.

    In fact, Dante was even now digging up memories of the past where his friends told him that his mom was kinda scary, but he alwaysughed it off thinking that they were either joking or were referring to her business-like side when it came to serious matters.

    However, that was the power of the Mand effect. Now that he dug out those memories with his superior Intelligence SDI, he easily noticed that they had been warped by his own perception of his mother.

 Chapter 200 Danteâ€™s Roots Revealed

    <h4>Chapter 200 Dante''s Roots Revealed</h4>

    "Uhh, Mom? Why do you say that?" Dante tried his hardest to hide the shock in his voice, but Aileen seemed to detect it.

    She sighed sadly and sped her hands together nervously. "You know, unlike your dad, who you know your grandpa on their side, I''ve always told you your grandpa on my side was dead, right? Wellˇ­ that''s not true."

    At this point, Dante felt he could go dizzy. "What do you mean, he''s still alive to this day? Was there a conflict between you guys?"

    "It''s not as simple as a conflict, Dante. My father''s name is Gavin Heineken. At the time, he was one of the heirs of the Heineken family''s leadership, but before he met my mother, he lost the battle and became a ''waste,'' so to speak," Aileen stated seriously.

    What? Heineken? That Heineken? The ones who single-handedly sponsored the UEFA Champions League for so many years?!

    "Don''t be too surprised. It doesn''t matter now though because when my father met my mother in his most downcast state, she managed to win his heart and gave him a reason to live again."

    "As much as the family was against it, my father went ahead and married my mother, who was a Chinese immigrant with no background and no future apart from struggling in the lower ss of Denmark for the rest of her life."

    "Everything should have been perfect because despite the depictions, no one in his family really bothered to interfere with them. Who was bored enough to toy with my father who had already lost his rights to the throne of the family?"

    Aileen crossed her legs and seemed to be colder. "Unfortunately for me, and probably everyone else, my mother didn''t think so. She kept goading my father to reim his family honor and berated him constantly for being a coward of a man for conceding defeat."

    "After all, my mother grew up in China, and her values were different from the west. The problem was, when she saw that my father was not going to change his ways for her, she set her sights on me."

    "Much like your father and your Uncle, the trajectory of my life changed. Rather than live as a rich princess of a powerful business family, I began to undergo strict behavioral training. The goal was to make me adept in family politics and worm my way into seats of power in the Heineken family."

    "Unfortunately for my dad and fortunately for my mother, I was good at it. Very good, in fact. So good that I soon learned that my father had be disillusioned by my mother''s constant berating and harshness that he began to have affairs outside to seek emotionalfort."

    Aileen nced at her hands with a slightly dazed look. "Given my intelligence and ability back then, at the mere age of 14, it would have been easy for me to get the two of them to reconcile ande to an understanding because no matter the difference in beliefs, there was definitely love for each other."

    "You know, my mother didn''t even care much about money or power. She did house chores happily and found joy in the simple things. She only pushed for power because of her country and nsmen''s beliefs."

    "I naturally did not know this at the time, but in my heart was resentment for my mother for how strictly I was raised and confusion as well as disappointment in my father for easily sumbing to his weaknesses."

    Aileen sighed and leaned back. "Rather than simply resolve things, I used this information to manipte the two of them. The teenage years are the worst period for a human to go through, man or woman, because one had a limited and childish worldview that they - at the time - absolutely believed to be the fact."

    "So I believed with my intelligence and skills, I could live freely wherever I wanted without the pressure of either parent on me. I conned my way into taking a load of money from my dad and traveled from Denmark to America."

    "Of course, being a spiteful little teen, I decided to leave a ''gift'' for my mother and yed the evidence of my father''s infidelity out in public when the two of them were scheduled to be at a program."

    "The chaos and confusion that ensued for them gave me enough leeway to escape without being stopped. I never even looked back twice, excited to start my new life in thend of the free."

    "I arrived here around 2003 and settled in quickly within Chinatown in Los Angeles due to my Asian gics from my mother and of course, therge amount of money I had. I was able to live rtivelyfortably and started studying Chemical Engineering at the University of California (LA)."

    "But the money wouldn''tst forever and without any qualifications to work yet, I was forced into debt really quickly. I managed to get a few schrships for my tuition here and there thanks to my ability, but those did not solve the issue of rent and food."

    "So I decided to put my old skills to the test and took a loan from a loan shark, taking over $500,000. It''s an unbelievable amount and with no coteral, the only way I could convince him was using evidence of the money I brought over from Europe as well as proof of my heritage."

    "Knowing I was from the Heineken family that saw billions a year, he even felt intimidated, and I knew how to act just to hit the point home. In his eyes, It was more of a young missy taking money ahead of time rather than being in deficit."

    Aileen rubbed her knees with embarrassment. "I then used that money to buy foreclosed houses during the Recession of 2008, and then rented them out while staying in one myself. Gathering the rent monthly from the tenants allowed me to pay back the loan in bits and pieces that were more than enough to reach the agreed amount in time."

    "Unfortunately for me, the loan shark was someone who had his ears on the ground and found out about my little trick. He became furious and thought I had duped him, which I had, but not in the way he thought."

    "As such, I was captured by his hooligans andst met with fatal violence. They were dragging me away on the street in front of people, but no one dared step forwardˇ­"

    Aileen then nced at David and Peter, who were smiling slightly. "Apart from two brothers who rushed in wielding makeshift weapons they found around."

    "Well, the rest is a long story, but your father and I got together in the end." Aileen abruptly stopped here as she blushed a bit.

    Dante almost facepalmed. Mom, you just revealed bombshell-level information to me casually and got shy when ites to the romance?

    "Soˇ­ what about my grandparents?" Dante asked Aileen tentatively.

    Aileen went silent and seemed lost. "Iˇ­ don''t know. After leaving Denmark, I practically cut ties with everyone and everything I knew until then, and matters concerning these powerful families are not easily aired to the public."

    "So I don''t know how my parents resolved the matter, if it was ever resolved. I do know that they are alive because regardless of whether I ran away or not, or was even disowned, the family would summon me for their funeral."

    The room became quiet for a while as everyone digested the information. Well, only Dante digested it because it seemed like David and Peter long knew about all of this.

    In truth, with his capability, Dante could easily verify their stories and even the current state of his aunts on his dad''s side and his grandparents on his mother''s side, but he did not do so.

    After all, Dante had no attachment or interest in them, only in how they affected the people he cared about, which were his parents. If they did not actively affect his parents, then he had no need to know or care about them.

    Especially now with his power, technology, and ability, there was no longer a way for them to affect his parents unless his loved ones stepped forward to initiate contact with the other side.

    Dante had a lot to think about in regards to how he would deal with the world and humanity, but first, he had to deal with something he put off for a significant while.

    "Alright then. You guys have gone through some basic treatments to prep you for the upgrade, but now that I am here, I can directly oversee it. It''s time to put you guys on par with every denizen of the Eternal Universe," Dante stated with a smile as he pped his thighs and stood up.

    David and Peter''s eyes lit up as they stood up with a whoosh, while Aileen chuckled. Dante was also amused but understood his Dad and Uncle who were men and definitely would not say no to the idea of umting personal power.

 Chapter 201 New Paths For Growth

    ?

    Dante brought them to the Technology Nexus where all things rted to research and production were handled. The nexus was far more bustling than before, with many androids and various bots moving up and down toplete their tasks rted to production or development.

    The three with Dante had been given free rein to move about as they pleased, but they had sensibly decided to stay within the Vitality Pools until their son/nephew came back and allowed them to leave.

    Now that they had a chance to look around, they were like country bumpkinsing to the city for the first time. Their eyes could not take in enough of the marvelous creations around them and clearly wanted to engrave this in their minds.

    Dante was amused but did not stop them. After today, they woulde into more contact with advanced technology and wonderful sights, but the first experience was always the best.

    Soon, they came to a chamber with many pods lined up that were empty. After all, while Dante had built the room, he didn''t have anyone to use it on up until now. Now that all those he cared about in this universe were gathered here, he could finally put it to use.

    "So we just enter fully clothed and lie inside?" Peter asked as he touched the exterior of the pods with a look of marvel.

    "That''s right. Clothes don''t matter to nanites; they directly interact with your cells on the atomic level, so you don''t have to worry," Dante reassured the three, who looked a bit worried.

    In the end, they shared a look and mbered in. While they did not exactly trust the technology, they absolutely trusted Dante. Since Dante trusted the technology, then they would trust it too.

    "So what will happen is that your entire gic sequence will be slowly upgraded and updated to match that of my own. It will not make you perfect as even among humans in the Eternal universe, I am below average, but it will make you far superior to humans here," Dante exined as the pods began to close.

    "Also, you guys will be given unregistered AI chips that can register with the Etr if I ever manage to obtain the ability to send you over. It''s different from subordinate chips that can never do the same, and you will also have the full range of functions."

    "I won''t install Bionics or Psionics yet for you guys because there are different types and brands from different manufacturers. When you''re done and your AI chip can feed you a lot of necessary information, you will be able to make an informed decision."

    Dante paused and then stated one thing even as his elders were submerged by the liquid-like nanites. "Also, you will be put into a deep but dreamless sleep for the duration that is painless."

    The three acknowledged this as they did not resist the sudden sleepiness that came over them and closed their eyes to enter the world of dreams casually. Dante nodded in satisfaction and checked the estimated time for the procedure, which was approximately 90 days.

    It only took so long because, unlike Beatrice, who was under pressure to make Dante seem ''normal'' in the few hours they had reached Earth for him to report, Dante did not have any pressure, so he could upgrade their gics slowly.

    Dante certainly did not want his parents and uncle to undergo what he did back then.

    After sorting them out, Dante teleported back to the Vitality pools and entered one of the rooms there. In it was a person he was not entirely sure what to do with, Aisha.

    She was currently dazed, clearly doing something with the subordinate chip inside her. She couldn''t ess any externalworks without Dante''s permission, but she could ess some basic pastimes and information from the base.

    Dante looked her up and down to see that she was quite haggard. After all, you could be sure that the elites at the top had resorted to violence long ago when Dante became a problem, but only gave up when they realized they could not touch him for some reason.

    That reason was Aisha.

    With her superpower though, dealing with some special ops troops was not a problem. The issue was that just like The Pantheon, there were various other factions - including the elites - who had their own superpower users loyal to them.

    A few of them had been silently dispatched and were dealt with by Aisha with difficulty. The good news was that this had allowed Aisha to be far more skilled inbatpared to before, and the bad news was that she had lost an arm.

    However, it was easily regrown to perfection using the technology in the base. Dante was going to inform her of his presence but Aisha suddenly exited her dazed-like state and nced at Dante with a smile.

    "You''re here," she said simply.

    Dante sighed and nodded. "I have returned, yes. I have to say, you have done an exemry jobpared to what I expected in this period of time. However, I have to be honest now and say that you will not be able to get what you wantˇ­ ever."

    Dante decided to be blunt and squash the strange obsession Aisha had developed from Stockholm. If he allowed it to fester, it would onlye back to bite him in the asster on, but he could use it now for his own purposes.

    After all, despite saying this, which should theoretically ''nip'' it in the bud, it wouldn''t be called an obsession if it could be eliminated with a few words. As such, Dante was not surprised when Aisha went silent for a while.

    "Anyway, I kind of guessed as much from the start anyway. Rather than that, I still hope to work for you and prove my usefulness," Aisha eventually replied after a while in a subdued tone.

    Dante nced at her and nodded. "I do need someone with superpower to test some things for me. We can begin immediately."

    Aisha looked up and saw Dante take out a glowing green core that seemed to radiate a strange energy. This was a Mutation Core from the Apocalypse World that was not replicated by his power.

    A few months ago, Dante had given some items to his base to research, including Mutation Cores. Out of all the items that had sent over this period of time, the only one still stuck in the research cue was that one.

    This was one of the things that also made Dante choose Quantum Replication because he realized how naive he was. He knew that the Apocalypse World was the most special out of all existing quantum worlds because it was the only one that granted superpowers in their truest sense, yet he wrote it off because it was weaker than the True Martial and Magus world.

    As such, he had been meaning to test the Mutation Cores. His initial target was the Golden Ape to see if it affected superpowers in other quantum worlds, but looking how arrogant that ape had be after receiving one new superpower, Dante held off on it.

    But Aisha was far better as she was a living human.

    Aisha took the core unhesitatingly and then nced at Dante after spinning it around for a bit. "Soˇ­ how do I use it?"

    Dante frowned because this was the part he also hadn''t figured out yet. Part of the reason why his AI had such difficulty researching the cores was that they maintained their indestructibility from the Apocalypse World''s rules.

    Can''t fully research something you can''t cut open. Likewise, it could not be melted, boiled, or dissolved.

    Dante had half a mind to tell Aisha to swallow it, but he felt that the most likely oue would be giving the poor woman a very painful experience she would never forget.

    "Why don''t you activate your superpower on it?" Dante suggested an idea he had. He had tried it himself but as stated before, items acquired through his quantum superpower could not supersede his quantum superpower, so this core could not forcefully upgrade his superpower.

    Aisha nodded and let a liquefied flow of light leak from his palm into the Mutation Core. Much to her surprise and Dante''s delight, the core melted like it did in the Apocalypse World when a person activated the system function to upgrade their superpower.

    The core flowed into Aisha''s body and disappeared, while the woman herself closed her eyes and seemed to be contemting something. Dante patiently waited until she opened her eyes and faced him with a look of amazement.

    "Thisˇ­ is the first time in my life that I''ve felt my superpower be stronger. What is this thing?" She spoke with puzzlement.

    "Something special that can change the way things work. How much stronger did your superpower be, or rather, how much progress did you make to the next rank?" Dante brushed away her curiosity and asked with a serious look.

    "Hmmˇ­ about 10%? I think I need 9 more to make a significant change," Aisha answered right away.

 Chapter 202 Rapid Rise

    <h4>Chapter 202 Rapid Rise</h4>

    Dante nodded. So it was just like the real Mutation Core in that 10 of them were needed at each rank to raise it up. If this really followed the rules of the Apocalypse World, then Dante could easily see himself raising an army of superpowered users.

    Of course, that was not something easy to do. After all, the reason why superpowers were so valuable - and that their owners were practically royalty - was precisely because no form of technology or methods apart from other superpowers could counter them.

    If superpowers could be dealt with like that, then all superpower users would be captured and chipped by the reigning powers under the excuse that ''they were a danger to society'' and ''the public was being protected from harm''.

    It certainly wouldn''t be his turn to enjoy such a thing, no matter how special Quantum Entanglement was. So if he wanted to use zero fruits to create superpowered users and then raise them up, he would need an absolute way to control them.

    Currently, Aisha was the best target to practice on because of her feelings for him. It definitely was kind of scummy for him to do this, but he knew for a fact that she had no intention to betray him.

    Hence, he took out a replicated Mutation Core of the F rank and gave it to her to try the same thing again. Much to Dante''s joy, it worked, and Aisha reported that it was the same 10% progress.

    This meant that regardless of original or replicated, Mutation Cores could work on superpower users of the right rank. However, Dante hesitated here because in order to verify if superpowers could breakthrough, he needed to continue feeding Aisha.

    Once she broke through, she might manifest new and unpredictable abilities and change her mind. Just because his subordinate chip in her brain was reporting that her thoughts were clear was not enough.

    Light Yagami had once deleted his own memories and regained themter to reduce his threat level in the eyes of L, his rival. The scene ''all ording to keikaku'' was a popr meme, but if you thought about the context and the calctions needed by Light to make it happen, you would understand how frightening the human mind can be.

    Who knew if Aisha had hypnotized herself into this so-called Stockholm out of desperation and had suppressed her true thoughts inside and hadˇ­

    Okay, now Dante was just being paranoid. It was fine to be cautious and wary, but cautiousness to the point of senselessness was insanity and paranoia. The simple fact that he should ount for was that, even if Aisha reached the E Rank, she couldn''t change her situation.

    Not against him with his current power and not in the heart of his base like this.

    As such, Dante gave her 4 more natural Mutation Cores and 4 replicated ones to see if either would lose their effectiveness or cause any changes. Aisha reported nothing wrong until she absorbed thest one and went into a short trance.

    Dante did not need Aisha to tell him anything as a bright light exploded from her body like a shbang and encapsted the room. It shone for about 3 seconds before dying down and revealing the new and improved Aisha, whose white hair was now glowing at all times.

    Meanwhile, Dante was not fazed by the lightshow. Even at an SDI of 10.5 points back then, Aisha''s light did not bother him, much less at his current ability. He sized her up and down, wondering if she had gained abilities like he did.

    Aisha opened her eyes, which shot out searing beams of light against the wall, and then controlled herself. She then turned to Dante with a look of amazement and cidity, saying. "I seeded."

    Dante smiled. "That you did. What abilities did you unlock?"

    "Abilities? As far as I know, I only got one if anything. My light can now go farther in terms of its projectile nature, not to mention that it has be twice as strong and I can transform half of my body into light,pared to only single parts," Aisha revealed with a confused expression.

    Dante''s eye narrowed. Right from the E Rank, he had gained new main abilities and a new sub-ability. However, ording to Aisha, rather than a new ability, her base ability had been increased.

    This highlighted just how special his Quantum Entanglement was, and thinking about the existence that stood behind the superpower, it made sense. Dante understood that even if he gathered 100 superpowers from fruits after this, they would likely never match his Quantum Entanglement.

    Dante honestly doubted that any superpower ever could.

    Once again, Dante could not help but wonder why him? Even if it was done for shits and giggles, why invest so much power and potential into him alone? What was different about himpared to the 7 billion people on Earth?

    Dante couldn''t help but think of the various things about him and then pinpointed one, which was his strange rtion to the ancient Italian poet who drafted the Divine Comedy of the same name.

    However, rather than the poet whose story was more about him exploring hell with angels by his side and protecting him, Dante was more rted to the derived version of it in which the warrior of the same name betrayed his wife and braved through the 9yers of hell to fight Satan himself for her soul.

    Butˇ­ that was a part of Christian mythology and lore, how could it be the reason for his situation? Dante did not know what to think until Aisha called to him to remind him that he still had things to do.

    Dante then took out a natural E Rank Mutation Core and let Aisha absorb it using the same process. There was no problem at this point as Dante gave her 5 replicated ones and 4 normal ones which were all absorbed immediately with no problem.

    She broke through to the D rank with a bright explosion of light which now contained heat and lingered for over 30 seconds before disappearing. Now Aisha''s eyes had also be white, which matched her hair.

    There was even a slight swirl of light within that seemed ready to shoot out and turn her foes into disintegrated ash. The woman herself seemed to be more inhuman and more godly, making Dante think of the various mythologies on Earth.

    Could the so-called Gods of Olympus as well as those of Valha simply be people who developed superpowers in the ancient ages? Well, even at the F Rank, without technology to limit them, those fellows could definitely be treated like gods.

    "No new abilities, my light projectile has be twice as strong again, which means four times from when I was at the F rank, as you say. Likewise, I can now turn 3/4ths of my body into light for a significant amount of time while I can elementalize into lightpletely for a short while," Aisha revealed as she marveled at her new abilities.

    The her now could destroy the entire Pantheon group she had once been a part of. Thinking about how much stronger Dante waspared to her and the breadth of his power as well as his resources, Aisha deeply felt how stupid it was of them to go against him.

    Dante was satisfied. "We shall stop here. Given your current strength, I have a new task for you, Aisha. You will be given an Aether Viper Av-9X-side ship to travel the world."

    "Your duty is? to subdue any and every superpowered user in the world and bring them here. This includes your former association, the Pantheon. Are you up for this?"

    Aisha stood up immediately and cricked her neck. "They must be intact and subdued. What if I cannot help but be forced to kill them? Also, what if I am discovered by normies?"

    Dante waved his hand. "With the current state of the world, you don''t need to worry about being silent. Do whatever is necessary to get the job done, and as for casualties, they will be judged by circumstance."

    Aisha nodded and walked out of the room towards a nearby teleporter. Obviously, Dante would install teleporters in his base because unlike him who could naturally beam around, the others couldn''t.

    Aisha would be provided with a premium-grade nanotech battlesuit that would be of whatever aesthetic she liked, as well as the ship in question needed to travel around. With her current ability, she could easily take down the inexperienced and peak F-grade superpowered users worldwide.

    If she encountered difficulties or found special superpowered users who had powers above the F rank, then Dante could dispatch stronger forces immediately. Once he captured the person in question, he could find out how they had achieved the near impossible.

    Now that Aisha was dealt with and his loved ones were also secure, it was time to deal with the rest of the unruly human race. After talking to his parents and gaining their insight, Dante knew just what fate to bestow upon everyone.

 Chapter 203 The Problem

    Earth, August 2030.

    The world was in turmoil given that the most recent publicly acknowledged genius who looked to be able to bring the world forward more than 100 years in technology was suddenly axed just before he could release all his findings.

    Even if they hadn''t been perfected, there were many among the public who coulde together to finish it. The only thing was that they needed ess to the framework in which they could then throw on the ''meat'' in due time.

    What particrly infuriated them was the public deception and political games before his death. When he was alive, it seemed par for the course, but now that he was gone, it felt like they had been toyed with.

    Heavy rioting and fighting were going on in many countries. The scary part was that these riots weren''t random or done by citizen to citizen, but rather to the elites of each country, especially those whose names had been mentioned.

    In just a few days, a French Revolution-style event urred with them and their families being dragged out of homes or offices and beaten, tortured, or raped depending on the situation.

    There were naturally many who did not participate in the extreme stuff or even tried to calm their fellowpatriots down, but the most they got for it was being pped and used of being with the elites.

    If things even got worse, they might be thrown down with the families of the elites and met with the same treatment. In no time, those who were slightly more reasonable learned to shut up and numbly follow as carnage reigned.

    Things had been going on like this for a few weeks and did not seem to be ready to die down any time soon, so martial force was deployed to deal with such unruly civilians. When they encountered each other, the elite''s soldiers - who were not necessarily part of the country''s army but were rather specially trained people - opened fire without a care.

    Their job was to suppress first and ask questionster.

    However, this kind of ughter did not make people calm down but rather made their ferocity erupt more. Even those who were hesitant and skeptical understood that once this ''suppression'' was over, they all would be severely dealt with and removing the tumors that caused society to stagnate would be impossible.

    People left their couches and hit the streets, engaging in warfare with such forces. In some countries, it was easier for the popce to fight back, like America, where the majority of civilians also had guns.

    In some others, it was tougher either because the popce was smaller or mostly unarmed, but it made little difference. Even the dispatched soldiers could not disy invincibility and soon fell under the numbers that came up.

    When the people got their guns and weaponry, they became bolder and began hunting down the elites in their countries with no more hesitation. Immediately, tensions escted as the elites became purple with fear and locked themselves in their various bunkers.

    They wore expressions of despair and cruelty, aiming to activate the nukes or any dangerous biochemicals theirckeys had cooked up, but they forgot that those who worked for them were part of the ''public''.

    In fact, many elites in Europe and America were dug out with horror on their faces because they forgot one thing, the ones who built their bunkers by hand and machine were part of the public!

    The bloodshed continued to escte until this day, when every human on the felt a strange weightnd on their brains like someone light was sitting on their chest/back.

    While this strange feeling of difort lingered, they all heard a voice in their minds that was human in terms of tone and emotion but very alien in terms of recognizability.

    "In the end, it hase to this. The human race is a disappointing species that does not deserve its status as the rulers of the Terra. You are self-destructive, unable to rationalize critically despite having the ability and led by your emotions rather than your logic, which - almost ironically - is what separates you from the non-sapients of your."

    "Your existence cannot be left to its own devices, it must be regained and controlled to allow for proper development, otherwise your species will stagnate at this level for many years toe."

    "As such, I, The God of Technology, sent down a messiah to save you from your fate of ignorance, but in the end, he was ostracized and abused by those working in the shadows and assisted by the fools living in the light."

    "So I shall take matters into my own hands and expedite the growth of humanity. However, I am a fair being and have decided to grant everyone an equal opportunity to advance the race and stand out in society."

    "So marks the day when the Racial Advancement System descended upon humankind."

    After these inexplicably chilling words were spoken, which contained feelings of disappointment, disdain, and slight resignation, every human in the world felt many things churn in their hearts and minds.

    The reactions worldwide were so diverse and varied that it was impossible to list them all. Rather than that, the entire world began to tremble as giant-side sci-fi ships appeared in the atmosphere all over the world, as if they had been cloaked previously and now revealed themselves.

    From these ships, hundreds of ant-like beings emerged, which turned out to be battle androids with high-level polymer and nanotech armor along with pulse weaponry. They immediatelynded in orderly squads, forming up before splitting to subdue everyone in sight using force.

    Of course, many decided to submit as the message in their minds and the warriors before their eyes told them that this was the fabled science fiction takeover of a superior technological race/faction.

    Having seen many such things, no one dared to resist because they did not want to test the effectiveness of those weapons. Well, ideally, no one, but there were always those who either thought they were smart and tried to either run or y tricks, but they were executed immediately.

    In the eyes of the soldiers forming these troops, these meatbags could even be grown in artificial embryos en masse. Even if humanity was killed down to thest one, they could replicate the entire diverse species using the gic information from Dante alone.

    So the value of ''poption'' and human life was extremely low. Some seemed to recognize this, at least subconsciously, and obeyed everything. There were others that were used to obeying all their lives and simply found a new master to listen to.

    In a matter of hours, the entire human race was subdued. There was nothing like a courageous young man/woman who escaped to lead a freedom fighter force that lived on the outskirts and eventually saved the day.

    That rubbish was simply feel-good fiction to make humanity think that they actually stood a chance against a technologically superior foe, and only worked because that foe was dumbed down to the absolute lowest levels.

    Reality was not so dramatic.

    Eventually, builder bots came down and within the center of every city, town, or even vige around the world, began building a huge mini-base that was replicated from the one on McDonald''s and Heard Inds.

    The construction robots used the materials his research ships had harvested from the sr system in this period of time as well as outside, which gave him a crazy amount of reserves. Monopolizing resources was truly sweet, because it felt like you could do anything you wanted.

    The humans who were put under strict martialw at this time could only watch the ongoings with increasing fear and trepidation, wondering what was going to be of them. Now that everyone was forced into a lockdown situation, it gave many people time to settle down and think.

    Many conclusions were reached by various people and since there was still the inte, various social medias were flooded withments, threads, and videos from people either exining the events that led up to this, analyzing what would happen next, and even the identity of this God of Technology.

    Meanwhile, the bases were soon erected. After creating suitable child AI''s to manage them and then linking them through the quantummunications array in the Skyward Tower of the main base and sub-bases, awork was established worldwide.

    Once this happened, Dante gave the order for the next step, which was the imntation. Android soldiers went from house to house, injecting everyone with the nanites needed to form subordinate chips.

    Even though the android soldiers did not speak a word, everyone instinctively knew that the promised envement method hade and once they were injected with this thing, they would never truly have free will again.

    At this thought, even the most docile of people began to resist instinctively and fight back. However, the non-organic soldiers were still as brutal as ever and simply executed anyone who even twitched with difort.

 Chapter 204 The Solution

    ?

    It was a miniature apocalypse for the human race and a sort of instant poption control. The 7 billion number of humans that seemed like it might even rise to 11 billion in a hundred years was quickly reduced to less than 5 billion in a matter of hours.

    The loss of life was substantial, but the unfeeling AI''s and androids did not care. They also did not report it to Dante per his request because he left the entire matter to them. The man himself had only programmed the message and then left the to begin a part of his space conquest.

    It was sort of like when the kind and benevolent principal who everyone knew would be rtively lenient even if strict was away and the wicked and cruel vice-principal used his name to deal with the students in the school harshly.

    Once humanity had been chipped, the AI chips formed in their brains and performed a collective basic introduction of its features as well as the fate of humanity. They were not necessarily enved; they could still fight, engage in rtionships, and meet their basic needs.

    However, the unnecessary aspects of humankind would be eliminated, much like removing rotten flesh by hook or by crook. The first was the destruction of currency worldwide. Immediately, all physical, digital, or otherwise, money became just numbers that looked nice.

    Everything was reced and centralized by the AIs with a new digital currency called the Terran Coin, an Earth-exclusive currency that Danteter nned to use for the entire universe.

    The only legal issuer of the Terran Coin was the Minister of Finance AI, which controlled all money and mary cirction globally. Every person was given 100 Terran Coins to start, regardless of their previous wealth, but they could maintain their shelter and properties (for now).

    The next issue was theplete disbandment of borders and countries. Everything was broken down into cities, towns, or viges, each one its own sovereign territory now controlled by the Minister of Governance AI.

    It issued executive orders for each territory and handled disputes lodged in thework. It was the sole ''ruler'' of all territories, and no human was given any administrative position as they were not impartial enough to be trusted with even a modicum of power.

    Next was the immediate closure of allpanies, stores, outlets, brands, etc., as well as the cancetion of all upations, be they vocational or service-rted. All of these things could be done by bots or AI, so there was no need for humanity to waste its time on them.

    It would take time, but the Minister of Services AI could handle all that. Virtual reality would rece gaming tforms, porn, and other leisure activities that were usually crafted by game studios or individuals. Without giving them actual quantum worlds, they could have 100% realistic virtual digital worlds where they could do whatever they wanted to pass the time.

    As for manufacturing and food, that was left to the Minister of Production AI. It would handle everything, from farming using the highest technological standards to producing synthetic beef, chicken, and crops that were far tastier and more nutritious than the norm.

    Then it would handle transportation using quantum transportation, like in the Eternal Universe, which meant no transportation costs or dy times, nor trade route issues or banditry.

    After that was the service aspect, which involved cooking and various outlets where robots used the best mechanical precision and elite cooking techniques to enhance every aspect of the food''s taste and quality.

    Preservation was obviously not an issue. Manufacturing also did not only refer to food but to the production of necessary goods like drinks, toiletries, tools, clothes, etc. The bots crafted things of far better quality than humans, and with the blueprint of the Eternal Universe, they could maintain ''innovation'' for new tools for the next 8000 years.

    After all this, the only issue came in the form of the arts. The AI Dante had relegated to watch over humanity were top-notch quantum-level, while those controlling humanity were also top-notch. However, the child AI''s handling most tasks were not exactly as good as their mother AI''s.

    Novels, movies, animations, and even games require human creativity. The quantum AI were also creative, but there was just something about having actual consciousness that allowed sapient beings to create wonders.

    As such, a resolution was needed, and this came in the form of the Minister of Arts AI, which was actually the old Artist AI who had gone crazy. Its consciousness had developed so much that its creations veered from anything typical AI could make, and the other AI were scared of it.

    As such, the base AI simply put it in charge of this aspect and hoped for the best.

    Next up was Education. The Minister for Education AI''s job was the simplest. It could categorically rate the ability and talent of every human right from birth and then tailor an education n for them that would bring out their absolute best.

    Of course, you could also learn whatever you wanted on the side, but you would be graded and ranked by your actual achievements following the ''proper'' path. After all, while everything so far seemed to be rtively benevolent and not tyrannical, this was not something that could be discussed.

    There was also the Minister of Fitness AI who would push all humans to maintain a healthy diet, healthy living habits, and to train their bodies using the basic training regime of the Eternal Universe that Dante himself learned featuring Posture, Bnce, Reactions, Traversal, and Breathing.

    As for advanced training, they would have to pay hefty amounts after fulfilling tasks that gave out payment. The Minister of Fitness also handled healthcare, which was free for all humans as MultiPod 5000s would be installed in every territory''s mini-base which was free to use.

    Making people pay for healthcare was not a wise choice for a dictator or ruler. The healthier your workers, the more productive they were, which brought you more benefits overall.

    Finally, there was the Minister of Misceneous AI who handled everything else in between.

    These eight AI Ministers - Finance, Governance, Services, Production, Arts, Education, Fitness, and Misceneous - possessed near-limitless power in their fields, but their only duty was to stabilize society and provide basic guidance/support for humanity in its true purpose.

    And that was to serve the Racial Advancement System that Dante had announced and that was connected to the minds of every human who was chipped. The system''s purpose was to push humanity towards the future that Dante wanted without getting in his way and without being a burden to him.

    So you''d notice that the various AI ministers only took over things that ''distracted'' humanity from solely focusing on advancement. What was advancement? It was simply working hard every day to achieve basic tasks set out by each subordinate chip to its user which rewarded them with Terran Coins.

    Terran Coins could then be used to buy luxuries like special information, unique technology that was advanced to humans of this Earth but backward to humans of the Eternal Universe, special time in the miniature Vitality Pools of the mini-bases, gene serums to increase their gic quality, and more.

    But then one would ask, what task could humans achieve that would benefit Dante?

    The answer was none; that was precisely why the man left after setting the basic framework and didn''t look back. The goal of this was not to make humanity useful to him per se; he had AIs and androids that could do everything better than the entire race ever could.

    What he needed was for humanity to be quiet and be a good child while he was busy. It was like a parent whose infant child was always crying and screaming, throwing tantrums. All they needed was for that child to be distracted by putting an iPad or a cartoon show in front of them so that the parent in question could finish those documents the boss sent over for work.

    Why was humanity important to Dante then? Well, unlike a person whose worldview was limited to the, Dante had been not only to space but to a whole other universe.

    It was a fact that when one stayed in one ce all their lives or for most of their lives, they would grow to despise or dislike their own kind or ethnic group because they only ever saw the ws whileparing them to that of other species/ethnic groups, yearning for diversity.

    However, the irony was that once a person left their ce of origin and traveled around, spending a significant time in a ce where everyone was a different skin color, where thenguage was different, where the food was different and where the culture as well as the customs were foreign to them, one''s own kind or ethnic group would be the fondest thing in their mind, and one would treasure them.

 Chapter 205 Aftermath And Stellar Vanguard II

    ?

    Of course, that was not all. Now that humanity had been subdued, it was time to deal with those who had used the earlier chaos to cause trouble. By imnting all of humanity, Dante made them feel like they had been robbed of their freedom, so he had naturally incurred some resentment.

    The best and simplest way to deal with this was the same methods the earlier elites used, by distracting the popce. In this case, a huge ''online'' trial was held as the minds of each human were pulled into a virtual world where they sat in arge stadium with a stage in the center.

    Despite being effectively hundreds of thousands of kilometers away from the stage, they found that they could clearly see what was going on as if they had eagle eyes. The unique feeling enraptured many and filled them with excitement for the future, making them forget their earlier unhappiness.

    Even just this appeased them, showing how easily the public could be swayed, but things had only just started. Immediately after, a humanoid judge that was simr to a in and faceless cyborg appeared in the center of the stage.

    "We are gathered here today to deal with all the criminals who caused irreparable harm and pain to others under the guise of freedom and justice. This court session seeks to out them for their crimes and punish them severely!"

    A bang on the gavel was made, and everyone in the crowd began to buzz with surprise and shock. The arrangement was done so that family and friends were near to each other in proximity, regardless of location.

    As for knowing everyone''s affiliations, that was not a question to be asked given the level of control Dante currently had. In no time, many people were summoned to the podium, and their crimes were read out to the world.

    Even worse was that direct images of their crimes taken from both allies monitoring the world at the time as well as from the person''s own memories were shown, buttressing their actions.

    This filled the crowd with fury when they saw the actions of some people, and family as well as friends were chilled when someone in their midst was summoned away before they saw their crimes.

    These were people they knew and interacted with, yet they saw what they had done. During the initial riot, they chose to steal and loot under the guise of freedom, and when Dante was ''killed,'' the upheaval gave many a chance to do even worse.

    Interestingly, the Base AI did not punish anyone whomitted crimes before that period. It was only targeted at actions during the conflict between Dante and the elites, which made many hidden criminals breathe a sigh of relief.

    Yet they soon received alerts from their chips that they would have to make an atonement for their actions and suffer egregious penalties under the Racial Advancement System, bing the hardest working individuals in order to secure a future.

    This made them pale, but at least, their crimes were not broadcasted, giving them a chance to quietly redeem themselves. As for those taken on the stage, their only oue was having their brain fried on the spot after their crimes were revealed, there was no other oue.

    From this trial, humanity''s poption was now around 4.5 billion. A lot of resources andnd had been freed up, especially among the top echelon; barely anyone from the elites survived this purge, leaving mostly their innocent children or their shunned/ostracized members who couldn''t even get a chance to be evil.

    Soon, it was ended, and the world was now in a recovery period. What was interesting, though, was that the Base AI issued a worldwide task to repopte, which meant that women were given a rich task that paid between 100 to 10,000 Terran Coins to give birth to babies.

    The best part was that they would be given welfare during pregnancy and undergo a painless, not to mention having an elerated gestation process which wouldst a month at most, meaning that the ufortable pregnancy duration was greatly reduced.

    However, they were paid by the quality of their baby in terms of genes and potential, so women became like red-eyed beasts as they eyed the men of the world. The men were immediately under extreme pressure, many who were above 7/10 with good heights and good fitness being pestered daily by not only women they knew but women who didn''t know them.

    The girls they could only dream of before were now soliciting them crazily, and it made men dizzy since this was not the way of nature or society. Many sumbed to the temptation early on, but when they saw the soaring status of the women as they used their money to buy gene serums and various things, they realized how foolish they were.

    As such, men became sharp and began asking for a split of the benefits, especially the better a man''s gics. Those with poor fitness immediately took up tasks to better their bodies and became fit rapidly with the help of advanced technology provided to the human race by the Minister of Fitness AI.

    Obviously, there was also an issue to consider which was the existence of less attractive women. Many did not like to talk about it for fear of bacsh on social media, but just like there were average and less attractive men out there, there were some average and less attractive women out there.

    With gene serums and reconstruction surgeries, even the less attractive girl could be a top beauty. However, to get there, they still needed to make babies and then make money through that, so the men at the bottom who were snubbed by better chicks were the target of such girls.

    Interestingly, men soon got tired of being sperm donors and became selective over time, forcing women to be creative in winning a man''s favor. It hadpletely turned on its head, with men bing boring conversationalists who overestimated their sexual value while women became interesting people full of life and intrigue.

    This was just one of the many things that urred to the human race in the following months after Dante ced everyone under the Racial Advancement System.

    As for Dante himself, the man was seated in the gship of his space fleet, The Ster Vanguard II.

    [Ship Spec Sheet]

    Ship Name: Ster Vanguard II

    ss: gship Battleship

    Manufacturer: Celestial Dynamics Corporation

    Length: 500 meters

    Width: 120 meters

    Height: 60 meters

    Weight: 200,000 metric tons

    Crew Capacity: 800 (All non-organics)

    Maximum Speed: Warp 9.5 (approximately 7200 times the speed of light)

    Armament:

    - 10 Heavy sma Cannons

    - 20 Guided Missile Launchers

    - 4 Ion Beam Turrets

    - 12 Anti-Starfighter Laser Batteries

    - 1 Supeser Cannon

    Defensive Systems:

    - Deflector Shields (Quad-Layered)

    - Anti-Missile Point Defense System

    - Fleet Scale Cloaking Device (Experimental)

    - Energy Armor ting

    Propulsion:

    - Quantum Warp Drive

    - Ion Thrusters

    - Antimatter Propulsion System

    Power Source:

    - Dual Psionic Reactors

    - Zero-Point Energy Generator

    Hangar Bay:

    - 12 Interceptor-ss Starfighters

    - 4 Transport Shuttles

    - 20 Research and Mining Ships

    Sensors and Communication:

    - Quantum Sensor Array

    - Cosmic Communication System

    - Stealth Detection Suite

    Special Features:

    - Advanced AI Command and Control

    - Battle Command Center

    - Medbay and Research Labs

    - VIP Quarters

    Description:

    The Ster Vanguard II is the epitome of spacefaring technology, serving as the gship of any true space fleet worth its salt.

    This state-of-the-art battleship is designed for extended deep-space conquests, rapid response, andmanding fleets in the most challenging of conflicts.

    With a length of 500 meters and a formidable armament, including heavy sma cannons, guided missileunchers, ion beam turrets, and an awe-inspiring supeser cannon, the Ster Vanguard II is a force to be reckoned with on any battlefield.

    Its quadyered deflector shields, antimissile defenses, and energy armor ting make it nearly impervious to enemy attacks.

    Propelled by a powerful quantum warp drive and supported by ion thrusters and an antimatter propulsion system, the Ster Vanguard II can reach speeds of Warp 9.5, allowing it to respond swiftly to threats across the cosmos.

    The ship''s dual fusion reactors and zero-point energy generator provide an abundance of power for its advanced systems, including an experimental cloaking device and an AI-drivenmand and control center.

    This vessel houses a hangar bay for 12 Interceptor-ss Starfighters, 4 transport shuttles andes equipped with 20 free Research and Mining Ships crafted by the amazing Celestial Dynamics Corporation.

    The Ster Vanguard II boasts advanced quantum sensors, Cosmic-levelmunication capabilities, and a stealth detection suite, ensuring it remains at the forefront of intelligence gathering as well as strategic nning.

    It also features a medbay, researchbs, and VIP quarters, making it self-sufficient for long-term missions.

    As the gship of your future armada, the Ster Vanguard II represents the pinnacle of spacefaring technology and is a symbol of strength, exploration, and defense in the vast expanse of the cosmos.

    Get it today!

    Specifications sheet generated by the Celestial Dynamics Corporation: Forging the Future, One Star at a Time!]

 Chapter 206 The First Conquest

    ?

    Dante was seated in themand center of the ship, gazing through the main screen at the void of space outside Earth. Currently, his gship was hovering beside the moon, its massive and imposing shape still appearing smallpared to an actualoid.

    The young man took in a deep breath and scanned the other screens. With just his eyes, and without having to rely on detailed reports from his base AI and his chip, Dante could see hundreds of thousands of ships suspended in space above the Earth.

    Well, it shouldn''t be too surprising, now should it? His base had been working tirelessly for about a month or more at full capacity, producing ships at an astonishing rate. Whenever a ship waspleted, it would be ''parked'' in space because Earth''s atmosphere could only amodate so much.

    Furthermore, the physical dimensions of the floating inds were too limited to amodate all the ships on the ground. Naturally, with the level of technological control Dante had, Earth''s inhabitants werepletely ignorant of the fact that the entire sr system, from the very edge of Earth up to as far as Pluto, was brimming with spaceships of every ss, forming this colossal armada.

    To be honest, from the perspective of Earth''s inhabitants, it was quite terrifying. Imagine living your whole life,pletely unaware that just at the edge of your vision, in the dark corners you couldn''t see, a terrible monster was lurking, watching you, yet you would never be able to see it.

    Well, at least, Earth''s inhabitants were fortunate that they were not Dante''s target. Whatever the case, now that his gship was secure and his initial space fleet was ready, it was time to begin. With a wave of his hand, Dante wordlesslymanded the armada to move out.

    The difference between himself and any normal conquering force setting out to explore was that, due to his long-range detectors and scanners, he knew the exactyout of his nearby space. He knew whichs could support life, which ones had valuable minerals, and especially, whichs harbored civilizations.

    Naturally, his armada was divided into groups, each with its specific goals. There were mining ships tasked with harvesting resources froms sustainably over time, increasing Dante''s rapidly growing wealth. Then there were colonization ships designated to settle habitables with civilizations below level 1 on the cosmic scale.

    Even a civilization on par with humanity currently fell into this category, considering that humanity was only at level 0.75 at best. These civilizations would either be chipped, simr to the human race, if they submitted, or eradicated if they resisted.

    Unlike humans, who enjoyed various benefits and welfare, as well as the Racial Advancement System, any subjugated species below level 1 would mostly be strictly maintained as second-ss citizens. They wouldn''t be forced into vebor, as it was unnecessary given the existence of Dante''s robots and AI that could perform tasks more efficiently. Instead, they would continue with their civilization as before, but with the acknowledgment that Dante owned everything they loved and believed in.

    However, Dante couldn''t apply the same treatment to civilizations at level 1 and above. In terms of firepower, Dante was currently at the universal scale, meaning that he was at least level 5. To his knowledge, there were no level 5 civilizations in the universe currently, not even level 3.

    The vast majority of civilizations were either unranked, barely at level 1, with only a handful of ''rulers'' at level 2. In other words, Dante could theoretically dominate the entire universe as long as he had enough troops.

    But Dante was skeptical, not because he doubted himself, but because he was prudent. If oues were solely determined by these metrics, history would be devoid of surprises in various conflicts.

    What made it interesting was that many upsets had urred in ancient and recent history. Right now, despite all his power and apparent superiority, Dante was acting cautiously, like America entering the Vietnam War while already knowing the war''s history. He was handling everything steadily, nning to conquer, consolidate, and then proceed.

    It was a strategy focused on stability, allowing him to retreat if he encountered species with unique abilities that countered his own. Imagine if he encountered a level 0.4 civilization,gging behind even humanity but possessing abilities akin to the Namekians from Dragon Ball and the power to gather seven orbs for wishes. If they wished for Dante''s demise and he couldn''t counter their esoteric power, he would be defeated.

    Dante was following a battle n simr to the one employed by the Eternal Universe''s Earth when they first ventured into space exploration and conquest. They also adopted a stability-focused approach, identifying habitables and weaker species before subjugating them. When they found formidable enemies they couldn''t easily ovee, they initiated negotiations, formed alliances, and sometimes betrayed their alliester.

    Dante didn''t necessarily need to be present for this conquest, but he felt it was right to be there for his first one. So he sat in the gship, which slowly cruised out of the sr system while the other ships in the armada entered warp space and departed.

    Dante didn''t need to focus on the harvesting ships, but he paid close attention to the conquest ones. Many ships appeared in space aboves of various sizes and colors, featuring native level 1 civilizations. Within his first conquest, there were over 300 targeted native level 1 civilizations, and as for those below level one, their numbers exceeded 100,000.

    Dante ''observed'' their progress through the quantum rywork between his ships and focused on one in particr. What set this race apart from the others was that, among all the civilizations Dante had encountered, whether humanoid, bestial, bipedal, quadrupedal, or even those with irregr forms like floating masses of tentacles or other nonstandard shapes, this one was uniqueˇŞit was a digital species, an AI civilization!

    They were the only ones in the entire Milky Way who had achieved basic quantummunications. When Dante had first essed the Etr and returned to Earth, his AI chip had automatically attempted to connect with the home universe but had found a void where pockets of quantummunications were taking ce. Essentially, they were like humanity right now, broadcasting radio signals and digital waves into space in an attempt to contact extraterrestrial life.

    This AI civilization was also broadcasting various peaceful messages, hoping to establish contact with species of simr developmental levels. In the end, they had unwittingly brought trouble upon themselves as thergest part of Dante''s conquering armada appeared in the space above their.

    Although they had orbital space stations and some elementaryary defenses, it was nothing in the face of superior technology. Immediately, a scene reminiscent of Star Wars unfolded, with beams of light shing across space. These beams struck ships that were hastily dispatched by the AI civilization. These ships were unmanned, for obvious reasons, and their attacks mostly proved futile as they collided with the formidable shields of the fighters.

    In this fleet, there was a Destroyer-ss ship leading the charge, along with 200 Battle-ss vessels and 3000 Interceptor-ss ships. Dante had their spec sheets in his retinas, but he focused on their actual performance before delving into the ship manuals.

    Even without reading the spec sheet, Dante could tell that Destroyer-ss ships were about one and a half times smaller than his current gship, a battleship-ss model. They resembled the battle cruisers that dotted the skies of the Star Wars universe in terms of size and utility. Their shape was more like a horizontal rectangle, with a dark ck and red paint job that gave them a sinister appearance.

    Next came the Battle-ss ships, which were typicalrge warships with formidablebat abilities and smaller bays. They were akin to the cruisers frequently used by separatists. In the Eternal Universe, having a battle-ss ship was the basic requirement for being a spacefaring warrior. Each battle-ss ship could hold about 5 interceptors and 10 mining ships.

    As for the Interceptor-ss ships, they were theoretically simr in style and function to famous ships like the A-wings and X-wings, but they wererger than most typical sci-fi tier ships used for basic space and aerialbat. They were about the dimensions of the Millennium Falcon, a fact made possible by the perfect harnessing of Psionic energy without harm.

    Dante watched the battle unfold through his personal quantumwork as the digital AI civilization''s ships attempted to put up a fight against his fleet.

    The beams of light, energy sts, and the impressive maneuvers of his ships made for a dazzling disy in the depths of space, though unlike in movies, there was no sound to apany it.

    The AI civilization''s ships, while advanced in their own right, were no match for the technological might and overwhelming numbers of Dante''s armada... well, just a small part of it actually.

    Their attacks werergely ineffective against the shields of the invaders, and their orbital defenses crumbled easily under the relentless assault.

 Chapter 207 Monitoring Log

    <h4>Chapter 207 Monitoring Log</h4>

    So, you are the weaker party in a head-on conflict between two forces, and you are absolutely getting your ass wrecked with no chance of retaliation whatsoever. What do you do?

    Brutally, the proper choice is to surrender and hope that you are given a pleasant fate, because if you continue your battle, your fate will be sealed anyway.

    This was the decision this AI civilization made after just 10 minutes of battle. They sent multiple pings through a very basic and unencrypted quantumwork to Dante, trying to establish contact.

    When they did, Dante forwarded them to his base AI to negotiate terms of surrender while he himself sighed boredly and with a hint ofplexity. In truth, he expected to see a scene of true heartfulness and defiance, the weaker party fighting with all they had to establish that freedom was more precious than life.

    However, once again, Dante, the young man, had been influenced by fiction too much. Shounen anime and many Hollywood action films featured such defiance in humanity against a bigger threat, which made Dante and many other youths feel that this should be the way.

    However, that was fiction!

    In reality, anyone would make the decision that the AI civilization did in the face of such overwhelming odds and firepower. Even if the ships they had could fight against Dante''s Interceptors, Dante had more than 10 times their number alone!

    This was not counting the higher-ss ships that dotted the void of space above and around the. It was simply suicidal to fight such a battle, especially for a civilization that had entered its rapid development stage and had hopes of bing overlords of their quadrant.

    Dante knew he had thought too simply. Among the various battles happening elsewhere, things were resolved even quicker since most forces didn''t even have spaceships that could fight outside theirs.

    If a single one of the sentient species chose to fight back and submitted immediately, allowing the popce to be chipped and for a base to be built in the core of their, which Dante would use to control the smaller bases built across the surface of the.

    This would make things simpler for Dante as he could teleport non-organic troops - essentially his entire army - using the quantum teleportation matrix on arge scale so that he could deploy troops anywhere instantly.

    Not to mention that his base on earth could stop producing troops and focus on dealing with humanity now that there were other bases out here to handle such tasks. Dante received reports and coordinated with many of them before teleporting out of his gship and entering the Sris Horizon E7.

    It was his personal ship that he bought which he had left to scan the area around the Zero Gate of the home universe. Thest time he came here, there had been millions of various beings seated around the gate in what constituted this universe''s ''cknd'', mediating and absorbing Zero Energy, it seemed.

    Dante had been worried about his personal strength in dealing with his ambitions and greed for this gate, so he had left the Sris to monitor the ce. Now that he was here, Dante wanted an update of what had happened in that time.

    "Sris AI, update me," Dantemanded as he sat in the observation seat.

    "Greetings Master Dante, I have sent the detailed monitoring log to your AI chip. Please let me know if you have any questions, and I will resolve them immediately," Sris AI responded promptly.

    [Monitoring Log - Sris Horizon E7 AI (Sris AI)

    Date: July 20th, 2030

    Initiating Log...

    Early June:

    - Date: June 5th, 2030

    - Observations: Began monitoring of the Zero Gate and surrounding regions. No significant changes noted in the environment. Nearby stars remain stable.

    - Date: June 7th, 2030

    - Observations: Detected an increase in space traffic near the Zero Gate. Ships from various species arriving, likely in anticipation of the gate''s annual opening. No visible signs of interaction between species.

    Mid June:

    - Date: June 12th, 2030

    - Observations: Arge, crystalline structure appeared near the Zero Gate. Appears to be of unknown origin. It''s generating energy readings consistent with Zero Energy, but it''s unclear if it''s rted to the gate.

    - Date: June 18th, 2030

    - Observations: Species from different gxies are conducting joint research near the crystalline structure. It seems they are trying to harness the energy emitted by it. Still, no visiblemunication between species.

    Late June:

    - Date: June 23rd, 2030

    - Observations: A significant fluctuation in Zero Energy levels detected near the crystalline structure. The structure appears to be unstable and emitting bursts of energy randomly. Nearby species are maintaining a cautious distance.

    - Date: June 30th, 2030

    - Observations: The crystalline structure near the Zero Gate experienced a catastrophic energy discharge, resulting in a shockwave that temporarily disrupted our monitoring equipment. The structure vanished, leaving behind a cloud of residual energy.

    Early July:

    - Date: July 2nd, 2030

    - Observations: Zero Energy levels have returned to normal. No unusual activity detected. Many species have departed, likely discouraged by the loss of the crystalline structure. Those remaining seem focused on researching the Zero Gate itself.

    Mid July:

    - Date: July 15th, 2030

    - Observations: A massive cosmic storm has formed near the Zero Gate, creating unpredictable turbulence in the surrounding space. Species that remained appear to be struggling to navigate the storm, suggesting it is a recent development.

    Late July:

    - Date: July 25th, 2030

    - Observations: The cosmic storm near the Zero Gate continues to intensify. Several ships have been lost, while others are attempting to retreat. Zero Energy levels remain steady, but the storm poses a significant obstacle to ess.

    Early August:

    - Date: August 3rd, 2030

    - Observations: The cosmic storm has reached its peak, making it nearly impossible for ships to approach the Zero Gate. It appears that the annual window for gate ess, starting in December, will be exceptionally challenging this year.

    Analysis and Debunking:

    While it may be tempting to assume that all species outside the Zero Gate are absorbing Zero Energy for power enhancement, several factors suggest otherwise. First, the species gathered here are vastly diverse, each with unique evolutionary backgrounds. It''s improbable that every species possesses superpowers.

    Second, our knowledge from the Eternal Universe, which is significantly more advanced, indicates that the acquisition of superpowers is aplex process and not solely reliant on Zero Energy absorption.

    The recent appearance and disappearance of the crystalline structure may have misled some species into thinking it was the source of their power. Its sudden vanishing and the formation of the cosmic storm suggest it may have been a transient phenomenon rather than a consistent source of Zero Energy.

    Furthermore, the cosmic storm near the Zero Gate, which began inte August, poses a significant challenge to those seeking ess. If Zero Energy were the sole source of power enhancement, this storm would have disrupted such attempts long ago.

    In conclusion, while the Zero Gate and its surrounding environment remain subjects of fascination and study, it is unlikely that all species outside the gate are absorbing Zero Energy for power enhancement. The diverse nature of the species, the recent anomalies, and the existence of advanced universes with differing power sources all contribute to this conclusion. Further observation is necessary? to understand the true nature of this universe''s superpowers and their acquisition.]

    Dante''s expression became subtle as he read the log. He was also curious about this crystalline structure that came and went, which actually released Zero Energy, but Dante had the details of it stored in the Sris'' database.

    He would return to the Eternal universe and share this with Beatrice to see what information they could dig out because nothing like this was mentioned in the history of the Zero Gate in the Eternal Universe.

    "What is this?" Dante asked the Sris AI sharply.

    "It is the monitoring log along with some analysis done by myself based on your worries the previous time we came here," Sris AI responded respectfully.

    Dante was clearly showing distrust toward his own AI, which would be seen as barbaric in the Eternal Universe, even by Beatrice. However, it couldn''t be helped as Sris was the only AI that Dante bought and did not create himself.

    It came with the ship, and Dante was not sure he could entirely trust it, but that was a nonsensical train of thought. It was like a person who disliked animals and thought that pigs danced in the moonlight every night, it went againstmon sense.

    Besides, it was a fact that Sris could not betray Dante because the only ones who could tamper with it were the manufacturers behind it, and they did not dare since the majority of their buyers were people like Beatrice and Lara who could tten them in seconds.

    Dante eventually decided to stop being a troublemaker and seriously considered the Sris AI''s points. He too had his doubts because even the Eternal Universe had limited superpower users universe-wide, so how could his home universe possibly have exponentially more?

 Chapter 208 Declaration Of Ownership

    <h4>Chapter 208 Deration Of Ownership</h4>

    There was definitely a reason and an exnation for why there were so many beings here as well as why they could absorb Zero Energy like superpower users. The only way for Dante to find out was to directly involve himself with them, and he had an idea of how to do so.

    He left the Sris Horizon E7 and returned to his base on Earth. Seeing the now silent base that had be less active due to the reduced workload, he felt like he had made significant progress from when it was first built.

    He smiled and entered the Vitality Pools area, choosing to enter his usual pool. Upon dipping within, Dante simply sat cross-legged and started chanting the Inferno Ascension Technique''s mantra.

    Usually, right after raising his SDI, he would raise both his magical methods by one level, but he had been left unsettled and distracted due to his quantum connection with his persona on Earth, so he had rushed back to deal with all these things.

    Now, he could deal with his capital and foundation in both universes, his own personal power. Without enough strength, he could still remain powerful, relying on his technological advantage, but that would forever be his limit.

    What Dante wanted was to surpass being a mere user of technology and be its very god. So to start taking the steps on that path, he needed to have a strong fist to subdue all those who wouldpete with him for that spot.

    Dante remained cross-legged while chanting for what seemed like a few minutes to him as a ze of great ckish-red hellfire erupted around him, but the actual truth was that he spent more than 6 hours like this.

    When the fire finally converged into his body and merged into hisrge pill-like dantian, which was suspiciously simr to a golden core, it caused the core to split up like a cell and be two, doubling its existence.

    With this doubling, though, came a direct increase in Dante''s Internal Force capacity by twofold. However, it did not stop there as Dante''s two core-like dantians which contained burning hellfire split again, making four.

    They then split again, making 8, then 16, then 32, to 64 and 128. One would think it would stop here, but they continued splitting and doubling until they reached 1024!

    One thousand and twenty-four dantians full of Internal Force! Even if Dante did not use his now 2-kilometer-wide/high/long spirit sense to retrieve his mes, he could likely fight for weeks on end at high-intensity consumption without even trying to conserve anything.

    [Magical Powers: Inferno Ascension Technique (Level 5: Greed''s Ember Flow, 7%)]

    [Level 5 - Greed''s Ember Flow: Upon reaching this level, the user can harness the undting energy of greed, creating a second and even third dantian to contain more Internal Force. Their Internal Force capacity soars by at least twofold, and the exact exponential increase is based on their constitution as well as the number of activated sub-dantians.]

    Even better was that Dante could now use the method to condense Orbs of True Force that could detect the Internal Arts talent of others. Usually, Internal Force masters sparingly created such things because the Internal Force used to condense them was difficult to rece.

    However, with Dante''s current ''wealth'', he could create them like a production line if he had enough time. Ah, that even reminded him, he had not yet given the one he collected from Hao Donglei to his base AI to research, so he did just that.

    If he could find a way to replicate the testing methods, he could then capture all the Internal Arts talent in the True Martial World, chip them, and then train them. At that point, he could even begin his conquest of quantum worlds and be a Quantum Lord.

    He set that aside for now and began working on the Void Speaker chant. This one was more direct as the clumps of spiritual power had long been generated when he reached 2000 points in his Intelligence.

    He simply gathered them into a gleaming spiritual core the same size as the three before it, then diligently filled it with space element power. This was far faster than his other magical method in terms of progression, though Dante was using a ''cheat'' method to do this.

    Soon, the core rippled with spatial power as it was perfected and lined up with the other three, a faint line of connection forming between them that seemed to enhance their power greatly.

    [Magical Powers: Void Speaker Chant (Level 5: Elite Wizard (5th Rank), 5%).]

    [Level 5: Elite Wizard (4th Rank)

    At the Elite Wizard level, spatial maniption evolves further. Elite Wizards can phase through objects and create temporary portals for instantaneous travel. Elemental spells can now be woven together forbination attacks, such as a ming tornado or an ice-infused lightning strike.]

    Dante immediately felt the difference between the previous realm and this one. From the 3rd to the 4th rank was one big power-up just as from the 6th to the 7th rank was such; this was in the notes of the meditation technique.

    However, reading it and feeling it were two different things.

    Dante got up and out of the Vitality Pool while cracking his neck in satisfaction. He received a report from his gship that everything was ready and he nodded his head as he returned to the Sris Horizon E7.

    "Sris AI, broadcast my words to the minds of all sapient beings around the Zero Gate using the auto-trante system," Dantemanded the AI with a calm expression and folded his arms behind his back.

    "Acknowledge, Master Dante. You can begin at any time," Sris AI responded immediately.

    Dante breathed lightly and began speaking to the void. "All species that situate themselves around the Zero Gate, greetings. My name is The God of Technology. Like my namesake, my technological prowess has surpassed any and every power in this universe, that I can assure you."

    The various meditating beings were startled awake and looked around rapidly to see who was speaking to them and if so, whether everyone else could hear it. Looking at the simr actions and expression of those near and far, they realized that it truly was someone reaching out to all of them at once.

    The very idea baffled many technologically inferior species because even the power that controlled the spots for the Mysterious Gate that also supplied them the necessary technology to survive here could not do this.

    "You are all meditating in front of an entity called the Zero Gate. Judging from your collective confusion and mental responses earlier, you do not even know the name of this gate, which means that none of you havee into contact with a high-dimensional being."

    There was a hint of disdain in Dante''s voice that added pressure to the minds of all those listening.

    "In light of what I will do next, I will give three free pieces of information to you all. This information is valueless to me but can start a crazy universal war for your various species."

    "Firstly, this Zero Gate leads to a unique space in which the method to acquire superpowers can be obtained."

    Immediately, the eyes of all the beings became bloodshot as they stared at the Mysteriousˇ­ no, the Zero Gate with greed.

    "Secondly, the energy you are absorbing is called Zero Energy, a byproduct? released from the gate that allows those with genuine natural-born as well as acquired superpowers to advance."

    Immediately, many froze as if this was a thunderous revtion that no one knew, which made Dante more convinced of his actions. His eyes sharpened, and he spoke thest fact with a slightly cold tone.

    "Thirdly, superpowers and this gate are only the beginning of the path into the true secrets of the universe as well as how to ascend to higher dimensions."

    There was a significant reaction among the aliens once more as they began to wonder what Dante meant by the higher dimensions, while many wondered if he was a higher-dimensional being himself.

    "Anyway, that''s enough. I only told you these things out of kindness. Now, all beings are to vacate the area within a million light-years in all directions around the Zero Gate in the next 7 days." Danteughed coldly as he said this.

    "Don''t worry, I don''t n to intimidate you with bluffs and words; I have my army to back me up. Why don''t you all take a look?" Dante finished as he forked his finger forward slightly.

    Immediately, all the species around trembled as they saw space shift, in which hundreds of powerful and threatening spaceships built forbat exited warp space one by one, until a giant behemoth that dwarfed the others appeared at the forefront, the gship of the armada itself.

    Dante teleported into the observation deck of the Ster Vanguard II and sat down in the captain''s chair. From his seat, he could see everything that was going on before him, from the perfect formation of his army to the endless fear on the faces of all species.

 Chapter 209 Ambitions And Plans

    ?

    Dante felt it at this moment. A certain feeling of dominance and power filled him as he looked down on hundreds of millions of beings that could not match his martial and military might head-on, so were only left with the option of cowering.

    This was the path he chose from the beginning, wanting to conquer. With his advantages, he could have chosen many paths both positive and negative.

    He could have been a business mogul on Earth - or in the universe - who slowly sold technology and raised the level of the species while forming a new countryter.

    He could have been a weapons manufacturer that produced and sold high-tech weaponry from the Eternal Universe and sparked wars across the globe - or universe - to make money off it.

    He could even have been a lone power who isted himself from world - and universal politics - only focusing on increasing his strength and perfecting his rtionship with Beatrice.

    But no, Dante had chosen the path of a conqueror, and he must see it through to the end. The good part was that his current satisfaction aligned with his preferences and emotions, so he was in a good mood.

    Dante''s ships released hundreds of android guards who were equipped with custom exosuits that had the ability to move in space, not to mention they had jet thrusters. As such, they easily organized themselves and approached each, pointing dark matter and psionic weapons at those meditating there.

    After all, even though Dante gave an eviction order, he had to consider the logistics of moving all these beings away. Just as well that he had so many ships, they could cart these fellows away piece by piece.

    He ignored the ships that got busy either capturing and escorting away those of the same species back to their homes as well as keeping some species that were unique to enhance his database.

    Dante led the Ster Vanguard II past all this and came right in front of the Zero Gate. The hulking mass of turbulent ck miasma seemed intimidating, but Dante''s entire body, from tip to toe, was trembling withfort.

    Dante covered himself with his vice admiral''s exosuit and teleported out of the observation deck, standing in the void of space while staring at the Zero Gate before him. Dante even reached a hand out to touch the ck mist that made up the gate, and he realized that it was a semi-tangible substance.

    Basically, you could feel that you were touching something, but you couldn''t actually grasp it or move it. When Dante touched it, he felt a reaction from some part of his soul that was not rted to his superpower, asking him if he wanted to enter.

    He quickly replied no and stepped back. What a joke, even Lara with multiple A-rank superpowers could not guarantee her life in the Zero Gate outside of the 30-day weakening period in December, much less him.

    Besides, the fruits only go ripe in December, which was exactly why the weakening happened. If he was going to enter now, it was just to go and fight without getting any back for his suffering.

    Dante nced at the Zero Gate once more and returned to his gship. He then had the Ster Vanguard II ce itself right in the middle of the Zero Gate''s area, and Dante gave the order to begin the biggest construction he had started yet.

    Build the space base!

    Dante had considered building space bases in every quadrant in the universe, but even the Eternal Universe didn''t do so, only relying on their quantumwork to control everything, as well as their fleets.

    Building-side bases was easypared to building space bases becauses had gravity and atmospheres. Not only did spaceck this, but the size of the base being built required the investment of more resources to control its gravity well, its stability, and its life support system unless only non-organics were meant to stay inside.

    For Dante, this base was his first stage in iming the Zero Gate and had to be able to define this area of space from the greedy ones who would want to sneak in. He knew many woulde, even those with special superpowers and such fellows could not be stopped with mere technology.

    Dante would have to deal with them personally, and that was just as well. He could use them as whetstones to prepare against hispetitors in the Eternal universe''s Zero Gate.

    Huh? What did Dante mean by this?

    Hahaha, well, it should be obvious.

    The ambitious young man nned to enter both gates in December and im all 20 fruits for himself!

    His Quantum Entanglement was practically built for exactly such a thing, and he could easily shift between both locations with his quantum markers. It would be easy to coordinate between both as long as his power reached the sufficient levels before the time came.

    With 20 real fruits in handˇ­ who knew how many superpowers Dante could obtain?

    Despite this, the young man controlled his excitement because it was not wise to count one''s eggs before they hatched. With a deep breath, Dante entered the cultivation room of the Ster Vanguard andy in an energy pool within, raising his Psionics and Bionics to the maximum, which increased his energy consumption.

    He had raised his physical methods and magical methods, but they weren''t that difficult to raise anyway. He could do them all in a short period of time with enough focus and the right resources.

    What he was more concerned with was the power of Quantum Entanglement and the various abilities he could get from that tree. He was now at the C level, and his abilities were already so broken, so imagine if he hit the B-level?

    Thinking like this, how could he waste his time with those methods? In the end, they were derivations of Quantum Entanglement, so the stronger the superpower itself, the stronger they would be.

    After reaching the C level, he could even take in one more quantum power system without any harm so he should have another ''slot'' if he reached the B level. With that in mind, Dante began absorbing ambient Zero Energy and entered his Soul Space.

    Within this space, he saw the familiar sights and settings. He rushed behind the gate and saw the glowing tree in the far distance as well as the tangled wires that led to it. He had only organized about 2% of it, but it was enough to send him to the C-Rank.

    Dante shrugged and continued sorting out the wires carefully rather thanprehending anything. It was clear that his fastest way to grow was to sort out the tangled mess beforemunicating with the tree personally.

    With his advanced stats and the supplication of continuous energy from the pool he was lying in, Dante was able to enter a zone of absolute dedication and focus. The good news was that he was making progress with the Zero Energy that was so potent since his ship was literally right in front of the gate itself.

    The bad news was threefold. Firstly, the energy was not as condensed and forceful as when he ate the virtual quantum fruits, so he needed more effort to replicate that level of speed and efficiency.

    Secondly, he was burning more energy having his stats at 20,000 than he was regenerating from passively absorbing from the energy pool. Unfortunately, while the Quantum Clone ability allowed him to split mind, it was external and not internal, so Dante could not release his Gluttonous Inferno fire at the same time as he sorted out the threads.

    Thirdly, his progress was too slow overall. Even with his stats buffed and constant energy, it would take him days to achieve what he did in seconds with the virtual fruits, making Dante understand the fundamental difference between them as well as how lucky he was.

    If he wanted to get that level of progression again, he would have to get a new set of 10 virtual fruits, and that was only possible if he entered the next 30-day mock exam challenge which would be himpeting with his ssmates.

    He still had some left from this previous session, namely the three of Gem/Light, Silence, and Time. Dante had already replicated each of them using Quantum Replication and all that was left was to test whether they could be given to others.

    However, what made his expression ugly was that they, unlike other quantum items, could only be replicated once. So he had the quantum version and the replicated version within his quantum depository at the moment.

    He had to be careful who he gave them to, and the candidates were his family and Beatrice. However, Dante was also worried because what if they were given quantum poisoning or something from eating it?

    Yes, Aisha had been okay when she used the Mutation Cores, but Dante had been perfectly willing to risk her life in testing that, but not for his family nor Beatrice.

 Chapter 210 Time Passes

    ?

    The risk was too great to bear for him. He would adopt a wait-and-see approach; if he gained the chance to select an ability at the B Rank and something like Quantum Bestowment or Quantum Healing came up, he would then give it to them.

    Like this, 25 days passed.

    (A/N: Rechecked the dates and found that the Monitoring Log 2 chapters ago was made up of erroneous dates, so it had to be rewritten. Please check it out if you are a stickler for detail.)

    Dante was finally awoken from his near-month-long seclusion. Today was the 15th of August, and it was time for the students of the virtual worlds toe out, and their progress tabted.

    After that was 7 days in the ck Land before another 30-day session. Dante was sure that many students had learned a lot during this run, even those who were eliminated early, and they couldn''t wait to go and merge their insights in the ck Land.

    Dante rose from the energy pool which was as sparkling and jittery as ever as the supply was constant and near infinite. Dante noticed that his skin was not wrinkly nor weird, which he attributed to his different constitutionpared to others.

    After stretching slightly, he tabted his progress towards the B Rank and was pleased to see that he had climbed 55% of the way using 25 days. That meant that he made around 0.0917% progress per hour, or just about 0.1%.

    This meant that he would need around 21 days to fill it up and breakthrough. That was fine with Dante since he would not participate with his real body in the ck Land cultivation for 7 days nor the mock exam against his peers for 30 days.

    His Quantum Clone was more than enough to handle such trivialities.

    Like, really bro, looking at Dante''s current SDI alone, he could easily bitch-p all his ssmates and the monsters in the virtual Zero Gate world.

    Rather than that, it was time to do what he had been postponing all this time, which was to consummate his rtionship with Beatrice. Not only that, while his quantum clone was handling trivial matters, he would enter the Magus World to deal with Jameson and then gather the reagents to resurrect his mother-inw.

    Dante was now confident enough in his power to make a move. He had the same intelligence as a 9th Rank mage and while he did not have as many spiritual cores nor spells of the same rank, he made up for it with something called Bionics and Psionics, which could make him break the power ceiling of their world with ease.

    First things first, Dante teleported to the observation deck and sat in the chair while taking a report from his AI about the progress of everything so far.

    In terms of Earth, everyone had settled down and epted their situation, actively working towards reproducing and fulfilling the various tasks of the Racial Advancement System to better their lives.

    In terms of the Milky Way Gxy, it was not even 0.000001% of the entire universe, but it had beenpletely subjugated by Dante''s troops during this period. There were currently over 5 billion resources, 400 million habitables that were possessed by species below level 1, and 100,000s with level 1 civilizations.

    Every in the Milky Way under his control had been established with a base. All deads and valueless pieces of rock had been obliterated to keep the gxy clean and with enough space for new developments.

    After they were like mosquitoes, they served no purpose. No gravity well, no resources, just masses of death that had outlived their lifespan.

    The quantumwork within the Milky Way had been established between all level 1 civilizations while those below that did not have the qualifications to ess such a thing.

    ording to Dante''s protocol, these lesser civilizations would be given an inferior version of the Racial Advancement System that would force them to work 200% harder for 50% of the rewardpared to what humans had.

    Not to mention that there was no welfare whatsoever. One could starkly say this was discrimination and nepotism, and that was exactly what it was. Too bad for non-human aliens, next time be born as a part of the human race and you''d get Dante''s favor.

    The budding quantumwork Dante established only featured basic social services and virtual hosting. So it had VR worlds and various messaging boards for the civilizations under him tomunicate and bond under his leadership.

    Just like humans, these level 1 civilizations were marveled by this level of development and quickly began to explore it. Currently, Dante''s Ai was working on the governance and financial system through his quantumwork, nning to mimic the Bank of the Eternity as well as the Etraverse Corp and the Prime Human Council in terms of structure.

    So a gctic currency was being calcted and created, as well as a gctic political structure. This would not be able to be done in seconds like on Earth because this involved zillions of beings and existences, so it required his powerful AIs to work nonstop all this while.

    However, a conclusion should be reached soon.

    Back to the report, the situation around the Zero Gate had stabilized. Despite it all, there had been some resistance from actual superpower wielders who felt that they could take Dante on, but their level of development and skill was subpar.

    With the database Dante''s armada had, they had the catalog of known superpowers and the ways they worked, so his android soldiers could quickly identify the powers as well as how to deal with them.

    Most of the species had been carted away except those Dante kept because they were unique. They were collected into various ships and kept in rtivefort, though they were undeniably captives.

    Among these were a species detected to be 89% simr to elves with extreme humanoid beauty, knife ears, and slender bodies, as well as one that was 91% simr to demons, with boiling blood, reddish pockmarked skin, and bat-like wings.

    They were all basically species simr to those in fantasy and mythology, and Dante''s AI inquired upon their history and home location in exchange for information and certain minor benefits.

    Not daring to disagree, they could only acquiesce and reveal what they knew in order to secure their lives. As for the meager benefits Dante offered, they took it silently as a constion for betraying their race and people.

    Of course, once this information was secured, ships were dispatched to the locations and the races subjugated. Though they were at different locations in the universe and not within the Milky Way as Dante nned, it was fine.

    These races were special to Dante and the humans of Earth, so they were to be protected and developed. Later when it was time for humans to connect with the universalwork, they would be a perfect entry point.

    Interestingly, in this time, the faction that provided equipment and seemed to control the slots behind the Zero Gate''s cknd in this universe had not shown up nor made a retaliation.

    This was something that puzzled the AI so it made an investigation into the entire system andwork here as well as theyout of the universe that had been developed so far. In doing so, it had found out many interesting things that made Dante''s eyes narrow.

    The information was taken from multiple different aliens and species, especially those who had superpowers or were closer to the center because they likely had bigger backings than the others.

    Most of Dante''s initial spections were true. Based on the information, there was not a single species that could be qualified to call itself a level 4 civilization, which meant that it had at least colonized its native gxy.

    At best, there was a level 3.5 civilization that was well known throughout the universe called the Cosmos Union. That''s right, this civilization was basically an oligarchy made up of the most powerful level 2 civilizations in the universe that chose to take control using economic power.

    The Cosmos Union monopolized everything tech-rted, supplying spaceships, spacesuits, and the like to all known civilizations in the universe across gxies. This monopoly was not because their technology was ahead, but because they simply did not allow people topete with them fairly.

    Given their modus operandi, they should have long jumped out of the crowd to rebuke and challenge Dante, then suppress him. However, their potent silence did not puzzle not only Dante''s AI after finding this out, but the very aliens who shared the information with it as well.

    Could it be that this powerful and arrogant merchant civilization had given up on the Zero Gate after seeing Dante''s armada? That wouldn''t be surprising seeing how potent and dangerous the civilization looked from over here.

 Chapter 211 Cosmos Union

    <h4>Chapter 211 Cosmos Union</h4>

    However, the Cosmos Union, despite their prestige in this universe, was nothing but a small force Dante could crush given his current power. Whether the union itself knew this or not, Dante did not know.

    What was more interesting about what he found out was finally the answer to how many superpowered beings existed in the universe and why everyone was sequestered near the Zero Gate like this.

    When Dante first absorbed the information, he was left stunned and thoroughly speechless for over 10 minutes. In truth, he should have also thought of it, but he had seen things from the perspective of the Eternal Universe and neglected that his universe was more than 8000 years behind in development and information.

    Essentially, the problem began from the fact that the denizens of this universe did not even understand what superpowers were and did not even call them ''superpowers.'' That name was obviously created by humanity in the Eternal Universe after they became rulers due to its resemnce to the type of abilities seen inics and movies.

    They called superpowers ''Divine Abilities,'' which made more sense since they were very randomly distributed among races and had nothing to do with biology, fate, or even power. They were simply bestowed upon those chosen by the gods above who controlled the universe.

    Even with the Cosmos Union''s domination of the ''civilized'' universe, superpower wielders were a distinguished ss of being and were immediately named as nobles by the Cosmos Union and given various benefits right away for ''free.''

    It was kind of like the Eternal Universe in this regard, which - then again - was something that ran through all sentient beings.

    Later the Zero Gate was discovered by a passing pirate ship, and its marvel was reported to the growing union who sent investigators. Soon, they incidentally discovered that those with superpowers could resonate with the gate and seemingly strengthen their abilities, which made the value of the gate soar.

    Suddenly, superpower wielders seemed on the verge of civil war to fight for ownership of the gate, but the Cosmos Union came in and broke them up.

    After having incorporated them into their society, they were much easier to control, and because everyone''s superpower was unanimously at the F rank, the current technology of the Cosmos Union posed a significant threat to most of them.

    Eventually, slots were decided for superpower wielders, and they eagerly began to spend their days squatting in front of the Zero Gate while absorbing Zero Energy. Naturally, the difference in quality and talents between superpower users was recognized, and a grading system that was not as urate as the Eternal Universe''s was created.

    This made things subtle because previously, all superpower wielders had the same level of status and importance, but with a gradinging in, the powers of some waned greatly while others soared due to their grade.

    There was a great upheaval in the ''noble'' society as many things shifted around and sses formed between even the nobles now. This went on for a few decades until one stupid rumor set everything ame.

    A child of a superpower user who apanied his parent to the Zero Gate as a plus one suddenly discovered that after absorbing Zero Energy, they had a superpower!

    This caused the entire universe to blow up with shock and excitement. Did that mean that if one absorbed this miraculous energy, one could unlock a superpower over time? It was no wonder those superpower users could be strong!

    Immediately, bloodshot eyes were directed at the Zero Gate, and the once-exclusive resource for the superpower users was now about to be contested by the entire universe. Threats and warnings didn''t work, as the sheer numbers bore down on them; superpower users realized just how fragile their powers were in front of so many.

    As such, they could only shrink their necks and acquiesce, opening up slots for the public. The Cosmos Union, a power that was based onmercial control, did not pass up this chance to make the slots even more valuable by attaching a steep price tag.

    With so many numbers, the previous unity fell as some were rich enough to afford and broke off from the poor who still wanted to fight. This caused the poorer ones to lose their power and have to ept the system in the end.

    This system had continued on until now, when Dante forcefully barged in and imed the Zero Gate for himself using martial force.

    What left Dante thoroughly speechless was the fact that - and you probably guessed it - there was no such nonsense as absorbing Zero Energy to gain superpowers. It was simply the case that the people who did ''luck out'' simply did not know they had superpowers as they never manifested or they had not yet awakened them, and their awakening was triggered by Zero Energy.

    So the millions of beings he saw here were just inted numbers; not even 200 of them truly had superpowers. This universe was nowhere near developed as the Eternal Universe, and only those who naturally awoke their superpowers and recognized them were registered.

    As Dante had already ascertained from the reaction of the various beings when he released ''obvious'' information about the fruits, none in this universe actually knew you could enter the Zero Gate!!

    Actually, it was not that no one knew, but those who entered had nevere out. After all, they were not prepared for what was on the other side, and without going in during December, they were likely ughtered and their bones not even left behind.

    So to others, it was simply like a ck hole of death where anyone who entered would die. Ironically, the Eternal Universe went through a period of simr ignorance, but you already knew how humanity was, wanting to ''prate'' everything they saw.

    When humanity became the rulers of the Eternal Universe, they set up a research institute on the gate thatter grew to be the academy today, and many alien lives were tossed in to test various things in the name of progress.

    It was then that they found about the fruits and all that. However, this universe was still in the ignorance phase, so they were using this clumsy and barbaric method to unearth their superpower users.

    Well, now that Dante had released that information, he could achieve the reason why he spread it in the first ce; as bait.

    Well, you only had to think of it to realize it. The universe was a big ce, far wider than any mind could reasonablyprehend. The sheer number of powers and species that existed within did not have a number that could be written down or spoken.

    It took humanity over 8000 years to conquer more than 40% of their universe in the Eternal Universe. Even now, the Eternal Universe was constantly discovering news, lifeforms, and civilizations in different areas, which was why there was an existence like The Pioneer World in the Eternal Academy''s database which detailed how to find and explore news.

    Dante simply did not have that time. As such, rather than wait and find everybody one by one, it was better to release irresistible bait and let them alle to him at once so he could decimate and then subdue them.

    The bait of the fruits was so potent that it formed the basis of society in the Eternal Universe despite their development, so how much more in this universe where the concept was not known before today?

    The only way to get those fruits was going through Dante, who had thoroughly secured and monopolized the gate, so how could the other factions tolerate this? While there was a risk in fighting Dante due to his strength, such logic never stopped sentient beings from doing crazy? things before.

    This left Dante amused, and he was not worried. As the space base had long beenpleted and be operational, it meant that he would have an endless supply of troops right here at the frontline to deal with allers.

    Currently, in terms of energy, the species of the universe had only mastered controble fusion at best. Compared to Dante, who could close his eyes and pick between psionics, dark matter, anti-matter, and quantum diffusion - among others - they werecking in means and power.

    Dante closed the report and showed that he was up to date. He only left some basic instructions behind and teleported to the Eternal Universe. He was in constant connection with his quantum clone that was now leaving the virtual world to handle the aftermath of the first mock exam.

    However, he - Dante - was going into the Magus World to deal with the resurrection resource. Jameson was no longer needed because it would take such a person too long to find the information Dante needed, so he nned to exert influence and power in order to get it.

    As such, he directly quantum teleported into the Magus World. After all, he did not want to attach his virtual identity to his current activities in the least. His next actions were going to be explosive after all.

 Chapter 212 Perfect Acquisition

    <h4>Chapter 212 Perfect Acquisition</h4>

    Within the Magus World, Dante felt the difference in perception brought by his increased Quantum Entanglement. Previously, if his intrusion caused a ssh that made others detect him, now it was like a small drop of water striking a cidke.

    Dante had appeared outside Arcanum Haven, one of the top cities of the entire Magus World because he did not want to fight any 9th rank Mages who were curious about his arrival.

    Dante first received the transmission from his subordinate chip and found where Jameson was located. He then cast a long-range spatial teleportation spell, which was the 3rd Rank Astral Gateway.

    It allowed Dante to cover about 19% of the distance, so he cast 5 more and was only about 5 kilometers away from Jameson''s position. The young man was currently hiding in a cave while absorbing Astral Energy, converting it into pure spiritual essence.

    Due to deception by the subordinate chip, his ''system'', he was convinced to ''fortify his foundation'' by umting spiritual essence without condensing it into a core to break through. After all, if he broke through to the next realm, he would detect his ''special talent'' in his brain as well as the chip which was his ''system''.

    Who knew what he would do then?

    In truth, it wasn''t wrong to do what the subordinate chip said. It was pretty much what Dante did that granted him power above his peers, assuming he waspeting using only his Magus power system, and it was alsomon sense among mages.

    The reason why they didn''t do it was that no one had the luxury of the Quantum Aetherium Conduit which granted unlimited absorption of astral energy nor did they have Dante''s growth abilities through his various powers and quantum worlds.

    Dante then appeared in the same cave as Jameson, but his eyes were not focused on the young man, rather on the space behind him.

    Jameson, rather surprisingly, opened his eyes and smiled at Dante as if he had sensed him long ago. "So, the mastermind is finally here."

    Dante nced behind Jameson as a pocket dimension opened up to reveal an old man with a ck goatee, flowing silver hair that reached his shoulders, and pencil-thin eyebrows hanging over narrow purple eyes.

    He wore a casual ck vest over a tailored, purple long-sleeved shirt, ck pants, and suede-like ck shoes. His hands were hidden by tight and stylish ck gloves with esoteric runes at the back.

    The moment he appeared, the very air around him seemed to warp as he nced at Dante with coldness that was filled with slight wariness.

    "Only 4 Spiritual Cores? But you have the raw spiritual power of the 9th Rank. What a monster." The goatee man muttered to himself in a voice that was simr to Kirei Kotomine.

    Dante remained calm, but he was confused. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

    The goatee man smiled and bowed elegantly. "My name is Master Volud, and I am the Head Teacher of the Underworld Magisters of Arcanum Haven."

    Dante finally understood. "Ah, you summoned Jameson after you found that his talent and progress had skyrocketed, then scanned his body and found the imnts?"

    Master Volud pped his hands with appreciation. "That''s right. His family is tightly bound to the Underworld Magisters, and he himself was an apprentice of ours known for his poor talent."

    Master Volud folded his arms behind his back. "Then one day, I sensed a strong flow of astral energy congregating somewhere in our territory and snuck over to inspect. There I found thisd sneakily trying to break through to the 2nd Rank, aware of themotion he might cause."

    "I was shocked for I had never seen such terrifying absorption ability that was natural, not requiring one to have a meditation technique first. If it was something that could be replicated, any factions could produce 9th Rank mages within decades and even dominate the entire world!"

    "Immediately, I had thed confess everything to me, but it was confusing. After checking his body, I found the two strange mechanical imnts. It was difficult enough for me to use my 9th rank mental prowess to suppress the strange waves the imnt emitted and rewrite it."

    "I could not trace it to its source, the best I could do was hide my discovery as well as my involvement and hope that you would one day appear for whatever reason." Master Volud concluded with a proud smile.

    Ehhˇ­

    "How are you sure I am the one? Maybe I am an assassin sent by the Celestial Arcanists to take out your genius apprentice before he reaches the 9th Rank?" Dante pointed out.

    Master Voludughed. "I would have not revealed myself so easily were it not for the fact that I detected a surge of waves leaving from the imnt to the source, which was likely a way for you to ascertain young Jameson''s location. Then, not even 2 minutester, you appear in a very targeted manner."

    Hoh?

    "That''s pretty good overall, Master Volud. Since you decided to talk this much, you must have something to say. Let''s hear it for the sake of civility." Dante stated as he shook his head.

    "There''s no need for any violence. At our level of power, a single move from us can shake the entire world and cause countless eyes to appear on us. What I want is to negotiate a trade with you." Master Volud proposed with a confident smile.

    "Oh? Do you have something I want that could possibly match the value of the imnt?" Dante asked with some interest.

    "Of course, I wouldn''t dare appear before you and ruin my element of surprise if I didn''t have something that could convince you." Master Volud pointed out with a shrug.

    Dante wanted to point out that Master Volud was obviously not a space element mage as his pocket dimension had been pretty clumsy and noticeable, but there was no need to fall out over dick measuring.

    "And that is?" Dante asked patiently.

    "Of course, what you set Jameson out to search. You may not know this, but the Underworld Magisters are a faction that mainly practices death arts and are strongly attuned to the death element."

    "In order to get closer to death, we must walk the line at which life ends and death begins without fullymitting. This not only allows us to attain a form of immortality and resurrection, but we also produce unique resources of those natures that no one else can get."

    Master Volud saw Dante was losing interest andughed. "Don''t worry, I am not here to give you undead resurrection resource or means, given that you specified for a Nirvana Fire of a Phoenix. It''s clear that you want to bring back a person not only in perfect physical, mental, and spiritual form, but you also want them to benefit from the nirvana and ascend higher."

    "Someone with such high tastes would not settle for less, so Ie to you with the very item you seek." Master Volud stated calmly as he took out a small porcin bottle.

    "This is the Nirvana Fire of a True Phoenix, something we acquired at the millennial auction for 9th Rank Mages by trading a huge chunk of our special undead resurrection resource. That person said they needed to mass revive a lot of people and this? me can unfortunately only revive one person."

    Master Volud shook the bottle yfully and nced at Dante. "So since we had the means, I decided toˇ­ uhhhˇ­"

    Immediately, Master Volud found himself staring into bright golden eyes that shone with a resplendent light, at least to him. The moment he had taken out the bottle and Dante had confirmed it was actually legit Nirvana Fire of a Phoenix, he switched on his Psionics to the max and raised his Intelligence to 20,000, more than nine times that of Master Volud.

    All that was left was for the man to look, which he inevitably did, and he fell into Dante''s trap. In Master Volud''s eyes, Dante had tried to attack him out of greed, but Master Volud being the powerhouse he was, easily killed Dante after torturing him.

    Unfortunately for Master Volud, Dante refused to release the truth about the ''imnt'' and died. Unfortunately, in the duration of the battle, Jameson had been killed in the aftershocks, and the bottle containing the fire was broken, allowing the near-sentient fire to escape.

    This caused Master Volud endless grief as he cursed Dante for being a brute that didn''t know how to treasure a gentleman''s deal. Even though he naturally nned to dupe Dante of the Quantum Aetherium Conduit, both sides would be alive after, just not on speaking terms.

    In reality, Dante simply took the bottle from Master Volud''s grasp and ced it carefully into his quantum depository. After that, he walked over to the stunned Jameson who didn''t understand why Master Volud was standing there with apletely nk expression.

    Dante grabbed him by the cor and waved a hand, distorting spacetime here and preventing anyone from rewinding time to see the events that happened here in case Master Volud doubted his memories and wanted to crosscheck.

    Dante then tossed Jameson into a distant corner of his quantum depository to die by quantum poisoning and then left the Magus World through a quantum portal, leaving the slowly waking up Master Volud whose memories had been ''patched''.

 Chapter 213 Is Sex With A Clone NTR?

    Chapter 213 Is Sex With A Clone NTR?

    Meanwhile, Dante''s clone exited the Zero Gate World after the timer ran out, using the official method of returning to a seat point and passing through a gate. Apparently, once they were in the real Zero Gate, they would have to do the same.

    Once he came out, he materialized from seeming nothing in the pod that Dante had been in within the Inferno Battleship. After all, the quantum clone could exist in both reality and quantum worlds since it was generated by the superpower and attached to quantum markers.

    When the clone exited the pod, he saw Beatrice outside who was sizing him up curiously. Before he could even say hi, a deluge of outrageous words came from her mouth.

    "So, will this clone ever be strong enough? If so, I think we can try our own homemade threesome one day in the future without having to use a third person and make it infidelity," Beatrice asked with folded arms.

    Dante''s clone was left speechless and shook his head. "Who knows, maybe. If the timees and you''re still interested, we can try. This clone is a body with my mind so maybe."

    Beatrice raised an eyebrow. "You actually agreed? I expected you to be angry and chastise me."

    "Why would I?" Dante asked with puzzlement.

    "To be honest, I was reading some romance novels a while back and the male protagonist got his female love interest to agree to him using a clone spawned by his technique to double up on her," Beatrice exined with a smile.

    "But whew, thements. The male readers were furious and called it NTR, that the male lead had cucked himself with his clone. I thought you''d feel the same," Beatrice concluded with a shrug.

    Dante smiled. "Oh? What about you? What did you think about the male protagonist''s choice as well as the response to it? Do you agree or disagree?"

    "Uhˇ­ well, I did think it was a bit weird, but it was probably the best way to get that kind of experience without risking their rtionship. Also, if they both were happy, who cares about the semantics of whether it is cuckolding or self-sex?" Beatrice furrowed her brows and responded.

    "And as for the responseˇ­ I''ll put it nicely and say I have never felt that the male sex was more repulsive than in that moment," Beatrice''s voice became slightly cold.

    "Haha, I see. Well, as a man myself, I''ll exin it to you. It depends mostly on the type of clone in question. There are three different types of clones in this context, and they decide how men will view their actions in each case."

    "The first is the most typical kind: two bodies, split minds. The main body splits its soul or mind into the sub-body, and it achieves synchronicity to some extent. The issue here is that the sub-body, while split from the main mind, is still semi-autonomous and can make his own decisions independently of the main body."

    "Of course, the sub-body''s decisions are based on the interests and trends of the main body, or at least the person who split his mind. The experiences the sub-body feels may or may not be returned to the main body and can be unique experiences for the sub-body."

    "The second is the rarest type: two bodies, two minds. The main body either creates or acquires a clone of itself with a separate mind altogether. It''s their own body, and they could either im it back or connect to it, but the minds inside are not necessarily the same in terms of origin."

    "One example is Time Remnants generated by speedsters, which are like alternate timeline versions of yourself. It''s you for all intents and purposes, but your minds are not linked, and you could both do whatever you wanted."

    "As for the third, it''s simr to my current situation: two bodies, one mind. It''s a situation where there can be a main body and a sub-body, but the exact same mind runs them without splitting itself."

    "So at all times, any words I say, any decision I make, is visible to my main body regardless of wherever he is. If I have sex with you right now, he would feel the exact same sensations I do because it''s literally the same mind."

    Dante cricked his neck and began to dress up since he was naked as a clone. "For example one, it''s a split. Some may be able to ept it if they view it that the split minds came from the same source since they can connect, while some cannot ept it because it''s still independent."

    "For example two, no sensible man should ept it. I may sound unreasonable to you saying this, but if the situation in the novel was like this, then the male readers were right to be angry."

    "For example three, it''s mostly eptable in my opinion. It''s no different from having virtual sex with your partner in a VR or quantum world. It''s different bodies but the same exact minds, so you wouldn''t call that cheating, would you?" Dante concluded as he wore a ck, long-sleeved cardigan and thigh-length camo shorts with big pockets.

    "Huh? Well, I guess that makes sense. As for the book I think it was more like example one, two bodies split minds. However, his clone usually lived inside his body and only came out to help him fight," Beatrice was distracted by watching Dante dress, and her fingers twitched.

    "Then it depends on the viewer''s own understanding. Anyway, I need to head to the school and listen to them overreact over my performance and then waste 7 days in the ck Land," Dante noticed her look and immediately ran by teleporting.

    Beatrice took a step forward when Dante teleported away, making her face change to one of regret and unhappiness. "Ah! I hesitated for too long, and he ran! If I could have captured him and locked him up, I could have an endless supply of the ''good stuff''!"

    Meanwhile, Dante''s clone appeared in his residence and sat down on the couch calmly. Naturally, in time, a summons was made to all students toe to the ck Land area for the evaluation and next cultivation session.

    "Well, here we go," Dante muttered as he stood up and walked out of his residence.

    He noticed that very few of his ssmates came out of their respective rooms, and he was not surprised because many also chose to host their bodies in safe ces. Even though the school was nominally safe, the unique batch of students was usually under a thin veil of danger each time because one less student was one less contestant in the ring for each faction.

    Let''s not even talk about Dante; the past few months have been nonstop meetings by the higher-ups of each faction and n on how to deal with him once and for all effectively. They had even put their best quantum AI to calcte feasible ns on how to do so, so you could tell how wild they were.

    Dante walked into his teleporter and beamed to the room where they were usually received by their teachers. When he appeared, he immediately felt a hand on his shoulder and almost instinctively released a gout of hellfire to burn the person until he realized it was Xue Bing through his spirit sense.

    Xue Bing felt a sense of fatal danger and let go of Dante like she had been bitten by a snake and then nced at him with some fear. As for Dante, he turned and frowned at her.

    "You shouldn''t do that. I have an auto-defense mechanism that could hurt you."

    Xue Bing nodded. "It won''t happen again."

    Their little episode was noticed by the teachers but not the students. Everyone was curious to hear how their evaluation would be as well as hearing the evaluation of their fellow ssmates.

    "Alright, without further ado, the Central Server will release the rankings and key highlights of your session to your AI chips. Look through them and realize where you stand if you were to enter the Zero Gate today," Xue Bing recovered her usual ''friendly'' smile.

    Dante was curious to see the list and nced at Humphrey as well as Slessor who were also staring at him. Dante could see the light ofpetitiveness and unwillingness to give up in their eyes, which left him amused.

    They were way out of their league with this one. Once Dante''s main body reached the B Rank - since the quantum clone body could not increase its powers at all - putting aside the new quantum abilities, the strength of his previous abilities would grow exponentially.

    Not to mention he could also take on a new power system into his body. If all of this urred before the time the Zero Gate opened, these students would have a tough time surviving Dante''s domination, much lesspete with him.

 Chapter 214 Dantes Results Revealed

    Chapter 214 Dante''s Results Revealed

    The results screen came up, and everyone focused on it.

    [Rankings of Performance among the Unique Batch of 10,998;

    Student Name || Amount of Monsters Killed || Amount of Fruits imed || Overall Rating

    1. Dante || 253 || 10/10 || EX+++

    2. Humphrey Lottin || 67 || 3/10 || SSS

    3. Slessor McKailen || 62 || 3/10 || SSS

    4. Zara''el Ziran || 54 || 2/10 || SS

    5. Grak''tar Thal || 52 || 2/10 || SS

    6. Fre Rovik || 50 || 2/10 || SS

    7. Kaelith D''vorin || 48 || 2/10 || S

    8. Ethan ckwood || 44 || 1/10 || A

    9. Veshara Xyron || 41 || 1/10 || A

    10. Zorin Darqan || 39 || 1/10 || A

    11. Nni Fireheart || 36 || 1/10 || A

    12. Xalen Vortis || 35 || 1/10 || A

    13. Taryn Smith || 32 || 1/10 || A

    14. Lirael Windrider || 29 || 1/10 || B

    15. Gornak Groth || 28 || 0/10 || B

    16. Azura Nightshade || 26 || 0/10 || B

    17. Sarah Miller || 25 || 0/10 || B

    18. Mark Johnson || 23 || 0/10 || B

    19. Kharik zefist || 22 || 0/10 || B

    20. Syrenia Moonshadow || 20 || 0/10 || C

    21. Rikar Ironfist || 18 || 0/10 || C

    22. Thalia Sunstrike || 16 || 0/10 || C

    23. Draegar Stormreaver || 15 || 0/10 || C

    24. Zephyr Nightstalker || 14 || 0/10 || C

    25. Kaldria Frostwing || 13 || 0/10 || C

    26. Rygar meheart || 12 || 0/10 || C

    27. Maelis Voidbringer || 11 || 0/10 || C

    28. Louisa Nicides || 10 || 0/10 || C.]

    When the base results were announced, everyone first checked who would be first, even though they suspected it. When they saw the name ''Dante'' at the top, many felt bitter and thought that this was so.

    However, when they saw his actual results, their expressions changed tremendously. The pupils of the teachers dted and narrowed rapidly, their hearts thumping like unrestrained vehicles while the students were simply nk, wondering if this was a dream.

    As for Dante, he was wondering something else. He wondered if the central server was aware of his ''cheating,'' but then ruled it out. It was impossible to detect the abilities of the Quantum Entanglement superpower; otherwise, the Central Server wouldn''t have been so confused about his ranking in the first ce.

    Meanwhile, the others were still digesting what they were seeing, and naturally, they found it hard to grasp. After all, the implications were too severe to gloss over.

    Putting aside the number of monsters Dante had killed in the end, just the fact that he imed ten fruits meant that he could likely replicate this feat within the actual Zero Gate!

    This was exactly the biggest fear of the fellow students and the factions behind them!

    For the factions, they feared that for 5 consecutive years, Dante would be a student, and all the fruits would be funneled away into the hands of the Portinari family, growing their power exponentially.

    The ones who feared this the most were the powers that schemed against Portia Portinari, Beatrice''s mother. They had already paid an extremely steep price to kill her back then, and they still had not recovered from it.

    If the n were to regain strength and investigate thoroughly, they would be at the risk of annihtion! Thinking of this, they became restless and began to even vaguely pressure the Portinari n before the Zero Gate opened.

    As for the students, what they feared the most was not failing their factions, but that Dante was the ruthless type who would kill anyone he encountered using the excuse of no one being able to see or record what happens in the Zero Gate.

    It was simr to those secret realm arcs in eastern fantasy where everyone killed everyone because no one would know, so those who were weaker always dreaded the stronger ones.

    Seeing his SDI 30 days ago made them feel like even though he had such crazy strength, it might not trante to much on the ground, but these results wiped away such flimsy hopes. Now, they understood that their mission had changed from ''plunder'' to ''survive.''

    Of course, most of them understood this. Those in the top 7 who had S- and above ratings did not ept this and made ns in their hearts. They believed in their strengths and talents, fully believing that even if they met Dante, they could put up a fight.

    Whatever the case, the room was silent until the Central Server released the highlights. Usually, it would cut snippets of the achievements or disgraces of the students from their 30-day run to let the others learn from it.

    The first three were all from Dante alone. The first one showed him confronting an army of giant termites with an earth-rted superpower. Seeing the termites adeptly controlling the earth, even the teachers felt a chill.

    Facing such monsters, the students calcted if they would be able to survive, and most came up with a simple answer: Death! They might not even have the chance to run, as running was a luxury for stronger ones like Humphrey and Slessor to enjoy.

    As for the teachers, they saw themselves killing one or two while fleeing shabbily with injuries. Seeing Dante standing before the monsters, they almost forgot that the man himself was standing beside them and felt that he was going to be killed.

    So you could imagine the sheer surprise they felt when Dante simply expunged a wave of his ckish-red hellfire to cover some of the giant termites. That surprise turned to fear when they saw that the other termites, who were not even close to the ones who burned, suddenly spat ckish-red fire from their eyes and fell down.

    The students could not even fathom what happened, but their faces became pale as a sheet. Dante killed one, and then the others died? Did that mean that if he killed one student, he could kill all others in such a way?

    As for the teachers, they were shocked at first, but they quickly identified the secret. The fire that Dante released had the ability to jump across mental connections, since that was the main feature of this type of monster.

    After all, what burned specifically were their brains, not any other part of their bodies, so a knowledgeable and experienced hand could tell. However, this ability still left the teachers feeling cold because it meant that clones were useless against Dante.

    If he killed your clone instead of your main body, it didn''t mean you were safe since the fire would trace the connection between clone and main body to cook the brain of the main body into ash.

    The second highlight from Dante showed him when he confronted the nine beasts. The students were baffled by this one as Dante simply looked at the 9 monsters that were staring at him with fear, wariness, and hostility at first that changed to affection.

    Then the nine began to fight each other desperately while Dante freely plucked the fruit and walked away, leaving them to kill each other. This left the students stupefied and tongue-tied, while the teacher''s expression became severe.

    This time, they assessed that Dante must have some beast affinity-type ability or power. Of course, the idea that Dante could perform such powerful illusions did not ur to them because that was too overpowered and frankly, too terrifying.

    Such a thing could only exist in fiction or virtual reality and definitely could not exist in realityˇ­ unless one had the support of a superpower with a cosmic tree at the back.

    But they didn''t know that, now did they?

    The third highlight showed Dante ughtering the monsters near every tree using just his blood Qi and halberd, which gave the students a deep fright. Seeing his raw power put on disy, easily dominating monsters that they would have to tread carefully around, it finally hit home for the top seven.

    They would have to create a wide berth around Dante! Even Humphrey and Slessor, with a huge number of kills, only won one-on-one fights or participated in battle royales after everyone had fought until they were greatly injured.

    Then, they would pick them off, fighting and retreating the entire time. They never fought a battle where they just decimated their foes while clearly testing their skills like Dante. It didn''t matter which superpower the monsters had and threw at him; he easily resolved them in time using various inexplicable means.

    After seeing the third highlight, no one bothered to watch the others from Humphrey or Slessor, not even they themselves. Everyone just turned their focus to the cid Dante with iprehension in their eyes.

    Was this guy really not a higher-dimensional creature disguising himself as a pure human just to mess with us?

    Dante coughed lightly to remind everyone why they were here, and Xue Bing took the cue as she shook her head slowly.

    "Right, now that the first session is done, you all probably have some insights into your superpower in terms of how to use it and how to grow it, so into the ck Land you go."

    "Also, take note that your position in the ss is now decided by your most recent score in the virtual trials," Xue Bing added as she led them to their various cabins.

 Chapter 215 Its Time 1

    Chapter 215 It''s Time 1

    Well, there was not much to say after this. Dante''s quantum clone was red at with fear and hatred, the rest of his fellow students filled with trepidation for their future while the teachers were gloomy, wishing they could strike him down now.

    If not for the threat of the headmistress, the presence of meddlesome bitch Xue Bing and Dante''s own strength, they would have long smashed him into paste!

    In the end, they could only escort him into the cknd unwillingly, but this was where the point of interest ended. After all, like azy student who was unwilling, Dante could not ''focus'' on his ''studies'', rather aimlessly staring at the sky while pretending to ''learn''.

    What was more interesting was the situation of his main body which had appeared in the Inferno Battleship. He appeared in the observation deck and nced at Beatrice who was currently watching a video of some people fighting on the streets of some urban city on some random.

    It was naturally a catfight between two scantily d women with heavy makeup, and not one moved to break them up, rather recording the scenes where they had wardrobe idents repeatedly with glee.

    Beatrice herself seemed amused until Dante came. Her eyes lit up and she switched off the video, before coiling her legs on the couch seductively.

    "Well, well, my busy loverboy has finally found time for me." She teased with a smile.

    "Haha, me, busy? I am the freest man in the world actually." Dante retorted with a grin.

    Beatrice thought about it and agreed. Everything Dante did was of his own interest and benefit without someone or something forcing him. If he wanted to turn into a cker and lie in bed with her 24/7, he could easily do that right now.

    However, it was precisely because he was so ambitious and driven that Beatrice found him irresistible. To her, Dante was like a vortex that sucked her in as it moved forward with a single-minded purpose.

    Of course, how could the mighty Beatrice admit this easily?

    "Hmph, sophistry!" She snorted and folded her arms.

    Dante smiled cunningly. "To recognize the sophistry means that you recognize the philosophy."

    Beatrice was left speechless.

    Dante suddenly stepped forward and his smile disappeared as he became slightly domineering. "But that is not why I came here today. I came here, Beatrice, to let you know that it is time."

    Beatrice was stunned for a short while before she clued in. Immediately her lips trembled and she asked shakily. "I-Its time? You''ve reached 2000 in all fields?"

    Dante smiled and showed his SDI to her. After confirming it, Beatrice seemed shocked, but logically she shouldn''t be as reaching this point was inevitable for Dante given how hard he had worked.

    But that was life. Previously, Beatrice had been looking forward to this day in her dreams and even threw herself into ''work'' often to alleviate her craving for it. However, now that the moment hade, she was scared and extremely nervous instead.

    Dante could see this and understood that it was the first-night fear that most virgin women had. They usually wanted nothing more than to experience the key moment with their partner and pass this biological hurdle, but they also feared the process due to the constant exaggeration of the pain.

    Luckily for Dante, not only was Beatrice different from other women in that she was mentally stronger, but he himself was not an inexperienced fellow who did not know what to do.

    As such, he moved to sit beside Beatrice with a gentle smile and stroked her hair, bringing her into his embrace. Beatrice seemed to be worried but still leaned into Dante''s arms. Feeling his now wider and thicker arms enveloping her, she felt much better and more conscious of her partner.

    This consciousness inevitably came with a slight bit of arousal as she slowly became restless the more she rxed and the more she felt Dante''s body around her. At this time, Dante''s hands began to be mischievous as they reached for ces they should not, making Beatrice twitch.

    Dante slid his hands down her shoulders and deliberately avoided her erogenous zones, rather rubbing every other part of her soft and smooth flesh. Her arms, her sides, her stomach, her back, her thighs, her calves.

    Dante spared no location as he moved his hands over them sometimes slowly and sometimes fast. When he reached the areas close to her erogenous zones, he would deliberately go close but avoid them in the end and focus on other normal areas.

    This seemed to drive Beatrice crazy as she became ufortable, secretly wishing for Dante to touch those spots and deliver her pleasure, but being too embarrassed to say it out loud.

    Dante suddenly stopped and Beatrice turned her head towards him in order to ask why only for her mouth to be plugged with his own in a sudden, yet gentle kiss. Immediately, all thought seemed to leave Beatrice''s mind as she was drawn into this passionate show of affection by her partner.

    Dante''s hands began to work again shortly into the kiss, still avoiding the key spots while teasing everywhere else. Beatrice''s breathing became heavy and Dante could feel her growing arousal through her shortened breath and increasingly significant twitching when he avoided her special ces.

    For Dante, it was about time. He slowly withdrew his hands and brought them back onto Beatrice''s body, but this time directly targeting her erogenous areas. His first target was naturally the fount of wonder and attraction for men, herrge yet perky breasts.

    Feeling then through her military spandex, Dante had to admit that there was an extra allure to touching through clothes. However, he immediately cut this feeling short by undressing Beatrice slowly.

    Her attire was not nanotech but just cloth. No nanotechnology could protect Beatrice better than her skin. As such, Dante had an easy time rendering her half-naked, leaving only her bra and panties.

    His hands immediately went back to gripping her soft breasts and kneading them, feeling the fullness of their shape as the surprising firmness despite their sticity.

    Unlike most women with big breasts, Beatrice''s were more connected to her shoulder and back muscles because of her tyrannical strength, which was why her breasts could stand like that without causing her back pains.

    To be honest, one should never wish torpedo tits on any woman, because it meant that unless she had something to help her bnce it, she was going through it every night when she was out of sight.

    After feeling the form, it was time to focus on the point. Dante''s fingers circled her nipples and teased them, going around her rtively small aureole. Her reaction to this was to grip his hand tightly, which showed just how effective this casual move was.

    But Beatrice was joking if she thought that this was the limit. Dante immediatelynded on her nipples and began spreading his fingers around them. Beatrice gasped and pulled back from their kiss, her eyes watery and her breathing slightly misty.

    The usually yful and sadistic woman was like putty in Dante''s hands, free for him to mold as he pleased. This kind of perverse realization filled him with a certain excitement that could not be described.

    He took her bra awaypletely and ced his mouth on her right breast while still gripping her left, beginning to suck deeply. In doing this, he pushed Beatrice down on the couch with her back on the soft seat.

    His free hand trickled down her body slowly, drawing lines on her stomach, navel, lower abdomen and finally tickling the entrance of her canal. The moment Dante rubbed that spot, Beatrice twitched strongly and tried to mp her legs, but Dante did not let up.

    In the end, she could only reluctantly give up with helpless moans as Dante fiercely rubbed her clitoris in particr, pinching and pulling it through her panties using the index and middle fingers.

    Beatrice arched her back with a look of panic on her face as the stimtion was too strong, but Dante was not going to let up. He only intensified his actions the more Beatrice''s reactions grew more and more exaggerated until he could feel her entire body shudder like a vibrating phone.

    Beatrice helplesslyy on the bed for about a minute or two, twitching lightly as she opened and closed her legs repeatedly. Dante watched triumphantly from the side with a look of satisfaction on his face.

    When Beatrice finally rxed and began panting to catch her breath, he slowly undressed and revealed his muscr body that was beyond merely ''toned'' due to his great increase in body stats.

    Not to mention, positioned right beside Beatrice''s face due to her position on the cough was his rod which was throbbing from arousal. After all, forey with your girl until she came was enough to get even a partial asexual going, much less a healthy young man like Dante.

 Chapter 216 Its Time 2

    Chapter 216 It''s Time 2

    Dante picked her up from the couch and smiled as he used his spatial magic to teleport them into his bedroom. He gently ced her on the bed and marveled at her exquisite and wless body before him once more.

    Dante was certain that no matter how many years passed, he would never get tired of looking at Beatrice and her perfect body.

    Breasts that were so full as inviting as if milk and honey would flow from them, down to a tight abdomen that had a faint outline of abs while retaining its supple nature.

    Thighs that were thick enough to justify her extremely rotund ass that no man could hold in his two hands fully. Yet her two feet were so small, dainty, and neat that they felt cute.

    Sexy, beautiful, perfect, cute. Passing your eyes over Beatrice from top to bottom, these thoughts would pass through your head.

    And thisˇ­ all of this, belonged solely to Dante!

    The young man couldn''t help but take in a deep breath and shed a tear while looking upwards, thanking the Gods for this good meal. His actions naturally left Beatrice speechless and amused.

    Before she couldment, Dante''s mood switched up to one of a predatory nature, making her ovaries shiver. He slowly mbered on the bed with his erect rod and looked down on her from the position of her lower body.

    Seeing that piece of meat that was about to connect them together, Beatrice felt both desire, fear, and anticipation. The concoction of emotions caused her hormones to surge and her body responded by releasing more juices from her canal.

    "I''ve been waiting for this moment for a long time Beatrice. After today, no one can ever im that you are not my partner for this life and the next. You are the perfection I seek and nothing else can rece that." Dante expressed his heartfelt feelings at this time because he knew that he might not open up as easilyter on.

    Beatrice was deeply moved. "From the moment I met you, I felt a connection to you right away. I knew that it could be no one other than you, but I was also scared that you wouldn''t feel the same way."

    Dante smiled and activated his Bionics to the max, raising all his physical stats to 20,000 points. He leaned in and ced the tip of his penis against the entrance of Beatrice''s vagina, pushing in slowly.

    "That fear is now useless, you will have me for your entire life and more. This moment is my proof to you, babe." Dante stated with a smile as he suddenly pushed in while Beatrice was caught up in her emotions.

    Both immediately gasped for different reasons. For Beatrice, no matter how high the stats, one would feel the intrusion of a rod that pushed all the way to one''s cervix and expanded one''s insides thickly, not to mention the pain of her hymen being torn.

    However, her expression soon became strange as the pain was very minuscule, and even then, it disappeared so fast it felt like a sh. There was no ache or throbbing pain after the shattering of her hymen like she expected, but then that was normal.

    Neither you nor I could fathom how the human body would work with a base of 20,000 times the same performance as an average being. At that level, if one wanted the pain to be minimized, it would disappear, and if one wanted the pleasure to increase, it would soar.

    As for Dante, he gasped because of the tightness. It was like trying to squeeze through a narrow hole while it was slowly mping down and releasing asionally. Right now, he was hastily activating his Knight Life Essence and Blood Qi to make sure that he wasn''t crushed to death!

    Dante understood that he had overestimated himself and underestimated Beatrice. Even if they technically had the same stats now, his was forcibly raised through the use of technology while hers waspletely natural.

    Only when he activated his two physical methods to the max did things return to normal and a bead of sweat dropped from his brow. He knew that he had almost experienced a traumatic event that might haunt him for life, butdy luck had given him a way out.

    Dante nced at the surprised Beatrice who was still wondering why there was no pain and saw that her reaction was positive. He then pulled back slowly and pushed back in, not because he was in a hurry to enjoy this experience with Beatrice, but because the use of his two physical methods plus max Bionics was draining his energy crazily.

    He had a limited amount of time before the gas ran out, so he nned to make use of every second. That was why he immediately went red-eyed and began thrusting powerfully, skipping the build-up process.

    For Beatrice, this thrust her right into the pleasure of pration from the get-go, which caused her brows to shoot up and her body to shudder with glee. She felt not only Dante''s hard rod splitting her folds inside but his warmth as well as a strange tingling.

    It turned out that the addition of life essence and blood Qi caused a special reaction within Beatrice that enhanced her sensations, especially since the two esoteric energies passed through the walls of her flesh and struck the clitoris within her body.

    One thing was for sure, the Inferno battleship was truly sturdy, for two people at this level of power going at it could cause a to undergo an apocalypse, yet it didn''t even shake in the slightest.

    Beatrice coiled her legs around Dante''s waist and her arms around his neck, her eyes almost forming hearts as she moaned with each thrust that pierced all the way. All that was going through her head were carnal thoughts, saying ''this is amazing'', ''I want more'' and ''this is so good''.

    There was not a single coherent thought longer than such things going through her mind, while Dante was going through the opposite. He - like any man who prated a tight, wet, and glorious vagina - was struggling to contain himself.

    It was one half of ''good this is so good'', ''Jesus she''s moaning so hard'' and ''her tits are amazing bouncing like that'' against ''no, I can''t cum too soon, ''think about something nasty'' and ''I want this tost forever''.

    The two minds connected in this moment of passion, but their sensations were what merged, as well as their emotions. This heightened the experience for both of them and Beatrice couldn''t help but grip Dante harder and began to demand more.

    Dante obliged, but he didn''t just pound without any rhythm. He understood that typical intercourse was unlikely to bring a female to orgasm unless special techniques were used, so he activated those techniques right away.

    The first was the half thrust-full thrust method which involved using one thrust to go halfway as deep as you could reach and using the second one to go all the way. This added rhythm and variety to intercourse, which helped a little.

    Next was the most important, which was the upward thrust. This one could be upwards or downwards depending on the position, but since they were currently connected in the missionary position, it was upwards.

    In this, the man had to lower his waist and then angle his dick upwards, specifically poking at the top of her canal, right around the mid-point. This was the g-spot, the area where the flesh between the vagina and the clitoris was the thinnest, meaning the pleasure was the strongest.

    Given that Dante was alternating between these two techniques - at the cost of his poor waist muscles - it was inevitable that Beatrice would throw her head back in shock as the pleasure suddenly peaked and began to soar even higher, far faster than anything before.

    She was a virgin with no sexual experience, so she was naturally overwhelmed by these basic moves. In no time, Dante felt her canal be even wetter as it began to throb and he knew danger wasing, but he couldn''t just pull out.

    Rather, his eyes lit up with mes as he filled his body with hellfire to reinforce his power while sending endless spiritual energy from his cores down to his rod. It was timely too, as Beatrice immediately began mping down on him hard due to her climax, enough that the previous Dante would be in deep trouble had he not unleashed everything he had.

    While he went through her lengthy orgasm, Dante began to pant and regroup, feeling that his energy was less than 30%. That was just as well, because he had been barely holding himself back and did not want to cum before Beatrice did, so now that she had already reached her peak, it was his turn.

    With fire in his eyes, Dante pulled back once more and began the final sprint towards sess!

 Chapter 217 Its Time - End

    Chapter 217 It''s Time - End

    A continuous and furious pping sound resounded through the bedroom as Dante moved like he was possessed. In fact, he was truly possessedˇ­ possessed by the urge to spray his seed into the fertile fields of Beatrice''snd!

    "Ughˇ­I-I can''tˇ­!!" Danteined as he felt the cannon loading with the ultimate shot, climbing up his shaft slowly.

    Beatrice was already still stuck in the throes of passion, especially since her previous orgasm was forcefully dragged forward by Dante''s unrelenting tempo. She heard what he said, and acknowledged it, but she couldn''t pass anyments because her whole body was itching in anticipation for the final moment.

    When that moment actually came, it was far greater than what she had expected and fantasized about. Dante suddenly stopped and for a split second, she felt his heat increase slightly as meat began to throb crazily.

    It wasn''t until Dante groaned slightly and she felt a huge wave of hot fluid pour deep into her that she realized what happened. Beatrice''s eyes widened with shock as her entire body shuddered.

    It was one thing to taste it potency with her upper lips and another to taste it with her lower lips. She immediately fell limply onto the bed like a kitten whose neck had been pinched by its parent, her body shaking as her eyes curled into crescents.

    Dante, who had rxed after shooting his load, was surprised by Beatrice''s state and was worried for her. He immediately inquired as to her current stat from her AI chip but was stunned when he was told that Beatrice was in a state of ''ideal insemination''.

    He searched it up and found that in the Eternal Universe, there was a theory that human sexual reproduction was wed in the sense that the hoops and hurdles the female had to go through to achieve climax was unnecessarily high.

    As such, famous biologist Lukran Zarc in 2059, when humanity had barely be a level 1 civilization, propounded the theory that ideal human coption should involved the male aching climax through pration while the female achieved climax through insemination.

    This theory wasrgelyuded and praised because not only would it benefits the entire species, it made sense from an evolutionary standpoint. One of the reason humans felt pleasure from sex from the perspective of the species'' evolution was to encourage its members to copte.

    If coption was just mechanical with nothing but instinct to lead it, humanity would never have progressed this far nor would anybody be incentivized to have intercourse.

    So since then, one of the main aspects of artificial gic evolution through gene serums has been to slowly modify the biology of the Eternal Universe''s pure humans so that the females could enter the state of orgasm through insemination, along with the normal ways to reach climax.

    Currently, Beatrice was undergoing an ideal form of thispared to the average human woman because both her stats and Dante''s were far higher than average, meaning that the quality and intensity of the experience was extremely different.

    Even someone as powerful as Beatrice was renderedpletely inert and helpless under the sensation. Once Dante understood the ins and outs of the matter, he sighed with relief internally and felt that Lukram Zarc was a brilliant fellow.

    With women able to archive orgasm through ''creampies'', men would have a lot of their worries abated when spending intimate time with their partners. As for pregnancy, if they could artificially modify their genes so it should be obvious enough that it could be prevented with ease.

    Dante was told that this might take a while so he went to the bathroom to wash up. When he came out, Beatrice was curled up like a baby, sleeping soundly. ording to the feedback from her AI chip, the mental stimtion had been too strong and ended up tiring her out.

    Dante couldn''t help but feel a little proud. At first, his ego had been almost shattered by the fact that he, for the first time in his entire life since he traveled to the Eternal Universe, had to go all out with his full power just to qualify to have sex with her.

    Now that the end result was his babepletely tuckered out while he still had some residual energy left, he could lie to himself that he was powerful and almighty, even defeating the arguably strongest woman in the universe currently.

    Dante wiped himself down and came to lie beside Beatrice, gently stroking her hair as she slept. She moved closer into his embrace and the two found themselves feeling at peace. Dante soon join Beatrice in dreand as his energy was low and he was truly tired.

    Beatriceter woke up and smiled as she saw the sleeping Dante, gently caressing his face. She then went to wash herself up beforeing back to lie down and y with her holotab in silent mode so as to not disturb him.

    The duo then spent the week together, either having sex like newlyweds, lying together or watching stuff together. Dante finally got a look at Beatrice''s interested and was it surprising she liked dark humor content?

    Beatrice was initially worried that Dante would not like such things, but was amused when he found them more funny than she did. After all, everyone in the modern day liked dark humor to an extent, even the virtuous ones.

    It was just a matter of how dark you liked your humor and whether it surpassed an African during the night.

    A week passed without Dante training or even checking up on his conquest in the home universe. As for his parents, they still had some time to go on their modification while he did not put much stock in Aisha''s task.

    It would be fine if she could capture some superpower users for him so that he could use his eyes to give them backstories that would guarantee their loyalty because subordinate chips clearly could not be trusted.

    Then he could use mutant cores to raise them to the C grade and establish apetent superpower force.

    Dante told Beatrice about his progress, ns and ideas over the week, finally revealing that he caught Jameson and obtained the resurrection resource. Beatrice''s eyes filled with excitement as she begged to see it and Dante showed her the sealed nirvana fire of a phoenix.

    Beatrice held it with a solemn gaze, knowing that this thing was going to secure her mother''s rebirth. She took a deep breath and became quiet,municating with her father through the quantumwork.

    When she was done, she turned to Dante and smiled. "My dad can''t wait any longer. Not only does he want to see you, but he also wants to bring mom back asap."

    Dante nodded with understanding. If - God forbid - he ever lost Beatrice and knew he could bring her back, he wouldn''t be able to wait one second longer because it would be torture to do so.

    The dreadnought that had been idle in space finally began to move as Beatrice punching in the coordinates and they entered hyperspace. Dante saw the familiar mesmerizing colors but he noticed that his eyes automatically began to swirl in response to them.

    This shocked him until he remembered that ''test of the universe'' thing which caused all sentients beings to hallucinate once they entered this space. If they could not wake up from the process, they would eventually faded away and merge into the consciousness of the universe itself.

    However, once you passed it, you would be immunized from all further attempts. However, Dante''s eyes seemed to be mimicking the confusing patterns of this space, and he found himself rooted to the spot, unable to tear his eyes away.

    Beatrice was initially worried and about to interrupt him, because she thought Dante might be undergoing something dangerous, but his chip quickly reported to hers that he was fine for now.

    This surprised her and she nced at Dante who was seemingly in a trance. She couldn''t help but look at his eyes and almost get caught within, but her tyrannical SDI prevented her from falling into the abyss.

    She became frightened and did not dare to look anymore. She did not know what exactly was going on with Dante, but whatever the case was, his eyes would not be the same after this experience.

    By the time they came out of hyperspace, Dante was still in a trance that did not seem like it would end any time soon. Beatrice could only haul him over to a shuttle that left he dreadnought which remained hovering in space due to its size while slowly descending upon a group of nes which were covered with domes.

    From the window of the ship, one could see that there was a lot of activity on all of the nes except one which was rtively quiet and smaller. It also happened to sit at the center of all theserger nes and had an air of royalty as well as valor in it.

 Chapter 218 Augeus Portinari

    Chapter 218 Augeus Portinari

    Beatrice folded her arms and looked at the small ne in the center with aplicated look. "Well, that''s it. My home and where I was born and raised, the Ancestral ne of the Portinari n."

    Dante stood beside her and held her shoulders gently, giving her somefort. That look in her eye was enough to tell that she had her best and worst memories here, making her feel bittersweet about it.

    The shuttle easily entered the ne shield for the entire floating mass, and Dante was introduced to its inner workings more intimately than before. He saw that it was only made up of onerge manor in the center, along with a rtively extravagantly decorated grounds that ended where the ne did.

    Looking at it like this, Dante was amazed. This should be the fourth time since he first transmigrated to the Eternal Universe almost 8 months ago that he felt this feeling of wonderment and extreme fantasy once again.

    The first time was looking at space through the porthole of the dreadnought when he was negotiating with Beatrice, the second time was when he first saw the Eternal Academy from space, a floating mass of activity and wonder while the third time was when he stood in front of the behemoth that was the home universe''s Zero Gate that couldn''t be seen with the naked eye whether you looked up, down, left, or right.

    While this experience was simr to the second one, the Eternal Academy was huge and busy, with many spaceships. The feeling of fantasy it gave was one of grandeur, development, and progression, a true advanced technology vibe.

    While this one was small, homely, and detached from the universe. It was like a caricature, or a piece of elite concept art which gave the feeling of being alone in the void, cut off from the rigors of society while enjoying one''s luxury.

    The shuttle parked in front of the door, and Dante walked out with Beatrice. The door was opened by an elderly woman who had azure-colored hair and bright indigo eyes, as well as a rather tall frame despite her age.

    When Beatrice saw her, her eyes lit up with affection. "Aunty Zest!"

    The housekeeper called Aunty Zest chuckled fondly and hugged Beatrice tightly, gently stroking her hair. "My darling Bea, you''re back. I''ve missed you so much."

    "I''m sorry for being away so long, Iˇ­" Beatrice began to exin, but the older woman smiled knowingly and ced a finger on her lips.

    "No need to exin to me, my dear. I understand." She affirmed, nodding to Beatrice who looked relieved and touched.

    "And who is this handsome young man? Is he your soulmate that you''ve told me about?" Aunt Zest turned to the silent Dante who watched everything with a smile.

    Dante stepped forward and greeted her respectfully. "Hello, auntie, I''m Dante Alighieri. I am Beatrice''s soulmate and hope to be her husband officially."

    Aunt Zest shook Dante''s outstretched hand firmly and nced at him kindly. "Hello, dear Dante, and from what I''ve heard about you from Beatrice, that should not be a problem."

    "Especially if you are able to achieve what you im, this family''s indebtedness to you will be limitless." The Elderly Housekeeper added with a pointed look.

    At this, Dante''s smile faded as he nodded seriously. He had faith in Quantum Entanglement and the being behind it. Its power was likely beyond his capability, so it should easily be able to manifest the reality-bending power to allow the Nirvana Fire of a Phoenix to work in reality on Beatrice''s mother.

    If not, he would have to wait and acquire Quantum Healing before taking Beatrice''s mother into the Magus World and reviving her there then bring her out and heal the inevitable quantum poisoning.

    Dante could not make any promises and did not dare to, so with the mood a bit heavy, he and Beatrice were led into the opulent and surprisingly traditional manor thatcked technology and was mostly styled in the ancient European way.

    Aunt Zest and Beatrice walked through the ce very familiarly while chatting about recent events while Dante quietly followed along, listening in but not interjecting. Eventually, the group was brought to the main dining hall where there was avish table set with food.

    It was not very long, only about the length of a king-size bed with enough seats for about 8 people at most. At the head of the table and already seated was a handsome man with lush ck hair that reached his chin, sharp and neatly trimmed mustache as well as a goatee.

    His features were pristine and slightly aged, with a little bit of crow''s feet at the corner of his eyes, but his body was extremely well-built. Even seated like this, Dante could tell he was easily over six feet in height and more muscr than himself.

    He wore a purple-colored gentleman''s suit along with white gloves that held a ss of wine within, swirling it slowly. His bright amber eyes lifted and passed through Aunt Zest, going through Beatrice - where they softened greatly - then came to lie on Dante.

    Immediately, Dante identified this man as Augeus Portinari, Beatrice''s father and his father-inw. His first impression of the man before he spoke was positive, and he easily rted him to Drac from that Castlevania Netflix show in terms of looks.

    Heck, the two were almost 1 to 1, minus the long canines and the pale skin.

    His second impression was that this man immediately saw through him. Aunty Zest might not have seen it, and Beatrice already knew since he told her, but this man who had been the head of one of the most powerful ns in the entire universe immediately sussed out that Dante was a young man of limitless ambition and had begun the path of conqueror.

    Just by sharing eye contact, Dante knew that he knew, and he was also letting Dante know that he knew. A small smile yed on Augeus Portinari''s lips, one of both amusement and appreciation, while Dante''s expression darkened slightly and became serious.

    He couldn''t help but nce at Beatrice askance andin in his heart. Never believe a girl''s description of her father when he loved him dearly; she would describe that man as a soft puppy when he was actually a behemoth monster.

    The moment she walked in, Beatrice''s eyes filled with tears as she rushed over to the head of the table.

    "Papa!" She cried as she threw her arms around his neck and kissed his rather thin cheeks.

    "Oh, my sweet Darling Bea, Papa has missed you!" Immediately, the noble-looking man''s stern face changed into one of indulgence and love as he hugged Beatrice back and spoke in a disgustingly honeyed voice.

    Dante''s expression changed to one of skepticism and disbelief while Aunty Zest giggled knowingly, as if used to this scene. Dante was hit by two heavy blows, firstly seeing this mature and domineering looking man act so silly and then seeing his sadistic and evil Beatrice acting so babyish.

    To be honest, thetter shocked him more than the former because he had seen what Beatrice could do and knew her well.

    The two spent some time hugging and crying about how much they missed each other before Beatrice reluctantly sat in a seat besideher dad. She then seemed to remember Dante and became embarrassed immediately.

    She nced at him and saw his dumbfounded expression, knowing that he had seen her darkest side and would probably tease her greatly in the future. Beatrice''s forehead became ck as she pictured dark days ahead, taking L''s at Dante''s hands.

    Meanwhile, Augeus did not feel ashamed and simply nced at Dante neutrally, even having a hint of superiority in his eyes. Yes, I coddle my daughter and act like a baby to her, what are you going to do about it, boy?

    "Err, papa, this is Dante. I''ve told you about him." Beatrice finally introduced with a difficult tone.

    "Haha, yes, I''ve heard much about him. Young Dante, my name is Augeus Portinari, and I am Beatrice''s father, as you might have noticed, and also your soon-to-be father-inw." Augeusughed casually and reached out to shake Dante''s hand, to which the young man did so with respect.

    "Yes, sir, it''s an honor to meet you. I am also very excited to have your recognition as Beatrice''s partner and future husband and will make sure not to disappoint you." Dante responded seriously.

    Augeus raised an eyebrow with amusement. "Disappoint? I think you mean the opposite."

    Dante was slightly confused while Aunty Zest smiled yfully. Meanwhile, Beatrice seemed even more embarrassed as she opened her mouth to exin but could not find the words.

    Seeing Dante''s confusion and Beatrice''s embarrassment, Augeus immediately understood. He took a sip of his wine and smiled while waving his hand to the exquisite dishes.

    "Let''s dine while we talk, lest the food go cold."

 Chapter 219 In-laws 1

    Chapter 219 Inws 1

    Everyone obliged and began slicing their cuts of meat that looked synthesized from the best molecules in the universe, eating regally. Beatrice disyed surprisinglydy-like manners while Dante had obviously been to more than one restaurant and had basic table etiquette.

    This surprised Augeus because as far as he knew, Dante was a stray that Beatrice had found. He had no idea about two universes or Dante''s origins, so he could only wonder where Dante had gotten his etiquette lessons from.

    "As I said, it''d be difficult for me to find disappointment in you, young Dante. Your des and achievements within this short period of time since we signed you on have shocked not only me, but the entire civilized universe who cares to know." Augeus began exining after sipping his red wine and cing his fork down after taking a few bites.

    "This includes not only the Ten Great Pure Human ns, but the Five Corporations, the Twenty Factions, and the Prime Human Council itself. Especially the Prime Human Council; they have sent us letters of summons for you about 3 times so far in the past 6 months." Augeus added with a pointed look.

    Dante''s expression became serious. He already knew the entire social and legalyout of the universe months ago, so he knew about the ns, corps, and factions. They were the ones he always danced around carefully because getting entangled with them could lead to big trouble.

    They were also the reason that despite Beatrice''s heckling and haggling, he had not used his powers and specialties to establish his own faction in the Eternal Universe because he simply did not have enough capital topete with these powers easily.

    But the Prime Human Council was another beast altogether. It was the legitimate ruler of the universe and the fount of governance, legality, and politics in the civilized world. If they said A, you dare not fucking say B unless you were a pure human, and even then, the best you could say was A and a half.

    Summons from them were not something one could just say ''uhh, I''m busy so next time,'' as that would lead to punitive actions ten times out of ten. So for Augeus to tell him this and for Dante to not have felt the ramifications of not heeding it, it meant that someone else had shouldered the problem for him.

    Augeus saw Dante''s look and knew that he understood, so he sliced a piece of beef and smiled thinly. "Do not look at me; there''s no way I would take the trouble that woulde from such things for you as a n head, even if you are Beatrice''s partner, at least prior to meeting you and understanding what kind of person you are."

    Dante then nced at Beatrice who was quietly eating while staring into her te as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. Dante understood immediately that the only person with enough individual martial power to make even the Prime Human Council hesitate was Beatrice or the headmistress, and Dante doubted Lara would go that far for his sake.

    As for why Beatrice would do so, clearly Augeus was baffled while Aunt Zest seemed interested. However, Dante knew why, and it was simply because he could not afford the risk of appearing in front of so many high echelon yers given his threat to their benefits as well as his dubious origin.

    There were superpower users who could read minds and detect lies in the council; obviously they would sic them on Dante. If they managed to pry from his mouth that he was from an alternate universe, then things would get messy.

    This would only be a problem until Dante entered the Zero Gate and left his quantum marker in here. Then he was effectively done with the Eternal Universe and could do as he wished because even if they made him public enemy number 1, he could live his life out in the home universe and then pop into both Zero Gates using quantum markers when the time was ripe.

    Heh, imagine how furious the Eternal Universe upper echelons would be if they always lost all 10 fruits to Dante for so many years going forward. The martial power of the entire universe would drop severely in time, allowing Dante the chance to invade.

    But for all that to happen, Dante needed time, and Beatrice bought him that time to develop that he needed. This made him feel grateful, but also a bit worried because she should have told him about this earlier.

    Anyway, here and now was not the time to pursue ountability. Dante simply nodded to Augeus to show he understood while Augeus smiled and continued.

    "Do you know? When Beatrice first found you, she took an executive decision in the details of your contract and officially attached you to our n. She even betrothed herself to you without telling me, all of which caused an uproar."

    Dante was stunned and nced at Beatrice who had lowered her head even further and was almost nose to nose with the food on her te as she ate hurriedly.

    "Personally, I don''t care. Ever since my lovely Portia passed, I''ve given her the freedom to do whatever she wants with her life, and due to her great achievements, power, and bloodline, she is the strongest force in our entire n."

    "Previously, Portia alone was the one who propped us up as number 1 of the Ten Great Pure Human ns due to her senselessly overwhelming power, but after she left, we quickly began to fall. Properties,s, and entire corporations we opened were being sieged on all fronts, and the n went through many tough years."

    "Luckily for us, my sweet Bea disyed striking simrity to her mother in that she is one of the few in the universe to have three superpowers that perfectlyplement each other and allow for near limitless growth, though Bea''s is not fully awakened."

    "Soon, her power grew beyond what many could handle, and she took back the ce we had among the pure human ns, as well as became the new stabilizing force for us." Augeus paused to take a sip of wine.

    Dante now understood why Louisa and co had such horrified expressions when Beatrice introduced herself. It was likely that everyone carved a piece of the pie that was the weakened Portinari n at the time, including pure human ns.

    To get it all back, Beatrice must have beaten everyone ck and blue, including fellow pure humans. This was why they were scared but not to the point of hatred because whether it was for political reasons or her personal xenophobia, Beatrice definitely would not be as heavy-handed to pure humans.

    Lady of Genocides, huh? No wonder those news articles had very strange ways of describing her actions, putting it as revenge for her mother''s killing rather than sheer brutality. How could they openly say that she was getting back what her family already owned and that they had refused to spit out the meat in their mouth, leading to a violent resolution to the problem?

    Dante also understood why Beatrice had the power to single-handedly appoint him as Vice-Admiral as well as get him such favorable terms in his contract back then. Everything was backed by her own power, which was the eternal truth of the universe!

    "Many in the n protested her actions back then. While many understand that she is the stabilizing power, that doesn''t mean that she could give up n assets on a whim without telling anybody."

    Augeus''s lips twitched as he continued. "After all, the 300 Etrans per week she promised you is about 10% of the n''s total ie per week from various businesses universe-wide. The vi on earth she gave you actually was supposed to be given to another n member who had done an excellent job in business but was seized by Beatrice for you."

    "As for the Eternal Academy, that slot was being contested for by the young ones of the n and was also seized by Beatrice for you." Augeus revealed as he couldn''t help but nce at his daughter speechlessly.

    Dante felt weary inside. He knew his babe was a tyrant who did not consider anything weaker than herself, but he had no idea she was merciless to even her own affiliated family members.

    The sad part was that apart from the money, everything else had little meaning to Dante. He hadn''t stepped into that vi since it was bought, and he was nning to make the Eternal Academy go from an ''is'' to a ''was'' the moment he became strong enough.

    "Wait, why was the betrothal a problem though?" Dante clued into something based on what Augeus said earlier.

    Augeus smiled appreciatively. "Ours is the main branch of the n, but there are millions of side branches out there who craved to join us. Beatrice is my only daughter so whoever marries her gets a free ticket to be a main n member and bring his side branch up along with him."

    "Imagine how furious the young men were to find that it wasn''t any of them, noble young masters bred and raised with the highest quality, but some stray she found outside that would get the honor? How could those fools not protest?" Augeus stated with a sneer.

 Chapter 220 In-laws 2

    Chapter 220 Inws 2

    "They did not darein to Beatrice due to my daughter''s fearsome reputation which is just as tyrannical as her mother''s, but they sure did not have any qualms storming our little manor here and lodging oneint after the other," Augeus stated with a thin smile, but Dante could detect the hint of anger and coldness within.

    That was something Beatrice had also told him, about how Augeus was one without superpowers, and while his SDI was impressive, it wasn''t groundbreaking. He was n head due to his immense connections, political and financial wit, as well as his inheritance from his own father who was the previous n head.

    As such, he did not have that fear-inducing deterrence on n members like his wife or his daughter, which was surely a sore spot for the man.

    "It was quite annoying to deal with them at the time, but they were soon silenced by the reports of your superpowers grading at the SSS Rank. After all, even my wife Portia, only had three S-grade superpowers but she was able to dominate and grow so much," Augeus continued with a smirk.

    Dante was not surprised but he felt disdain. The Eternal Academy during orientation had stated that the information would not leak and that they would deal with anyone who dared to spread it, but the entire universe already knew.

    "After that was a period of silence for a while as they seemed to understand why Beatrice chose you and gave you so much, and even I myself was deeply astounded. Fromints came praises to my daughter''s foresight and nning."

    "This left me pleased and happy until you began to disy more of your exceptional nature. When you set the various factions off with your explosive superpower''s growth, we began to celebrate. The fruits from the Zero Gate were surely going to fall into our hands and the n would prosper."

    Augeus smiled yfully. "In fact, they had even sent me documents and propositions on how to split the fruits you acquired and which n juniors were most deserving of them."

    "I allowed them to get into full swing and excite themselves on a very beautiful future until I finally responded and told them that we cannot adhere to anything they proposed. This led to great dissatisfaction with me, wondering if I was trying to hog all the fruits for the main branch."

    "However, I had the great pleasure to remind them to look at the contract we signed with you. You should have seen the faces of those damned elders when they read it and their expression changed from indignation to shock then horror."

    "They finally realized that in the contract Beatrice gave you, you were not obligated to do anything but marry her! You had no obligations to the n but received all those benefits; could you imagine how furious they were? Hahaha!" Augeus couldn''t help butugh heartily, making Beatrice roll her eyes and Aunt Zest shake her head.

    "When theyined, I told them to take it up with Beatrice, and they shut up immediately as if someone had squeezed their throats. Comin to the one who secured the benefits and extravagant lifestyles? Were they mad? They could only swallow it in."

    Augeus sighed helplessly. "But this is where the problems began. While we know you have no obligations to us, all the other powers, including the Prime Human Council, do not know so. They believe that we will be the direct beneficiaries of your hard work, so we have been pestered openly and covertly by them over the past few months."

    "They have basically tried every approach in the book to secure some fruits for themselves, but what can we do but p our foreheads and make up stories? After all, putting aside n rules that prevent sharing such information, how can we tell the world about this embarrassing matter where you, Dante, eat without paying the bill?"

    "However, things got worsest month when your physical results were released. Not only were we shocked, but so was the entire universe. Putting aside how you grew to be so strong in such a short period of time, the other factions panicked for two reasons."

    "Firstly, this meant that even without superpowers, you could likely destroy all the other students in the Zero Gate and acquire all the fruits yourself. Your recent resultsst week from the mock world have only buttressed this further."

    "Secondly, they see the air of Portia and Beatrice on you, in terms of bing a behemoth of martial power that technology cannot easily deal with, and they really do not want to have to deal with another like those two."

    "So sincest month, a lot of pressure has fallen upon the n''s shoulder to make you give up some of the fruits you would inevitably get for all sorts of reasons. They have even resorted to darker and more forceful methods but do not dare to go too far for fear of causing Beatrice to retaliate," Augeus revealed with a hint of fatigue.

    There was a short spell of silence as Dante digested this information as well as why Augeus told him this. Augeus nced at Dante and leaned forward slowly after wiping his lips with a napkin.

    "You''re probably wondering why I said all this, especially since you will find out in due time as you integrate more into our n, right? Well, the answer is simple, so simple that I can tell you here and now."

    Dante nced at the serious Augeus who had none of his casual demeanor from before. "The reason is that whether it is the matter of the n''s internals, the school, the Zero Gate, and the universe atrge, all these problems and issues can easily be solved as long as my wife and your mother-inw is here to back you up!"

    Dante was speechless and finally understood everything. He had previously thought to himself that Augeus should be pining for his wife and would not waste a single second resurrecting her when he got the chance.

    However, when Dante arrived, the fellow first invited them to a prepared dinner before talking about some things Dante honestly did not much care about. It turned out that the reason was that Augeus was worried that Dante was not truly invested in reviving Portia and would only half-ass it to please Beatrice and go.

    So he wanted to give Dante logical reasons to invest in resurrecting Portia, which was quite sensible and made Dante respect the approach his father-inw used. He didn''t use any bullshit methods like moral shaming or even begging.

    He simply presented the situation and showed how Dante could benefit from Portia''s existence and resurrection. He chose the most appropriate and foolproof method that would work on anybody regardless of their personality; benefits for oneself.

    The part that left Dante amused was that he and Beatrice had already long discussed this and made a simr conclusion, that Portia would definitely be his best backer in the universe, especially when he created his faction.

    Beatrice wanted her mother back, but she didn''t want to use Dante''s feelings for her as a hostage to demand ransom in the form of revival, so she used a simr approach to her father. Whatever the case, using such a means left him with a good impression of his father-inw, so Dante stood up.

    "Father-inw, enough wasting time. Let''s bring my mother-inw back and reunite this family forever!" Dante dered while taking out the Nirvana Fire of a Phoenix and giving it to Augeus.

    Augeus was left tongue-tied as he held the miraculous item that would bring back his wife, and even with superpowers himself or any mystical ability, he could easily feel the specialness of the nirvana fire.

    His eyes became wet, and he wiped them slowly as he got up and nodded to Dante seriously. Aunt Zest seemed deeply moved and did not know how to thank Dante while Beatrice just smiled with deep love and affection in her eyes.

    The group moved through the manor with a purpose, going down below to an underground room with many high-tech apparatus. It looked like a futuristic sci-fib replete with ss chambers full of strange things and a cylindrical tank in the center with a body floating within.

    Looking at it, Dante immediately knew it was Portia because the woman within was simply Beatrice if you aged her up by 10 years. If that woman came to Dante and said she was Beatrice from the future, he would believe it without a doubt.

    Aunt Zest seemed saddened. "Madamˇ­"

    Beatrice was teary-eyed as she nced at the corpse that was being preserved in the tank. "Mamaˇ­"

    "My love, I will soon be with you again." Augeus muttered as he walked up to the tank and injected the nirvana fire into the panel on the side.

    Immediately, the fire shot into the tank and surged through the liquid nanites until it enveloped the body of Portia Portinari and began its resurrection process.

 Chapter 221 In-laws - End

    Chapter 221 Inws - End

    Here''s the revised passage:

    Everyone watched with bated breath as the fire enveloped Portia''s lifeless body, which was in pristine condition for some reason. However, minutes passed, and the fire had made little progress in burning her to g for the nirvana to begin, which left everyone surprised.

    "What''sˇ­ going on?" Dante asked with confusion.

    As someone who frequented the Magus World and even partook in their power system, he knew that the Nirvana Fire was not weak and did not know failure. It was a rule-type power with absolute authority, the equivalent of a master ball in the Pokemon world.

    "Uhhˇ­ well, it might be that mom''s body is too strong so even the phoenix fire is having a hard time, especially since the quantity is so small," Beatrice exined with a strange expression.

    Dante turned to the other three and saw that they had expressions of expectancy, which made him wonder just how high the numerical values for Portia were. Beatrice saw his confusion and came to stand beside him with a reassuring smile.

    "Mom''s SDI cannot easily be calcted, but it is at least 10 times mine at my peak," Beatrice stated, which shocked Dante.

    When Beatrice said ''at her peak'', she meant with Bionics and Psionics activated, which was 2 million! So Portia''s base level started from 20 million in all fields??? Then how much stronger would she be with Bionic and Psionics?!

    How could such a woman even have been killed? Even if she stood there, antimatter weapons should haveˇ­ okay no, cough. No matter the SDI, anti-matter was anti-matter. It was also a rule-based substance that simply erased matter.

    But everything else should be useless against her, even dark matter!

    "Don''t make the mistake of thinking mom was invincible. Firstly, at her level, she cannot use Bionics or Psionics because her body destroys them through rejection. Not to mention there is nothing that our current level of technology can do to boost such senseless power," Beatrice exined.

    It seemed that because she knew that her mother was about to be revived, she was far morefortable talking about her. Her revtions also made sense because Dante began to feel the strain the level 1 student bionics were having in boosting his stats 10 times.

    There was only so much ''potential'' nanites could squeeze out of the body and mind to multiply your ability when such ability goes beyond conventional limits. Whether it was Beatrice, Portia, or Dante, they could never have gotten here naturally or through any evolutionary method.

    Their current senselessly high stats were facilitated by superpowers, an esoteric existence that technology could not understand nor replicate. Everyone with stats above 500 in the universe had such stats because of superpowers and nothing else.

    "And secondly, she had a hard time acquiring enough energy to sustain her daily life. If she didn''t have her gluttony superpower, mom would likely have been crippled permanently," Beatrice added as she nced at her mother in the tank.

    Dante nodded in agreement. Even at his mere 2000 in all fields, he was dealing with energy problems every day. If it wasn''t for Gluttonous Inferno greatly relieving his problem, he didn''t know how he would survive at higher levels and might not even dare to continue raising his stats.

    It was great in theory, wasn''t it, to be able to endlessly grow your power? However, being able to grow one''s power endlessly with no cost was only possible in fiction and fantasy. Unfortunately, due to the presence of science in the Eternal Universe, there were going to be all sorts of rules and limitations that held one back.

    Sheesh, the amount of energy that Portia must consume in order to take one breath must be enough to power a level 1 civilization for years. Thinking about it like this really put into perspective how crazy superpowers were in that they could allow someone to reach this level and maintain a humanoid form as well as human body functions.

    "I''ve been meaning to askˇ­ did you guys anticipate resurrecting your mother?" Dante leaned toward Beatrice as he asked what bothered him.

    "Not exactly, but we did feel like something along those lines might happen given her situation," Beatrice answered slowly.

    Beatrice nced at Dante askance. "You must be asking because you''re wondering why we put her in a cultivation pod instead of burying or cremating her, right?"

    Dante nodded without shame because that was truly what he was wondering. He found it weird that they had her in such a state when he expected there to be a coffin or something.

    Beatrice shrugged helplessly. "You think we didn''t try? Mom may have lost her life but her body is still the same as it was. No fire we have in this world can melt her flesh, and burying her would be a waste since she cannot dpose."

    Dante was left speechless because he should have obviously realized this. With his mother-inw''s stats, how could her cells be damaged by anything other than anti-matter? And using anti-matter on her corpse seemed unnecessary, so why not just preserve it?

    Who knew, with such strong vitality and cell activity, she might just wake up one day once her body umted enough energy!

    But then, would that person really be Portia Portinari or just a vessel with her memories?

    Anyway, the nirvana fire would not have that problem. Even if Portia''s soul was destroyed thoroughly by some other means, the nirvana fire would drag it from the depths of nonexistence and revitalize it.

    And that was the least of its effects. Depending on Portia''s own strength and willpower, she might end up undergoing true nirvana and doubling her already potent SDI up to nine times.

    At that point, her strength might be enough to punch holes in time-space. However, even her current body was taking the phoenix fire too long to melt, so it was unlikely that she would be able to use it to ascend further.

    Not to mentionˇ­ cough coughˇ­ there might be requirements for energy in terms of not only reviving her once but undergoing nirvana.

    For a normal weakling, the energy within this small bit of me was enough to revive them 900 times.

    But this womanˇ­

    The group remained standing for an hour, but the fire barely made any progress. It was clear that their dramatic expectation of Portiaing to life right away was unrealistic, making the faces of everyone constipated.

    Soˇ­ to stand here diligently for the remaining time or to leave and do their own things?

    Augeus closed his eyes thoughtfully and then turned to the rest. "Zestinia, Dante, and Bea, you guys leave me here with my love. I will monitor her progress and keep you posted."

    Beatrice was surprised. "Papa, are you sure? I also want to wait for mom."

    Augeus shook his head with a bitter smile. "That won''t be possible, and you know it. I am only a n head and can go missing for months on end as you are the true power of our n."

    "But not only does young Dante need to be at school for the various tests and the Zero Gate business, you are an admiral and need to be present at all times for the Prime Human Council''s directives."

    Beatrice wrung her lips but could not refute. She had already squeezedher privileges dry by covering for Dante''s repeated absences to the Prime Human Council''s summons.

    If she began to ''desert'' her post, it could spell real trouble for her and the entire n. Just because they were wary of her did not mean that they would stand for outright insubordination.

    "Master Augeus, are you sure?" Aunty Zest asked with hesitation.

    Normally, she never questioned Augeus'' orders, but this time she couldn''t help but ask.

    Seeing her like this, Augeus ratherughed and seemed to be relieved. "Yes, I can stay here and gaze at my beloved, making sure everything goes well. The rest of you have other tasks to perform, so don''t worry about it."

    After a bit more persuading, Dante led Beatrice and Aunty Zest out, the two women having conflicted expressions on their faces. They felt as if they had betrayed Portia somehow, but Dante understood Augeus'' decision.

    Since this revival would take time, the most crucial thing was to stabilize the outside world and make them feel like nothing special was happening.

    After all, the resurrection process could be interfered with, and if so, he would have nowhere to cry to if an enemy faction detected something, since Dante and Beatrice disappearing for a long while after publicly visiting the n ancestral ne was definitely strange.

    Don''t forget, they all thought the revival would be instant, so Beatrice literally brought the government-issued dreadnought over.

    In the end, Beatrice and Dante left the ancestral ne, the woman herself needing a lot offorting from Dante, as there was inevitably a bit of disappointment at not getting to reunite with her mother on the spot.

    Dante could definitely understand how she felt to some extent, so he decided to spend another week with her.

    Meanwhile, his avatar had already entered the second mock exam for the past seven days and caused a serious uproar with endless consequences not seen before since the universe became civilizedˇ­

 Chapter 222 Beginning Of Another Descent

    Chapter 222 Beginning Of Another Descent

    Seven days ago...

    Dante left the ck Land with his group, his avatar feeling refreshed as he meditated using the incenses, but rather sought to clear his mind and achieve ''the dao'' rather than work hard sorting out wires, since the avatar literally couldn''t do so anyway.

    Meanwhile, the others also looked quite pleased as no matter how badly they scored, they still gained some insights while in the first mock exam. Even Louisa, who was trailing the ss, looked somewhat touched, but everyone gave her a wide berth.

    Not only was she a pure human of a top n, but no one forgot her initial arrogance and behavior. Even though most of the ss avoided each other anyway, and there was literally no harmony or camaraderie, there were some small pockets of simr races or factions.

    The other three pure humans mostly walked together, but they did not dare approach Louisa because of the people she offended, as well as their disdain for her weakness, while Dante was something they hoped to approach but saw the effects of associating with him from Harold and Lucian''s families'' oue.

    Louisa seemed used to this, and her previous frivolity and young mistress behavior were gone, leaving only determination to fight for a better future for herself. When life ps you in the face with the hard truth that you''re not as special as you thought you were, you only had two oues.

    To ept it and work hard to make yourself special or to break down and refuse to ept reality. Kudos to Louisa for making the former choice, but sometimes hard work alone is not enough in this world.

    Whatever the case, the group was led to the staging area of the ck Land where they were informed of the details of the next Zero Gate World challenge.

    "As you already know, this time the whole first-year ss, the 28 of you, will be put together in the same server with a randomly generatedyout simr to the Zero Gate World," Xue Bing began with her usual fake smile.

    "This means that the difficulty has scaled much higher than before, as you will be directlypeting with each other for the prizes that are few and far between in this quantum world. You are free to use any methods possible against each other, as there is no such thing as cheating."

    "After all, when the real descent happens, no one will be able to know what happens within except what you yourselves reveal. There''s no point in pretending that there will be fairness and righteousness in these mock exams with that in mind."

    Xue Bing sighed deeply. "As a teacher, I must advise you professionally and from my heart. When you enter both the real Zero Gate or even this world, don''t forget to consider surrendering to Dante and bing hisckey to secure your survival. Why risk death when you have such a bright future ahead?"

    The other teachers were furious again.

    "Bitch Xue Bing, you were warned against doing this?! How dare you?!" Another female teacher, who had red lines flowing through her body - as her blood was made of magma - questioned as her powers activated.

    Xue Bing simply remained smiling but didn''t respond. Warned? Are you a child? The fact that I vited the rules so heavily by favoring my student and was only warned verbally should tell you something.

    The other teachers were angry but could see this logic. Just as they nned to back off, the magma-based female teacher could not hold back her explosive temper anymore and directly attacked.

    "Since this rubbish school does not want to punish you, then I will take its ce and teach you a bloody lesson!" She roared and attacked, spewing an intense amount ofva bullets towards Xue Bing.

    Being in such close proximity meant that Xue Bing could not respond in time, and the other teachers were shocked. They knew their colleague had a temper, but she had never gone this far, even when she was teased or suffered actual losses before.

    The students could not even understand what was going on, but before anything could happen, the spatial defenses Xue Bing always kept on her body activated and carried the killing attack into another dimension.

    Xue Bing''s expression became ugly as she teleported away and red at the woman with hatred. "Maria, are you crazy?! You actually tried to kill me? Do you think you can get away with this?!"

    The Maria woman calmed down instantly and smiled. "Why can''t I? If you can get away with your nonsense, so can I."

    Xue Bing was stunned, then seemed to understand something as her expression changed. Maria smiled yfully as she narrowed her eyes.

    "That''s right, don''t always go believing that the headmistress is omnipotent. She is powerful and influential, but she cannot decide everything about the universe. I am just here to warn you and him that you shouldn''t go too far."

    Xue Bing was speechless. Clearly, your target is more or less him, so why the heck did you attack me?! And you are talking about me and him, why are you looking his way and fixing your eyes stubbornly on me?

    In the end, the students were dismissed, most of them looking puzzled, but Dante could tell using the feedback of emotions from his spirit sense that they were very aware of the ins and outs but were pretending to be ignorant students who had no hand to y.

    This made Dante sigh tiredly. This was what he hated about this school and this universe in particr. Everyone was so cunning and cutthroat, and his first few days here had been really stressful.

    To be honest, if he did not meet Beatrice but happened to meet anyone else, his fate would be so far different from what it was now that it would not be recognizable. Dante understood more and more why Beatrice believed their encounter was fated because by god, it really was.

    Anyway, he returned to the dreadnought and entered a virtual pod to log into the Etraverse. From there, he found the newly unlocked Zero Gate world, which was slightly different from the one before.

    [World Name: Zero Gate World (Intermediate)

    World Owner: Eternal Academy

    World Creator: Eternal Academy

    World Size: Small

    World Type: Shared

    World Genre: Survival/Exploration

    Bionics Allowed: No

    Psionics Allowed: No

    Superpowers Allowed: Yes

    Requirements: Student ID

    Duration: 30 days

    Description: This is a recreation of the world behind the Zero Gate that has been refined countless times over the centuries to suit the true nature of what exists. The world behind the Zero Gate is randomly shuffled each time upon entry, but the archetype of the dangers and benefits that exist are traceable after so many voyages within.

    Objectives: Survive for 30 days to pass and acquire as many Fruits of Condensation as possible.

    Limitations: No Bionics, Psionics, or AI chips like in reality. One cannot leave the world until they either die orplete the tasks. Other students of the first year are present, providingpetition.

    Provisions: Your body is perfectly scanned and replicated to its truest extent, allowing you to use all your powers and abilities freely.]

    Looking at it, the beginner version that he had previously spent time in was there too, but it was now locked. Dante''s eye flickered as he wondered whether he could sneak in there with his quantum marker but gave up.

    The quantum marker would only lead to the void since the world was generated on the spot uponentry. So what he would see would be a nk space with nothing within, like a ceholder world.

    If he could create more quantum clonester, he could try and y with the idea of entering multiple Zero Gate worlds if ess was released to him. In fact, after he dominated the real Zero Gate, it might be cost-effective to sell one or two of the less powerful fruits he got to the school to ''buy'' unlimited ess to these worlds.

    From there, he could endlessly farm quantum fruits and then replicate them in reality, giving them what might be actual utility. He actually did not know if they worked in reality because he had not tried them yet nor given them to anyone.

    Anyway, these were all spective thoughts and ns for the future. As for right now, Dante was more focused on entering this world and harvesting a set of ten fruits once more. As for his lovely ''ssmates'', if they knew what was good for them, they would hide by the side and wait out the 30 days.

    If they dared to actuallypete orpare with Dante, he would give them an unforgettable reminder as to why Xue Bing had given them that friendly advice.

    With such vicious and dark thoughts in mind, Dante clicked to descend into the world, and the short buffer activated. His quantum clone then logged into the Zero Gate World just as his real body would, through an avatar.

    It was only after ensuring that his avatar was safe that the quantum clone descended with its ''real body''.

 Chapter 223 The Celestial Emperors Troops

    Chapter 223 The Celestial Emperor''s Troops

    Dante stretched his neck and looked around calmly. He extended his spirit sense, which could still reach 2 kilometers despite his quantum clone having only 10% of his main body''s stats, meaning 200 in each field.

    However, all of his quantum powers were perfectly replicated onto the clone since they were attached to the superpower itself, so they were not weakened and functioned just as potently as they did on the real body currently at the Portinari n manor.

    This included his Martial Master Realm Raging Blood Halberd Technique, his level 5 Greed''s Ember Flow Inferno Ascension technique, his Peak Knight Realm Primal Ape technique, and his level 5 Void Speaker Chant, which made him a 4th Rank Elite Wizard.

    Unfortunately, the Eyes of Illusion strictly functioned based on stats and did not source their power from the superpower itself. Still, even with Dante''s limited stats, many would find it hard to escape the influence of the eyes since their stats did not surpass his by double or more.

    Dante noticed that he was near a stream of water. Just like the trees, grass, and shrubs around him, the water, too, was a glowing ck color with many strange aquatic species swimming within, eyeing him carefully.

    Their eyes were full of intelligence and conveyed that they could understand his presence here but did not necessarily want to engage with him without being sure of his exact power. After all, unlike the students who were crippled without their Bionics and Psionics as well as AI chips in here, these natives could much more easily sense the range of power a person possessed beforehand.

    Dante looked at the fish and then turned to leave but stopped suddenly. He then looked back at them and had a strange thought. This particr session would include his beloved ssmates, and as much as he looked down on them and their capabilitiespared to himself, they could prove to be problems at key moments.

    After all, if he was locked in a battle with a group of beasts surrounding the trees and Slessor or Humphrey decided tounch a sneak attack at a crucial moment, it would be troublesome, though not enough to deal with him.

    As such, Dante had an idea. He smiled at the fish in theke, something which made them feel an inexplicable chill and want to flee. However, they soon found that movement was impossible as they were locked into those glowing yellow eyes that seemed to contain another world in them.

    In the realm of the Celestial Empire, where the skies shimmered like a tapestry of stars and the mountains reached up to embrace the heavens, there lived a wise and benevolent Celestial Emperor.

    His name was Dante, and he was known not for his unrivaled power but for his unwavering kindness and sense of duty.

    I, Seraphin, was one of his loyal subordinates, blessed to serve under his radiant banner.

    Our days were filled with rigorous training, yet we embraced it with joy, for the Celestial Emperor was not only our leader but our friend.

    He taught us not just the art of war but the art of being, cultivating our hearts as he honed our skills.

    Dante possessed eyes like twin suns, a luminous yellow that held wisdom andpassion beyond measure.

    Those eyes were like beacons guiding us through the darkness, a symbol of hope and strength.

    As we trained, I often found it difficult to look away from those radiant orbs, for they carried the weight of a thousand stars.

    Under the Emperor''s tutge, we became a formidable force, not driven by fear or conquest, but by a deep sense of justice.

    We defended our realm and protected the innocent, living up to the legacy of our beloved leader.

    However, the fates are as cruel as the fires of hell.

    One fateful day, a great darkness descended upon ournds.

    A malevolent force sought to plunge our world into chaos, threatening everything we held dear.

    Dante, without hesitation, led us into battle.

    The sh was epic, a cataclysmic struggle between light and shadow.

    Our enemy was relentless, and the battle raged on for days.

    Dante fought with valor, his eyes zing like twin suns and his expression thunderous.

    With each swing of his celestial halberd, he struck down our foes, but the enemy was relentless.

    As the final confrontation approached, our forces were dwindling.

    Wounds were many, and hope was fading.

    Dante, standing tall and resolute, gazed upon us with a tender smile.

    "My loyalpanions, do not fear. Though our mortal bodies may fall today, our spirits are eternal." He said cryptically, his voice like a bell that struck our hearts.

    With those words, Dante unleashed his ultimate power, a radiant explosion of ckish-red fire that engulfed the battlefield.

    I felt myself lifted into the heavens, surrounded by the brilliance of his essence.

    In that moment, I understood the true nature of our Celestial Emperor.

    As the light faded, I found myself in a tranquil ce, a realm of serenity and warmth.

    Dante stood before us, his eyes still glowing like twin suns. "My dear friends, we shall meet again in the next life, for our bonds are unbreakable. When you see these eyes glow once more, you awaken!"

    Tears welled in my eyes as I realized the truth of his words.

    Dante had not just been our leader; he had been our guiding star, our pir of strength.

    Even in death, his light would guide us, and his wisdom would shape our destinies.

    With a final, radiant smile, Dante turned and ascended into a realm covered with ckish-red fire, 7 beings seated on colored seats at the summit as they bowed to him, leaving us with the promise of a reunion in the next life.

    We, his loyal soldiers, were forever changed by his love and leadership, destined to carry his legacy forward, waiting for the day when we would meet our beloved Celestial Emperor once more.

    The various aquatic creatures in the river emerged from their ''recollection'' and immediately their auras changed. Despite being fish, they seemed to radiate the aura of humanoid warriors who had fought on the battlefield for many years.

    They immediately swam over and formed an organized group, then gazed at Dante silently, their eyes filled with a myriad of emotions like joy for being reunited, determination to follow their eternal leader, and anguish at their limited forms.

    "My dear brothers, you have awakened. However, there are many others still in this realm who are locked behind their reincarnated forms, unable to recollect their glorious days under our collective banner."

    "As such, I must ask you to capture your brothers as best as you can, even if it''s one by one, and bring them to me for them to awaken under the guidance of my brilliant gaze."

    Dante looked at his ''troops'' with a gentle smile. "Can I ask this of you?"

    The water churned as the various species opened their mouths in a silent roar, attempting to shout their usual response but being unable to since they were underwater. Immediately, they all swam away in organized groups to fulfill Dante''smands.

    As for Dante, he sat down in the spot and released his Gluttonous Inferno fire to devour all the trees nearby to replenish the energy he consumed while influencing so many species at once.

    With their ''training'' and coordination, it was easy enough for the groups of fish to either capture or lurend-based monsters that either came to drink or were passing by the bank, bringing them to Dante without drowning them.

    Dante would then make them undergo the same illusion and then charge them to go out and bring more. During the first seven days, while the other students were finding shelter and creating bases and safe points to begin their exploration, Dante continued to influence superpowered monsters in this realm to do his bidding.

    Seven days passed like this, with Dante''s forces growing with each passing hour while the other students could only scratch their heads and wonder what was happening.

    Of course, Dante had given his ''troops'' the order to hide from the sight of his fellow ssmates by any means necessary as he wanted to deal with the various monsters in the realm before dealing with them.

    By the time he had everyone under his banner, even the monsters that hung around near the trees had been collected into his army. Dante had them pluck all ten fruits for him and bring them to him respectfully, which he observed casually.

    While inspecting them, he waved a hand and delivered a moving speech about how his ssmates were the reincarnations of their enemies and that they were to go and vanquish them.

    As such, his huge monster army became red-eyed with hatred as they charged the students'' various shelters and bases, ughtering them while screeching iprehensible things.

    The students were naturally speechless as they were torn apart gruesomely.

 Chapter 224 Uproar

    Chapter 224 Uproar

    Brother monster, is our grudge really that deep? I''m here to see if I can get a fruit and assess Dante''s abilities in real-time to report back to my faction. But why have you not only formed a group but also look at me as if I killed your mother?

    Is there some misunderstanding? There''s no need to go as far as deliberately herding the remaining 27 of us into one shelter and then easily crushing our defenses, slowly and methodically ripping our virtual bodies apart while roaring with glee and joy as if you were venting your injustice.

    And where is that omnipotent Dante fellow? Why is he not being bullied along with us? With his level of power, he should be able to take on all of them, right? Or did these beasts get agitated because of something he did?"

    The students had no idea they were partially correct until they were all ejected simultaneously. This unprecedented event set off rms in the Central Server of the school and even alerted the headmistress to investigate.

    While the students were summoned back, they noticed that Dante was fine and still logged in. This piqued Lara''s interest, and she forcefully connected to the students'' world to investigate what was going on herself.

    She inspected the site of the battle, the cleared-out trees, and watched from afar as Dante contemted the virtual fruits while surrounded by hundreds of virtual monsters training in harmony.

    No, not just living in harmony. They were rigorously training like elite soldiers, undergoing movements that would make humansugh at how silly it looked, but the sheer unity and synchronization, as well as the professionalism, would make any discerning person feel a chill.

    She observed one from afar and inspected it using her power, and her eyes shed.

    "Its Spirit World ispletely intact and undamaged, and its mind is untampered with. However, after forcefully soul-searching, I see now why they follow him. These set of memories are easily alien, but they have been inserted so naturally that if it weren''t for the fact that I know they absolutely cannot have memories like this, I wouldn''t know better," Lara muttered to herself.

    "What... a frightening illusion ability," Lara admitted with a deep sigh.

    She nced at Dante from afar, and her tone became heavy and less casual, with a hint of respect.

    "Dante... I underestimated you wrongly. I won''t make such a mistake again. See you in the First Gate," Lara spoke under her breath cryptically before disappearing.

    Meanwhile, Dante nced towards the ce Lara had been with narrowed eyes but did notment. His current power was not enough to determine if the headmistress was friend or foe, so there was no need to provoke her.

    Hmph, just wait until his mother-inw came back to life and give him time to power up his family with the fruits, not to mention himself. At that point, he would be able to determine everything, and if she was an enemy, she would be dealt with ordingly.

    If she was an ally... well, it depended on the exact situation of their mutual interest that made them allies in the first ce. Not every ally was necessarily a friend, nor a trustworthy one.

    There was an immediate uproar outside when Lara simply stated that nothing was wrong and that Dante had used some special means to ''tame'' the beasts of the virtual world and set them against his ssmates.

    Of course, she wasn''t going to reveal his illusion ability because it was something even she feared. She did not want to give him a reason to use it on her, so she severely downyed the actual reason for the subjugation.

    But even this caused many powers and factions to froth at the mouth in horror. Most of them were alumni from the very same Eternal Academy, so they knew the quality and superiority of the school''s quantum worlds.

    If they were not 100%parable to reality in terms of stability, then they were at least 99%. Heck, as someone with the only quantum-rted superpower, Dante could even say that this estimate was not giving enough credit to the school''s quantum worlds, as they were literally half of the reason for his rise to power.

    So, to them, what they took away from this was not ''oh my, Dante is awesome'' but rather that ''whatever means he used worked on those beasts in the virtual world, so it could likely work in the real world''!

    Initially, Dante was a problem because of his shockingly high SDI, which meant he could bulldoze through everyone and everything in the Zero Gate. However, just like how even Portia Portinari could be dealt with despite her crazy power, there were means to deal with such things.

    They might be limited, obscure, very expensive, and maybe even one-time-use with a huge price to pay, but they definitely existed. That was even the point of that teacher''s actions towards Xue Bing, a unified message from various powers towards "Dante''s faction" that anything could happen, so he''d better not go overboard.

    But the effectiveness of such methods solely relied on the information they had of Dante''s previous attempts, which was his use of martial force. They did not have anything to deal with controlling the beasts in the entire realm to be his subordinates!

    The heck!

    Those beasts were 1005 of the difficulty of acquiring fruits every goddamn year!

    Just because there were ten fruits a year with students entering did not mean that ten fruits came out each time; this should be quite obvious. More often than not,ing out with five fruits collectively by the students was seen as a win.

    If there was someone who could deal with the beasts, then that person would likely have the best harvest, depending on their level of effectiveness. There had never been a precedent like Dante, who could just get all ten each time because all of the difficulty disappeared!

    In fact, if Dante had previously been a final boss that was a huge obstacle from allowing the students to achieve the reward at the end, then he was now the heavens itself, the being that allowed good and evil to fight each other for its amusement.

    When people realize that there is no hope of victory, they would naturally resort to other means. Previously, due to pride and some other reasons, the students did not dare go too far because they believed they could deal with Dante eventually.

    However, now that this hope was thoroughly crushed, they used the tried and true method of twisting public opinion!

    They and the factions behind them began to protest, very loudly. You might think that no one should fall for such tripe, but when there were billions of ''sentients,'' there were bound to be individuals who would be captured by moral highground slogans and buzzwords.

    Especially since Dante did not bother to speak for himself or refute, these factions had a field day not only tarnishing and smearing his reputation, making him seem questionable, violent, vicious, and traitorous, but they also began wanting to use the public to put pressure on the Prime Human Council.

    They made Dante seem questionable through his origins; his first appearance was on Etonia, and nothing was known about him before then. What if he was some impostor ying at being pure human or some invader from somewhere? How could they trust that he was one of them?

    Then they made him seem violent and anti-social because he never interacted with his peers and had even ''attacked'' some of his teachers. The fact that it was in self-defense was heavily glossed over and suppressed.

    After that, the ploy was to make him seem vicious since two students rumored to have visited him a while back had disappeared without contact for more than a few months. Their families also came out to say that Dante had threatened using his connections and power to remain silent, or else.

    As for the family members who came out to say this, one had to ignore their unwilling and bloodshot eyes as they spoke. After all, no matter how treacherous they were, how could they be willing to be brutalized and bullied by the very same factions forcing them to pin the me on someone else?

    But did they have a choice? If they didn''t want to be destroyed any further, they could only p their gums and hope for the best.

    Then, the various factions painted Dante as traitorous because somehow they had dug out his contact with the Portinari n and found that they had no control over him.

    Not only that, they sponsored his everything at the cost of other n members and even married off their most powerful daughter to him, yet he refused to give any fruits he might acquire to the n!

    Well, there was no evidence of Dante actually saying that he wouldn''t give the Portinari n anything, but there was also no evidence of him saying that he would, so...

    Anyway, forget about all that; the point was that thisd was traitorous and would bite the hand that fed him! Such a person could not possibly be allowed into the Zero Gate, could he?

 Chapter 225 Public Opinion Vs Overpowered Genocidal Waifu

    Chapter 225 Public Opinion Vs Overpowered Genocidal Waifu

    Well, the Eternal Universe had more than 8000 years in the home universe, so using that logic, society as a whole should have had more than 8000 years of development in terms of legal and socio-economic issues.

    In other words, even on Earth, in which globalization was rtively recent, such tricks were easily seen through by many people, though many others fell for it, sometimes willingly and sometimes not.

    So theoretically, the Eternal Universe should have seen scenes from this ybook so many times by now that they were practically desensitized and could not be moved by it, right?

    Well, yesˇ­ on paper.

    However, the universe was made up of a small poption of first-ss pure humanspared to overwhelming numbers of second-ss mixed-breed humans and third-ss aliens who really did not like this ss system.

    To 99% of the universal poption, the actions of the 1% deserved their scorn and dissent at all times. So when negative news about a pure human who was said to be cruel and vicious towards even his own kind and even more so to aliens came out, they exploded.

    It did not help that his rtionship with Beatrice was also made a point of focus by them. He was romantically affiliated with the woman who had a title of ''thedy of genocides,'' a woman who had wiped out many alien species from the face of the universe all by herself.

    How could he be any better? And from the way it was described, he was quickly achieving the same level of power that Beatrice had which allowed her to precisely wipe out species and only receive a p on the wrist at best because her power was feared.

    If the two of them paired up and backed each other at their peak, they might just go on a universal cleansing spree with no one able to stop them right?

    You have to understand, it wasn''t that the public was stupid all the time. Sometimes, you might see the obvious maniption behind an act or a piece of news but be baffled by why some lean into it and let themselves be manipted by it.

    Were they really stupid? It was 50/50. Most of the time, they were also aware of the maniption but could only support it because that piece of news aligned with their interests, beliefs, or benefits.

    In this case, many species had Beatrice as an example and did not want another Dante, even if everything was a lie. It was possible that Dante was as sweet as a flower and might even be the one to ''fix'' Beatrice, but they couldn''t gamble on that.

    It was better to just cripple him and prevent future trouble from rising!

    Of course, one who was not influenced by either side would ask the most prudent question. Even if they prevented Dante from getting fruits in the Zero Gate, it did not seem like it would halt his growing power based on the trajectory he''s shown so far, right?

    So wouldn''t doing this offend him if he otherwise did not have any negative intentions towards you? What if he actually did pair up with Beatrice to start genociding piece by piece out of malice?

    Well, the answer to this was actually quite predictable. Some might have thought about this issue, but many others were ignorant of it. Even those who thought of it forcibly suppressed such doubts because they could only act now and deal with what cameter.

    That''s right, it was the typical ''I''ll cross the bridge when ites'' which usually led to extreme pain and suffering in the future.

    The higher-ups were not surprised by the reaction as they had precisely manipted things to reach this point. They leaned back in their seats with sneers, wondering how Dante would deal with this problem.

    Public opinion was one of the most powerful tools in the universe. Even Superman could be whittled down into bones by public opinion, much less a mere Dante!

    But you see, the simplest cure for such a thing was to close one''s ears to all the insults,ints, and berating. It was just like that meme about how it was impossible to be cyberbullied as long as they closed theptop screen and went to sleep.

    What was the point of it all if the man himself could not hear? Society berated a person for being who he was but he lived in the mountains with no inte connection, so how could he be canceled?

    Dante''s avatar was in the Zero Gate world checking out the fruits he had gotten this time while Dante''s main body had gone back to the home universe to continue charging towards the B-Rank of Quantum Entanglement and see if he could unlock something amazing.

    While the Portinari n heard this and were partly recipients of this attack, Augeus was gone and no longer around, leaving Beatrice in charge. The n elders initially did not dare make a peep, but under the pressure from their families, they could only bite the bullet and go forth.

    The rest of the family that was eagerly awaiting the result only saw their eldersing back beaten and bruised all over, their faces alternating between green and white. It was today that they realized that this little girl was just like her tyrannical mother.

    They also suddenly felt affection for Augeus, for he had been kind to them all these years byparison yet they had bullied him. They almost wept with depression!

    As for the allegations, Beatrice was not like Dante who would coolly deal with it from the back or ignore it. She directly came out and said that she would deal with the factions behind this farce one by one if all this rubbish did not disappear in 30 days.

    After all, Beatrice did not want Dante toe back and see this because she was not sure how it would affect him. He had already gone through something simr on Earth, going through another round here too might make him give up on society altogether.

    The groups thatunched theints were left speechless. They were not all part of the top ns, corps, or factions, but were made up of hundreds of smaller ones. The absolute top powers had actually not made a move publicly since the very beginning, and their silence was eerie, as if they knew something the rest did not.

    The top ns and factions might have to take Beatrice seriously if she made such a threat, much less them who could really disappear forever. It did not matter if she would be punished after; what would be the point then if you and your entire bloodline and ideology disappeared forever?

    There was nothing like ''face'' to consider here, not in the face of survival. Many powers retracted their statements and even drew the line by releasing apologies and pointing fingers, saying our source was this fellow.

    And so, a despicable farce was reced by aedic farce, where the various factions kept pointing fingers all over such that anyone who followed it all would be dizzy from all the lines and connections drawn.

    The sudden change left the public speechless and they felt even more the power of this famed cruel admiral who killed in the millions and billions when she attacked. Some chose to continue ''fighting'' the ''good fight'' as they were even more convinced that if she and Dante were not suppressed, they would only grow more unscrupulous.

    As for the rest, they lowered their heads and pretended not to see anything because they simply could not afford to risk it. In their minds, Beatrice even dared to offend such great powers, much less them.

    She might use their actions as an excuseto skip dealing with those higher factions and use them as scapegoats. It was more efficient to ''offend'' them than ''offend'' those factions.

    The truth was that they were right. Beatrice spent the next 21 days traveling the universe, finding ''rebellious cells of terrorist aliens'' who nned to eradicate the pure human race, and so extinguished them and everyone affiliated with them.

    After all, if she only threatened without taking action, the value of her words would reduce and many would take her for granted. At the same time, she did not want to overdo it and cause the entire alien species to explode in fear and rebellion from fear of being killed, so she only targeted a few smaller powers who no one would care about and got rid of them.

    Not only that, but the small benefits that came from eradicating such a faction were shared by Beatrice among the various nearby factions that were of the mixed breed or alien type, greatly pacifying and satisfying them, so they even helped her twist the story.

    In this time, Dante was seriously going through a period of trouble and joy as he nced at the fruitsid out before him, sparkling with traces of their hidden superpower. This time, the lineup was truly excellent and worthy of all the hype.

 Chapter 226 10 New Fruits

    Chapter 226 10 New Fruits

    The first fruit he had acquired had been hanging from a tree ame with golden hues. The fruit itself bore the essence of evestingbustion, and it was likely that when consumed, it granted the ability to summon and control mes that burned eternally, never to be extinguished.

    He decided to call it the Eternal me Fruit.

    The second fruit he had acquired was this one that was encased in a crystalline sheen, holding the energy of prismatic light. Dante was willing to bet that those who partook in its radiance gained the power to bend and manipte light, rendering themselves invisible or casting brilliant, dazzling illusions.

    This one he named the Aetherial Prism Fruit.

    The third fruit he had gotten from a tree adorned with crystalline facets, its bark continually rippling with a buzz that intensified the closer you got, shaking your bones and blood. Those who ate this fruit might be able to shatter objects with a mere thought or create destructive shockwaves through resonance and vibrational maniption.

    This one, in particr, deserved the name Resonance Core Fruit.

    The fourth fruit had been hanging from a tree that swayed in a seemingly timeless breeze, its leaves alternating between fast and slow as if someone was fast-forwarding and slowing down a video. Dante was certain based on his own senses that whoever consumed it could specifically slow or hasten time using an element of wind.

    Because of that, he called it the Chrono-Wind Fruit.

    This fifth fruit had been nestled in the core of a gravity-defying tree that was floating off the ground and made anything that came close lose its gravity as well. It was likely that those who consumed it could crush opponents with invisible pressure or defy gravity to soar through the skies.

    In light of this, Dante called this one the Gravity Well Fruit.

    The sixth fruit was found adorning a tree entwined with melodic vines, every segment of the tree releasing a tune that synchronized to form a melody. The leaves were shaped like musical notes, the branches like trumpets, and the trunk like the treble clef. Dante did not need to think to know that those who partook in its sweet essence could either create harmonies that healed wounds or disrupted the bnce of the world.

    As such, this one was called the Harmony Chime Fruit.

    The seventh fruit was collected while hanging from a tree that shimmered like quicksilver, the leaves changing colors and styles, sometimes being organic or even inorganic. Those who ate it could mold their form like y, adopting the shapes of beasts or even inanimate objects, as this fruit dealt with shapeshifting.

    Thinking back to that famous book series about teenagers morphing into animals, Dante named this one the Morphic Seed Fruit.

    The eighth fruit was dangling from the center of a tree that seemed to absorb all light and sound, the tree seeming to contain the essence of nothingness itself. Dante assumed based on the fruit itself that those who consumed it could traverse the void or sub-space, appearing and disappearing at will.

    As such, the name Void Nexus Fruit was apt to describe it.

    This ninth fruit was a bit different as it was found encrusted upon a tree adorned with chaotic patterns, these patterns seemingly granting the onlooker the power to control over the very chaos of the universe. Dante was solemn as he knew from some bizarre instinct that those who consumed it could unleash unpredictable, chaotic energy, creating havoc or rewriting thews of reality.

    This rtively overpowered fruit was named the Chaos Crystal Fruit by Dante, and he had ns for it.

    The tenth and final fruit was found hanging from a tree where the very air seemed to shimmer, its movements containing the essence of echoes across dimensions. Dante was not fully sure, but he guessed that its power was an inferior version of Quantum Entanglement in that those who partook in its essence couldmunicate with otherworldly beings or even traverse certain dimensions with their thoughts.

    Since it was kinda simr to the headmistress''s Spirit Goddess superpower, Dante decided to name it the Ethereal Echo Fruit.

    Ten fruits for Dante and ten pieces of joy. None of the superpowers were useless on their own, and anyone could find ways to use them in amazing ways for themselves. Even that fellow Mugiwara could make a rubber superpower be overpowered, so what excuse did anyone who got these fruits have?

    Anyway, he did not dare eat them as that would be wasting them. It had already been established that ''a dealer could not get high off his own supply'' with regards to Dante''s superpower. In other words, these fruits were ''manifested'' by his superpower and could not surpass it.

    So most of the time, rather than get the esoteric superpower within, he could only get the raw Zero Energy that helped the person who ate ''activate'' the superpower within the fruit at the F Rank so that they could start outˇ­ as well as some insights from the fruits'' detailed programming.

    Obviously, there were two reasons. The first was the most obvious, which was that his main body was currently in the Ster Vanguard II cultivating Zero Energy from the densest ce near the Zero Gate.

    Even though eating these fruits would allow him to progress far faster, it was only really an issue of time consumption in terms of difference, and bluntly speaking, time was something Dante had in abundance in the home universe.

    The second reason was more conclusive, which was the fact that the quantum clone could not grow its power in any way through training, practice, or otherwise. So eating it would basically be eating for the taste, something which could cause any being to have a heart attack at the wastefulness.

    Right now, Dante was considering his future ns. His Quantum Replication was pretty overpowered, but it was limited when it came to quantum fruits in that he could only replicate each fruit once.

    When Dante tried to do more, the process failed, and he got some strange feedback. He didn''t know if it was his own mind or the tree that ''sponsored'' him, but the feedback was basically that there could not be more than one of the same active superpower in each universe.

    Since Dante could only ess two universes, it was useless for him to have more than two. Actually, this second part was theorized by him, only the one-of-a-kind superpower per universe thing came from his superpower''s feedback.

    So if someone had Absorption out there in this universe, no matter how many times another person in this universe ate a fruit with the absorption superpower, it would always fail. Unless the person with Absorption dies and the superpower is no longer active, could they acquire it.

    Dante finally understood after some thought why there was a ''sess rate'' with eating fruits. If there was someone out there who already had the superpower, of course, your fruit-eating session would turn up nothing.

    In that case, every fruit he got was precious. If people could truly eat them in the external universe and get the superpowers without being hit by quantum poisoning, then that would be great.

    However, Dante remembered that the biggest problem with virtual fruits was that they were designed after actual fruits that had been taken out and researched in the past.

    That meant that they had been eaten before, and it was entirely possible that the user might still be alive given the awesome healthcare of this universe, not to mention the fact that many species had high stats.

    However, that was a problem to deal withter. Right now, the quantum clone could only replicate the fruits ahead of time and then ce them within the Quantum Depository. After that, he realized that he had nothing to do for the next 21 or so days, so he simplyid back and watched his ''reincarnated troops'' train vigorously.

    Sometimes, for shits and giggles, he would even join them. asionally, he would show off by using his Blood Qi to cause untold havoc in the world, causing the eyes of all these beasts to bulge with shock.

    When he buffed them using his Knight''s life essence, they wept dramatically, saying that it was a blessing from their emperor and that they felt connected to Dante more than ever.

    Dante was speechless.

    After that, he continued to pose and posture by using his hellfire - which was featured in the illusion for these guys - to do various things. Even crazier was when he used his offensive astral re 1st Rank spell to decimate one chunk of the forest into a crater.

    Even Dante was shocked by the current damage output of a mere first-rank spell when boosted by 4 spatial cores. Each core was a 150% boost, meaning his base space element damage was 6 times higher than any mage of the same level who used a space element spell with no space element cores.

    This did not ount for, nor factor in, his own specialness for having 9th Rank level Intelligence as well as his base power as a 4th Rank Elite Wizard.

 Chapter 227 B-Rank Quantum Entanglement

    Chapter 227 B-Rank Quantum Entanglement

    In the end, 21 days passed by calmly.

    Well... rtively calmly.

    For the denizens of the Eternal Universe, it had been quite troublesome as the entire thing with the public opinion maniption as well as Beatrice''s brutal response happened during this time while on the other side, the students were ashen-faced when they realized how little their chance against Dante was.

    Today was the day they were toe out and enter the ck Land for another 7 days, but one could tell that their hearts were not in it. When the 27 of them saw Dante appear with them in the ck Land''s staging area, they flinched and gave him a wide berth, something which made Dante amused.

    The teachers'' faces darkened when they saw this, but Xue Bing simply smiled brilliantly. During this time, her Xue n had been under pressure just like the Portinari n, though her n faced much less in this regard.

    However, the more Dante overperformed, the more the n was willing to pinch their nose and bear with it. They were one of the top 10 ns in the universe and knew more about the Zero Gate and the truth behind it.

    They understood how beneficial it was to back Dante at this moment. In fact, there was currently a gag order among the higher-ups towards Dante in a special way, so some secret information that Xue Bing desperately wanted to share with him was withheld.

    Anyway, the group was led into the ck Land, and the quantum clone had to undergo another 7 days of meditating in the truest sense and rxing his body as well as his mind.

    As for Dante''s real body, he had finally reached the B Rank after toiling for so long. Before he broke through, he switched to one of his lesser ships and ventured into an abandoned part of the void to do so.

    At the C Rank, his breakthrough had caused the Zero Gate world to form a giant crater that went for a few hundred meters in all directions, so he did not want to explode his gship by carelessly breaking through there.

    After making the necessary preparations, Dante easily slipped into the B Rank, and like before, he felt his connection to the tree. This time, it was strengthened by almost one and a half times, so he could subtly feel some feedback from it.

    Not enough that he could get clear words or thoughts, but enough that he could feel the flow of energy that came towards the gate that functioned as the base of his superpower, and just trying toprehend it gave him a splitting headache.

    Dante shook his head and focused on his situation externally to find that, as expected, he was now aimlessly floating through the void in his exosuit since the ship he had been on had exploded into space debris.

    He could only speechlessly teleport back into the Ster Vanguard II and order some misc ships to clean up the space debris and recreate the destroyed ship from what remained. As for himself, he could no longer ignore the pinging from the superpower that demanded he select new abilities.

    [Quantum Upgrades for the B Rank

    Rank B Upgraded Base Abilities:

    1. Quantum Vortex: Quantum Vortex allows the user to create localized disturbances in the space-time fabric at the departure and destination points. These vortexes act as small event horizons and draw all matter into them to be destroyed. For their duration, the vortexes are invulnerable.

    2. Quantum Shroud: The Quantum Shroud upgrade permits the user to wrap themselves in a protective cloak of quantum energy during teleportation. This shroud grants temporary invincibility, making them impervious to attacks or harm for up to 30 seconds after each quantum teleportation. If an ability is obtained that allows teleportation with others, they too would benefit from this ability.

    3. Quantum Transportation: The user can now establish a stable connection between two quantum markers they ce. This allows them to teleport back and forth between these two points at will with more than one person, creating a stable pathway for instantaneous travel. At the B Rank, the user can take targets into quantum worlds and obtain temporary immunity to quantum poisoning as long as they do not leave 10 meters of the quantum marker.

    4. Quantum Anchor: Quantum Anchor allows the user to ce a quantum marker on a target or object, tethering it to a specific point in space. This effectively immobilizes the target, preventing it from moving or teleporting away. The user can also remotely retract or release the anchor at will.

    5. Quantum Flux: In this upgrade, the user can manipte the flow of time around quantum markers. They can slow down or speed up time, allowing for strategic nning, elerated training, or even aging or de-aging objects and people.

    Rank B New Sub-Abilities:

    1. Quantum Compatibility: Quantum Compatibility is an ability that allows the user to bestow any quantum item the ability to be fully and perfectlypatible with any species in the real world and vice versa. Apart from certain unbreakable rules, all items can be madepatible with no downsides.

    2. Quantum Infusion: Quantum Infusion enables the user to imbue objects with quantum properties temporarily. This allows them to manipte the fundamental aspects of these objects, such as changing their weight, hardness, or even granting them the ability to copy the properties of other quantum items.

    3. Quantum Destabilization: With this ability, the user can destabilize the quantum state of objects or individuals they touch. This destabilization causes temporary disintegration, breaking down the target at the quantum level. If not restored within a certain timeframe, the target''s existence could be erased permanently.

    4. Quantum Siphon: Quantum Siphon enables the user to drain quantum energy from their surroundings or nearby quantum markers, temporarily boosting their stats by a factor of 50 times.

    5. Quantum Summoning: Quantum Summoning grants the user the ability to summon any designated and willing quantum being into reality, retaining the full length and breadth of their power, but their existence would be permanently tied to the superpower and cannot be separated.]

    Dante was impressed by the choices and went through them one by one carefully.

    Quantum Vortex was pretty cool, allowing him to create a ck hole at his quantum markers that would suck all beings in and likely crush them to death. The best part was that these markers could not be broken by anyone or anything so all you could do was run.

    But... yeah, not very useful. Quantum Entanglement as a whole had some very overpowered offensive abilities, but that was why Dante had his various sub-methods to increase his killing power.

    The main superpower was reserved for those esoteric and amazing abilities that could serve multiple purposes in one.

    Quantum Shroud was one of the best new appearances for the upgraded base ability and made Dante pant heavily with bloodshot eyes. If he could obtain temporary invincibility for 30 seconds after teleporting, how OP would that be?

    Oh? He teleported and his 30 seconds were up? Well, just ce another quantum marker by the side and teleport there to get another free 30 seconds. Rinse and repeat and watch your enemy break down mentally because they cannot even harm you.

    Dante doubted it worked like that, but if it did, it would be an ability worthy of the EX Rank, forget the B Rank. However, precisely because it was at the B Rank, there had to be some limitations here and there.

    Quantum Transportation was a wee repetitionfrom the previous upgrade and one that he had been extremely reluctant to part with. With it, he could take his parents to this universe and take Beatrice to his home universe.

    Heck, with it he could take his people en masse into the various quantum worlds without letting them have to hide in life support pods within his Quantum Depository. Of course, the quantum poisoning was still a problem, so there was that.

    Thankfully, the B Rank version came with the upgrade of allowing the people to remain stationary in a quantum world without suffering the negative effects, so he could drag Beatrice into difficult situations and have her throw a punch from afar that would shatter the world in two.

    Quantum Anchor was one that squeezed between the various options and seemed unremarkable on the surface, but Dante considered it to be one of the best options so far. It covered a category of abilities Dantecked and sincerely wished he had, which was the ability to seal.

    Not every enemy could be killed. Dante might one day meet a foe like Portia who had a set of abilities that made her a cockroach, or could regenerate better than Deadpool from any ability.

    In that case, brute force would no longer be able to work, but as long as he could get this ability off, he could basically lock them in ce for eternity, unable to be freed. Not to mention it was also a good way to capture someone without risking a fight or having themmit suicide.

 Chapter 228 New Upgrades

    Chapter 228 New Upgrades

    Quantum Flux was another upgrade that came from the previous round. Its time maniption ability had not really spoken to him back then, and that was before he even got a quantum clone.

    It spoke even less to him, but its upgraded ability to eliminate the adverse effects of time control was truly amazing. Most people mored for time-rted powers but forgot that such a thing came with various problems.

    If you turned time back, will the memories you or someone else who was the target made stay or revert back to that time period of your life? If you turned time forward, no matter how you spun it, your mind and body would age, cutting down your lifespan, which was limited by default.

    Lifespan could be extended using special powers or items, or having higher stats, but even with 2 million or 20 million, there was still a final date on your lifespan. Continual use of time maniption would cut it down; that was a fact.

    Quantum Compatibility made Dante''s eyes sh because it solved his biggest problem at the moment. He could replicate any quantum item with quantum replication, but that did not make it a real item.

    It was still a quantum item, which meant that not only could he not benefit from it, but others may likely suffer adverse effects from using them. An example was the Mutation cores he gave Aisha.

    They had miraculously worked for her and increased her superpower greatly, but Dante did not know if there would be any aftereffects, which was why he gave her a physically demanding task to capture other superpowered people on Earth.

    Continued battle and fighting with others would elerate the growth of any problems and reveal them soon enough. However, with this, all such testing would be unnecessary, and not only could Dante replicate any quantum item, but he could start his own unique business in the Eternal Universe, which Beatrice had suggested long ago!

    Of course, he was not going to do something stupid like sell fruits or reveal that he could sell fruits. The most he would do was reveal Mutation Cores but im that he could only make up to the C Rank, and even then, both the pricing and the output would make it tough for only the topmost to be able to get it.

    *Cough* but this was not the time to discuss that; Dante had alreadyid ns for his business empire when he got Quantum Replication back then, so it would be revisited again in time, especially after Portia came back to life.

    Quantum Infusion was another good one that Dante desired greatly. The ability to infuse items with quantum properties and even copy the properties of other quantum items was so overpowered.

    Dante could literally enter an anime world with 7 pebbles and nce at the Dragon Balls from afar, copying their properties onto his 7 pebbles and then have the actual items for himself. It was temporary, but how long did it take to make a wish from Shenron?

    Or he could acquire the fruit of the Tree of Might and literally harvest worlds with pebbles, then empower himself by eating the fruit afterward. He could even temporarily copy things like the Nirvana Fire and use them to resurrect someone, meanwhile, just 10 seconds ago, it had been amon piece of rock.

    Even though it shed with replication a bit, it actually boosted it in another way, allowing him to preserve the original and replicated items while using other things to copy them, meaning he never ran out of stock.

    Quantum Destabilization was exined in two words: gawt dayum.

    Justˇ­ just touch him? And that''s it; he crumbles into ash like he was snapped by Thanos?

    Not only that, but the person or thing could be reassembled and still be alive? If they weren''t reassembled within a period of time, that was it; they were permanently and truly dead?

    Dante had thought to himself that Quantum Entanglement was best used for esoteric abilities rather than offensive ones, but this one was truly tempting. The idea of it was crazy to think about.

    As for Quantum Siphonˇ­ Dante was speechless.

    Why not juste out and call it Quantum Super Saiyan?

    Did the tree that powered his ability watch its friend be blown up by some space lizard emperor and achieve the form not seen in a thousand years? If not, then why was the multiplier the exact same?!

    A 50 times boost would not conflict with his Bionics or Psionics, and the energy would not drain his body as it was supplied by the superpower. He could maintain it for as long as the ability allowed, which would be awesome.

    Assuming he never raised his stats in the future - very unlikely - he would have 100,000 in all fields after this ability''s boost, all energy consumption free! From 2,000 to 100,000, that was enough for him to beat Beatrice in her base form!

    Finally, Quantum Summoning was something he also desired. With this, he could bring his cultivated ''protagonists'' to reality, or even fellows like the Golden Ape from the previous 30-day mock exam or the ''reincarnated celestial troops'' right here.

    Don''t forget, ALL of these fellows had superpowers that were suppressed from the A and B rank to the C and D rank. If Dante brought them into reality, putting aside the fact that they would be bound to his superpower and would be loyal to him, their already brainwashed states ensured that they would follow him till death and after.

    Counting them, they numbered slightly over a thousand because the server could not take too much load in regards to genuine superpowered monsters. However, a thousand superpowered users all loyal to Dante was enough to directly challenge the Prime Human Council for sovereignty of the universe.

    That was not even factoring if Dante entered new quantum worlds like this one and dragged fresh batches of superpowered monsters out after brainwashing them. As long as the ability could support them, Dante could recruit them!

    Dante looked at his ten options of which he could only choose two with deep contemtion. There was a lot to consider when making a choice, including future-proofing the ability, its utility in the present, its power and usage cap, how many goals or functions it could achieve at the same time, as well as overall, and finally, its valuepared to others of the same category.

    Dante looked at his mental goals list andpared each ability to each of his targets. He rubbed his face with deep contemtion and consideration before eventually deciding that he would make his choices.

    He thought about consulting Beatrice, but when he had spoken to her during their week-long ''honeymoon,'' she basically said that she wanted to leave all his choices to himself because at the end of the day, he knew his situation best.

    In that case, when you thought about Dante''s personality, his goals, and the kind of future he was gunning for, was it surprising when his choice for the upgraded base ability and the new sub ability was Quantum Transportation and Quantum Compatibility respectively?

    There may be other good ones among both options, but there was hope they could arrive again in the future during a different selection. Aside from that, they simply did not solve a pressing issue or had abilities that could be reced by other things.

    When Dante made his choice, he felt the abilities settle into him, and they even manifested unique apparitions in his soul space that were loosely connected tothe tree in the distance. The way to use them and the rules tied to the abilities were revealed to him, and he was pleased to find that it was basically as he expected.

    Quantum Transportation could take up to 10 people at once at the B Rank, and all of them could be protected from quantum poisoning within 10 meters of the quantum marker, assuming they entered the quantum world.

    If it was between universes, then there was no problem, obviously.

    As for Quantum Compatibility, it had even less of a restriction. Most items were fine, but higher-dimensional or pseudo higher-dimensional things like the quantum fruits - and real fruits - were still controlled by higherws that the universe itself could not infringe.

    It was not that Quantum Entanglement was weak but that it was limited by the environment in which Dante was in, which made the fellow speechless.

    He finally had an answer as to why replicating the fruits was so hard; it was because the universe itself could not tolerate the strain of two of the exact same superpowers existing at the same time in its ''official'' register.

    If a person had Absorption in the home universe and a person had Absorption in the Eternal Universe, neither the home universe nor the Eternal Universe would sweat it if one of them used Dante''s quantum portal toe over because it was still tied to the universe it came from.

    Not just Dante''s portal but any means, really. As long as it was acquired in a certain universe, it would be borne by the universe of origin, not the universe of habitation.

 Chapter 229 Great Knight

    Chapter 229 Great Knight

    Dante checked in with his base AI on Earth to find that his parents still had around 14 days left to undergo the full-scale gic upgrade. As for Aisha, she had already captured over 15 superpowered users on Earth of varying nationalities and backgrounds, but she began exhibiting signs of sickness.

    Dante''s expression became serious when he received the report that Aisha had asional dips in her vitals, especially when she used her superpower strongly. It could either be that the rapid growth of her superpower using the mutant cores naturally had that effect or that, as Dante feared, there was a problem with using quantum items directly without something to ''cleanse'' them like Quantum Compatibility.

    However, it was too soon to tell. In as much as he did not fully trust her and viewed her as a subordinate, Dante could not rightly watch her die in cold blood after working for him wholeheartedly. He still had thatst bit of humanity in him even though he decided to walk the path of a conqueror.

    As such, he recalled her to the base to begin receiving in-depth treatment and diagnosis. He would see if it was something he could cure, and if not, he could only wait until his superpower advanced and he acquired something akin to Quantum Healing.

    Speaking of his superpower, now that Dante was at the B Rank, he was probably ready to graduate from the Eternal Academy. At his current level of ability, he could finally make a name for himself in the Eternal Universe and build his own faction, but not yet.

    He wanted to take this time to increase his strength even further. His body had loosened once more, and he could take in another quantum power system, meaning that Dante now had two slots free.

    However, he was currently addicted to the feeling of raising his free.

    However, he was currently addicted to the feeling of raising his superpower and getting to choose awesome upgrades. He checked with his quantum clone to see that the fellow was idling about in the ck Land due to Dante''s ''obligations.''

    As such, he dove right back into his soul space and began sorting out the next batch of threads. To get to the B Rank, he had spent so much time sorting out 3% of it, which meant that his current total progress was 5%.

    However, the moment Dante touched the new threads, his face changed greatly. The amount of Zero Energy and effort required to get the work done was more than ten times!

    One should know that whenever he meditated, he activated his Psionics at full power, which meant that he was at 20,000 Intelligence right now!

    Yet he could only exert this much force going from B to A Rank? Then what about those other superpowered users, was that why the highest they could reach in 5 years was the C Rank, with great talents reaching the B Rank and only Lara ever reaching the A Rank?

    Dante could tell that even if he worked hard, he would need at least 180 days to reach the A Rank, and the more likely time frame would be 300 days. As he had other things to do in this time, he could only stop his seclusion and rub his forehead.

    Just as well, he had neglected his sub-power systems due to his craving for increasing Quantum Entanglement as a whole. It was time to raise his two physical methods up to loosen his genes, raise his stats even more, and then raise his two magical methods.

    As for new sub-power systems, Dante had a few in mind, but he was not in a rush to activate them. As a wise man would say, find the food on your te before reaching out for extras.

    Dante did not need much time to raise his various methods to their max grade at the moment, so it was best to max them out before going for new sub-power systems. With the increased power, he could fight for a better starting point with regards to his next power system.

    Well, the grind never stops, huhˇ­

    Dante pped his thighs and stood up, proceeding to begin the practice for the Primal Ape Technique''s Peak Knight Realm. This technique''s version of this realm focused on Endurance and enhancing it, with only 3 moves unlike the usual ten.

    He popped the Quantum Vitality Serum and went through the motions.

    The first move was called Stonefist Grasp.

    It required Dante to stand in the center of the training room, his muscles tensed and ready. The training room on the Ster Vanguard II had a holographic disy, with which Dante projected the image of an enormous, solid stone pir.

    Obviously, a move called ''Stonefist Grasp'' required Dante to channel his thick life essence into his fists, condensing it to an incredible density and strike a stone pir.

    However, as he was currently in the void of space, he obviously did not have any conventional stone pirs around. Luckily, the holographic technology of the Eternal Universe included quantum real-time printing, which meant that holographs could be touched and interacted with as if they were real matter, because they wereˇ­ technically.

    Anyways, Dante performed the actions necessary and struck out with the condensed life energy in his fist, causing the room to shake with the force of his blow as cracks spread across the holographic stone.

    Unfortunately, as stated earlier, the essence of the Primal Ape technique at the Peak Knight realm was to increase endurance, so Dante was required to ''train his fists durability'' and life essence by rapidly punching the stone pir before him like a real silverback ape.

    With Dante''s current speed and ability, you could be sure that he was practically jojo-punching the heck out of that pir. Each impact sent shockwaves through his body, but he persisted because he could feel the tempering in real-time.

    As he continued to strike the stone pir, Dante''s endurance was put to the test. His arms trembled, and beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

    Wait a minute, with his level of strength, how could he possibly not have shattered that stone pir into atoms using the first wind of his first punch?

    Well, the obvious answer was that this was a ''stone pir'' but it wasn''t a "stone pir". The aesthetics and makeup were that of stone, but the actual matter was far more resilient and powerful than the stone that humans on Earth knew about.

    After all, the stone in other parts of the universe would not have the same properties as the stone on Earth.

    The second move was the Vitality Surge.

    After exhausting himself with the Stonefist Grasp as the technique intended, Dante transitioned to the current move which now required him to channel his life essence into his body, focusing on rejuvenation and healing.

    The holographic disy was here to help again as - uponmand from his AI chip - showed a lifelike image of Dante''s body, with various regions highlighted. Closing his eyes, Dante meditated as he circted his life essence through his body as if he was cultivating.

    He directed it to areas that needed healing, mending any micro-injuries from the previous exercise. The sensation was both soothing and invigorating, like a surge of vitality coursing through his veins.

    After a few hours passed, Dante could feel his fatigue and pain receding. His muscles regained their strength, and his body felt reinvigorated. This move was crucial for maintaining peak performance during extended battles, ensuring he could endure even the most grueling encounters.

    Not just the Primal Ape technique, but the entireKnight Breathing power system emphasized healing, endurance, and teamwork as opposed to the Martial Artist''s solidarity, violence, explosive power, and killing.

    The third and final move was the Eternal Ape Resonance.

    For this particr sequence, he moved to stand at the center of the room, focusing his attention on a newly generated holographic image of a magnificent, ancient silverback ape which was the very embodiment of endurance and resilience.

    It was absolutely life-like and visceral, the ape ncing down at Dante with a hint of coldness and testing. It was like an ancestor looking at a rtively capable descendant but wondering if they were truly worthy of taking on the mantle.

    Dante calmed down and synchronized his heartbeat with the Ancestral Silverback Ape''s hologram, aligning his life essence with the essence of the Eternal Ape. This was something that was only described in the technique and required one to continually visit the Painting of Monsters and Things in the Celestial Arcanists'' library to get a feeling for it, but Dante skipped it using technology.

    It was also because of his great memory and the fact that the AI chip took a snapshot of the entire painting when he looked at it. While it couldn''t mimic the magical effect, technology already knew the entire biology and gic structure of the Silverback Ape, so producing a hologram ording to the technique''s instructions was easy to follow.

    Usually, it was a challenging mental and spiritual exercise, requiring immense concentration, but he reduced the difficulty from ''very hard'' to ''easy'' using his current method.

    With every second, the resonance deepened, and he could feel his life essence harmonizing with the inexhaustible vitality of the ape.

    This move was about pushing his limits to the absolute extreme, achieving a state of near-limitless endurance. With the blueprint Eternal Ape as his inspiration and the Ancestral Silverback Ape as his visual guide, Dante was able to achieve perfection with ease.

 Chapter 230 Martial Grandmaster

    Chapter 230 Martial Grandmaster

    It took 2 hours to perform the first move, three hours for the second move, and 4 hours for the third. A full cycle of practice was 9 hours, and when Dante was done, he feltpletely rejuvenated rather than fatigued, which mostly had to do with the Quantum Vitality Serum rather than his practice itself.

    When he checked his progress, he saw that he had made 5%. This was a steep increase from the 2 hours for 10% he had at the previous Advanced Knight Realm, but it followed the rules of higher realm = higher effort.

    Anyway, with his current ability, it was a piece of cake to bring his Primal Ape Technique to breakthrough to the Great Knight realm after spending just over 81 hours or 3 and a half days practicing nonstop with no break.

    After all, Dante at his current realm did not feel much physical fatigue, while his mental fatigue was greatly alleviated by his quantum clone, who was peacefully meditating using the expensive incense in the ck Land.

    When he broke through to the Great Knight realm, Dante felt the inkling of feedback, but it was still not enough given how high his stats were. If he had been at the previous 1500, he might have enjoyed a small increase.

    [Physical Powers: Primal Ape Technique (Level 5: Great Knight, 1%).]

    [5. Great Knight: Savage Onught

    At the Great Knight level, one''s attacks will mirror the silverback''s primal ferocity. By tapping into the ape''s instinctual aggression, one''s strikes will be more unpredictable, unrelenting, and overwhelming. This realm also grants one an innate sense of one''s opponent''s weaknesses, allowing one to exploit openings with precision.]

    The Great Knight realm was where the offensive part of the power began toe into y, as this realm was all about hurting others. Dante was tempted to practice it since he was still in the zone, but knew that it would be best to match his two physical methods together.

    As such, he switched to the Raging Blood Halberd Technique and took out his Blood Battle Halberd. Unlike usingmon halberds like before, using this one not only doubled his practice speed but also loosened any ''bottlenecks'' he would face.

    In truth, Soulforged Steel of the Knight Breathing System and Magus World should serve the same purpose, but Dante did not invest in it because there was no technological alternative yet. He had tried to program nanites with the same properties as Soulforged Steel so that his exosuit could be his knight armor, but there was a problem linking life essence to nanites.

    As for the Raging Blood Halberd technique at the Martial Master realm, it was all about Blood Qi control. Unlike the previous Martial Blood Realm which emphasized growing your newly created Blood Qi until you could not take anymore, now it was time topress and refine that Blood Qi as well as your control over it.

    To do this, the Raging Blood Halberd technique had listed 5 moves.

    The first move of the lot was called Crimson Initiation.

    Dante grasped his blood battle halberd firmly, his movements precise and deliberate as the hologram visualized the movements he needed to perform using his body in real-time.

    To start the first move of this minor cycle, he channeled his blood energy, stirring the massive Blood Qi within his body. You could picture his blood energy - which was near limitless and more than a hundred times in quantitypared to his Blood Qi - as fire and his Blood Qi as water.

    He was burning his blood energy to ''heat up'' his Blood Qi and get it to boil. To do this, the best way was to naturally swing and thrust his blood battle halberd using the method of the technique.

    As he continued to move his blood battle halberd while copying the hologram, Dante felt the Blood Qi awaken, surging through his veins like moltenva. It was extremely hot, enough that Dante''s caramel skin began to smoke and be red, as if he had activated the kaioken technique.

    The second move was the Bloodborne Exodus, and no, the name had nothing to do with what you were thinking about.

    Transitioning seamlessly to the second move, Dante''s focus shifted from his body to the halberd in his hands. With a flick of his wrist, he directed the awakened Blood Qi outward, guiding it into the halberd''s de which was a portion of his entire total, about 1/36th of it.

    The weapon seemed toe alive, resonating with the influx of Blood Qi as its already blood-colored body shone with a nefarious light, looking like a demonic weapon that had killed countless beings.

    The blood battle halberd absorbed the Blood Qi like a voracious sponge, the crimson energy swirling within its metallic core (it was made of metal, right?) and leaving nothing behind.

    This step was crucial in preparing the Blood Qi for purification and refinement.

    The third move was Purity''s Embrace, and this stage required precision and control.

    With the blood battle halberd now brimming with Blood Qi, Dante initiated the purification process. He visualized impurities, umted from daily life and exertion, being expelled from the energy pool.

    As the impurities dissipated by being burned into ck ash, the Blood Qi''s quantity obviously diminished, but its quality soared.

    It transformed into a radiant, crystalline essence, untainted by the mundane aspects of existence. This purer form of Blood Qi was the foundation of the Martial Master realm and the key to a sessful Martial Grandmaster realm.

    The fourth move was called Density''s Crucible. No, not Destiny, but Density, read it again.

    This particr stage focused onpression. The refined Blood Qi, now in its purest state, was condensed within the blood battle halberd. Every twirl and sweep of the weaponpressed the energy further, reducing its volume even more but amplifying its potency.

    The blood battle halberd thrummed with power as the already superior Blood Qi -pared to Dante''s peers - was packed into a denser, more formidable form.

    Thispression process was a delicate bnce, ensuring that the Blood Qi''s quality remained upromised even as its quantity decreased.

    The fifth and final move was called Lifetide Return.

    As the conclusive part of the minor cycle, this sequence naturally brought the refined andpressed Blood Qi back into Dante''s body. After all, it wasn''t like he cleaned and squeezed it for the halberd to drink and enjoy, right?

    When the Blood Qi merged with his body, Dante felt an overwhelming surge of strength and vitality. His martial power was heightened, and the refined Blood Qi became an integral part of his power source, ready to be unleashed in the heat of battle.

    Of course, for now, it was sequestered away in a separate part from the regr Blood Qi that had yet to go through refinement.

    After all, we didn''t want to taint the batch after just being improved, now did we?

    The rest only 1/36th of his Blood Qi was pulled out and refined in this process was that it formed a minor cycle at this realm. When all 36 batches were refined and formed 36 minor cycles, this formed a full cultivation major cycle.

    Dante then had to perform 72 major cycles to achieve the full technique. This was time-intensive as one minor cycle took 10 minutes toplete, and a major cycle was obviously 360 minutes, or 6 hours.

    To perform 72 of them required 432 hours or 18 days, which was an incredibly long process. Luckily, the stage only required all 72 major cycles and was split into 5, with the entry level requiring 8 major cycles, the minor aplishment requiring 20 cycles, greater aplishment needing 16 cycles, mastery needing 20 cycles, and perfection requiring 8 cycles.

    18 days was not long for Dante to spend. It was a bit tougher this time since his quantum clone left the ck Land after 4 days and was now in the final 30 days mock exam where all students of all years would be present.

    He was distracted by its actions and had to cut off his connection with it in order to focus, especially when he saw what kind of fruits it got. Dante''s breathing became extremely heavy, and he thankeddy luck even more than he got Quantum Compatibility.

    Anyway, he easily broke through to the Martial Grandmaster realm afterpleting all the necessary cycles and was now ready to delve into the Apocalypse World once more to raise his stats again!

    [Physical Powers: Raging Blood Halberd Technique (Martial Grandmaster, Entry level 1%).]

    Feeling the surging perfected Blood Qi, Dante once again felt a hint of feedback that was wasted. Maybe if he was at 1500 or less, he could have gained some stat-rted benefits, but that was impossible now.

    Whatever the case, he cracked his neck and came out of seclusion. After heading to the Apocalypse World, raising his stats, and then raising his two magical methods, his parents should be about done with their upgrade, and it would be time for them to enter the Eternal Universe and meet his wife''s family.

 Chapter 231 APW Descent

    Chapter 231 APW Descent

    The Apocalypse World weed Dante''s presence once more as he had to start another run. His previous ount had long run out since he only used it to descend once and ughtered the spiders to level up.

    Oh, also, he gave the Spider Queen some resources to restore her power and grow her n. He wondered how effective it had been since it had been more than 60 days since hest came here.

    As such, he simply spawned in a random city and appeared in a wastnd carriage. He and some other ''descenders'' were tied up and being taken somewhere in cages. Some of the ''descenders'' were numb and seemingly lifeless, while others weremunicating under their breath, their eyes filled with sharpness and disdain for the world.

    This way, it was easy to tell which ones had students within them and which ones didn''t. When thosemunicating saw Dante ''descend'', their faces showed surprise until they saw his name after checking his status.

    Who didn''t know the famous and powerful Dante? His name was practically a household name among fellow pure humans and was used by alien parents to warn their children to sleep at night, alongside that of Beatrice, of course.

    Dante was amused by their reactions and descended with his real body onto his virtual one. Feeling the extent of his power, he breathedfortably and then scanned the area with his Spirit Sense.

    Oh? It seemed like this was quite a big operation since there were many modified military caravans in a row, all nked by jeeps with Gatling guns on top. All the men were armed and looked well trained, so they must belong to a big force, but Dante already knew that.

    He had already found out what had twisted this world and the various factions at the top who were doing various things. After all, he had entered that city and even sold information to that broker to raise his Supercoin earnings.

    Oh right, speaking of Supercoins.

    Dante remembered that he needed a lot of those to upgrade his Bionics, Psionics, and AI chip from the Student Enhancement Center. The reason he had not done so earlier was the fear of harm while under, but now very little could harm him, especially with Gluttonous Inferno and the crazy Greed''s Ember Flow, which gave 1024 dantians full of hellfire.

    Dante could sleep for 10,000 years, and his fire would automatically stretch out of his body to consume things to replenish energy as well as burn those who tried to harm his body.

    So now that he was here, it was a good chance to earn Supercoins. He could not redeem his ount in the True Martial or Magus World yet because they still had roles to y, so this short-term world would do.

    As for raising his stats, it was not mutually exclusive. It was not like Absorption strictly worked on the spiders. He just chose them because they were packed together like sardines and convenient.

    As such, Dante basically exploded in me, his ckish-red hellfire consuming the entire convoy from head to toe, turning all the vehicles and weapons into scrap immediately. The humans burned into charcoal, except the fellow students who were spared from the gruesome death, as well as other captives.

    The students were shocked stupid to now be seated on the ground among debris that had just been fully functioning vehicles. They nced at Dante, who patted himself and retrieved his hellfire before teleporting away with looks of fear and amazement.

    Dante had thought to himself, what was the best way to stand out in the Apocalypse World and fulfill his goal at the same time? Why, it was definitely by taking on a B Rank monster or higher for sure.

    He still needed the Spider Queen, and she was at the bottom of the B Rank when hest saw her. He wanted a peak B Rank monster in the wild that could also drop Mutation cores of that grade so he could Quantum Replicate them for his superpowers users at the B Rank to upgrade to the A rank.

    Especially the soon-to-revive Portia, who had been stuck at the B Rank with her three superpowers. If she could hit the A Rank, hehe, even Lara would have to walk around her while sneaking.

    He also had ns to try an A Rank monster based on how tough a B Rank one was. He might be getting ahead of himself as he hadn''t even fought C Rank monsters before. The highest he ever fought was D Rank, like the Spider Lords.

    However, he had easily crushed them back then, so C Rank monsters should not pose much of a threat. Just as well though, if he saw one he would kill it and acquire the Mutation core so he could add it to his database.

    Dante appeared in the city that he paid the brokerst time. He could go to the other ones, but it was best to deal with someone he already knew, as he could use that fact to his advantage.

    For example, right now he was currently in the broker''s office, standing before him and a client who had been discussing something but were now ncing at the suddenly appearing Dante with ashen faces.

    Dante raised a hand and banished the client to a pocket dimension that would not kill them, but would keep them from hearing or seeing anything that went on here. He then turned to the shaking broker who had never seen such a thing in his life despite his upation.

    After all, even if this world was old and had persisted on the academy''s server, he was a ''native,'' which meant he was born and raised, his age not even passing 30. Despite the influx of students, this city was just one of many in the Apocalypse World, and he was just one out of many brokers.

    Not to mention that while bold, students usually did not antagonize the quantum world natives for no reason. There were perfectly good monsters to hunt out there, and hunting them even required a good amount of help from the locals, so why offend them?

    "I''m sure you don''t mind me taking your time for an emergencymission?" Dante asked with a smile.

    "N-No! N-Not at all!!" The Broker stammered, which was much differentpared to thest time when he spoke coldly and arrogantly to Dante.

    Dante pped his hands lightly. "That''s good. I need a full database of information on all C Rank, B Rank, and A Rank monsters in this area or in the known world."

    Just as the broker was about to respond, Dante interrupted him. "Remember, I said the full database. Don''t skimp on anything."

    The Broker swallowed his words and tentatively reached into his drawer. He rummaged around for a bit and took out a floppy disk, gingerly stretching it out towards Dante.

    Dante collected it with a smile and then crushed it, giving the broker a scare. However, the broker did not know that the moment Dante had touched it, he had already interfaced with the data within using his AI chip and collected everything.

    He did not need a slot or a port because his AI chip was not digital, it was quantum. The big thing about being quantum was precisely not needing to always physically interface with things, which was why Dante could ess the Etr from long distance away.

    Dante smiled at the broker. "Don''t be scared, I got the data, which was why I did that. As for your payment,I will give you the right to sell this bit of information."

    Dante leaned forward almost conspiratorially, and the fellow opposite him couldn''t help but lean in too.

    "I can grant people born naturally in this world the abilities that people like me have, as well as the way to ascend beyond the S-Rank. If they want to find me, they should go to these coordinates."

    Dante gave the broker a set of coordinates that led to one of his random quantum markers out in the wild. Dante decided that he would establish his faction there and wee his wave of subordinates over.

    As for protagonists, he would not create them in this world, so it didn''t matter if those who got this information came with nefarious intentions or true intentions. One look into his eyes and they would suddenly have a whole lifetime of being his subordinate and would actively beg him to use them.

    That was for subordinates. The protagonist thing was just for shits and giggles, though Dante would not easily allow it to threaten him in the future, like Jameson. While Jameson himself was not much, Dante''s desire for the phoenix fire was not something he could casually reveal, and Jameson knew about his need for it.

    Not to mention Jameson was just a shitbag covered in perfume. The fake memories of a normal and nice man did not make his previous actions go away, just like the memories of a great assassin who killed innocents made Liang, the honest boy, a monster.

    Anyway, with this information, Dante was now ready to hunt his prey.

 Chapter 232 Monster Hunter Dante 1

    Chapter 232 Monster Hunter Dante 1

    It should go without saying that Dante nned to attack immediately. He did not need this information because he wanted to scout out the monsters or know their weaknesses, because he was just a real body descended over a virtual one.

    He still had full ess to the Apocalypse World''s yer panel for students, so he could see the stats of monsters on his own. In fact, the information he had right now was bought from yers like him by brokers, as natives obviously did not have the benefit of those game-like screens.

    What he needed this information for was simply the coordinates, the locations. He didn''t want to have to walk around casually looking for a monster at the right rank that he required, so this was meant to help solve that.

    Dante looked through and found his first target, a C Rank Lycanthrope. It was a werewolf king who lead a pack of D Rank mutated killer wolves in its territory that was more than 200 kilometers way from Dante''s location.

    Dante nced at the map details andpared it to the world map he had in his mind, then identifies the specific ce. Using the 3rd Rank Astral Gateway spell, he used the coordinates to fulfill the visualization requirement as arge portal opened before him.

    As he was in the wild currently, there was no one around to witness this feat of magical awe. Dante walked through the portal and appeared right in the clearing of the Lycanthrope''s territory, with the wolfman ncing at him with bafflement.

    ?Monster Name: Lycanthrope

    Monster Rank: C

    HP: 1999/1999

    Strength: 122

    Agility: 183

    Dexterity: 167

    Intelligence: 55

    Constitution: 98

    Vitality: 96?

    As a C Rank monster, just like the B Rank Spider Queen who was fully sentient, the Lycanthrope was intelligent enough to understand the world around it, though it could not speak humannguage.

    As such, it knew that people doing what Dante just did was not normal. Even as a C Rank monster, it was confident in its power and abilities, but this was just madness. It immediately howled bravely as if it was about to fight with Dante, but immediately turned to run on all fours.

    That previous howl was to call its subordinates toe and swarm Dante, giving it a chance to escape and regroup. Immediately, howls resounded all around the clearing as hundreds of different colored wolves the size of a small car rushed into the clearing, their bloodshot eyes focused on Dante.

    Dante rolled his eyes and unleashed his hellfire for an entire 2 kilometers in all directions, turning everything into ash. It was a bit wasteful given the fact that he could have absorbed these corpses to raise his stats further, but he was not in a rush.

    He wanted to fight the B Rank monster as he was and try the A Rank as well. If he was not up to par, he could ''power up'' like protagonists in anime and then suddenly ovee his foe thanks to his nakama power, or in this case, his superpower.

    Soon, the formerly lush clearing was reduced into an ashen hell scape with charred corpses that numbered less than 10, the few formate ones who were not turned into dust. Among them was the corpse of the Lycanthrope, of whom Dante collected the Mutation Core using his spatial abilities.

    Like that, Mutation Cores from around flew into his hand and were sent into his quantum depository. After all, no matter how the monsters were dealt with, the absolute rule of the Apocalypse World was that Mutation Cores could not be destroyed.

    Dante then left the area and consulted the yer forums to cross check the information he got about monsters and their stat distribution.

    [The various stat ranges for monsters in the Apocalypse World by Rank - By: Damian Polikser

    F Rank: 1 - 5

    E Rank: 5 - 30

    D Rank: 30 - 90

    C Rank: 90 - 180

    B Rank: 180 - 360

    A Rank: 360 - 720

    S Rank and above: 720+]

    The stat ranges for monsters could not be too crazy because apart from students with special superpowers, no one could realistically fight a monster with a 700 SDI with just a superpower.

    After all, starting from the E rank, monsters in this world gained their own versions of superpowers.

    They were not necessarily as powerful as what students had, but they were enough to disrupt the bnce of power between the two. After all, a yer had to hunt a monster of a certain rank ten times to get enough Mutation Cores to advance.

    When the monster had stats like those at the B Rank and above, conventional means were no longer useful.

    It was entirely possible to solo F to D Rank monsters if your superpower was strong enough and was leveled up ordingly.

    However, it was very unlikely for a C rank superpower student to solo a C Rank monster, especially not one with peak level stats.

    Dante obviously did not follow this as his current stats surpassed even S Rank monsters.

    What he feared from them was not their physical stats but those abilities they were given on the side which got progressively stronger as they rose in rank.

    For example, ording to the database, the Lycanthrope''s ability was to turn into a human male, which allowed him to infiltrate encampments and go on killing sprees every now and then, or to unbnce or trick yers and NPCs in the wild before killing them.

    The Spider Queen''s obviously was her reproductive and control ability. It was actually an S Rank ability that could spam A Rank and below spiders to fight for her, so you know it was cracked.

    It was honestly a miracle as to how yers were able to beat her so bad, but then it also made sense that they could never finish her off.

    It was because of those abilities, those damned abilities. If Dante met a monster with an ability that countered his powers or was rule-based like ''take 5 steps and you die'', he would be finished.

    It was an exaggeration, but the point was made. Currently, Dante''s target was the B Rank monster called the Winged Viper.

    It was a sinister high level serpent type monster with a very strong poison ability and minor flight. Its poison could be released as a mist, as a projectile and even as a domain, so one had to be careful with it.

    The worst part was that it was odorless and colorless, so one wouldn''t know that it was releasing the poison mist. After all, it wasn''t as dramatic as in fictional media where the poison would be dark green or dark purple and exceedingly visible.

    Dante had high vitality but was not keen on testing his poison resistance and tolerance, so he teleported a kilometer away from the monster''s zone. When he walked through the wormhole and came to the other side, his casual smile changed as he immediately unleashed his hellfire around him.

    Dante face became dark - literally - as he coughed deeply, his eyes watering. He was roaring about his despicable and shameless the Winged Viper was to release its poison this far out of its zone.

    Itpletely adopted the mentality of ''fight? Why would I fight with you when I can win?'' since Dante could tell through his spirit sense that it was calmly sleeping in its nest while breathing out poison with every exhale in order to maintain the density.

    Dante''s life essence surged within him and expunged the poison in the form of a ck gas while he cast a spatial barrier spell, isting himself from the world. He obviously could not be poisoned if he was in a whole different space from you.

    ?Monster Name: Winged Viper

    Monster Rank: B

    HP: 5320/5320

    Strength: 110

    Agility: 132

    Dexterity: 43

    Intelligence: 290

    Constitution: 86

    Vitality: 444?

    Dante walked into the nest of the Winged Viper which was now awakening due to the senses it had. It could tell that death hade upon it, which forced it to cancel its rest and look around vigntly for the source of the threat.

    When it saw Dante walking over with an ugly expressions, its slitted pupils dted rapidly as it pped its wings and tried to run. It did not even need to see Dante''s spatial abilities, just by the fact that it could sense that its toxin was entering a void when it touched Dante was enough to scare it.

    From the perspective of the Winged Viper, Dante was a like a spatial ck hole, and the barrier he cast led to the void in between space where nothing could survive. If it tried to fight him, putting aside whether it could evennd an attack, it might face a simr fate to its toxic mist.

    Dante naturally was not going to let it casually walk away after giving him a terrible cough. Its toxic mist stank like someone had eaten rotten tacos and had unleashed their fury after being constipated for ten weeks.

    He was not magnanimous enough to let that go.

 Chapter 233 Monster Hunter Dante 2

    Chapter 233 Monster Hunter Dante 2

    Dante stretched out his hand and ''caught'' the tail of the winged viper by pinching space around it. He made sure to press hard enough to keep it trapped but not enough to crush its tail to chunks of meat.

    As such, this created the oue of the Winged Viper thrashing against its trappings but being unable to move a single inch, its wings pping crazily as it tried to increase its momentum.

    "Get over here!" Dante roared as he tugged backward, dragging the monster toward himself.

    The monster''s eyes bulged as it was pulled back at such speed that by the time it had turned around, it was practically face to face with Dante. In that split second, it saw his cold and furious eyes, which gave it a deep chill.

    It was about to open its mouth to spray its toxin as a defense mechanism, but Dante pped itsrge face with his hand. The p caused a shockwave explosion on the other side of the Winged Viper''s face, and all its four fangs were knocked out by this.

    The eye in its right socket also popped open like a zit and leaked out blood as well as various flesh material from its brain. The monster became limp in Dante''s spatial hold, its tongue lolling out as the remaining life left its eye... its left eye, that is.

    Dante watched it die coldly before cing a hand on its corpse to absorb its stats. In order not to waste his time, he had already used Quantum Replicated Mutation Cores to raise Absorption to the B Rank, which meant the conversion rate was as high as 160%!

    Now that he also had the core of this B Rank monster, he could raise Absorption up to the A Rank after dealing with its corpse. Of course, he could take out the core now and replicate it before using this corpse, but he was not in a rush because one had to remember, he had a hard limit of 500 points to get each round.

    If he surpassed that, he would have to release the excess energy. Previously, he had little control over his body, so the expulsion was dangerous and painful, but now he could releaserge parts of it in a controlled manner.

    However, that did not mean he had to go overboard. After all, 160% of the Winged Serpent''s stats could take him a long way to his goal, not to mention he was gonna hunt an A-Rank monster after this.

    However, thinking about this, Dante paused and kept the corpse in his quantum space rather than absorb it. He almost forgot that he wanted to fight the next monster as he was in order to assess his physical methods because we all knew his magical methods were basically a one-shot.

    He took the B Rank core and tossed it into his quantum space for the quantum clone that was free in the mock exam space after using various methods to gather the ten fruits again. That fellow could handle the replication while he continued to fight.

    Following the trend of going after powerful monsters in their rank, Dante targeted the strongest known A Rank monster, the Thunder Roc. It was a Chinese mythology-type bird with huge wings, excessive flight speed, and the ability to control lightning.

    Of course, the actual thing was just a very big mutated peregrine falcon, but it was publicly called a roc. Anyway, its name did not matter as its territory was rather huge, covering over a million kilometers.

    My Brother in Christ, was this not Earth that had mutated? Earth was only 40,000 km long in terms of circumference, so where was the 1 million kming from? That was about as long as from the Earth to the moon times 3!!

    Dante calcted his current running speed. At 2000 points of Agility, if he went at his top speed, he could reach mach 81.5, which was 100,000 km/h.

    Uh...

    Upon calcting this, Dante''s face changed to one of t shock like a cartoon character. He was actually quite dumbfounded this time, as it meant that he could - entirely on foot - traverse the entire territory of the A Rank monster in 10 hours.

    Well, okay then, he would stopining about ridiculous numbers when he himself had long since journeyed out of the realm ofmon senseˇ­

    Anyway, he shook his head to change his train of thought and opened a portal to the roc''s territory. It usually liked to patrol during the day, and its flight speed definitely reached Dante''s movement speed on the ground due to the addition of lightning.

    Almost immediately, Dante sensed a surge of strong power a few hundred kilometers away. He switched up his Psionics and bumped his Intelligence to 20,000, which meant that his spirit sense could now reach that same distance in meters.

    After cing a quantum marker where he was, he used Quantum Leap, this 3rd Rank short-distance spell that was upgraded from the 2nd Rank Spatial Blink to move the entire 20 kilometers at once. It took only 2 seconds to cast, and he was already there, ready to go again since his range had expanded.

    Making multiple leaps in such a manner, he soon reached a mountaintop that allowed him to see the zinget that was the Thunder Roc, which tore through the sky, causing explosions of sound and power that struck the forest below.

    Who knew how many beings were turned into charred corpses by a random strike of lightning and how many trees were turned into leafless monuments of death. Dante shook his head and took out his blood battle halberd, channeling his rich Martial Grandmaster Blood Qi that shone like an aura.

    He then teleported onto the back of the moving Thunder Roc and struck down immediately.

    BANG!

    A huge explosion of red light emerged in the air as well as a shriek of pain. Dante leapt back andnded on his feet like a cat, though the ground beneath him cracked a bit from his force.

    He nced in front of him to see that the Thunder Roc had struck the area in front of him like a crashed ne, causing an airstrip of shattered trees and broken rocks to form for a long distance.

    Dante teleported to the end of the airstrip and saw the huge form of the Thunder Roc crumpled in a crater, its wings bent and clearly unable to take off once more.

    ?Monster Name: Thunder Roc

    Monster Rank: A

    HP: 4550/4550

    Strength: 534

    Agility: 766

    Dexterity: 458

    Intelligence: 212

    Constitution: 434

    Vitality: 322.?

    Its stats were pretty impressive for sure. If Dante dared to absorb it with his 160% boost, he would definitely enjoy ''pissing out'' the excess energy. As such, he did not have any thoughts, but still decided to keep the corpse and of course take the Mutation Core.

    As such, he jumped forward like a bullet from the edge of the crater and pierced a hole through the Thunder Roc''s skull, holding the Mutation Core in hand. With a wave of his palm, the corpse was collected, and he checked his database for another target.

    This timeˇ­ an S Rank monster for sure. There were only 10,000 of them in existence and that number often fluctuated greatly due to their own conflicts, hierarchy decisions, and change over time, like the previous SpiderQueen who had been at the S rank now being a B Rank loser.

    Dante scrolled through and found a target, a cockatrice that made its nest in a poisonous bog. It was veryzy and even disdained fighting back against assants, simply letting the nature of its environment deal with its foes.

    Hoh? Such arrogance.

    Well, it was not surprising since such monsters were said to be rted to dragons. Since Dante had more conclusive information about it than most others, he decided on it as his target and opened a wormhole to his destination using space magic.

    Before he came out of the other side, he naturally put up a spatial barrier to iste the smell and toxins, which was just as well because the damn ce was foggy as hell. The fog was colored purple-ck, and Dante could see that the flora here was truly ugly and twisted, leaking pus and having boils like gue-infected patients.

    He could fight like this relying on his spirit sense for sure, but why disadvantage himself even if he wanted to get a suitable challenge? As such, he cast the 3rd Rank Quantum Singrity, which was basically no different from opening a car-sized ck hole beside him.

    Immediately, everything but himself, which was anchored at that point in space, was rapidly dragged into that ck hole like water being flushed down a sink, causing an intense vortex of wind and matter.

    The trees broke into pieces and were dragged in, especially so for the blinding fog that covered the entire ce. In a matter of seconds, an area of 10 kilometers in all directions was barely wastnd with only the bottom part of the topsoil left.

 Chapter 234 Monster Hunter Dante - End

    Chapter 234 Monster Hunter Dante - End

    Dante nodded in satisfaction, closing the singrity which led into the part of space that space element users didn''t like to think about. One thing for sure was that whatever entered there was noting out since it would be destroyed by spatial storms, so he didn''t need to worry about pollution or congestion.

    While Dante might be pleased, the owner and resident of this bog was not. With a screech of rage, Dante saw a strange half-bird, half-lizard-like monster charge at him while pping its wings rapidly like a hen that was on the attack.

    The cockatrice was a menacing hybrid of the chicken and a dragon, the proof lying on its body which was basically that of a rooster with colorful plumage. Its eyes were piercing and malevolent, glinting with an eerie crimson light full of cruelty and the wish to cause physical harm to all species.

    A serpent''s tail extended from its slender frame, a plume of scaly feathers glistening in chromatic hues. Its deadly and razor-sharp talons extended from its avian ws on two surprisingly thick and muscr legs.

    The evil creature''s wings were membranous and leathery, stretching wide to almost cover the sun for targets below its talons while easily extending to twice its torso''s width in a sinister manner.

    One of the most cruel Draconic sub-species, right up there with Basilisks.

    However, as scary as it was to face head-on, one could not help but ask the question internally. How did a dragon mate with a chicken to give birth to this??

    Dante was speechless at the thought and easily repelled the Cockatrice''s wild charge with a swing of his blood battle halberd, causing the beast to cry out and fly back a few meters.

    Oh?

    Dante had used about 80% of his full strength in that hit, and it only caused it to fly back a bit? Even its talons that shed with his blood battle halberd were not even scratched, showing how resilient it was.

    Dante checked its stats out of curiosity.

    ?Monster Name: Cockatrice

    Monster Rank: S

    HP: 20400/20400

    Strength: 1534

    Agility: 1209

    Dexterity: 566

    Intelligence: 4

    Constitution: 1768

    Vitality: 1799.?

    Well, well, those were impressive stats. As a Draconic sub-species, its body was tough, especially those scaled feathers that dotted its form. They could likely withstand nuclear sts head-on, though the cockatrice would definitely not feel so good.

    Its regeneration was even crazier. Everyone knew how lively chickens were even after you cut their heads off, not to mention that it also had lizard genes which could literally grow back severed body parts.

    Heh, it was likely that this was the cockatrice''s specialty and biggest strength, its revival ability from any wound as well as its ability to keep its life. No wonder it didn''t bother to fight back against attackers, what was the point when you had Deadpool-like regeneration?

    It also had respectable strength thanks to its talons, but its dexterity was low because it had wings, not hands. It could certainly throw feathers that were as sharp as des, but that was not much.

    Another shared strength of chickens and snakes was their agility and quick reaction to things. It was likely that if this cockatrice realized that it was in danger, it would flee with its chicken legs and disappear like a hurricane.

    As for intelligence... cough. No matter how high the snake side of its gics was in terms of intelligence, it would be heavily dragged down by the chicken''s side. There was a reason why the term ''bird brain'' was an insult, and chickens were the worst of the entire species.

    Dante felt like this cockatrice was going to be interesting. After all, not counting his magical powers or his unactivated 10x boost from Bionics and Psionics, it was rtively close to his level.

    Without further ado, Dante rushed forward and engaged the beast in directbat. Its primary method of attack was to p its wings to lift its body up a little and then strike repeatedly with its talons.

    In response, Dante blocked all such moves with his halberd deftly, the red-colored weapon glowing with a nefarious light despite not being infused with blood Qi yet.

    The entire wastnd shook with force as the shockwaves from each sh caused wind to fire in all directions like a cannon. The sheer nging sounds of the two tough weapons meeting head-on was enough to deafen any listener.

    This was all made worse by the fact that the two were attacking and defending at their full speed, their bodies moving so quickly that it seemed as if they were frozen in time to the average onlooker.

    Visually, it formed a still painting of a cockatrice swinging its talons while a human struck with his halberd, but the thunderous environment around them and the loud sounds caused this painting to be one that was very hazardous to look at.

    Eventually, the two separated, Dante feeling a bit warmed up while the cockatrice was panting heavily. Moving at that kind of speed burned great amounts of energy and stamina, and it was not like Dante who could regte his body efficiently.

    Seeing that it was tired, Dante was a bit disappointed. He had not even used his Blood Qi, much less his Life Essence or his other abilities. As such, his posture became rxed as he put away the blood battle halberd, an action which puzzled the cockatrice.

    However, it suddenly found itself drawn to his eyes and could not look away. Unlike the usual scene where Dante imnted memories, this time he simply spoke coldly. "Expel your mutation core and cease your life functions."

    The Cockatrice immediately did so without hesitation, not even struggling against themand. It gurgled and then spat out a ratherrge and glowing ball of energy before falling limply to the ground, its mind and body ceasing immediately.

    Dante nced at the corpse and kept it in the quantum space. Using his Eyes of Illusion like this barely drained his energy, which was normal. After all, using illusions to control the mind and actions of a person was one of the lesser uses of the illusion power tree.

    The whole shtick where he rewrote their lives and gave them new meaning without interfering with the present was one of the highest-end uses of illusions, which was why Dante was always drained so much when he used it.

    In fact, apart from using it for the two protagonists, Dante had actually never needed to use it ever again. There were far simpler illusions he could have used to achieve what he had used the eyes for previously.

    So yes, he had been basically using a railgun cannon to kill a germ those previous times.

    Dante held the Mutation Core in hand and smiled, but his face suddenly changed. He realized that the S Rank Mutation Core in his hand was fundamentally different from the ones before.

    If the ones before held important information that his quantum abilities could work with, this one held nothing and was an empty shell. Immediately, he teleported away and went to find other S Rank monsters to kill in order to verify his thoughts.

    In a matter of 6 hours, over 34 S Rank monsters fell, a pandemic for the monster race of the Apocalypse World and a boon forDante''s ount.

    Even the AI admin for the world was alerted, but it could not find any foul y in Dante''s actions since the means he used were publicly acknowledged to be a part of his superpower.

    It could only helplessly report upwards while the Central AI thought of countermeasures to nerf Dante and especially his uing Supercoin payout that was going to break the school''s record since establishment.

    As for Dante himself, he was in despair. It turned out that the reason why all Mutation Cores up to the A Rank could work was because of the knowledge of the real world. Just like with the fruits in the zero gate world, part of the Mutation Cores programming contained the secrets of superpowers at each realm after studying them.

    Before Lara, B Rank was the limit so only up to C rank mutation cores worked, so those mutation cores B Rank and above were empty. When Lara came and became headmistress, she freely advanced the database of superpowers by revealing the nature of her A Rank superpowers.

    However, that meant that only B Rank Mutation Cores should work, so why did the A Rank ones work too? One should know that 10 Mutation Cores of the same Rank as your superpower meant you would upgrade.

    So 10 F Rank Cores upgraded an F Rank superpower to E Rank and so on. So 10 A Rank Mutation Cores would send an A Rank Superpower to the S Rank.

    Unless... their database had information about an S Rank superpower? But how was that possible? Even the universe only knew that the highest realm was the A Rank from Lara, and there were no others who...

    Ah.

    That was right.

    Even as far back as when she graduated more than a half a century ago, her base superpower was already at the A Rank.

    What on earth had made Dante think, especially with all of her secrets, that the headmistress had not ascended to the S Rank and above in all this time?

 Chapter 235 Rich Payout

    Chapter 235 Rich Payout

    Dante''s expression was grim. It meant that, even though he himself could not use items procured from quantum worlds that directly affected his superpower, he was now hard-limited to the S Rank for his family and friends if they used these cores.

    Why was this bad? Well, Dante himself knew his limit was not at the S Rank but at the EX. With a superpower like Quantum Entanglement and a backer like that cosmic tree, it would be a waste if he did not reach the peak of the ranking in time.

    If his friends and family were stuck at the S rank, they would not only be losing out on their own power but also be limited. Anyway, that was a problem forter, and hopefully, he could find a way around it.

    Right now, though, Dante was done with his rampage in the Apocalypse World. He knew that S Rank monsters posed a slight danger to him mostly due to their special abilities rather than stats, but those at the SS Rank and above likely surpassed him for now.

    Not to mention fighting them had no incentive since their Mutation Cores would not contain what he needed. As such, Dante teleported away and gathered the corpses of a few D Rank and C rank monsters from a random area together.

    He had done the calctions, and absorbing them all should bring him exactly to the next boundary without a single point overspilling. Upon making the necessary absorption, Dante shook off the addictive effect''s negative influence and decided to harvest this ount and the previous one.

    To do so, he rushed into a ''dungeon'' with B Rank monsters that was seen as a danger zone by yers. Dante ''pulled'' all the monsters to himself and then self-destructed his 1024 dantians, causing a huge nuclear-level explosion that shook almost the entire world.

    He logged out of the Apocalypse World as his avatar was dead and wiped the sweat from his forehead. His dantians were empty as hell as he had released the energy wantonly using his real body and then bailed at thest moment, leaving his weak virtual body to bear the consequences along with all the monsters in the area.

    Of course, it was torched to ash along with everything in that area. Dante teleported the energy pool within the Dreadnought that Beatrice had installed for him and released his Gluttonous Inferno to wantonly refine the energy within.

    Unfortunately, this did not directly replenish internal force. Gluttonous Inferno was overpowered because it could restore his base energy, which was used for all life functions, the energy you basically got from drinking and eating daily.

    However, this ''base energy'' was needed to restore Internal Force, generate blood energy, generate life essence for the knight system, and while it had no effect on the magus system''s growth, even a 9th Rank mage needed to eat and replenish, as Spiritual Energy could not sustain life.

    While Dante replenished his energy, which was rapidly turned into Internal Force and filling his dantians crazily. You could picture the x-ray of a water tank that was being filled, but this water tank was connected through a pipe to 1024 others.

    Even though it was filling up fast, the rate was not proportional to the size, so it would clearly take some time to replenish. This was even taking into ount the fact that Dante had rapid restoration and an infinite energy source.

    Imagine typical Internal Arts users of the True Martial World who had to sit down and chant their scriptures while turning their base energy into internal force. If there was one thing Western Fantasy magic had over Eastern Fantasy cultivation, it was that mana recharged automatically and quickly.

    A fight between mages was grand and long-drawn-out, while cultivators would unleash blows and then have to squat down by the side to recharge furiously before unleashing big blows again.

    Anyway, Dante checked his earnings from his previous three runs, including this recent one.

    [Supercoin Settlement for Dante.

    World Name: Apocalypse World

    World Type: Shared (5% Score Bonus)

    ˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞ

    Online Time: 00:4:56 (F-Rank)

    Mutant Kills: 32,973 F Rank, 376 E Rank (A Rank)

    yer Kills: 0 (F Rank)

    Native Kills: 0 (F Rank)

    Superpower Rank: F Rank (F Rank)

    Reputation: An unknown scourge who tormented a spider n (F+ Rank)

    Final Score: E+ Rank

    Payout: 155 Supercoins (bonus added)]

    This one was for his run back when he raised his SDI from 1000 to 1500. It was only special because he cleared a lot of spiderlings at the time and killed the E rank spider warriors before bouncing.

    [Supercoin Settlement for Dante.

    World Name: Apocalypse World

    World Type: Shared (5% Score Bonus)

    ˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞ

    Online Time: 00:2:14 (F-Rank)

    Mutant Kills: 443 F Rank, 221 E Rank, 1 D Rank (B-Rank)

    yer Kills: 0 (F Rank)

    Native Kills: 0 (F Rank)

    Superpower Rank: F Rank (F Rank)

    Reputation: An unknown scourge who tormented a spider nˇ­again. (E-Rank)

    Final Score: E-Rank

    Payout: 55 Supercoins (bonus added)]

    And this one was from his run when he went from 1500 to 2000 in his SDI. That one was even quicker, he didn''t bother to deal with too many spiderlings since they were already limited, and the Spider Queen had been suffering at the time.

    He then fought the terrified Spider Warriors whomented his return, then killed a Spider Lord who led them to attack but tried to run. After that, he gave the Spider Queen some resources to help her.

    [Supercoin Settlement for Dante.

    World Name: Apocalypse World

    World Type: Shared (5% Score Bonus)

    ˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞ

    Online Time: 06:23:53 (F Rank)

    Mutant Kills: 614,154,678 F Rank, 138,795 E Rank, 2924 D Rank, 41 C Rank, 6 B Rank, 2 A Rank, 35 S Rank (EX Rank)

    yer Kills: 43 (B Rank)

    Native Kills: 32 (A Rank)

    Superpower Rank: A Rank (A Rank)

    Reputation: A nameless legend who will never be forgotten by both humans and mutated monsters for hundreds of years. (SS+ Rank)

    Final Score: S+ Rank

    Payout: 15,500,000 Supercoins (bonus added)]

    And this was the payout for this one. Dante smiled as he could imagine the serious turmoil the school was undergoing right now. What surprised him though, was that he got yer and native kills.

    Of course, Dante did not know how the scale of his explosion would be as he had booked it out of there, but even if he stayed, he would have turned to ash, so how could he possibly know?

    However, this statistic told him that the range hadn''t been small since he was in the middle of nowhere at the time. Just how far did the explosion reach that it killed this many yers and natives in the region?

    And those monster kills, Jesus.

    He could physically ount for only 1 C Rank, 1 B Rank, 1 A Rank,and all the S Rank kills, but the rest were definitely a result of his explosion. The fact that it had been powerful enough to even take out another A Rank monster made Dante have a clearer idea of his power.

    With this many Supercoins, Dante could get virtually anything he wanted. The most expensive thing the school sold was time in the ck Land, and that was priced at 10,000 Supercoins per second.

    Well, with 15.5 million, he could buy 1,550 seconds or just under 26 minutes of time in the ck Land, which was unprecedented!

    No one had ever earned this amount of Supercoins in a short amount of time. Even the best of the best had to ve in various quantum worlds for years until the very end of their 5th year before they redeemed everything at once.

    What was crazy was that Dante could spam this earning method by entering, exploding, and then recharging when he came out. However, doing this would obviously provoke the school and cause them to change the rules on his ount, as well as have the effect of making them investigate him, thereby unnecessarily unveiling his abilities.

    He wanted people to know that he could take things from quantum worlds for his future business to be legit, yes, but not that he could enter them directly and benefit from them. Otherwise, his enemies might just wait for him to enter a quantum world and then shut it down.

    Or they could nerf all the quantum worlds out there and even shut down the Etraverse in order to forcefully limit his future.

    Besides, what he needed all these Supercoins for was to upgrade his Bionics, Psionics as well as AI chip to the highest grades avable, and he could now purchase them. He could probably afford the highest grades, and he was no longer scared of undergoing extended treatment in the school because he had many ways to deal with attackers.

    With that in mind, Dante called up the list of items sold by the school and their prices before filtering out what he wanted.

 Chapter 236 Upgrade List

    Chapter 236 Upgrade List

    [List of Bionic, Psionic, and AI Chip Upgrades per Level with Prices

    1. Level 1:

    - Bionics and Psionics boost all physical and mental stats by 10 times, respectively.

    - AI Chip has basic quantumworking capabilities.

    - Price: Free

    - Targeted User Base: Any student below the 10,000 SDI average can use this.

    2. Level 2:

    - Bionics and Psionics boost all physical and mental stats by 12 times, respectively.

    - AI Chip has intermediate quantumworking capabilities as well as a slight overclocking capability.

    - Price: 75 Supercoins

    - Targeted User Base: Any student below the 10,000 SDI average can use this, but it''s advised for students with an above 10 SDI average.

    3. Level 3:

    - Bionics and Psionics boost all physical and mental stats by 15 times, respectively.

    - AI Chip has advanced quantumworking capabilities and a moderate overclocking capability.

    - Price: 120 Supercoins

    - Targeted User Base: Students with an above 30 SDI average.

    4. Level 4:

    - Bionics and Psionics boost all physical and mental stats by 18 times, respectively.

    - AI Chip has expert quantumworking capabilities and substantial overclocking capability.

    - Price: 180 Supercoins

    - Targeted User Base: Students with an above 50 SDI average.

    5. Level 5:

    - Bionics and Psionics boost all physical and mental stats by 20 times, respectively.

    - AI Chip has master-level quantumworking capabilities and high overclocking capability.

    - Price: 250 Supercoins

    - Targeted User Base: Students with an above 70 SDI average.

    6. Level 6:

    - Bionics and Psionics boost all physical and mental stats by 22 times, respectively.

    - AI Chip has grandmaster level quantumworking capabilities and extreme overclocking capability.

    - Price: 350 Supercoins

    - Targeted User Base: Students with an above 100 SDI average.

    7. Level 7:

    - Bionics and Psionics boost all physical and mental stats by 25 times, respectively.

    - AI Chip hasary level quantumworking capabilities and a powerful overclocking capability.

    - Price: 500 Supercoins

    - Targeted User Base: Students with an above 120 SDI average.

    8. Level 8:

    - Bionics and Psionics boost all physical and mental stats by 30 times, respectively.

    - AI Chip has sr system level quantumworking capabilities and super-level overclocking capability.

    - Price: 750 Supercoins

    - Targeted User Base: Students with an above 150 SDI average.

    9. Level 9:

    - Bionics and Psionics boost all physical and mental stats by 35 times, respectively.

    - AI Chip has gxy-level quantumworking capabilities and ultimate overclocking capability.

    - Price: 1,000 Supercoins

    - Targeted User Base: Students with an above 180 SDI average.

    10. Level 10:

    - Bionics and Psionics boost all physical and mental stats by 40 times, respectively.

    - AI Chip has multi-gctic quantumworking capabilities and supreme overclocking capability.

    - Price: 1,500 Supercoins

    - Targeted User Base: Students with an above 200 SDI average.

    11. Level 11:

    - Bionics and Psionics boost all physical and mental stats by 50 times, respectively.

    - AI Chip has sub-universal quantumworking capabilities and pinnacle overclocking capability.

    - Price: 2,000 Supercoins

    - Targeted User Base: Students with an above 220 SDI average.

    12. Level 12:

    - Bionics and Psionics boost all physical and mental stats by 60 times, respectively.

    - AI Chip has universe-level quantumworking capabilities and unparalleled overclocking capability.

    - Price: 2,500 Supercoins

    - Targeted User Base: Students with an above 250 SDI average.

    13. Level 13:

    - Bionics and Psionics boost all physical and mental stats by 75 times, respectively.

    - AI Chip has multi-universal quantumworking capabilities and eternal-level overclocking capability.

    - Price: 3,000 Supercoins

    - Targeted User Base: Students with an above 280 SDI average.

    14. Level 14:

    - Bionics and Psionics boost all physical and mental stats by 90 times, respectively.

    - AI Chip has divine quantumworking capabilities and limitless overclocking capability.

    - Price: 50,000 Supercoins

    - Targeted User Base: Students with an above 300 SDI average.

    15. Level 15:

    - Bionics and Psionics boost all physical and mental stats by 100 times, respectively.

    - AI Chip has pseudo-higher dimensional quantumworking capabilities, pseudo-higher dimensional overclocking capability, and an experimental split mind feature (dangerous!).

    - Price: 500,000 Supercoins

    - Targeted User Base: Students with an above 500 SDI average.]

    Dante was deeply moved after looking through this. As his stats grew and he realized that there was theoretically no ceiling for him as long as he yed it right, he began to look down on technology like this.

    After all, apart from being an auxiliary method, what else could it do in the face of extraordinary power? However, just look at this! After being established and researching for so long, the Eternal Universe had developed such technology that could allow a person with a base SDI of 500 to expand their power a hundred times!

    That meant that they would have 50,000 in the respective fields, which was madness!

    Imagine just 10 students with these equipped descending on the True Martial world or the Magus World. At that point, what magic, what Internal Arts? Anything in their way would be smashed to paste.

    Even Beatrice, with her awesome 20,000 in all fields, still personally requested the military to develop a special and unique set of Bionics and Psionics tied to her ability that still allowed her to soar over 100 times her current boundary.

    Otherwise, forget her current peak of 2 million; it might be hard for her to push past 500,000. However, technology made this exceedingly difficult task possible, and Dante was certain that if he selected the level 15 version, which was the highest and thetest the school had developed, he was secure until about 10,000.

    In other words, he could only boost the full 100 times up to 10,000 in all fields. However, at that time, he would have a peak of 1 million in all fields, and as long as he could foot the energy consumption bill, who could stop him besides Beatrice and his mother-inw?

    Of course, 10,000 in all fields was far away for the current him at his current pace, but it was definitely on the table. As such, he immediately paid the steep bill for the newlevel 15 version, which had onlye out 2 years ago and was still considered experimental because of its newest feature.

    It was simr to his quantum clone in the sense that the AI chip would overclock your mind and then split your consciousness cleanly into two with brute force methods, hosting your second consciousness while the main one remained in your brain.

    This was dangerous because even though the Eternal Universe had already reached the peak of Psionic research, that was only in terms of energy, not the matter itself. Psionic energy was the energy produced by the thoughts and consciousness of sentient beings, while Psionic matter was the thoughts and consciousness themselves.

    They had only recently delved into the research of Psionic matter for an unknown reason, and this was the first result. Dealing with consciousness was dangerous because the slightest mistake and boom, you were brain dead!

    Dante was confident in himself because of his quantum clone, his superpower, and his various abilities. Technically, he already achieved split consciousness when he began walking the magus path, but magi did not know how to galvanize spiritual cores for anything else other than magic currently.

    He scheduled a treatment date to be in 9 days since he was assumed to be in the 3rd Zero Gate World, and that session had 9 days until it ended. He didn''t want the Eternal Universe to know he had clones as that could be annoying to deal with if they found excuses to cause trouble.

    Since he had time until then, Dante decided to follow tradition and raise his two magical methods as well. Since he was already in a secure room with an energy pool, he chanted the mantra for the Inferno Ascension technique and began cultivating once more.

    Thest time he broke through, it took about 6 hours of nonstop focus since Greed''s Ember Flow increased his dantian count.

    However, this time Dante took over 24 hours to upgrade, and when he did, the entire dreadnought shook with power, rming Beatrice who was resting in her room after a particrly annoying mission.

    As for Dante himself, the mes that surged around him formed the image of a wicked demon thatughed wantonly before converging into his body. When he opened his eyes, there was a sh of hellish malevolence that would have caused a normal person with normal stats to have gone mad.

    With a light breath, Dante could not believe how much he had grown this time. It seemed that using this method of breaking through after increasing his stats was not only the right way but also yielded benefits the higher one''s stats grew, especially inparison to his own magical powers.

    Previously, whenever Dante broke through, he could only cross one stage with some extra left behind, but not this time. This time, Dante had broken through two whole sub-stages at once, bypassing level 6 Wrathful Congration straight to the mid-point of level 7''s Heretical Inferno.

    What made this even more crazy was the fact that, apart from level 2, level 4, and level 5, this level 7''s unlocked ability was something Dante had craved since he acquired this ability and was useful to him even now.

 Chapter 237 Heretical Inferno and Master Wizard

    Chapter 237 Heretical Inferno and Master Wizard

    [Magical Powers: Inferno Ascension Technique (Level 7: Heretical Inferno, 58%).]

    [Level 6 - Wrathful Congration: The user taps into the furious fires of Wrath, channeling their fury and rage into raw power. Strikes imbued with wrathful hellfire be nearly unstoppable, and the user can momentarily enter a state of controlled rage, granting immunity to pain as well as rapid regeneration and a direct increase in power by at least two-fold, with the exact amount dependent on their Strength value.]

    [Level 7 - Heretical Inferno: At this level, the user attains the ability to manipte their sinister hellfire in ways that challenge conventional martial arts. The hellfire''s heretical essence, upon contact with the foe, corrupts the opponent''s mind and pollutes it, converting it into hellfire demons that you can control.]

    That''s right, Dante had finally achieved that broken ability where he could infuse his internal force into others and forcefully convert them into hellfire demons!

    What? How was that usefulpared to the Eyes of Illusion?

    It was more than ten times better!

    First off, the Eyes of Illusion were NOT meant to be used like that. How Dante had used them to kill the Cockatrice was one of the correct ways of using it. How he used it every other time, except when creating protagonists, was utterly wrong.

    Secondly, we had to first understand what the heck a hellfire demon was. This was an elite creature in the 6th level of hell, which was Wrath. It was a Strength-based creature that had crazy endurance, a huge build, and slight ranged abilities in the form of casting hellfire outwards.

    But that was not what was important about hellfire demons. Hellfire demons were only as strong as the type of hellfire they were imbued with or that their master was imbued with.

    So in order words, the stronger Dante''s hellfire, the stronger the hellfire demons!

    Thirdly, what separated something like Harold and Lucian, who had the Eyes of Illusion used on them, and hellfire demons converted from this ability was that this ability actually scaled off the power of the person being converted as well.

    Obviously, Dante could not convert someone with more than half of his current stats, but anyone below that could be converted. So an enemy who had 1000 SDI average would be turned into a hellfire demon and they would retain all their knowledge, memories, and innate abilities - excluding superpowers - plus would gain the ability of the hellfire demon.

    Finally, the best part about this was not just the absolute loyalty but the full autonomy of hellfire demons. They could operate freely in any part of the universe and drew their power from themselves, not from Dante.

    Even better, Dante could equip them with various abilities based on the level of hellfire he infused into them. The base was level 1 when he made amon hellfire demon. So it would have a single dantian of hellfire that could be used, and it could replenish the hellfire over time like mana by burning its base energy.

    So as long as it had something like an energy pool or quantum vitality elixirs or potions, it would be able to regenerate hellfire quickly.

    But if Dante wanted and was willing to pay the price, he could give them level 2 spirit sense, level 3 physical pration up to even level 6 twofold berserk. Ifter he surpassed level 7 and reached level 10, he could give them any ability under level 10 itself.

    Even the ability to create their own hellfire demons! Of course, it worked like an MLM scheme where the higher-ranking one was, the more authority they had, so every hellfire demon created after would be beholden to Dante at the highest level.

    How else did you think Satan popted hell? You don''t think demons grew on trees, did you?

    Dante was thoroughly satisfied. With this, he didn''t need to worry about quantum poisoning anymore, and the ability called quantum summoning had be redundant. As long as he turned any monster or quantum world being into a hellfire demon, he could summon them in reality.

    Dante naturally glossed over the twofold berserk over there because it was just piling on numbers at this point. Stats were good, but esoteric abilities with auxiliary uses that could be continually dug out were far better.

    In a good mood, Dante worked on his mage ability. This one was far faster and much easier, taking only a few minutes at best to gather the created spiritual essence into a spiritual core and then fill it with space elements, once more increasing Dante''s spatial magic multiplier.

    Unfortunately, with this one, he couldn''t skip stages unless he purposefully weakened himself. Unlike Internal Force which generated en masse using base energy, spiritual essence was generated through two methods only: increasing Intelligence or converting Astral Energy.

    Increasing Intelligence had to be done through meditation usually, but Dante skipped the need for that by raising his stats using his special methods. He also did not bother with Astral Energy as his current growth methods were good enough.

    It was impossible to refine astral energy passively, even the Quantum Aetherium Conduit required active work. The time Dante would spend working on that could be spent doing something far more productive like raising Quantum Entanglement to the A Rank or even initiating a new power system.

    Anyway, Dante was now in the next rank and his power had already surpassed the moderately strong 9th Rank mage.

    [Level 6: Master Wizard (5th Rank)

    Mastery over space allows Master Wizards to manipterger portions of the environment. They can create basic wormholes for more extensive teleportation and form stable, permanent portals between locations. Master Wizards can also merge up to 3 elemental forces, casting spells like a magma-infused storm or a toxic blizzard charged with lightning.]

    One thing was important to remember was that just because Dante had chosen space for all his cores did not mean he could not use spells of other elements. He could freely do so, but since he would use the raw element in the outside world, it would be less refined and condensed like the spatial elements in his spiritual core.

    Hence, no percentage boost. It would work on its own raw power (based on spell rank) coupled with Dante''s own raw magic power (based on his wizard rank).

    Done with his upgrade session, Dante spent the next 9 days practicing the two physical methods even further. As usual, he started with the Knight Breathing system and began to grind nonstop.

    Meanwhile, about 21 days ago, Dante''s quantum clone descended into the third virtual world with his other students.

    [World Name: Zero Gate World (Advanced)

    World Owner: Eternal Academy

    World Creator: Eternal Academy

    World Size: Small

    World Type: Shared

    World Genre: Survival/Exploration

    Bionics Allowed: No

    Psionics Allowed: No

    Superpowers Allowed: Yes

    Requirements: Student ID

    Duration: 30 days

    Description: This is a recreation of the world behind the Zero Gate that has been refined countless times over the centuries to suit the true nature of what exists. The world behind the Zero Gate is randomly shuffled each time upon entry, but the archetype of the dangers and benefits that exist are traceable after so many voyages within.

    Objectives: Survive for 30 days to pass and acquire as many Fruits of Condensation as possible.

    Limitations: No Bionics, Psionics, or AI chips like in reality. One cannot leave the world until they either die orplete the tasks. Other students of the first to fifth year are present, providing severepetition.

    Provisions: Your body is perfectly scanned and replicated to its truest extent, allowing you to use all your powers and abilities freely.

    Upon descent, Dante''s quantum clone was on the top of a mountain, able to overlook the entire realm for miles in each direction. This made the young man pause and actually take a look with his ability to see what things would be like.

    As far as he could tell, the world extended into infinitum, but there seemed to be a barrier at a certain point that prevented students from crossing over it.

    SCREE!

    Dante nced backward and saw a pterodactyl-like monster with blood-red eyes swooping down towards him with a look of hunger and malice in its eyes. He raised his hand and sprayed out a thick wave of hellfire that caught the monster head-on and turned it into charred barbecue.

    Dante stepped aside as the corpse crashed into the rock and dug out a hole for a short distance. Ignoring the now-dead assant, he squatted near the edge of the cliff and looked down at the lush forests below with ck trees that extended as far as the eye could see with contemtion.

    Another descent meant another 10 fruits, but how should he go about iming them this time? Last time, he secretly regretted killing all the students so quickly as that had left him bored for the rest of the time, so he definitely wasn''t going to do so this time.

    As he pondered, he noticed some explosions in the distance that caused some trees to shatter and slowly repair themselves over time due to the ambient zero energy. That brief opening allowed him to see three students wearing different uniforms from different years furiously fighting a rather strong andrge monster.

    Immediately, Dante''s eyes lit up as he had an idea.

 Chapter 238 23 Fruits = 23 Superpowers

    Chapter 238 23 Fruits = 23 Superpowers

    Dante smiled and opened a wormhole that led right under the nearest tree. After all, from his previous vantage point, he had identified the location of most of the trees at once, so it was no problem.

    Underneath the tree was the usual scene of a bunch of monsters facing off.

    Dante spared a moment to nce at the tree itself and saw that it was a magnificent one that stood tall, its bark shining with the colors of vitality and strength.

    Its leaves were a bright green and seemed to shimmer with the hues of youth!

    Hanging from its branches was the glistening fruit itself that seemed to pulse with life. The fruit glowed with a creamy light, casting an aura of renewal to anyone or anything nearby.

    Just by looking, one could tell that this fruit was the type that when consumed, granted the power to regenerate, heal, and maybe even bestow life where it was lost. The extent of it would need to be tested.

    In Dante''s eyes, such a superpower was perfect for his mother, so he had already marked the fruit down as important. As for the monsters that were squaring off before it or the students spread out in hiding who were looking for an opportunity, Dante ignored them.

    He simply cast the 2nd Rank Spatial Reposition spell while tossing a leaf into the air. The result was that a spatial wormhole on a very small scale urred that switched the ce of the fruit with the leaf.

    Dante pocketed the fruit into his quantum space before turning to leave, ncing at the students and monsters who were filled with shock by the sudden change.

    Even as Dante opened a wormhole to the next one and walked through, the area behind him erupted in battle as the monsters went crazy from the theft, assuming one of the hiding students they had long detected was the culprit.

    When Dante appeared in the next spot, it was the same scene but a different tree. This somber tree had a charcoal-gray trunk that seemed to absorb the light around it.

    Unlike the void tree Dante met in his second run, this one''s leaves were a deep, dark crimson, appearing as if they were dipped in the blood of the living.

    The fruit that hung from its branches appeared almost lifeless. Dante was sure that when bitten into, it would likely grant the power to decay, wither, and embrace the inevitability of all things ending in death.

    So the first one was life, and the second was death, how poetic. Dante was careful this time because monsters interested in the power of death would have death-rted superpowers that could not just be ignored by him.

    He once again performed the old switcheroo and then replicated it on the spot. He then tossed the replicated one toward the center bit slightly closer to the students nearby. After taking a wormhole to escape, the area descended into a tense silence at first before a terrifying all-out brawl urred.

    You''re probably wondering why Dante would waste a perfectly good replicated fruit, especially when he could only have two? Well, that was just it, he could only have two in reality because he came from two universes, so his superpower only limited him to two.

    Anymore would be useless. Throwing one away in this quantum world did not affect this quota of fruits and obviously could not be taken out to benefit others. At best, it could be eaten by a quantum monster here and increase its superpower count which, once again, had no bearing on reality.

    A student could not use it to gain superpowers nor advance their superpower because these were virtual bodies, not their real bodies. The feedback would not ur; otherwise, forget school students, anyone who used the Etraverse would be able to gain the power of quantum worlds by spelunking in them.

    Even better, they couldn''t even submit it assuming one lucky student beat back all the monsters and hid for the remaining days without getting killed by Dante in hister n because what was manifested by him could be unmanifested.

    Dante appeared in the next zone and repeated his actions. This tree was quite interesting, being one that Dante identified to be rted to karma.

    Why?

    Because the bark of this tree held the intricacies of fate etched within it, a mosaic of every event that has ever urred and will ur beneath its branches. Its leaves shimmered with a ck and white yin-yang glow, reflecting the boundless cycle of cause and effect.

    What sealed it as karma and not fate or even time was the fruit that dangled from its boughs appearing as a swirling vortex of light and shadow. Rather than appear to give one the ability to manipte the threads of destiny, arge golden eye existed in the center of the vortex with countless threads surrounding it.

    However, no matter how awesome the fruit or the monsters guarding it, the fate of being yoinked could not be avoided. After dealing with it, Dante''s quantum clone moved onto the others.

    The fourth was a surreal tree with a bark that glowed with a blue outline, causing rocks and material around it to be lifted from the ground with a simr blue outline around it. The fruit that adorned its branches was translucent with a blue core within, as if holding the essence of thought itself.

    The fifth was a tree that appeared as though it was always in the midst of a gentle rain. Its bark glistened with droplets and its leaves were the same deep blue as the heart of the ocean. The fruit hanging from its branches were clear as crystal and brimming with liquid.

    The sixth tree was a marvel of texture, as if all sensations were condensed into its very being. Its leaves were a symphony of colors, each representing an aspect of sensory perception. The fruit was a kaleidoscopic orb that shimmered with sensory overload as it absorbed all stimuli from outside.

    The seventh tree seemed to transcend the boundaries of the earthly realm. Its bark was ethereal and ever-shifting, mirroring the colors of the heavens while the leaves appeared to be made of stardust, reflecting the serenity of cosmic order. The fruit that hung from its branches was like a miniature gxy, swirling with unknown constetions.

    The eighth tree''s trunk was wrapped in a tapestry of dreamy colors and waves, constantly shifting and changing like somevmp. The fruit that dangled from its branches were luminescent orbs, each containing a fragment of a different reverie.

    The ninth tree''s trunk seemingly held an ancient wisdom, with etchings that resembled intricate scrolls of knowledge. The fruit hanging from its bough was like a tiny book, scribbles written within that represented esoteric knowledge.

    The tenth and final tree stood tall and unyielding, its branches like pirs of righteousness and its leaves watchful enforcers. Its fruit appeared as a seal with the word ''Truth'' carved onto it.

    Dante gathered them all and held them carefully,paring them to the ones he already had. With these new fruits, including the remnants of his first run and the acquisitions from his second run, this was the list of fruits Dante owned:

    1. Gem Core Fruit - Ability to create crystals and use them offensively, defensively, or for support.

    2. Ability Silence Fruit - Ability to cause true silence in an area, meaning no sound, no superpowers, or special abilities either.

    3. True Time Fruit - Ability to fully control time, by stopping, rewinding, fast-forwarding, slowing, etc.

    4. Eternal me Fruit - Ability to create mes that burned eternally.

    5. Aetherial Prism Fruit - Ability to manipte prismatic light, i.e., reflections, concentration, etc.

    6. Resonance Core Fruit - Ability to control vibrational forces.

    7. Chrono-Wind Fruit - Ability to rewind or fast forward time in an area using wind.

    8. Gravity Well Fruit - Ability to control gravity through reduction or increment.

    9. Harmony Chime Fruit - Ability to create musical sound to stimte healing or to kill.

    10. Morphic Seed Fruit - Ability to shapeshift into other species.

    11. Void Nexus Fruit - Ability to enter the void of in-between space freely, i.e., the power to phase, basically.

    12. Chaos Crystal Fruit - Ability to control the chaos of the universe to alter reality.

    13. Ethereal Echo Fruit - Ability to switch between dimensions, i.e., space, sub-space, spirit, psion, elemental, etc.

    14. Pure Life Fruit - Ability to heal, and maybe resurrect.

    15. Pure Death Fruit - Ability to decay and maybe control undead.

    16. Karma Thread Fruit - Ability to visualize karmic bonds and sever or reallocate them.

    17. Psychic Wonder Fruit - Ability to use telekinesis, telesthesia, transvection, apportation, telepathy, and more.

    18. Pristine Water Fruit - Ability to control the water element and even generate water molecules from nothingness.

    19. Sensory Tree Fruit - Ability to sense all stimuli freely and know what is going on around you.

    20. Celestial Serenity Fruit - Ability to control cosmic energy freely.

    21. Dream Eater Fruit - Ability to put people to sleep and then enter their dreams to either attack, control, or inspect.

    22. Infinite Wisdom Fruit - Ability to acquire true knowledge of anything as long as you touch them.

    23. Truth Watcher Fruit - Ability to perceive lies from truths and create binding contracts universe-wide to maintain agreements.

 Chapter 239 Sinister Dante

    Chapter 239 Sinister Dante

    The important thing to note was that each of these fruits could be eaten by anyone other than Dante, so his friends and family had a great selection.

    As for Dante, not being able to eat these fruits was not much of a pain for him. When he entered the real Zero Gate in a few days, he would have the option to select between 20 fruits on both sides.

    Given the power of his current Quantum Entanglement, there was more than likely a 100% sess rate for the rtively cooler superpowers among them.

    Of course, he wasn''t going to swallow all of them because he would need to train them like Quantum Entanglement, and not everything might be as simple as ''sorting out wires'' when he reached the C Rank and above.

    Anyway, now that he had the fruits, it was time to effect his n. Dante''s clone rose up from the ground and pointed into the distance, releasing a wave of spatial energy that covered the entire quantum world.

    "All weaklings of the realm, here are my coordinates. I have collected all ten fruits and await a challenger to seize them from my hands!" Dante spoke to them through the spatial channel and even imbued them with a mental mark of his location rtive to them.

    Once he cut the spatial broadcast, every being seemed to contemte its chances against Dante, the students moreso than the ignorant beasts. After all, they knew more about Dante''s terror and were worried that this was some evil trick.

    Well, it was, but not what they thought. Dante''s clone did not have the Heretical Inferno since this was back in time before Dante''s main body made the breakthrough, and he just wanted to test his mettle against the others in this realm since he was ''nerfed'' to their level.

    The monsters moved out en masse and decided to attack Dante head-on, to which he met them with a single 2nd Rank Celestial Rift to call starlight down to attack. This directly cleared an area section of the onrushing army who were bolstered by their numbers.

    In their minds, as long as they took down Dante, everything would be alright!

    But well, everything wasn''t.

    Dante was shameless in the sense that he released his hellfire to form a domain around him for 2 kilometers in all directions, meaning that any monster that entered this zone would be burned to death.

    Meanwhile, he was clearing out huge swathes of them cheaply by using a mixture of the 1st Rank Astral re and the 2nd Rank upgrade, Celestial Rift. These two had near-instant cast time for him due to his space element boost and his high wizard rankpared to the spell.

    Now the important question was, how did mages under the magus system fight long-term battles? We knew that Internal Arts users had dantians for internal force and had to convert base energy into Internal Force through meditation if they ran out.

    The truth was that mages did not have anything like mana, which was why Beatrice even pushed Dante to adopt this system back then. They consumed their own mental stamina in casting because spells were a visualization ofbining elements in the atmosphere to form the effects they performed.

    Spiritual Essence was only used to condense cores, it could not be lost or turned into energy for other things unless the magus exploded their spiritual core in a crazy attempt to take the enemy down with them.

    So looking at Dante''s current intelligence stat, he could not cast too much even though he could disy the full power of his main body at 2000 points in all stats.

    Hm, wait? Mental stamina? Wouldn''t that be restored as long as one''s base energy was high?

    And didn''t Dante have a technique called Gluttonous Inferno that allowed him to break down anything within range that had energy into base energy for himself?

    Wait, was that why he created a domain of fire around him and asionally allowed a wave of beats to rush into and be burned into ash?

    How sinister!

    Hello, I would like to submit a ticket forint! This person is hacking the server! He is using a cheat to gain infinite stamina and mana to castrge-scale spells continuously!

    Excuse me? What do you mean ''git gud''?! Hello?? Hello?!?

    While Dante continually dropped death upon the monsters, the students had to watch by the side like cuckolds watching the burly Russian man with a baseball bat as his third leg turning their wife into a skewered kebab.

    Their faces were red and full of impotence as they could not imagine the length and breadth of Dante''s strength. This was especially true for the seniors who had heard about Dante and had been warned about him by their teachers and respective factions.

    However, like Humphrey and Slessor of the same batch, they felt it might have been overexaggerated and that they stood a chance against him. After all, the situation behind the Zero Gate changed every year, so who knew what might happen?

    For all they knew, Dante might fall into a hole when he entered the Zero Gate and be killed.

    However, looking at the fellow now, they realized how stupid their thoughts were. The fellow was soloing all the monsters in the realm, monsters that they usually had to sneak past or fight in groups to stand a chance were being killed like roaches being sprayed by insecticide.

    None of them could even dream of doing that, so with pale faces, they knew that fighting for the fruits was useless. Many directlymitted suicide to leave the Zero Gate world because what was the point?

    If the school wanted, it could cancel their right to enter the Zero Gate. Who knew, it might even prevent them from crossing this monster and having their precious lives taken away.

    Besides, rather than waste time watching him dominate like an impotent cuck, they would rather spend their time productively in other school worlds or performing other extracurricr activities for their benefits.

    Dante''s clone spent the next few days in continuous siege like this, pushing his battle stamina to greater degrees. Of course, it helped to have ''another'' mind that was rxedly practicing and increasing his power in another ce to bnce him out from all the killing as well as casting.

    In the first few days, he killed them in huge amounts, but afterwards, he began to experiment with spells of other elements and familiarized himself with them. All sorts of spells were sent forth, first those of a single element, then upgrading to a mixture of two elements.

    After he repeatedly cycled through many elements, he gained a good grasp of their killing powerpared to each other and especiallypared to his spatial spells which were in a whole different ballgame.

    Meanwhile, the monsters were asionally scattered and full of fear due to the ughter so Dante had to repeatedly stimte them using the fruits, even bringing one out that he replicated on the spot and almost pretended to take a bite from it.

    Seeing the much-desired superpower right in front of them, the beasts naturally went crazy and forgot everything with bloodshot eyes and continued to rush over like moths to the me just for that slight chance that they might be the one to eat the fruit.

    It wasn''t until the day that Dante made aprehensive breakthrough in all his methods and SDI that Dante''s clone stopped its actions and left the area. By this time, more than 95% of the monster poption in the entire realm had been vanquished.

    Dante came to a quiet part of the virtual world and then looked around carefully before allowing his mainbody to teleport over. The main body came to ovey on the virtual avatar while the quantum clone was disbanded and then reestablished.

    This way, the virtual clone was ''refreshed'' and gained the current level of abilities that Dante had. After that, the main body left as there was nothing to do anymore while the refreshed and empowered clone created to the declining battlefield and resumed his arrogant behavior.

    As for Dante''s main body, he returned to the home universe and appeared in the central base on Earth. After all, after almost 3 months of brewing, his parents and uncle had finally reached the end point of their transformative journey and were ready toe out of hibernation.

    As his only family and part of the very tiny circle of people he would truly die for in this life, he naturally would not let them face any danger while also endeavoring to his best to be there for them.

    Dante nced at the three whose cultivation pods full of the nanites were lowering themselves and beginning to enter a nt near the floor. Somehow, Dante was reminded of the scene of Master Chiefing out of hibernation on the Pir of Autumn.

    While he thought this, the pods slid open and unveiled his parents and uncle who were wearing skintight jumpsuits of a gray and ck color.

 Chapter 240 Filial Dante

    Chapter 240 Filial Dante

    The three of them looked at each other with amazement before they began feeling their changes and renewed bodies with shock. Dante himself was the most amazed as his parents now looked 30 years younger.

    Looking at David Alighieri, he was no different from Dante himself, especially that his hairstyle was more tame and conservative. Dante had his spiky and plentiful hair to thank from his lovely mother, who also gave him soft and feminine features due to her Eurasian background without tarnishing his masculinity.

    Even beforeing to the Eternal Universe, Dante had been a well-built pretty boy. The delicate bnce of his two forbears'' gics hade together to sculpt him, and now they themselves had received a boost, the source of Dante''s advantages easily showed.

    What was most surprising was his uncle, who still looked older than the two but had sprouted out a head of thick afro-like hair. Compared to his previous bald self, the new him looked like a fellow out of the 80''s, some ck Dynamite-looking fe.

    The three couldn''t help but burst intoughter at Uncle Peter''s expense, but he seemed to be happy about it and kept rubbing his new hair whileughing. The scene was truly harmonious until Aileen pointed out that she wanted to change, to which Dante understood since they might be feeling ufortable clothed like this.

    As such, he had the bots bring them exosuits that were not as powerful as his - as he did not have the right to buy such proprietary technology - and they wore them. These exosuits could also function as daily clothes and change their appearance freely since they used nanites.

    Given their fashion tastes, the three immediately switched to what they normally wore at home and seemed to be pleased. Dante then beckoned for them to follow him into a wormhole he opened up, which led to another part of the base.

    The three unhesitatingly followed him in and discovered they were in the lounge they had chatted with Dante at before going under. Immediately they sat down and began feelingfortable, relishing their much more youthful bodies and how their joints didn''t creak or groan as much anymore.

    "Firstly, you guys should activate your AI chips and let them sync with you," Dante prompted with a smile.

    Dante''s parents - as well as his uncle - looked at their son/nephew, then at each other, nodding in unison as they were filled with curiosity about these new AI chips and the benefits they could offer.

    David was the first to activate the one in his body, and his eyes shone with a blue light as theplex binding of tiny quantum processors waspleted in seconds. Aileen and Peter were right after him, and the trio showed the same expression of wonderment and surprise that Dante did when he first essed his AI chip all those months ago.

    "Alright, you should be receiving a wealth of information in the form of a packet from the base AI. ept it and get yourself up to speed with the current state of Earth, the universe, as well as the Eternal Universe," Dante instructed them while leaning forward.

    The three did so, and immediately they seemed to be dazed as their minds were processing all this information and ratifying it. Dante called an AI bot with his chip to ce two metal chips on all of the three''s temples, which acted as a sort of cont for their brain by expelling unnecessary heat.

    After all, while Dante might have great stats at the moment, he didn''t forget how it felt to have only 2 points in each field and have to deal with huge information dumps with his weaker brain at the time.

    No child wanted their parents to suffer, so he naturally prepared something to help them. It seemed to be working too as the faces of the three, while dazed, never showed difort. Even crazier was that one could see invisible heatwaves radiating outwards from the ''ejector'' part of the cont device on their temples.

    Soon, his parents were done with the information, and they way they looked at Dante changed as they understood the cause and effect of everything. Aileen and Peter were the most excited, while David was calm as usual.

    "I can''t wait to explore the void of space! Nephew, can I have a sub-fleet to go out and conquer parts of the gxy for you?" Peter asked impatiently.

    Dante smiled knowingly. "Haha, Uncle Peter, don''t think I''ve forgotten how much Star Trek you made me watch as a kid."

    Peter blushed and passed a hand through his scalp, then remembered he was no longer bald and smiled. "You don''t need to out me like this, Dante. Yes, it''s been my fantasy to explore the universe like The Enterprise''s crew and have adventures with my own crew."

    "Also, I''d like to find an alien wife for myself. Since human women have disappointed me time and time again, I would like to try romance with another species." Uncle Peter stated seriously and humbly.

    David patted his brother''s back while Aileen looked awkward, because she was precisely a human woman. However, she already knew what Peter had gone through, so she could only pinch her eyebrows and remain silent.

    "Don''t worry, Uncle Peter, you''ll be free to take any path you want after we''re done here," Dante assured the man with a smile.

    David interrupted with a casual cough. "You must have brought us here for a reason, son."

    "That''s right. I have these fruits that may or may not grant superpowers to you as long as someone else does not also have them, so you have to select one of them to try." Dante revealed as he sent the list of 23 fruits and their abilities to his parents and uncle.

    They were surprised and excited to receive such aprehensive list, and they even knew how lucky they werepared to denizens of the Eternal Universe as they had received a full information packet from Dante.

    For people on the other side, getting a single fruit was a hurdle and you often didn''t have time to care about the power within and whether you could choose. Even if it was useless, a superpower was a superpower, but one had to deal with the ''sess'' rate of activation.

    Here, they could pick and choose, even having a rtively brief summary of what power they could get. As such, they were grateful but overwhelmed with favor. In the end, Dante could only force them to choose in the end as they kept ncing at him with pride.

    They were silent as they contemted their future ns and desires contrasted with what the superpowers offered before making their final choices.

    "I choose the Ability Silence Fruit," David said casually.

    "I choose the Infinite Knowledge Fruit," Aileen pped her hands with excitement and requested.

    "I choose the Morphic Seed Fruit," Peter decided with a deep breath.

    Dante nced at the three of them and assumed their reasons without asking. His father was a man of few words and preferred little to no noise, which was a habit Aileen, who loved music, had to adapt to in their marriage.

    As for his mom, she was a typical geek. Well, given her revealed history, she was not typical at all, but pretty much a genius youngdy who ran away from home. Wanting knowledge was exactly the kind of thing she would desire because in her hands, knowledge was truly power.

    As for his uncle, well, he just made clear he wanted to travel the universe and gather andpursue the alien beauties in the universe. Some alien beauties might not have the same biology as us, so it would be better for him to be able to transform into them, no?

    Dante first destroyed the replicated versions of the fruits and re-replicated them on the spot so that they obtained hispatibility trait, then handed them over to the three older generation family members. As they knew that the fruit needed to be consumed, they each swallowed the fruits whole and then waited.

    Dante himself was curious because apart from the Golden Ape, this was the first time he would be seeing how a person unlocked a superpower. He could feel waves of Zero Energy throbbing from the three as their faces suddenly changed, and they closed their eyes to focus on visualizing something.

    Immediately some aspects of their superpowers manifested as the area around David became silent as if in the void, whereas Aileen''s eyes shone in a bright golden color much like Dante himself, while Peter''s skin seemed to boil as many parts changed and shifted haphazardly.

    Eventually, all the phenomena came to an end as the trio settled down and came to, the marvel and understanding they feltpletely different from before. They could feel the change within and how they could affect the world without.

    Superpowers were like bloodline abilities; you didn''t necessarily need to know how to use them and could just use them, at least until the higher ranks.

 Chapter 241 Untamed Obsessions

    Chapter 241 Untamed Obsessions

    "I''m sure you guys want to y with your abilities now more than anything, so I''ll leave you to it. Anything you want is free for you to ask of my base AI, and with your quantum AI chips, you will always be connected once you remain within this universe," Dante stated as he stood up to leave.

    "Go ahead, son, do what you have to," David said calmly, nodding his head with approval.

    "Oh, don''t forget to take us to see Beatrice and her family when you have time. I can''t wait to see my lovely daughter-inw!" Aileen reminded as she came out of her musings.

    "Haha, don''t worry, Mom, it will be right after I do this particr thing," Dante assured her as he left because his uncle had already turned into a bird and was flying about haphazardly.

    Dante teleported into the medical zone of the Vitality Pool''s area and entered the room where Aisha was kept. The woman was now dressed in a skin-tight polymer that was white in color, which highlighted her 10/10 curves.

    It seemed that not only the health treatment but also the fact that her superpower had been raised had affected her body slightly and perfected it even further, making her visually superior to most Earth women.

    However, she naturally fell far short of Beatrice. Not to mention that Dante had developed sexual apathy towards other women after tasting Beatrice. It wasn''t just loyalty to his partner, because it was possible to be loyal and still agree that sexiness was sexiness.

    However, Dante knew that even if Aisha stripped, he wouldn''t be able to get it up because he wouldn''t be able to muster any sexual interest. Just as Beatrice waspletely enraptured by his semen, which was of high quality thanks to his upgraded stats, he too waspletely stolen away by her superiorˇ­ everythingˇ­ when they copted.

    That phenomenon worked both ways, for both sexes. Besides, he would have to suppress his own body''s power to even have a chance of not killing Aisha on pration, something which he did not feel inclined to do, which further enhanced his apathy.

    It didn''t matter which woman came now orter or how desirable their body would be traditionally, Dante would not be able to partake in it even if he was forced or hypnotized into it.

    Dante only realized all this in a split second, then nced at Aisha, who was startled to see him here. However, she seemed to see the change in Dante''s eyes, and her heart skipped a beat.

    Previously, although Dante said and indicated that he did not have any interest toward her, she could tell that it was only due to loyalty to his true partner first and second, a certain disgust because of her own sexual history.

    However, his eyes and body did not lie, and she knew that she was definitely at the top of his list of sexually desirable partners. This formed her confidence and why she was willing to be patient, because no matter how beautiful the other woman was, it was natural for a man to want more.

    Even if she would end up as a second ce in a harem, Aisha was willing because she understood that it was the best she could get. However, seeing the apathy now, she couldn''t help but panic and begin to hyperventte as the world around her became ck.

    Dante saw this and sighed. This was why it was only nice in fiction for a man or woman to have an obsession toward you, like the famous ''yandere''. In reality, it was something very dangerous and harmful for both parties and should be cured as soon as possible.

    However, Dante had taken advantage of her obsession to get her to fulfill his goals, but he knew he couldn''t do so anymore, so he was here to finally deal with this Aisha problem once and for all.

    "Aisha, you have already realized it by now. It is simply impossible for us to be together romantically or even tonically as there is no realmon ground between us. The way we met marked us as enemies, and the way you were treated after should have created hatred, not love," Dante began with a deep breath.

    "Despite the fact that it did, I could not trust you fully because the kind of love you have is not entirely reliable; it can easily turn to hate. As such, I have not been fully upfront with you and have used you toplete various tasks for me, but given your former upations, you should have realized this."

    "I-ˇ­"

    Before Dante could continue, he was interrupted by Aisha turning to a beam of light and appearing before him, on her knees. Her hair was messy, and her eyes werepletely bloodshot, with not a hint of rity within.

    "No, Please! D-Don''t abandon me! I-I don''t want to leave you!" She screamed with the kind of desperation that a person would have if their family member was about to be killed right in front of them.

    No, she was like a severely addicted person who was told that they would no longer be given a hit of their desired substance. Dante could tell without even using bodynguage that she would literally do ANYTHING at this moment to get what she thought she needed.

    He could only watch her rush to cling to his pants with a look of utter desperation, forgetting her own self-esteem and pride. He had to look at it because this was a monster that he created.

    He had no me for Aisha initially forming the obsession, but at that time, it was mere sexual interest and a strong attachment because she had been ''beaten down''. It was simr to the western fantasy theory that humanoid dragon women had to literally be beaten up by prospective mates in order to subdue them for mating, and they would be loyal to their mates for life.

    However, Dante still had uses for her back then and did not have a foolproof way to control her, so he simply let the obsession fester and even gave her the hope that it might be achieved in order to galvanize her loyalty.

    Now, this was the result.

    "Don''t worry, I don''t have ns to abandon you. I have taken the path of a conqueror, which means I should be ruthless, but I want to be more like Alexander the Great than Hitler, if you get my meaning," Dante said as he gently stroked her head.

    "But I cannot release you, not because I fear you, but because you wouldn''t even leave if I opened the door. I cannot lie to you that you will get a chance; you already know the truth. If I lie and leave, the next time Ie and see you, you will most likely be a corpse by your own hands."

    "You want to be close to me due to your obsession, but we cannot be true friends nor can we be lovers, even as a fake. The only path left to me is to make you a part of me, a subordinate who is closer to me than anyone else without infringing both of our interests and lives."

    Dante paused and then firmed his expression. "And that requires a big change."

    The ckish-red fire lit up on his hand that was rubbing Aisha''s head and as he gazed in her desperate eyes that were like a firework that had beenunched, at its peak before it reached the sky and exploded, outliving its existence.

    If Dante did not do this, Aisha''sst desperate crywould turn to severe nihilism and apathy towards life. She would either be braindead and unresponsive, or would simply end her life functions with a thought.

    As such, he sent a huge volume of hellfire into her, an amount reaching the total number of hellfire within all his 1024 dantians!

    Aisha did not scream or move because the process was not painful unless Dante wanted it to be. Besides, it would be impossible to hear her screams or see her thrashing because her entire form was covered from head to toe with the hellfire without any space to see her form.

    Eventually, Dante took his hand back and panted tiredly. Expelling all his Internal force at once was a great undertaking for him, no less than when he exploded it to cause a nuclear fallout in the Apocalypse World.

    After making sure everything was fine, Dante took a step back and sat cross-legged to recover his internal force slowly. After all, the amount he had used to transform Aisha using Heretical Inferno would need time to process and digest.

    Even while he was meditating, his spirit sense was locked on the ming silhouette that represented Aisha, and he could feel waves of power growing from the silhouette that made him feel wary.

    Whatever she would be after this, her power would not be low at all!

 Chapter 242 A Hew Horizon

    Chapter 242 A Hew Horizon

    It took Dante about an hour to recuperate all his Internal Force with the supplication of energy from the vitality pools around him. By the time he was done, Aisha seemed to be undergoing the final parts of her transformation as the fire had formed a cocoon around her, and its pulsing was reaching a crescendo.

    Immediately, the cocoon burst into mes that were absorbed by Aisha, revealing the woman who was within. She had changed significantlypared to before visually while he retained many aspects as well.

    She had be taller, much taller, standing at what was likely six foot five inches. Her body was even thicker than before, if that was even possible, with farrger breasts and a much more rounded and protruding backside, abut all that was facilitated by the explosive muscles on the rest of her body.

    It was not the masculine type of muscture but the feminine type. Very clear and detailed abs, arms that, while still retaining feminine softness, boasted a streamlined look and the faint outline of biceps.

    Her skin had gone from dark brown to bright red, seeming as ifva itself coursed through them. Her temples sported two thick and curved ram-like horns while her long white hair had be pitch ck in color and reached her leg.

    There was a long forked tail behind her and two folded bat-like wings that could be extended for up to twice her body length on either side. Her formerly white eyes were now scarlet, and her lips were a mixture of purple and ck.

    As for clothesˇ­ she had none as she had just been refined by his hellfire. The entirety of her magnificent body that surpassed human imagination was exposed to him freely, allowing him to see the sheer perfection.

    He felt nothing but curiosity at what she could do, and Aisha was fully aware of this. She did not bother to remain naked and formed a tight bikini-like attire from hellfire that covered her extremities.

    After doing so, she smiled and walked over to Dante while kneeling down on one knee.

    "Master." She greeted in a sultry tone that would make any male - and even female - have goosebumps as desire would course through their body.

    "Hm, Aisha, you''re different now. I sense not only a faint connection to you, but I also feel like we canmunicate telepathically over long distances," Dante stated as she made circles around her to assess her current ability.

    "That is correct. I was converted into a hellfire demon of the female lineage, but after the amount of pure hellfire you invested in me, I skipped many ranks in the demon world and directly rose to the position of the Lilith Demon, Queen of Lust."

    Aisha smiled. "I now represent the Deadly Sin of Lust under yourmand."

    This naturally intrigued Dante. He already knew the more he invests, the higher the output, but he did not think he could actually create a demon on par with the Seven Deadly Sins outright.

    That was an extreme level of power and to have such a demon under his control could entirely change the bnce of his power as well as the totality of his strength. Dante rubbed his chin and touched Aisha''s abdomen on instinct.

    Immediately, a strange emblem lit up in fire on her stomach, and Aisha turned into hellfire that flowed onto Dante''s arm, forming a sigil on his wrist. The moment this happened, Dante received a full burst of knowledge about Aisha''s status and her abilities.

    As she stated, she was now an alternate form of Lilith, the Sin of Lust. As such, she could use all Lust-rted demon abilities and control all Lust-rted demons, including subi and incubi.

    She could even create subi or incubi from people using her own hellfire at a very high cost to her. More importantly, she controlled the power of illusions, luring any sentient being into a lust-filled paradise where she could control their actions and thoughts.

    Now that Dante had ''armed'' her, he could also use these abilities, though they had little value to him. He had something better for illusions, and creating lust demons was child''s y if he could create a whole Lilith clone.

    As such, he released her, and she formed back into her true form. Dante observed her and noticed that she no longer had her light element superpower, at least not in this form. The Heretical Inferno transformation could be reversed, and if that happened, she would return to how she had been before.

    The truth was, he didn''t need to go so far. With a simple thought from Dante, Aisha physically turned back into her previous self, with her white hair and white eyes filled with her usual liveliness. She hadpletely regained her former self and was no longer mentally troubled.

    Of course, she waspletely loyal to Dante thanks to the transformation, but that alone would not have been enough to fix her. It seemed that hellfire could burn away the darkness in people, and Dante couldn''t help but think about how his hellfire automatically reacted to defend him from mental attacks or pollution.

    "So, how do you feel?" Dante asked finally.

    "I know what you''re asking, and don''t worry. You are the source of my power and to some extent, my very god. I cannot lust over my god because that''s sphemy, but in terms of romantic and sexual desire, the one I will want has to have at least, 75% of your chromatics!" She said boldly with a confident smile, flinging her hand forward majestically.

    Eh? So sort of like a daughter? After all, it was said that a child would mostly look for qualities in their parent of the opposite sex possessed when searching for a partner subconsciously.

    The fact that Aisha did not desire him anymore but hoped the one she would desire would have some of his traits seemed simr to that. Thinking of their rtionship in terms of his ability, it did seem like she had been converted from a time bomb yandere to a pseudo-daughter, or more precisely, a summoned and sentient familiar.

    Whatever the case, the problem was solved. In fact, Dante even noticed that the slight healthplication Aisha had was cured, meaning that the quantum poisoning was gone?

    Could this be another way to cure quantum poisoning? After all, his Inferno Art was a quantum power, and it did make sense if it turned those who were converted into half-quantum beings.

    However, rather than that, Dante felt it was more likely that it was because they were attached to him that they gained this benefit, rather than a feature of the power itself because at the end of the day, the magical power system was facilitated by his Quantum Entanglement superpower.

    Immediately he thought of the best use for Aisha right now, but before that, if conversion could cure quantum poisoning, could he finally save those two fellows Harold and Lucian?

    After all, he had already given them the memory background of those low-rank demons from the Abyss so if he turned them, they would feel it was utterly normal.

    Thinking like this, he had their bodies brought here by AI bots. They had been forcefully preserved so as to slow the decay of the quantum poisoning, but they were already on theirst breath, looking no different from skeletons.

    In a month or two of this decelerated transformation, they would have likely be corpses. Dante decided to focus on the one who was worse off, which was Lucian.

    He did the same as for Aisha, infusing all the hellfire in his 1024 dantians over. He wanted to see if he could create another deadly sin demon or if it was a one-time thing.

    As for Aisha, she watched from the side with a sultry smile. She did not feel jealous nor care that another like her mighteˇ­ in fact, she rather looked forward to it!

    Only when all seven of the deadly sins were gathered could they unleash their full power and establish Dante as the True Lord of Hell!

    While Dante recuperated, Lucian underwent the same process as Aisha did and was in the cocoon for slightly over an hour before bursting out. Unlike what Dante expected, even though he had the same red skin, his horns were on his forehead, and his body was slightly shorter than Aisha at six foot four.

    He was very muscr and well-built, but not overly so. Rather, he looked like a pompous young master of the demon race, and his physical features had been enhanced to their peak. Just the disdainful look in his eyes toward everything except Dante was telling of what sin he had be.

    Then he made Lucian, who was confused to be alive again, stand by the side while Aisha filled him in and dealt with Harold while recuperating. Harold also took the same amount of time to transform, and when he came out, he surprised the trio here.

 Chapter 243 Dantes "Origins"

    ?

    Harold was actually much smaller than the other two, being around the size of a child. He also had child-like features that were extremely cute and endearing to any onlooker, with his bright red skin and now stubby little horns.

    However, the others could tell his sin affiliation at a nce.

    "Envy? I expected better from you, Harold," Lucian stated with disdain.

    Harold''s sweet expression became ugly and full of malice. "Of course you would, Lucian, born into a rich family that is a mid-sized n. As for a pauper like me who is at the bottom rung of pure human society, you cannot understand how it feels!"

    "I never knew you were this whiny, or I would have never associated with you!" Lucian stated without a hint of sympathy, a look of utter disdain on his face.

    "Yeah, yeah, whatever. At least I don''t envy you," Harold stated with a bored wave of his hand.

    He then turned and sized Aisha up. "Bitch, who are you? Lust? Why don''t I feel turned on though you are truly sexy?"

    "It doesn''t make sense for the seven deadly sins to be affected by each other, does it? Otherwise, how are we supposed tobine our powers against the seven virtues?" Aisha exined with a roll of her eyes.

    Hearing the seven virtues, the three showed expressions of slight hatred, which Dante did not miss. He wondered if the seven virtues existed somewhere in the same way he had created these three deadly sins out of the seven.

    "Enough. The three of you, turn into emblems and let me take you to the Eternal Universe. Harold and Lucian, you guys need to return home and exact revenge on the ns that bullied and practically crippled your families. Aisha, I''ll have Beatrice register you as another lost pure human along with my parents as a member of my family," Dante stated as he called them back.

    Aisha nodded while Harold and Lucian''s expressions changed greatly. While they may be loyal to Dante now, they still had some affection for their family ns, as they had been raised there.

    Dante collected them into three emblems around his wrist and then teleported to his parents and uncle who had been patiently waiting. Seeing as their son/nephew was done, they got up excitedly to head to the Eternal Universe and witness this gloriousnd for themselves.

    With a smile, Dante activated his quantum entanglement and designated his three family members as targets, and everyone was instantly carted off to the Eternal Universe.

    When they appeared, they were in the cockpit of the Inferno dreadnought. Beatrice was currently scrolling through some content while in her uniform because Dante had already warned her that he would be bringing his parent over soon.

    When she felt the group appear, she put away her entertainment and stood up ramrod straight like a cadet being called to attention. She then woodenly walked over with an almost awkward grace towards the group who were marveling at the interior of the spaceship.

    It was then that Dante called everyone''s attention into focus with a smile. "Mom, dad, Uncle Peter, this is my fiance and soon-to-be wife, Beatrice Portinari."

    The trio turned to look at Beatrice and their reactions were as Dante expected. Peter''s eyes bulged out, and his newly grown hair almost fell off. David, no matter how stoic, was truly shocked this time, and his mouth kept pping like a fish.

    It was only Aileen who reacted loudly, with a shout of joy as she rushed over and held Beatrice''s hand. "Oh my God, David, look at her. She''s so beautiful and perfect!"

    "E-Ehh??" Beatrice was immediately stunned into stupefaction as her face became red as an apple.

    "Ah! You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, and no one on our canpare to you! This is amazing, my daughter-inw is amazing!" Aileen continued to gush out her happiness at the sheer superiority of her prospective daughter-inw.

    Dante merely stood by the side with a satisfied smile. He knew his family well enough that they would definitely ept Beatrice.

    After all, he had provided them all the info about her, minus her looks, so if they already had no problem with her history or family, they would definitely not be able to resist when they saw how beautiful his darling Beatrice was.

    Beatrice was flustered and shy by her mother-inw''s enthusiasm while David and Peter had pulled Dante to one side and were patting him on the head, back, and shoulder repeatedly while gushing out with praise at how he managed to snatch such a good one.

    Dante was amused and saved Beatrice from exploding out of bashfulness by alerting everyone that there was a need to register them in the pure human database of this universe. For Dante''s parents and uncle, it would be much easier than himself because they had him as a connection.

    In fact, it was about time for Dante to ''create'' his actual background and history as that had been mostly left unfilled, which had been a point that the various factions even attacked when he was in seclusion.

    As such, Dante sat everyone down as they began to work on and refine the history of their ''family'' in the Eternal Universe using real events. Beatrice and Aileen made the most contributions because one was a native and was slightly more savvy while the other had a knowledge-based superpower that could present information more sharply than others.

    After a while, this is what they had createdˇ­

    In the early years of humanity''s voyage into space, when mankind''s conquest of the cosmos was but a faint dream, a small n of pureblood humans found themselves exiled from Earth for a myriad of reasons untraceable now but believed to be political.

    Aboard a single shuttle, they embarked on a journey to the uncharted regions of the cosmos, leaving behind their home, their people, and their past. They numbered around 4000 at this time.

    The shuttle''s odyssey through the dark void of space was fraught with hardships, a harsh test of the n''s determination to survive.

    Fuel shortages, mechanical failures, and the unforgiving void of space itself threatened to extinguish their hope.

    After years of aimless drifting, they finally stumbled upon a habitable on the fringes of the gxy.

    It was a world of earth-like beauty, but its seemingly calm surface hid deadly species.

    Monstrous wildlife, mysterious flora, and otherworldly phenomena became their daily bread.

    The group of 4000, who had dwindled down to 1500 after so long, now consisted of four formerlyrge families who forged a tenuous pact to face the''s challenges together.

    The Italian Alighieri familia brought their wisdom and charisma to the group.

    The Ghanaian Mensah family, skilled hunters and trackers, provided the essential sustenance.

    The Danish Heineken estate''s technological acumen enabled them to create the tools and defenses required for survival.

    The Chinese AI n possessed the uncanny ability to easily awakentent superpowers within their members.

    The''s inhospitable nature brought out the best in them, forging a unity that would determine their destiny.

    Through the power of awakened superpowers, they tamed the''s wild beasts, bent the forces of nature to their will, and built a society capable of fending off the''s innate hostilities.

    In the centuries that followed, the group seemed to flourish as the talents and powers of their mixed descendants were maximized with each generation.

    However, there was a price to pay in the sense that, with each generation, the number of births dwindled even as the superpower awakening rate - and quality - grew exponentially.

    This continued for the eight or so millennia until now, when the group was left with numbers barely reaching double digits, when one of thest of the new generation awakened his teleportation power and found himself on the streets of Etonia''s Avalon city, sparking a wave of events universe-wide.

    "Heyyy, that''s pretty good!" Dante eximed with surprise.

    "And so, Dante, who was exposed to the universe, decided to bring his family out to see the world, especially in regards to his uing marriage to Beatrice," Aileen finished with a satisfied snort.

    David and Peter simply shared a look and did notment. Clearly, Aileen was fully invested in this, and anyone who dared to speak out might get wed in the face. Beatrice was simply immersed and couldn''t extricate herself while Dante was supportive because even if others found problems with the story, as long as his fist was strong, anyone would ept it.

    And so, this was the story that was published to the Pure Human Council by Dante as he brought his parents to Earth to be registered. This time, it was not Director Johnson but an even higher-ranking dignitary who hurriedly handled everything for them while continually hinting to Dante that his daughter was also free for marriage.

    Even Aisha was registered as his cousin, which made the woman snicker. "We both have dark skin, and have ancestry from Italy. We might actually be cousins, you know, especially since your grandpa was also a mafia lord."

 Chapter 244 A Wonderful Suprise

    Chapter 244 A Wonderful Suprise

    Dante was speechless. "You know your own history better than me, so it''s very unlikely."

    Aisha could only shut up at that as her history was that of a tramp who had to use her powerful mouth skills to climb to the top. However, herplex and trauma about that had mostly been burned away by the hellfire, so she felt renewed.

    Anyway, after the group was registered, Dante took them back to the dreadnought and then released Harold and Lucian, who had turned back into their normal selves, much like Aisha.

    Dante then sent them back to the school and then came out of his cabin while walking down the street to use the school''s internal transit system with casual smiles.

    As you could imagine, there was a shock from those who were monitoring Dante''s residence to see these twoe out unscathed, as by now the whole universe knew they had disappeared after meeting Dante months ago.

    To see the two of theme out naturally raised eyebrows and made many sneer. Did Dante think he could fool them with clones or AI to try and prove that he didn''t kidnap them? Did he think no one in the Eternal Universe had tried to be ''clever'' before?

    As such, they were made to undergo rigorous testing and verification using the highest technological standard, but to the shock of the various factions, these twods were actually legit!

    The heck!

    When the forces realized that they now had to release the hold on their two ns and provide an exnation, their faces became like they had eaten shit. After all, they could pressure the family and use the ''kidnapping'' of the twods as an excuse to me it all on Dante, but the twods hade back.

    Even worse, they directly announced and spread everything to the entire universe, pinning the cause of the problem and the reason on those actually guilty, directly outing them for wanting to suppress Dante out of fear.

    Naturally, the factions in question skillfully denied everything and asked for evidence, to which the twods happily provided since their family had been suppressed for so long. This caused another wave of explosion on the Etr as all the species in the universeughed at the arrogant pure humans for infighting again.

    This forced the Pure Human Council to take this issue seriously and dere certain punishments and bans on the ns that took part in the suppression. This made many races stopughing as they were exposed to another part of human nature, the ability to be cruel to themselves!

    The punishments weren''t light and would practically cripple more than half of those factions and ns that took part in the suppression. Seeing that pure humans could be so wicked to each other, then what wouldn''t they do to them, outsiders?

    Interestingly, rather than focus on how impartial and staunch the Pure Human Council was, this only had the effect of making the non-humans even more closely knit and sure of their need to overthrow the reigning power.

    However, universe politics was not on the mind of Dante and his crew at the moment. As it were, Dante had settled down his parents and nned to let them enter the next stage of their ns after he came back from the Zero Gate, while Aisha decided to stay with Beatrice after being amazed by her beauty and forcefully took her as her older sister.

    The reason for all this was because today was the 28th of October and it was the date for the students toe out of the third run of the mock exam, but there was not much suspense since everyone already knew what happened within.

    Dante''s clone came out and went to the seven-day ck Land session that ended on November 4th, leaving 26 days until the opening of the Zero Gate. It was the final sprint of the preparation time, and all the other students were getting their minds and bodies ready for what woulde next.

    On the 4th, Dante went to the Student Enhancement Center for his full-on upgrade. He let them record his current SDI with a confident smile and entered the cultivation chamber.

    There was a slight hup, though when they tried to inject Dante with the nanites necessary to form these two new upgrades because the needles couldn''t even pierce his skin!

    In the end, they had to rely on Dante himself, who cut his own skin and forcibly slowed down his regeneration enough to allow the various procedures to go through. One good thing about a high SDI was that he did not need to wait for long like the first time that took 8 hours.

    He was done in seconds and popped right back out, feeling refreshed. He did not ask for a gic upgrade this time because he wanted to exhaust what he had on his te first before switching to the scientific method, lest the two interfere with each other.

    He spent a few days testing his new power in anticipation for the Zero Gate descent, in which he was satisfied by the results thoroughly.

    In this period of time, though, Beatrice had been acting weird in Dante''s opinion. She had been avoiding him and seemed to be overwhelmed by something, always finding excuses to escape his presence as if he was a ferocious beast.

    In the end, Dante could not take it anymore. He finally confronted her about it on the 7th of November when he finally managed to pin her down and prevent her from escaping. After being pressured by him, Beatrice finally pushed him back slightly and revealed the truth.

    "Iˇ­I think I''m pregnantˇ­!" She stated with a shy look.

    It was like thunder struck Dante at that moment. Obviously, the way they had been copting like rabbits the past few months would have naturally yielded results especially since they were both high SDI beings.

    The rule of ''the stronger one was, the lower the chance of conception'' was true only when there was a great gap in SDI or power between two people. However, Dante boosted his SDI up using technology and even activated all his magical powers during the procreation process.

    Not only did he match Beatrice in those moments, but you could say he "invested" everything into his "shots".

    As Beatrice was still human and not some cosmic beast despite her high SDI, she was still in possession of all human functions.

    Otherwise, how could Portia have even gotten pregnant with her in the first ce?

    Dante was thrust into joy due to this and was overwhelmed. He, a young man who was still looking up to his parent was now going to be a parent as well.

    Naturally, he shared this news with his loved ones and Peter and David couldn''t help but look at Dante strangely.

    So before you even introduced her to us, you had already cooked the rice? Not only did you cook, but you cooked it so well that you only needed one batch to feed a whole family?

    As for Aileen, she immediately saw things from a different angle and knew the kind of fear and worry Beatrice must be experiencing at this time. As such, she immediatelyforted her and took Beatrice through various pre-natal care procedures.

    David, Peter, and Dante were not able to help much in this regard, not out of uselessness as the two older men had seen and helped many times, but because the kind of pre-natal care Beatrice was involved in was mostly psychological.

    Her body was too perfect stats-wise to develop any problems, so it was a matter of soothing her mind to ease the gestation process. Dante stopped practicing and spent all his time with Beatrice, also checking in on Augeusto see how Portia was doing.

    Good news, Portia was currently 90% broken down and should soon undergo rebirth! It was estimated that she should be alive in time to assist Beatrice through the gestation process as well as actually be there when her grandchild was born!

    Everything was going perfectly at this moment, and Dante was particrly on guard that something nefarious might happen. However, nothing did happen in this regard, as there was nothing that really could happen.

    The family enjoyed peace for the rest of November until December was only a day away and all the Unique Batch students were gearing up for entry into the world that would decide their fate.

    Dante himself was only slightly nervous. He had already surpassed the highest power in the Zero Gate, so he was not worried about his safety. He was more worried for his quantum clone that would enter the home universe''s Zero Gate on the other side and hoped it was not too different from the Eternal Universe''s version.

    He was also curious about which fruits he would get this time, and whether they would be uniquepared to what had already existed since time immemorial or they would be repeats.

 Chapter 245 Deception

    Chapter 245 Deception

    As Dante and the other students were about to descend, they were made to go through a set of annoying procedures first. They had to sign death waivers, stating that whatever happened while they were in the Zero Gate could not be used as evidence to find anyone liable in the real world.

    Of course, this was bnced out by the fact that the agreement acknowledged the fact that anything they earned while within the Zero Gate exclusively belonged to them and no one could take it away.

    Naturally, those in the know knew that this was bullshit as students might have been forced to sign other agreements by their factions or ns before this that superseded this agreement, but that was a problem for them to face, not the school.

    Only Dante seemed cool and unbothered while all the other Unique Batch students were like conscripted warriors going to fight a battle against a legion of flesh-eating monsters. The unwillingness on their faces was so palpable that it was a bit saddening.

    Eventually, they were all given a set of exosuits made by the school, though Dante rejected it as he had the superior military version, and were led through the ck Land at full speed by all the teachers.

    Soon the bypassed the ce where Dante usually mediated, which was the cabin for the top 3, and went past almost 400 kilometers from there. Luckily, everyone''s exosuits had jet thrusters that could move at mach 5 at its base, which was over 6,000 km/h.

    In but a few moments, they had arrived as a patch of ckness that went in all directions. Due to the construction of the cknd and tight control of the area by the school, it only seemed like a veryrge ck hole, but Dante knew the true face of the Zero Gate.

    It was the kind of thing that would give a normal person severe mental issues if you made them look at it due to heir minds not being able toprehend something sorge and engulfing.

    The teachers lined up outside the Zero Gate, gazing at it longingly but with a hint of fear that made Dante wonder. They then turned to face the students and wore solemn expressions, as if telling everyone that from here on out, the kid gloves would be off.

    In the lead was Lara, who sat in her mechanical floating thronezily, her cape billowing to the side as her sanguine eyes nced down at the group of students emotionlessly. Every student felt like they were being pressed under the weight of those eyes and she wasn''t even releasing her aura or anything.

    Dante himself was surprised to detect that he could feel a bit of pressure, and this made him doubly sure that this woman was lying. She had long taken one of her superpowers to the S rank and above!

    Well, that did not bother Dante. The woman was not his enemy yet and even if so, he could find many ways to beat her. Just let him get into this Zero Gate and get the ten fruits. With the Mutation Cores, he could raise any superpower to the S Rank minimum and turn a person into a universal powerhouse.

    While Mutation Cores could not work on Quantum Entanglement because it was the producer, who said it could not work on other superpowers that Dante might activate in his body?

    You could be damn well sure Dante had always nned to take that shortcut, it was why he made those choices whenever he ranked Quantum Entanglement up, as well as why he was not too bothered by the fact that he could not use quantum fruits.

    The excuse of ''don''t get high on your own supply'' that the cosmic tree gave him could not work forever!

    "Students, I won''t say much. Just remember what you''ve been trained to do these past few months and use your head, and survival should not be a problem. Anything after that is on you, so make sure you''re qualified before you try any stunts." Lara said coldly and bluntly, not giving them a moving or lifting speech.

    She then nced at Dante briefly before turning her eyes away and looking disinterested. She waved her hand casually towards the vice headmaster, Andrais.

    The schrly looking young man in a white robe smiled andughed gently, but everyone nced at him with hatred and murderous intent. After all, he was the one who outed them in all their respective orientation ceremonies.

    It was not a well known fact, something Dante had only learned recently, but Andrais actions were not necessarily school tradition. He was simply a plug put in by the top universe factions to forcefully announce the powers of students so that they - the outside factions - could see who to recruit and suppress early on.

    If Dante had rejected Beatrice ande here on his own, his fate would have been much different. The kind of suppression and forced recruitment he would have undergone in those early months would like alike a shitty reactionary webnovel where everyone got offended by him and tried to kill him, only for him to kill them, their uncles, the father, the grandfather and then the ancestors.

    Having the Portinari n as an umbre saved him from all that until he began to show too much value anyway and had to be suppressed from top to bottom regardless.

    "Alright, everyone can enter in by their ranking. The weakest ones go in first to scout the way while the stronger ones wait behind and enterst to enjoy the best locations." Andrais stated, something which made the faces of the seniors darken slightly while the first years were shocked.

    Such tant discrimination and favoritism!

    However, their shoulders slumped the next moment. Yes, they had spent almost an entire year here and were used to this school''s behavior by this point. The only thing one could do was hate impotently and have wet dreams about smashing the school to paste.

    Under Andrais led, the students from the weakest to the strongest began to enter one by one. This meant that Dante would be thest to go in while the person in front of him for the next 7 slots were all fifth years.

    No matter how awesome Humphrey and Slessor were, they were geniuses that had yet to grow and could not match the geniuses that had already grown.

    Dante did not know that while the students were entering and he was waiting, all the teachers had retreated behind Lara and were ncing between her then him with yful smiles. :Lara herself only nced at Dante with a hint of mockery and pity in her eyes.

    "Dante, Dante, Dante. Truly an exceptional lower dimensional lifeform and I knew from day 1 that the source of your superpower was likely a higher dimensional being, probably from the same dimension as those two cretins." Lara began to mutter to herself while crossing her legs.

    "However, that means nothing to me nor my ns anyway. However, the other lower dimensional lifeform of this universe as not so open minded and will not tolerate someone like you appearing to ruin their own schemes. Do you really think you are the first student of the Unique Batch to have overwhelming power during your stay?"

    Lara rolled her eyes with disdain. "All of them have undergone the same fate you are about to, and I pity you. Out of all of them, you are undoubtedly the best and you might even have a chance to survive, but its unlikely."

    "Those factions you took for granted could not harm you in person, but that does not mean you should take them for bumbling fools. From the beginning, the fact that the 10 ns, 5 Corporations and 20 Factions never directly made a move on you should have alerted you, but at the end of the day, you are just a young man without the ability to scheme deeply." Lara continued as she saw Dante about to step into the portal.

    "The Prime Human Council summoned you many times in order to secretly help but you misunderstood their summons and rather ignored them, you can''t imagine the mockery of yourself you''ve made to the powers that be."

    "In war, anything goes and one of the easier ways to defeat your foe without bloodshed is to use the knife of another. However, for that to work, one often needs to manipte the perceptions and information of the enemy faction, and your information had been severely cut off young Dante."

    Lara sighed and leaned back. "You are about to experience one of the worst ways to die: death by ignorance."

    At this moment, Dante had touched the Zero Gate portal and epted its pull, being sucked into it fully. The moment he went through all the teachers roared withughter and some even burst into joyful tears, as if a great burden had been lifted off their shoulders collectively.

    Xue Bing and Lara simply remained silent, a hint of pity in their eyes. The two had been forced to make a choice between a student and the very controllers of the universe, and they had easily made their choice.

 Chapter 246 Unrecognizable Wasteland

    Chapter 246 Unrecognizable Wastnd

    Dante crossed the threshold and felt himself being sucked through space through a channel that felt eerily simr to the quantum tunnels he often used to cross universes. Could it be that the Zero Gate world was actually physically located outside the universe?

    While Dante was thinking of this in transit, he felt himself cross some form of barrier and knew that he was about tond. However, just as he was about to arrive, he felt a tearing force act on his body as he was forcibly sucked into another tunnel.

    Usually, a person would not even be able to feel what was happening in transit since they did not have high enough stats toprehend things at this travel speed as well as the fact that they were not used to quantum transportation.

    Obviously, Dante with both his stats and his frequent traveling was able toprehend all this and more. He could tell that he had been taken into another quantum tunnel that led to a different ce and this quantum tunnel was far more hostile than before.

    If the previous quantum tunnel was like a residential street, mostly quiet and very stable, this one was like an active highway, very unstable and dangerous. Dante tried to activate his quantum entanglement to pull him out and return him to his home universe, but it was rebuffed by a stronger force, causing him to spit blood.

    Eventually, Dante was ejected from the quantum tunnel in mid-air, barely having time to adjust his body as he fell towards the ground like a meteor.

    BANG!!!

    Dante crashed into the earth and dug a deep ravine for almost 5 kilometers straight, showing how fast he had been moving. If he had not cloaked his body in blood Qi at thest second, he might have be the equivalent of roadkill, with parts of his body left behind at different parts of the ditch.

    As it were, Dante''s eyes were bloodshot from the sheer agony he was in now. Every single part of his body was broken and bruised, making him look like a cartoon character that had been beaten up until their bones poked out of various orifices.

    What might amuse children on television was a horrifying sight to behold in reality and even more terrifying to think of what the person in question was feeling.

    Dante barely had the state of might to activate his well of life essence to course through his body and activate its healing effect. If before he felt like his Knight Breathing powers were not very useful, now he was thanking the stars he had not neglected it at all.

    With every cirction, his broken body forcefully snapped into ce and his various injuries began to heal themselves, which was another painful process that he had. He could not turn off his five senses because he needed to sense whether his bones had been repaired in the right way lest he mess something up.

    After about 5 minutes, Dante breathed out and pressed his arms to the ground, pushing his body up into a standing position, wobbling on the spot weakly. He immediately released his spirit sense around him for 2.5 kilometers in all directions to gauge his surroundings.

    To his surprise, he was in a wastnd with brownish-ck earth.

    Dante immediately understood one fact. He was NOT in the Zero Gate world, at least, not in the one he should be in. The entirety of the world he should be in would be forest and full of life, otherwise, the trees could not grow without the necessary vitality.

    There was no space nor ce for a wastnd like this, and this was an established fact. In the hundreds of thousands of Zero Gate expeditions that the Eternal Universe had undergone, no one had ever encountered this.

    However, what confused Dante was that, even though he was certain this was not the Zero Gate world, there was an abundance of Zero Energy around. In fact, the quantity and quality were far higher than in the Zero Gate world, at leastpared to the quantum worlds he had been in.

    Dante continued to ponder until he felt a sharp threat of death envelop him so strongly that he felt like he was encased in ice. Immediately, he activated his Bionics and Psionics at full capacity, raising his stats to 250,000 in all fields.

    His blood battle halberd appeared in hand as he swung in front of his in a defensive posture.

    CLANG!

    Dante was sent flying again, crashing through the ground for about 200 meters before getting up. He was shocked by the sheer force in which he was struck and looked at his attack, only to be shocked that it was a bird-like creature that resembled a vulture.

    The creature pped its wings andnded on the ground, ncing at Dante with red eyes full of human-like intelligence. It then observed the gully that he had created and seemed to be impressed.

    It then nced at Dante once more and raised a single wing before swinging it forward, sending a bevy of sharp feathers towards Dante. Dante immediately released his hellfire in his domain of 2.5 kilometers.

    That''s right, he had switched off his enhancements and was even doubly sure that this was not the Zero Gate world because technology should not work there. The energy consumption of 250,000 points was terrifying, almost turning him into a dried husk after a few seconds.

    Without Gluttonous Inferno to sustain him, Dante really did not know how he would survive. No wonder Beatrice at 20,000 in all fields, was also so detached andzy. She could not afford to be energetic because where would she get her energy from?

    The feathers that entered the fiery domain were soon burned to ash, shocking the vulture-like creature that flung them. Meanwhile, Dante stood in ce, letting his Gluttonous Inferno restore his severely depleted energy by converting the ambient Zero Energy into base energy.

    Dante had taken a single hit from this monster to know that whether it was through superpowers or some other means, its stats were higher than his by a small margin, even when he was boosted to 250,000.

    As such, he absolutely could NOT fight without using his enhancements and using them meant energy. Right now, he could only rely on his spirit sense domain to hopefully predict its attacks and activate the enhancements at thest moment to defend himself.

    The creature nced at Dante with a subtle look and then checked out the gully once more. It seemed to be pondering something for a moment, then pped its wings and began to fly away.

    Dante sighed with relief internally and kept the spirit sense and fire domain up to convert energy when he felt another death chill. His spirit sense domain reacted and before he could even consciously think about it, his AI chip reacted faster and activated his enhancements as Dante hadmanded it to if he couldn''t make it in time.

    Immediately, Dante dodged to the side by moving his upper torso in a near impossible inclined position, narrowly avoiding the talons of the vulture-like creature that had sneak attacked him.

    He nced at the air where the monster had been flying away and saw that it was still there for a few seconds until it faded away to the wind.

    Fuck, an afterimage!

    It had doubled back so fast that its previous movements were left behind as a visual illusion!

    Imagine if Dante had not kept his spirit sense up and lowered his guard. His head would have been ripped off while his eyes still told him that the vulture monster was flying away, making him die without even knowing who his killer was.

    Immediately, his eyes became red again from fear of demise and he decided to risk it. His eye glowed in a golden light and intersected with those of the vulture-like creature which had turned its head back to re at Dante.

    Immediately its eyes became dazed and itnded on the ground. However, this dazested for a few seconds before its eyes began to clear up, then intensified and began to clear up again.

    Meanwhile, Dante who had activated his Psionics to boost the power of his eyes looked terrifying. His temples as well as all the veins in his head were visible and continually pulsing with energy.

    The bird creature screeched with fear then began banging its head on the ground and rolling around while shrieking. Even though its eyes were in a daze, it was clear that it was fighting with all it had, even ripping out its own feathers and causing wounds on its body to break free.

    Eventually, Dante was forced to stop the attack as he ran out of energy even with his Gluttonous Inferno simultaneously activated and rapidly refining energy for him, causing him to fall to his knees.

    The bird-like creature that was now free pped its wings and ran away with endless fear in its eyes. It did not dare even look at Dante anymore as it used its full speed to disappear into the horizon like a jet.

    After all, illusion users were an absolute taboo on this battlefield!

 Chapter 247 A Strong Enemy

    Chapter 247 A Strong Enemy

    Dante panted heavily, falling to his ass immediately. If you asked him what exactly just happened and why, he would be hard-pressed to answer. Not only did he not know where he was, but he was suddenly attacked before he could even get his bearings.

    The sad part was that he would very much love to increase his stats to 250,000 in Intelligence and send his spirit sense out for the full range, which would be an amazing 250 kilometers, but it did not work like that.

    Only his Eyes of Illusion were directly affected by enhancements to stats. The two physical and magical methods, though, did not because they had their own realms and rules. This was why they were selected in the first ce, so that they would be useful in the Zero Gate where the tech enhancements would be disabled.

    Speaking of his eyes, they were currently aching as Dante rubbed them gently, his throbbing veins calming down as the strain on his mind rxed. He had pushed himself hard in order to try and trap the vulture creature and interrogate it for information about where he was, but it escaped in the end.

    Thinking about future dangers, Dante decided to return to the home universe to recuperate then link up with Beatrice to find out what the heck just happened. However, the moment he tried to teleport away, he got a very severe warning from his superpower.

    He COULD teleport away, but it keptˇ­ beeping?ˇ­ that he absolutely SHOULD not.

    Dante was confused and tried to make sense of the signals. It was hard tomunicate when both parties were speaking entirely differentnguages and resorted to painting on the sand to convey what they wanted to say.

    After a while, Dante seemed to understand the gist of it. While he did not know what thisnd was, it was definitely not the Zero Gate, but it was something far better. The danger was extremely high for the current him but the rewards were even higher if he didˇ­ something.

    What that something was, no matter how they tried to alternate the message, Dante could not grasp it. As such, he looked at his current scenario and gauged that it must be one of four things.

    1. Survive

    2. Kill

    3. Acquire

    4. Escape

    These were the four possible objectives he would have to achieve here based on the little he knew so far.

    Survival was straightforward to maybe make it to the end of a certain period of time? The Zero Gate thing was supposed tost 30 days, so maybe it was that?

    Killing might be another thing. Maybe he had to kill one or ten monsters like the vulture to qualify for rewards or to leave?

    Acquisition was based on his knowledge of the Zero Gate. Since one could acquire fruits there, maybe there was something that he needed to acquire here to be able to progress?

    Escapeˇ­ maybe travel would be a better term. Maybe he was supposed to leave the area of this wastnd and reach a city or something?

    Funny enough when Dante thought this, there was a strong feedback from his superpower, which he could barely interpret to mean that it wasˇ­ all of the above?

    Interesting.

    He also noticed that ever since he appeared here, his connection to his superpower - specifically to the cosmic tree - had been inexplicably strengthened, as if the distance between then had been shortened by a huge amount.

    He kept note of this and looked around. Dante decided that he would move in the same direction that the vulture creature left since that was his only real lead, dangerous as it was.

    Rather than run or fly, Dante decided to hover over the earth using his exosuit''s jet thrusters as that would save his bodily energy and make the least noise. Also, he felt it would be best to not only set up spatial shields but also to enter sub-space so that nothing on this ne could touch him.

    With that in mind, Dante cast the 3rd Rank spell, Ethereal Passage.

    The moment his body faded and became translucent, he had entered the sub-space. However, after just a split second of being within, Dante''s head snapped to the side and his expression changed to one of primordial horror.

    He roared and canceled the spell before activating his Bionics to the max then bolting away as fast as he could towards the north, where the vulture creature left. In the nanosecond that he had to flee, he covered an impressive distance, but he was soon knocked to his feet as the entire world seemed to tremble and shake.

    Huge cracks appeared on the space where he had been standing previously when he entered sub-space, like someone had quite literally turned space into ss and was trying to smash through it.

    The world shook multiple times as the cracks widened and expanded, showing that something on the other side was trying to breakthrough to this side. Having seen what that thing was, Dante was in full-on panic mode as he scrambled to his feet and continued to flee without caring about energy consumption.

    There was now a microsecond of silence before the biggest tremor urred, causing space to shatter and a hole to form that was the size of the Empire State Building that disyed a dark and formless void on the other side.

    From that hole, a mound of tentacles appeared that was dark ck and spiked, with hundreds of eyeballs on them from top to bottom. The eyeballs circled and around, looked in all directions like country bumpkins that had never seen the world before.

    The tentacles gripped either side of the portal as if it was a t surface and pulled a giant head that was shaped like a chimera from the Resistance series through. The head sucked in once and almost everything within a 100 kilometers was dragged over.

    Dante himself forcibly locked himself in space using another spatial spell but did not dare enter sub-space once more. However, his usage of the space element caused the giant head to zero in on him.

    Immediately, the tentacles surged towards him at a horrifying speed, as if air pressure and friction were a joke to them. Dante could only grit his teeth and continually blink to dodge them because even with his stats boosted, he was not fast enough to avoid these things.

    He did not dare bring his blood battle halberd out to fight this thing because it was exuding the pure power of void space. That element could destroy and cut through everything in normal space, which was why typical physics did not seem to work on this monster.

    Only space could fight space at this level, so Dante activated his 3rd Rank Cosmic Nova spell which was the most powerful offensive space spell he had. Cosmic Nova was far superior to its 1st Rank Astral re and 2nd Rank Celestial Rift in that the star projectiles it summoned were asrge as space rockets and contained intense power within.

    Coupled with the fact that Dante was now at the 5th Rank, and his space element boost of 750%, its output was truly monstrous. A giant void filled with spots like stars appeared behind Dante.

    This was in contrast to the monster''s void which was a dark mass of nothingness; Dante''s own seemed more vibrant and lively, simr to the typical view of space we have at night from the.

    The light spots brightened rapidly and then began to fire out like explosive bullets, soaring towards the target with no hesitation. When they struck the coiling tentacles of the beast, there were huge explosions that sent the tentacles flying back and even damaged them somewhat.

    Thebeast roared in pain and red at Dante with a mixture of hatred and greed. Clearly, it had gone through all this not because the tiny Dante was a worthwhile morsel, but because he had something that it wanted.

    Seeing that its greed intensified the more he used his spatial abilities, Dante understood why with a dark expression. It was clearly lusting after his spiritual cores full of purified space elements!

    To it, Dante while tiny, was like a giant steak to a starving lion. It would do anything to get a bite!

    Knowing this, Dante burned his space elements to infuse more power into his spell, unleashing even more potent starlight projectiles. Dante was sure that he could havepletely turned an entire continent into rubble with the level of bombardment he was unleashing.

    In fact, he could irreparably change an entire''s atmosphere and ecosystem if he sustained this, but the mental energy consumption was not small. He immediately had to release his 2.5 km Gluttonous Inferno to replenish what he could in real-time.

    The tentacles fought with the projectiles and caused great explosions of energy and force in the center, causing the ground below their feet to shake and tremor crazily.

    Any living thing within a 100 kilometers of this could likely feel and hear the conflict going on here and were likely shitting their pants.

 Chapter 248 Careful Scouting

    Chapter 248 Careful Scouting

    If this were urring on a like Earth, it would be no different from the end times. In fact, given the scale of the current conflict, it showed the sturdiness and superiority of this world that only a 100-kilometer area was troubled by this, not to mention that the ground had never cracked nor shattered, only space.

    The good news for Dante was that even though his energy was being consumed crazily to maintain the constant firepower, he could sense that the space that had been cracked was repairing itself, and this monster would be forced back soon.

    In fact, it was only through his own ignorance that this monster even had a chance to enter real space. Sub-space was an empty void in the normal universe filled with nothingness, and space mages sometimes even used it as a garbage can to dump stuff.

    The spell he used allowed Dante to phase through both worlds by weakening the flow of real space against sub-space. So the spot where he entered was like a mud wall that had been sshed with water, fragile.

    After a few hits, the monster broke through and was now wreaking havoc. However, putting aside whether space repaired itself, the monster itself was consuming a humongous amount of energy - far far greater than Dante - to remain in real space.

    Just like how fish could not live onnd, void monsters like it could not survive in real space, which was why it coated itself in a spatial film to iste the matter of real space from killing it.

    However, both its continued existence here by using the spatial film as well as resisting Dante''s hard-hitting blows and maintaining the crack in space forcefully were swallowing gallons of fuel per second from its tank.

    As such, it showed incredible desperation and roared, using more power to forcibly ignore the attacks of Dante at the risk of injuries that would cripple it to get him.

    Dante was shocked by this and could only make the wise choice to escape further away. Trying to increase his output would yield nothing but death or demise. After all, it was a known fact that when one fighter was willing to risk injury to win and the other wanted to preserve himself, the former would have an advantage.

    He rapidly blinked away using the 2nd Rank Spatial Blink spell, which caused the monster to roar with unwillingness and fury. It red at Dante as if it hated the fact that he refused to lie down and be its nourishment.

    Dante paid it no attention and focused on increasing the distance between the two parties. Eventually, he was able to watch it be squeezed by the closing of space, being rapidly forced back into the void as it roared desperately, still trying to reach Dante through all of this.

    Eventually, the crack in space closed and healed itself after fully forcing it back in, causing the area to be quiet amidst the devastation.

    Dante was silent for a minute or two, gazing at the spot where space had closed with deep thoughts. His eyes flickered many times as he eventually sighed and seemed to fullye to terms with what just happened.

    All this time, he naturally maintained his spirit sense range and hellfire conversion to energy to rece all that he wasted. He decided to stay on this spot until he fully recharged because he would be doing himself a disservice if he dared to take even a single step forward in this treacherous world without having all his firepower avable to him.

    While waiting, he opened his quantum space and took out some androids. After activating them and seeing that they worked, he decided to send them in the four cardinal directions to scout the way for each of them.

    Of course, he ordered them to use the best cloaking technology they had and to record everything before remotely transferring it to his quantum chip.

    This would allow Dante to build aprehensive map of the area using them without risking himself, but given the dangers he had faced and the attention he had attracted, he did not expect those androids to go far.

    Dante sat cross-legged on the ground and patiently waited while setting up various defenses. He set up a basic anti-matter barrier around him that should slow down all beings regardless of their life level from insta-killing him, assuming they had the power to.

    Then, he used his strongest 3rd Rank barrier spell, Aegis of Eternity, which was previously the 2nd Rank Dimensional Shield, to encase himself in hazardous space elements that would tear apart anything that tried to attack him.

    Finally, there was his ring of hellfire that was always around and on guard even as it converted the endless Zero Energy into base energy for his body. Dante wished the conversion speed would be faster, but it was rted to not only his realm but his fire''s potency.

    When he focused on it single-mindedly, like this, it became slightly faster. Well, at least it became fast enough for him to reduce the time necessary by a huge amount, not to mention that he was definitely helped by the fact that he did not have to spend energy at the moment.

    An hour passed, and Dante was surprised to find that his scouts were unharmed. They had covered hundreds of kilometers in all directions and had still not left the wastnd area, making Dante wonder about the sheer size of this world.

    However now, with how much they had traveled, they should have reached the end of the Zero Gate world, so if there was still any lingering doubts, this killed them.

    Dante thought about it and left a quantum marker on this spot. He could still teleport within the realm using Quantum Entanglement, just not out of it.

    After doing this, Dante removed a lot of resources from his quantum space and had the bots he took out begin to construct a basic base. He would start from here then map and explore the surrounding region and expand his control bit by bit.

    He would also dedicate this time to increasing Quantum Entanglement to the A Rank in order to increase his connection with his superpower and gain a better set of abilities to help him deal with foes.

    Originally Dante wanted to move around and explore himself, but he remembered an important fact. He was going to be a father soon, so he could not afford to risk his life so easily and risk his child having to grow up without a parent.

    As a man with a family, he had to take the path of stability and wisdom rather than adventure and risk. Convincing himself like this, Dante sighed and filled his tank while watching the basee to life rapidly around him.

    Since this was the case, it was best to work on his most efficient power right now, which was the Inferno Ascension Technique. The Void Speaker Chant was also great since its power output was currently the highest and craziest at the moment given his multiplier, but it was also the slowest to cultivate.

    As for the physical methods, they barely helped in this situation and were only good for bullying weaklings or those with stats near his. Against enemies with stats so much higher than his even with his tech enhancements, it was not worth it.

    Not to mention his superpower advised him not to leave, so he could not enter the AP world and harvest stats. His stat growth would be crippled for now unless he could find an alternate method to increase them in this realm, something he was actually looking forward to.

    Dante tried tomunicate with his quantum clone on the other side. The connection between them had temporarily snapped when he was sucked into that alternate quantum tunnel and failed to escape it.

    When Dante merged with his quantum clone again andthe single mind rejoined itself, he was utterly and thoroughly surprised to take stock of its current situation. Not only was the quantum clone perfectly fine, but it was surrounded by the typical ck trees and vegetation.

    It had sessfully entered the home universe''s Zero Gate without a problem!

    So why did he, the main body, get sucked into this strange realm?

    Dante thought about it and wondered. The students had never reported something like this happening, and he had no information on any of this urring.

    Of course, the current Dante didn''t not know he had been betrayed and not only had he been betrayed, but he had been deliberately kept in ignorance, his link to many sources of information manually cut off using tyrannical means.

    It was the exact same as when he was on Earth, and he used his quantum AI chip topletely control the Inte and prevent any of the factions on Earth from discovering him technologically.

    No matter what those people or factions did, no matter how fast theirputers or how amazing their hacking skills, they would not even know Dante existed.

 Chapter 249 Treacherous Upper Echelons

    Chapter 249 Treacherous Upper Echelons

    In fact, in this case, it was even worse. Normally, when you scanned something and you realized something had been blocked, you would know that you were missing something.

    It was like looking at a brightly lit room of 100 squares and seeing that 1 square was dark. You would realize that something was wrong and was blocking you from seeing that sphere, prompting you to investigate.

    However, Dante''s methods had made it such that there were 100 brightly lit squares, but he and everything about him now existed on a 101st dark square that floated above the head of the onlooker, a direction they could not look even if they wanted to.

    The same had been done to Dante by the top factions of the universes. All the technology he collected and all the information he had gotten had been perfectly curated by them.

    Dante had once been very suspicious of the Sris AI from the ship he bought from thepany in the Eternal Universe.

    Well, he would soon find out how right he was in being wary. The current him could not begin toprehend the various measures put in ce to deal with him and monitor him.

    The only saving grace and the only thing that had prevented the various factions from knowing everything about Dante was the fact that he traveled between two universes and all signals, bacteria, and unwanted matter got destroyed when he used quantum tunnels.

    So secret codes or messages that were meant to report his situation were always destroyed through his movements.

    How soon would Dante realize this and counterattack? Too soon for the Eternal Universe, and a hefty price would have to be paid for crossing an entity they could not afford to offend.

    However, the current Dante was still fully ignorant and thought himself the controller of his tech.

    In fact, he did not even know that the moment he released his androids and began building a base, there was a quantum ping somewhere more than a million miles away.

    In a fortress built within a humongous city, there was a round table of men and women who exuded power and arrogance. Each of them had a certain military bearing to them, and their uniforms were consistent with the army of the Prime Human Council.

    In the room, there were 12 people, 7 pure humans, 3 mixed breeds, and 2 aliens. Among the pure humans was surprisingly a familiar faceˇ­ Lara, the headmistress!

    "Well, you fellows got what you wanted this time. Thatd has been forcefully brought to the Universe Battlefield so I will make sure that I get what I was promised." Lara emphasized with a cold smile, looking down on all of them.

    The faces of the other 11 became ugly as they had truly paid a great price to get this woman to ede to their n. However, as long as their purpose for causing the information ckout seeded, everything would be alright!

    "Do we have any intel on him?" One of the other pure humans asked, this one being an aged woman with extreme wrinkles and a tied-up bun of purple hair. Despite her aged appearance, she was the second most powerful person on this board, the Ancestress of the Ao n!

    "Nothing yet. We nned back doors in all the designs and technology he purchased, but none of them have ever reported back. We suspect he might be aware of the deception and has simply refused to use them." An Aide who was standing behind the 12 hurriedly reported.

    There was a bang on the table as a burly man with a bald head and plentiful facial hair vented his anger. "Damn it, why not? Are you telling me even the exosuit he was given by the military does not have trackers? What about his Citizen AI chip? Or his Bionics or Psionics?"

    "Erm, he already had a chip initially and when he was given his citizen chip, we found that his initial AI chip dissolved the trackers within. Unless we use the Etr to track him openly, there is no other way." The Aide exined helplessly.

    Lara nodded in understanding because she too had a headache tracking Dante when he entered quantum worlds and went back and forth because she could only do so openly, meaning that Dante would know.

    "He had his ownˇ­? Interesting. I read about his so-called family background that was uploaded recently and it might be because of a superpower he has or that one of his n has." Another pure human leader muttered thoughtfully, this one being a lovely young woman with fiery red hair and phoenix-shaped eyes.

    "That doesn''t matter. What matters is why we cannot track him using other means, as Baldy Julon stated." A young and extremely handsome man with pale golden hair and white eyes interrupted with a sneer towards the bald man.

    "Dammit, Juliano, are you trying to pick a fight?!" Julon roared as he stood up.

    "Hmph, as barbaric as always." Juliano retorted without moving.

    "Right, about the other thingsˇ­! Well, they were all supplied by the Student Enhancement Center of the Eternal Academy, sooˇ­" The Aide hurriedly interrupted seeing that the bosses were about to fight then nced at Lara.

    All eyes then fell on Lara, who was casually reclining in her seat. She did not seem bothered by the various intense questioning nces and shrugged with a smirk.

    "Hey, don''t look at me. We all decided that things given by the school have to be clean since it would affect all of our interests, no?"

    The others almost facepalmed. While this was true, that was for their own people, of which Dante was definitely not a part of. However, there was no use chasing me with this woman, not to mention that many of them feared her.

    "What about the exosuit?" Julon pressed.

    "Well, it was issued by Beatrice Portinari and we did not dare ce any trackers on her or anything she owned, sooˇ­" The Aide once again gave negative news which left the leaders speechless.

    While the group was stumped, another aide rushed in with an excited expression and whispered into the ear of the one who was allowed to speak. Soon, that particr aide bowed and with a smile, reported:

    "Good news, Marshals. We have received a quantum ping from around 2 million kilometers away to the south. It is from one of the backdoors we left in Dante''s foundational life sequence code for Artificial intelligence."

    The marshals immediately perked up with interest. This was like hearing about rainfall in the midst of a drought! How could they be so lucky this time?

    "Not only did he arrive here, but he''s still alive? What a miracle! Our gambit might actually bear great fruit this time!" Juliano sat up seriously and eximed.

    "I can''t believe it. Where exactly did he drop that he managed to keep his life as a mere student with a lower than C grade superpower?" The red-head, who was called Ophelia, asked with curiosity.

    The Aide came forth and touched the round table, turning on its holographic disy. After entering into some coordinates using her own AI chip, the map suddenly jumped to the south andnded on a certain area.

    However, when the destination was disyed, the pupils of everyone in the room constricted rapidly. All breathing seemed to stop as the ce was thrust into a deathly silence.

    The faces of all 12 Marshals, even Lara, had paled slightly. It was the stunned Aide who muttered the name of the location silently.

    "The Central Wastnd."

    Even with this, the silence permeated the room for an unknown amount of time and the air became heavy.

    ......ˇ­

    Meanwhile, Dante had recovered the totality of his energy and got up. While his base was being built, he was going to check out the north where the vulture creature had left.

    For in as much as he had to avoid risk, he simply needed information desperately, or he would be a sitting duck waiting for death. As such, he simply activated his exosuit and began moving in that direction as fast as he could, maintaining his active defenses and the spirit sense range.

    What puzzled Dante was the fact that nothing appeared from around to deal with him. There was no wildlife nor any hostile monsters as he rapidly caught up to the androids he had lefting this way, which was strange for sure.

    Eventually, he caught up to his scouting androids and recollected it, which also had the effect of neutralizing the location beacon that the Eternal universe upper echelons had on him.

    Dante would not know this yet, but this was just as well since he was about to enter a ce that would forever change his life and ascend him to levels far greater than he ever could have imagined, as well as cut off all the leeches on him that secretly hampered his growth and destiny.

 Chapter 250 The Black Spire

    Chapter 250 The ck Spire

    Dante continued to travel forward for a few hundred meters, but all he saw was wastnd before him. Just ckened earth that was pockmarked for as far as the eye could see and a sky that was bright but never seemed to darken even as the hours went by.

    If it wasn''t for his constant ess to his quantum chip and his ability to urately measure the time, he might not even know what he was doing. Seeing that there was nothing but wastnd before him, Dante took the risk and used his 3rd Rank Quantum Leap to jump forward as far as his spiritual energy could carry him.

    When Dante traveled he knew that he leapt over 400,000 kilometers but he still did not see any difference, which almost caused him to break down. This kind of distance and this kind of monotony was hard for a being as tiny as a human toprehend.

    Clearly, the scale of this realm was huge, and it was meant for a type of being beyond Dante''s current abilities, because only they could make use of a world with such a size.

    Dante refused to give up andpleted multiple jumps at once, going farther and farther away without looking back in the slightest. His mind began to blur with geographic information as he could feel the weight of the distance traveled without actually spending the time on it.

    If not for his already very high Intelligence, this would be problematic. A short blink spell that the series in which Quantum Leap had been upgraded from was not meant for this kind of use, but Dante could not use his long-range teleportation because it required visualization of the destination.

    Then how did space mages in the Magus World find exact coordinates to teleport to in that case? There were two ways, either learn higher rank versions of the 2nd Rank Wormhole Conduit spell or use random directional teleportation.

    The second method was not used at all because this one was a bitˇ­ unhinged. It was the type of teleportation that could have you ''clipping'' through buildings or buried underground in sand.

    Dante would not risk that and he did not have the higher upgrades of this spell. His database was limited to the 1st and 2nd ranks because he had spent weeks researching the different types of spells.

    3rd rank he only looked through what he specifically needed and 4th rank he had not even touched, much less the spells at his current 5th rank. Dante shook his head and continued to teleport while steadying his mind.

    Eventually, he had to stop because in the distanceˇ­ he finally saw something!

    Dante''s eyes lit up as he cautiously gauged what he was looking at. It was aˇ­ stick? A tower?

    No, it was likely a gigantic ck spire that pierced down from the sky and touched the earth in an upside-down fashion. While Dante hesitated, he received the strongest feedback from his superpower, as if the cosmic tree was roaring for him to rush there as fast as he could.

    It was akin to watching your younger brother y a game you had conquered in the past, and instead of finishing the level, he was dawdling in some corner looking for collectibles that did not exist.

    Dante resolutely headed there, this time on foot so he could keep an eye on the area. He used his own two legs to run at his current maximum speed of over Mach 100, to cross the distance in almost a sh.

    Even if this world wasrge, once he could visualize something on the horizon like this, it was within 5,000 to 10,000 kilometers distance, which was easy for the current him.

    As Dante came to the base of the spire, he was shocked to notice that all the Zero Energy he could feel was actually being emitted from this thing! Not just that, but it radiated an aura that made his entire body tremble from top to bottom.

    However, the spire was smooth without any cuts or surfaces. There was no entrance into it nor a panel he could ess. It was also unresponsive to his psychic energy and his AI chip signals.

    Dante hesitated and pressed his hand against the spire''s body, and his face changed greatly as he felt a surge of strange power enter his body and even invade his soul space. At the same time, once this energy surged into him, he felt extremely relieved and free, like he had been carrying heavy burdens on his body the entire time.

    Not to mention his connection with the cosmic tree was strengthened even further, like this spire was a signal tower that allowed them to facilitate a better resonance.

    After the energy flooded him, it was called back, and Dante spent about a nanosecond in silence before a flood of information entered his mind. Luckily for him, the spire seemed to be intelligent and directly fed the information to his quantum processor AI chip to break down before shoving it into his memories.

    However, the sheer quantity caused Dante to grimace and touch his temple with his free hand, rubbing it gingerly with a look of pain. He quickly raised his Intelligence using Psionics to the max, and his headache immediately subsided, bing a piece of cake for him to process.

    When he started to parse through the information, he understood many things that had been denied him and the information he hadcked. He also understood where he was and the name of this ce.

    The First Gate!

    The Battlefield Of All Universes!

    Dante''s face changed many times. This ce was basically a goddamn battle royale death zone for all the universes in existence to send their top fighters to decide which ones continued to exist and which ones died out.

    This was why the vulture creature from earlier was so strong. It was not an outlier but the norm for this realm as everyone here had to satisfy a minimum threshold to even qualify to enter.

    Dante now knew this minimum threshold. It was to have a superpower at either the C Rank or to have physical stats above theary level, both conditions which Dante unfortunately satisfied.

    This made him grit his teeth as he also learned that the Eternal Universe had only entered the First Gate for less than 5000 years and were considered rookies ranked near the bottom.

    His home universe did not even qualify since no one had actually entered the Zero Gate ande out unscathed, so they were even ''registered''.

    And speaking of registration.

    Fuck!

    This was what the Eternal Universe fellows had been plotting all along!

    With this new information, Dante could obviously infer the information ckout he had been put under and even why. He felt it was ridiculous because it was the perfect counter to someone like him as far as they knew.

    Obviously, if there saw a battlefield of all universe, the upper echelon of the Eternal universes knew that other universes existed out there. If other universes existed out there, there would be ways to travel between them, right?

    And if there was a battlefield of all universes, there would be those who would employ subterfuge and espionage to achieve their goals, right?

    So it was naturally possible for there to be ''external'' parties in their universe trying to cause trouble. This was logical and so, looking at the sudden appearance of Dante, which defiedmon sense, he was already suspect of such a thing.

    Dante realized that he had been in serious danger from the onset. If he did not specifically meet Beatrice in that alleyway but anyone elseˇ­ would he still be free to walk around?

    Beatrice was right; it was definitelyfate that the two of them met.

    But the funny thing was, so what? So what if Dante was a viin from an external universe? Even with his absurd growth, which was why the suspicion likely died down on him - because which universe would send their own genius to spy? - he would still fall into this trap whether he knew or not.

    Because to be a spy, you have tomit to the role. Dante would have to eventually enter the First Gate and he would eventually have toe into contact with a ck Spire.

    Now, what this did was to register him as a batant'' of the Eternal Universe.

    So that was the big scheme. To make use of his ignorance - or otherwise - to force him to be tied to their life or death. Now it doesn''t matter where Dante came from, if the Eternal Universe is vanquished in the First Gate, he would be vanquished along with it.

    What was the best way to turn a spy or to force an uncontroble prodigy to work with you? By tying your interests together.

    The Eternal universe could rejoice; it had won this gambit.

    However, they also made a despairingly fatal decision.

    They did not understand who Dante was, what he was, what he represented and the sheer potential he possessed that they could not fathom.

    So a victory they should celebrate would soon turn into the mournful wails of the damned!

 Chapter 251 The First Gate

    Chapter 251 The First Gate

    It wasn''t all bad news. While Dante might have been ''tricked'' into registering for the Eternal Universe battlefield as one of itsbatants, it also granted him ess to the vast resources and benefits that came with this area.

    However, that was one thing. Another was the fact that the Eternal Universe might think they had outsmarted Dante, but if Dante had already known all this, he would still have chosen to register with the Eternal Universe.

    What a joke. His home universe was currently his backyard that he was steadily conquering to expand his power. They were fortunate enough to be considered a ''baby universe'', thus exempt from participating in the Universe Battlefield.

    His quantum clone had even entered the real Zero Gate in the home universe with no issue and had begun harvesting the fruits there as quickly as possible. This was only feasible because the rules did not allow the home universe to enter the First Gate yet, or the clone would have been transported to the home universe''s first gate zone.

    Speaking of zones, Dante now understood theyout of this realm and where he was. Every universe had a safe zone, where spawning was secure, allowing members to regroup and establish a base.

    Then, simr to an RTS game, they could expand and capture zones through various methods, which Dante would contemteter. What mattered was that due to his ''high'' power for his first entry, he had somehow been catapulted into the worst zone in the entire First Gate, The Wastnds.

    This area was akin to the death zone of this ''map'', where the toughest foes existed, and it was generally seen as taboo to enter.

    No wonder that Vulture-creature had stared at Dante strangely before it attacked. In its eyes, how could someone as weak as Dante be qualified to step into this area?

    As for why it hade here itself, Dante obviously could not know that unless he captured and interrogated it.

    Dante continued to digest and parse the information until his expression changed. His strained and furious expression switched to joy and shock, as if he had discovered that he had somehow won the lottery after being downtrodden.

    Dante finally understood why his superpower insisted that he stay, even with the threat of death, and emphasized that he could benefit from staying here. In fact, it had even been understated because what Dante saw was truly incredible!

    There was a familiar ''exchange list'' and ''point system'' with these spires ced in the center of each zone. All base zones belonging to each universe had their own spire, so they didn''t have to worry about obtaining this information. However, Dante only had ess to this contested zone''s spire, so he could not monopolize it.

    As he had surmised, there were many ways to acquire these points, called ''Spire Points''. One way was to im a zone, and depending on the zone quality, the reward could be between 50 to 100 points per person from that universe.

    Another was to eliminate an enemybatant, which rewarded a t single point regardless of their strength. One could also ''sell'' things to the spire and have them appraised in exchange for Spire Points.

    At the top of the list were the Fruits of Condensation from any Zero Gate realm, valued at 100 points each!

    No wonder! No wonder!

    No wonder the upper echelon were so obsessed with the fruits that they would even enve students using contracts. No wonder many were rmed when they thought Dante would take all ten and devised this shameless plot.

    If Dante took all ten fruits for the next 5 years in their realm, that would amount to 5000 Spire Points, and that could buy a LOT of things.

    If the reception list of the ck Spire ¨C in terms of what it was willing to buy ¨C was long, then the purchase list ¨C in terms of what users could spend their points on ¨C was incredibly extensive and included almost anything one could think of.

    And at the top of the list were three options that made Dante understand the value and craze of the First Gate.

    1. Specific Superpower - 10,000 Spire Points (Up to 10 times per being)

    2. Random Superpower - 1,000 Spire Points (Unlimited)

    3. Raise Superpower Rank - 500 Spire Points (Up to the EX rank)

    4. Etc.

    Dante cursed.

    Damn Lara, so that was how she ascended to the S Rank in her superpowers! In fact, this might even be how she gained more than one superpower ¨C she might have bought them from this list!

    Damn, no wonder she was the headmistress! She directly controlled the Zero Gate and who entered, much to the reluctance of other factions, so she could definitely im a few fruits for herself and then exchange them for points!

    No wonder she had the entire universe in a chokehold!

    However, that did not matter much to Dante. Hemunicated with his superpower to check something first and was thrilled when he received one reply, but the second left him amused as well as disappointed.

    Dante then hesitated and opened his quantum space before retrieving a quantum fruit from his delves within the school worlds. He then presented the fruit to the spire and waited with bated breath.

    Eventually, he received a response.

    [Spire Appraisal Result

    Item: Quantum Fruit of Condensation

    Origin: Eternal Universe

    Grade: A+

    Power: Absolute Silence (Potency: F, Talent: S) (Author''s Note: Potency = Current Rank of superpower. Talent = Quality of Superpower itself.)

    Appraisal:

    This Quantum Fruit of Condensation originates from the Eternal Universe, presenting good quality ssified as A+.

    Upon thorough analysis, the power stored within this fruit has been identified as the Absolute Silence superpower. The superpower''s rank is S, which is a rare talent.

    Unfortunately, as it is a pure quantum product, there is quantum poisoning within that would affect its usage, reducing its value by 30%.

    Additionally, as it conflicts with the rules of the multiverse andcks a stable source point, its value is reduced by another 30%.

    Final Buying Price: 40 Spire Points.]

    Dante trembled once he saw this. Oh my god, his superpower was right ¨C the spire was actually willing to ept quantum-produced products!

    Oh my god, oh my god, OH MY GOD!!!

    Immediately, Dante''s greed skyrocketed, and he was filled with endless regret. He wished he had chosen the Quantum World sub-ability back then, which would have allowed him to create a quantum world with its own rules.

    He could have copied the school''s Zero Gate realm onto it and produced an endless amount of fruits for himself!

    Dante took a deep breath and knew what he had to do next. When he was done with this First Gate and back, he would target the school and the Etraverse Corporation for the technology behind the creation of special quantum worlds like the Apocalypse World, the Zero Gate virtual worlds, among others.

    As for any deaths, violence, or losses incurred, it was only part of the debt that the Eternal Universe owed him for this trickery!

    Dante wore a wicked smile as his eyes became bloodshot. However, he then focused on the next crucial thing, which was to test if his quantum replicated items ¨C with their special quantumpatibility abilities ¨C would count.

    [Spire Appraisal Result

    Item: Cloned Fruit of Condensation

    Origin: Eternal Universe/Centralis Universe

    Grade: SSS

    Power: Absolute Silence (Potency: F, Talent: S)

    Appraisal:

    This Cloned Fruit of Condensation originates from the Eternal Universe as well as the Centrals Universe, presenting a perfect quality ssified as SSS.

    Upon thorough analysis, the power stored within this fruit has been identified as the Absolute Silence superpower. The superpower''s rank is S, which is a rare talent.

    It was formerly a quantum product, but the quantum poisoning has been cleansed through special means, making it consumable for all beings.

    It was also without possession of a stable source point previously, but it has been granted one through special means, making it official.

    Final Buying Price: 100 Spire Points.]

    The full price!

    My god, Dante could get the full price from exchanging quantum-replicated fruits!

    The young man felt faint and had to fan himself thoroughly to regain energy to continue. This revtion was crazy, akin to a counterfeit money printer being told that his fake dors would be epted by the Bank of America.

    Dante sucked in a deep breath and shook his head, clearing his mind of all unnecessary thoughts. He first exchanged the quantum-replicated fruit in his hand but was stunned when asked whether to submit it using the Eternal Universe''s source or the home universe ¨C called Centralis, it seems ¨C source.

    This made Dante ponder and understand that his replication was not as foolproof as he thought. This spire only epted each fruit once, depending on the source, unless it was a quantum item.

    In other words, per quantum fruit, he could only get 200 Spire Points after replication, one for the Centralia and one for the Eternal. Anymore would be useless, which was just like what his superpower had been telling him all this time.

    It seemed that it was thinking with the First Gate in mind even back then. What Dante had to do was two things if he wanted to keep up this valuable exchange.

    One was to increase the number of universes he could enter with Quantum Entanglement. Once he did, he would acquire that universe''s ''serial number'' and could attach it to replicated fruits, meaning that he could now sell more.

    The other was to obtain a stable supply of quantum fruits. They could be exchanged infinitely because they did not have a ''serial code'', which was also why its price was reduced. However, with enough quantity, this would obviously not be an issue.

    Unfortunately, no, Dante could not ''switch'' the ability to grant quantum replicated item source codes, which was part of quantumpatibility. That was not possible at this stage.

    Dante had 23 fruits on hand, and the ones he gave his parents did not count nor did they matter for this particr endeavor. As such, Dante immediately gained 4,600 Spire Points, enough to get 4 random superpowers and raise his superpower once.

    However, this had to do with the second thing his superpower told him, which left him amused and disappointed.

    The ck Spire could not raise his Quantum Entanglement!

    ording to the Cosmic Tree, it was too low-level to even slightly affect it, which left Dante speechless and overwhelmed. This tree was obviously more than just a higher-dimensional being because this surpassed what he could understand.

    At least the good news was that any superpowers he got from fruits or from this spire could be upgraded in exchange for points, so that would save Dante precious time he could use to focus on the obviously overpowered and special Quantum Entanglement.

    Dante thought and checked his reception list of the ck Spire once more. Well, most of the items it requested were things he had never heard of, involving universe-level resources or special resources found precisely in this realm.

    Naturally, Dante did not have ess to any of these things, and he wasn''t willing to risk getting a random superpower, not yet. He had a thought and took out a quantum Mutation Core from the Apocalypse World.

    [Spire Appraisal Result

    Item: Quantum Superpower Upgrade Item (Specific name to be decided)

    Origin: Eternal Universe

    Grade: F-

    Appraisal:

    This Quantum Superpower Upgrade Item originates from the Eternal Universe, presenting an average quality ssified as F-.

    Upon thorough analysis, this product has the ability to raise the superpower of a person by one grade forcibly when three or more are used.

    Unfortunately, as it is a pure quantum product, there is quantum poisoning within that would affect its usage, reducing its value by 30%.

    On top of that, it requires more than one of its kind for the true effect to be achieved, reducing its value by 10%.

    Alongside that, it can only increase a single rank depending on the rank of the item itself. The current one has been appraised to be of the F rank, which means ten of such F rank items must be gathered to raise a superpower to the E rank.

    Final Buying Price: 0.1 Spire Points.]

    Actually, Dante was not unhappy with this. Not only was this item a quantum product, but it had issues, as seen by Aisha''s illness after Dante let her use it to upgrade her former superpower.

    However, it was surprising to think that even the F Rank one could get a whole 0.1 Spire Points. After all, Dante could farm millions of them in the Apocalypse World and bring them out, not even considering his ability to endlessly replicate them.

    This time, he was calm and not really excited. He felt that if even fruits had limitations, there was no way this spire would foolishly allow him to exploit it like this, so there would be some kind of limitation.

    As such, he presented a quantum replicated Mutation Core of the F Rank to the spire, one that had quantumpatibility and all. When the results came back, the final valuation was 1 full Spire Point for each, which made Dante smile.

    He then checked for the quantum versions and replicated versions of all his cores up to the S rank. The listing was as follows:

    Quantum F Rank = 0.1 Spire Points.

    Replicated F Rank = 1 Spire Point.

    Quantum E Rank = 0.2 Spire Points.

    Replicated E Rank = 2 Spire Points.

    Quantum D Rank = 0.3 Spire Points.

    Replicated D Rank = 3 Spire Points.

    Quantum C Rank = 0.4 Spire Points.

    Replicated C Rank = 4 Spire Points.

    Quantum B Rank = 0.5 Spire Points.

    Replicated B Rank = 5 Spire Points.

    Quantum A Rank = 1 Spire Point.

    Replicated A Rank = 10 Spire Points.

    Quantum S Rank = 10 Spire Points.

    Replicated S Rank = 50 Spire Points.

    Dante began by selling replicated S Rank Mutation Cores to the spire and smiled when he was informed that he could only sell fifty of them for now. It seemed the spire wanted to study this special product or attempt to replicate it.

    The same held true for quantum S-rank cores and all the items below, down to the F rank. Having understood the limitations with mutation cores, Dante was no longer bothered as he sold them without hesitation.

    This endeavorted him an additional 4325 Spire Points, which when added to his original amount of 4600, meant he now possessed a total of 8925 Spire Points. He was just a thousand points away from acquiring a specific superpower, leaving him feeling desperate and eager.

    He briefly considered using his quantum fruits but knew that doing so would be short-sighted.

    After rummaging around in his quantum space, he nced at all those Quantum Aetherium Conduits, Quantum Vitality Serums, and Enhanced Energy Elixirs.

    He then tried to sell them to the ck Spire but it simply disdained even giving an appraisal result, making Dante speechless and aware that these kinds of items would not fly in this kind of scenario.

    Dante rubbed his head and decided to retrieve thest valuable item he knew of from his quantum space, something he hesitated to reveal, even assuming this spire was an honest entity without greed or higher allegiances.

    It was a small vial containing a bright scarlet me shaped like a small bird. The small bird pped its wings majestically within the vial and seemed to disdain its confinement.

    Yes, it was a replicated version of the Nirvana Fire of a Phoenix!

    Before using the only vial he had on Portia, Dante ensured he replicated it a few times to guarantee he would neverck such a precious resource.

    After all, this was not something he could easily acquire and even Master Volud had goottne it due to very special circumstances.

    Gingerly, Dante submitted it and awaited the result.

    [Spire Appraisal Result

    Item: Nirvana Fire of the Phoenix

    Origin: Eternal Universe

    Grade: EX+

    Appraisal:

    The Nirvana Fire of the Phoenix is a vial containing a unique and potent substance extracted from the mythical Phoenix. Once ignited, this fire emits a radiant, ethereal glow and possesses immense purifying properties.

    It has the remarkable ability to heal wounds, cure ailments, restore vitality, and exhibits traits of absolute rejuvenation. It can even resurrect the dead, providing a multiplier of their current power from a minimum of two times up to nine times.

    Final Buying Price: 10,000 Spire Points

    Message from the spire: You can exchange greater quantities, as well as unlimited quantities of this item, as it cannot be replicated using any known means. The price remains the same for each sale!]

    Instead of excitement, Dante felt endless regret. He shouldn''t have removed this item, no matter how desperate he was. He could have traded away his quantum fruits, specifically the quantum versions of them.

    Yet, he refrained because if he essed new universes in the future, he could replicate those fruits again and sell them to the ck Spire under a new serial number. It would be akin to a cksmith making money from forging and selling his hammer and anvil.

    Observing how the spire even broke its silence to send him a message asking for more, Dante could tell that an item like this was too precious. For now, it was willing to trade with him, but who knew if it would change its mind, or if the entity behind it would?

    Dante sighed and traded away one vial but did not dare to add another. Instead, he hurriedly proceeded with his intended purpose, selecting the first purchase option, which was to obtain a specific superpower.

    With a current total of 18,925 Spire Points, he easily made this purchase and nned to upgrade the superpowerter if desired. However, he already had a specific n in mind and quickly instructed the ck Spire to grant him the superpower he had desired since his arrival in the Eternal Universe!

 Chapter 252 New Superpower!

    Chapter 252 New Superpower!

    "Give me a superpower rted to technology and the control of it!"

    Dante''s demand was so predictable and obvious for anyone who had been following him for a long while. The young man had always been fascinated with technology and even chose such for his career path, which was the reason he even went down this magical road in the first ce.

    If you were to quote his focus on Quantum Entanglement and his magical powers over technology for solving his problems, you would be ignoring the obvious fact that pursuing personal power was always a must.

    On top of that, he was tech savvy and knew that tech made by someone else would never truly be his, even if other tech savvy people opened it up and stated that it was safe. Only the tech you opened up yourself and thoroughly inspected could be given a full thumbs up.

    Unfortunately, Dante did not have the skill nor the knowledge to check Eternal Universe level technology, and it was not something one could learn in just minutes, even with a quantum chip in your brain.

    So from the onset, Dante had always targeted a technology rted superpower, which was one of the many reasons why he had never been bothered by the fact that he couldn''t eat his own replicated fruits.

    Even if he got those other powers, he wasn''t truly moved. After all, he could find quantum world on the Etraverse which had that power system and risk trying to get it.

    However, with a suitable technology superpower, not only could he build starships and his own mechanical fleet, he could even construct his own virtual quantum worlds and not have to burden Quantum Entanglement with that, allowing him to have many more diverse choices in the future.

    While Dante waited, the ck Spire responded straightforwardly. It told him that there was no such thing as a ''technology'' superpower but rather a myriad of technology rted superpowers that he could select from, so he had to be specific.

    Whether it was a bonus or not, Dante gained a stronger understanding of superpowers from the ck Spire in the form of a small infopack. Superpowers were not transcendental, but sub-sets of certain higher dimensional rules and abilities.

    For example, there was no such thing as the power to control all of fire, but there were powers that allowed you to control different parts of fire or utilize different traits or elements of fire.

    The strongest of the varying elemental series were the creation types, Pyrogenesis, Aerogenesis, etc. The allowed you to create air, fire, water, etc molecules even in the vacuum of space, but it was limited in range, limited in quality and limited in time.

    Obviously the created molecules could notst forever, as that would affect the natural elemental bnce of the universe.

    Anyway, the point was that with this information, Dante was given a list of superpower rted abilities he could chose from if he so wished, and he immediately perused it carefully.

    The list was long and extensive, enough that it would probably surpass over 100,000 words if Dante were to write it down. As such, he sorted out the ten best of the list that could likely make any person go crazy with lust and desire, because he was doing so right now.

    The choices were as follows:

    1. Cybeic Symphony: This superpower grants the user the ability to create, manipte, and control digital frequencies and wavelengths, enabling them to produce a symphony of digital harmony. They canpose intricate digital melodies that synchronize with technological elements, manipting machinery or devices, and achieving unparalleled control over digital environments.

    2. Virtual Architect: A superpower that bestows the user with architectural capabilities within virtual realms. Users can visualize, ideate, and manifest incrediblyplex and amazing innovations within virtual space. They have the ability to materialize created virtual constructs into reality, bringing forth blueprints, designs, and innovations, all crafted within the virtual environment.

    3. Nanite Resonance: This power grants the user the ability to resonate and synchronize with nanites, granting them control over these microscopic machines. Users canmand nanites to merge, separate, or alter their configurations, creating transformative structures or armor, repairing damaged tech, or deploying swarms for a variety of technological purposes.

    4. Mechanical Empowerment: Users of this superpower gain the ability to channel energy into mechanical structures or machines, enhancing their performance and capabilities. They can infuse machinery with additional strength, speed, durability, or specialized functions, granting them an edge in technologicalbat or problem-solving scenarios.

    5. Digital Arcanist: This power allows users to manipte and transmute digital codes and information, transforming data streams into entirely new digital entities or structures. Users can transmute digital elements, reshape data structures, and manipte code, essentially practicing a form of digital alchemy, creating new programs or systems from existing ones.

    6. Quantum Core: This power grants the user unparalleled control and maniption over the quantum fabric of digital realms. They can reconstruct, reprogram, and manipte the foundational quantum code of virtual worlds, creating and erasing entities, structures, andndscapes at will.

    7. Cyber Echo: This power enables the user to project their consciousness into digitalworks, allowing them to traverse cyberspace, hack systems, and interface withplexworks. They can leave digital imprints, create echoes of their presence, and manipte virtual environments.

    8. Mechanical Ascension: This power allows users to evolve and modify mechanical structures or devices by manipting their functions or designs. Users can engineer adaptive or evolving machinery, allowing them to evolve and self-improve over time, achieving remarkable technological advances. In some cases, machines may even gain sentience and life.

    9. Digital Maniption: This superpower grants users control over digital environments and interfaces, allowing them to manipte, reconfigure, or rewrite digital systems at will. Users can remotely ess and control technology, manipte data flows, and even reprogramplex systems through sheer mentalmand.

    10. Mech Assault: Mech Assault allows users to conjure and control nano-mechanical constructs resembling powerful robotic entities. These constructs are highly versatile, capable ofbat, construction, andplex tasks with extraordinary strength and precision.

    Dante was spoiled for choice and his face showed endless reluctance that he couldn''t have a superpower that had all these functions at once. However, he could only knuckle on and looked through them in detail now that he had chosen them from the millions of others and select one that he liked best.

    Still, the young man couldn''t help but marvel at the sheer variety of tech-based superpowers avable. Each power presented a unique path toward wielding the digital and mechanical forces that ruled tech-centric worlds.

    Cybeic Symphony, for example, seemed like a musical ability but for technology. The power topose digital melodies and control machines with musical frequencies was intriguing. It was like bing a conductor of a grand digital orchestra, manipting the essence of technology in a harmonious dance.

    However, Dante had never been good with song and dance while he also did not feel all that enthused to do musicals in the middle of a fight in order to use his superpower.

    Virtual Architect was another hidden gem in the treasure trove of powers. Dante imagined creating, molding, and manifesting technological powerhouses within virtual realms.

    The ability to bring these creations from the digital world into reality was mind-boggling. It was akin to being an artist whose canvas wasn''t limited by physical constraints but only by imagination.

    Imagine all the starships, space bases and the like he could draw up and then take out in realityˇ­ his army would be limitless!

    Thoughˇ­ Nanite Resonance also caught Dante''s attention. The power to resonate andmand nanites, those microscopic little bastards who were the formation of his Bionics, Psionics and even AI chip, was enticing.

    This superpower promised control over an entirely different realm. It was like having an army of tiny, powerful assistants at your beck and call, capable of repairing, transforming, and building technology in miraculous ways.

    Dante could control and enhance his own various Bionics but it would mean that all his technological creations would be limited to ''hardware''. Things like AI systems and quantum worlds, the ''software'' would be out of his reach.

    Well, the idea of Mechanical Empowerment was also captivating. Enhancing mechanical structures or machines with energy to supercharge their functions sounded like giving technology a turbo boost. It was the kind of power that could turn an ordinary gadget into a technological marvel, giving its user an edge in any tech-based showdown.

    However, it was the lowest of the list to Dante, quite possibly a supporting superpower he could consider getting if he could get more Spire Points. If he had a tech superpower like the Virtual Architect or Nanite Resonance, then it would synergize with them well.

    Digital Arcanist, with its maniption of digital codes and transformation of data streams, was like performing magic in the realm of cyberspace. Rewriting digitalws and creating new programs from existing ones was indeed a form of digital alchemy.

    However, it was a bit weird and troublesome because it only allowed for changed, not creation nor maniption. If you saw a data stream you didn''t like in your program, you could morph it into something else and that had many uses for those who were tech savvy.

    But Dante was looking more for something that would - rather than allowing him to change the data stream - grasp it by the neck and bring it closer, allowing it toe face to face with him and exin why it dared to misbehave.

    There was also Quantum Core, which was the epitome of control over digital realms. Rewriting the foundational quantum code of virtual worlds was like rewriting the fabric of reality itself. It offered the power to create, manipte, and erase digitalndscapes as if they were a mere canvas to an artist.

    He, with this power, could achieve something close to his Quantum World sub-ability and create his own quantum realms withws as well as rules that suited him. This was on the top of Dante''s list of choices as it directly scratched one of the itches he had.

    The only problem it had was that itcked the ability to control technological hardware, but one could not eat their cake and have it with these kinds of things.

    Cyber Echo was a power that intrigued Dante slightly. The ability to project his consciousness into the digitalworks was akin to diving into an ocean of information and power, or rather, information which was power.

    He could traverse cyberspace effortlessly, interact withplex digital and even quantum systems, and even leave traces of his presence behind. This power was the key to unlocking vast troves of knowledge and essing hidden corners of the digital realm.

    Especially since his intelligence stat was so high, he would probably be like a behemothpared to conventional digital and quantum entities within the space.

    Mechanical Ascension stood out to Dante, as it was an evolutionary marvel in the realm of technology. The theory had long been there, that the potential to modify machines to evolve, self-improve, and potentially gain sentience was possible.

    It was even said that there was a young man with a certain ''touch'' that could make ''mechs'' attain a special synergy with their pilots.

    This superpower hinted at the creation of a new breed of technology that could adapt and grow, marking a significant leap forward in mechanical longevity.

    Digital Maniption was pretty straight forward and was a power that resonated deeply with Dante''s fascination for control and precision. Manipting digital interfaces and reconfiguring systems with a mere thought appealed to his need for careful precision in all things tech rted.

    Especially when you considered the ability to remotely ess technology, rewrite data flows, and reprogramplex systems. This superpower definitely opened doors to a myriad of options for someone with a n agenda to fulfill, especially against a tech rted universe.

    Hehe.

    Finally, there was Mech Assault, thest superpower on the list. This one also spoke to Dante in consideration of its potential for conjuring nano-mechanical constructs as the idea of creating powerful robotic entities from nanites was enthralling.

    These constructs would be versatile, capable ofbat, construction, and handlingplex tasks with immense strength and precision. This was different from Nanite Resonance as that one focused on micro-control of nanites, while this one focused on macro-control of nanites.

    In the end, Dante was torn between the options and weighed his choices carefully. In the end, he could only bite his lip and hastily pay up another vial of the Nirvanas Fire of a Phoenix, which the ck Spire greedily collected.

    Dante then chose the two superpowers of Nanite Resonance and Quantum Core. One would given him the power to control and manipte his own hardware within his body and within the body of others - possibly - while the other would let him achieve the best synergy with Quantum Entanglement and fetch power systems for his body that were customized.

    The moment he made his choices, Dante felt a surge of power coursed into his body and into his soul space, just like before. Within the space, two new sections formed, one that continued sized core that glowed with strange purple energy and many quantum codes and numbers shing across it, while the other was a swarm of nanites that buzzed silently, coiling over each other and slowly patrolling their zone.

    In terms of size though, they were far, far smaller than the giant gate that depicted two universes, as well as its smaller attachments by the side from various upgrades. It was likeparing a toddler to the tallest man in the world.

    Dante retracted his hand from the ck Spire and seemed to be a part of the world again. There was an uncanny feeling of istion from reality when using the ck Spire that finally receded at this moment.

    When Dante looked around, he still did not see anyone around nor did he sense them, so he maintained his defenses and focused on his new powers. Just like Quantum Entanglement, or any superpower really, how to use them as well as the rules they came with was clear to him from the get go.

    Dante first connected to his own nanites in his body and felt like he could control, as well as rearrange them. However the influence he could exert at the current F rank was minimal.

    Lets not even talk about Quantum Core, for that one to work, he had to be within a quantum world in the first ce. He could not create them out of nowhere, but could manipte them.

    Dante was satisfied. He immediately took out Mutation Cores of the requisite ranks up to the S Rank and absorbed them for both his superpowers, making them soar up. With each rank they climbed, their manifestations within the soul space grew, but no new sub-abilities were born.

    After all, Quantum Entanglement was special because of that. All other superpowers just became marginally better in terms of percentage value and efficiency. In the case of Dante''s two new superpowers, their base abilities just grew in scale and power.

    After reaching the current limit of the Mutation Cores, which was the S Rank, Dante pressed his hand against the ck Spire and checked his remaining points. He had over eight thousand left and he resolutely spent them on buying upgrades for the Quantum Core and Nanite Resonance equally.

    One upgrade cost 500 Spire Points, so that was 8 upgrades, split equally into four for each. Both went from the S Rank, to SS, SSS and peaked at EX, perfect and at their limit.

    The moment they reached the limit, Dante could feel something strange, like a calling from a higher level. This calling was strange, something simr to what he had with Quantum Entanglement, but far weaker if that even made sense.

    It was unknown if it was because Dante was still connected to the ck Spire, but he received another info pack informing him of much more. Apparently, this was the natural limit of all superpowers and they had to undergo a ''selection process'' by higher dimensional beings of the same attributes to be their ''sponsor'', so that they could be upgraded to higher dimensional rules.

    When Dante receive this, it was like thunder shed in his mind. He naturally thought of Quantum Entanglement and understood why his superpower was so overpowered. It had skipped all the realms that superpowers had to pass and already gained more than just a sponsor, but a sugar momma!

    After all, apparently higher dimensional beings who sponsored didn''t do it for free, there was a price they extracted from the superpower user that was agreed on by both parties beforehand.

    However, Dante had no such agreement with the cosmic tree and was being fully funded, sponsored and even pampered for free!

    Dante''s eyes flickered. He decided that he would not answer the calling of his two new superpowers because why should a free man indenture himself? Besides, would the Cosmic Tree even agree?

    Given its power and its big talk, typical higher dimensional entities probably had to kneel at its feet and beg, so how could it share a ''client'' with them?

    Dante would never disrespect his sugar momma like that.

    Imagine the the 2008 Halle Berry or 2012 Scarlett Johanson stated that she would sponsor you for life and fed you the best food, games, andforts without even asking for anything back like intention, love or your time.

    Would you be moved if Jada Pinkett or Kim Kardashian slinked over to you and tried to solicit you into their bed with various terms and conditions attached?

    As such, Dante took away his hand from the ck Spire and did not care about his meager remaining points. He dropped a Quantum Marker on this spot and teleported back to the area he came from, where he had released his technology.

    With a smile, he tested his new max power Nanite Resonance on his base and the various androids, but the feedback made his face change greatly.

    "ETERNAL UNIVERSE, YOU ARE FUCKING COURTING DEATH!!!"

 Chapter 253 Rebuilding and Resurrection

    Chapter 253 Rebuilding and Resurrection

    Wellˇ­ the worst thing possible for the Eternal Universe had finally happened. Through unforeseeable circumstances on their part, Dante had identified the backdoor left in his technology and even knew where it led to.

    The Eternal Universe originally had a n to deal with Dante if he ever found out, but that was supposed to be farter. They could never have predicted that not only did he have counterfeit fruits to exchange with the spire as well as the mutation cores, but he would have something like the Nirvana Fire of a Phoenix as well.

    It was one thing to trick Dante on their side, as Dante had epted the deception as fair game and even benefited from it immensely. Not to mention that he would have made the same choice anyway without the deception, so the hatred level was pretty low.

    However, trying to dig out his secrets in such a manner left him extremely furious because Dante knew that he was only saved by his moderate caution and the gap between universes, especially with the power of Quantum Entanglement.

    When traversing through quantum tunnels, other matter that was not naturally a part of Dante or not closely affiliated with him would be destroyed. So any hidden signals or methods were likely killed through this method, which was a lifesaver.

    Dante sucked in a deep breath and calmed himself down. He looked at his halfpleted base already and recalled everything back to this spot. He then collected all his tech and destroyed the half-built base before collecting it back as well, making sure everything was sent into his quantum space.

    Dante then nced at the wastnd and contemted his next moves. His quantum clone in the home universe had already collected all ten fruits with ease and had left the Zero Gate. The requirement to stay 30 days was because neither the Eternal universe nor the Centralis universe knew of a way to teleport the way quantum entanglement did.

    Dante hesitated for a long time before making a set of decisions. With his current EX rank Nanite Resonance, he released a huge amount of nanites from his quantum space and then connected with all of them.

    Immediately, he removed any backdoors and hidden methods on them, making them truly his. He then teleported back towards the ck Spire, which was the center point of this battlefield, and focused on his nanites.

    Then he had them start everything from scratch, building a newer and more improved base using his own design.

    That''s right, Dante intended to monopolize this ck Spire for himself and build a faction around it!

    Wait, how dare he?! How dare he?!?

    With what power did he think he had the right to monopolize such a precious resource? Just because species from other universes hardly came here due to the terrible reputation of this ce did not mean that there was no one here or that there was no one willing toe here.

    Like that vulture creature from earlier, other zones and species would asionally release scouts toe and check out the ce to see if anything had changed or if it was safe for them to make a push.

    When they found Dante building a base around the spire, even if they feared this ce, how could they allow him to have his way? Naturally, they would and should attack or sabotage him to prevent him from getting a step ahead.

    So what did Dante have to make him think he could counter that?

    Dante, who was controlling the nanites to build, smiled slightly.

    If we were talking methods, Dante had many of them currently, some he had already activated and some he left unactivated because it was not the right time or because he did not fancy it.

    But now that he knew almost everything he needed to know about the situation and the various universes, it was time to ''chrome the fuck up'' as they would say.

    The first was obviously his new superpowers of Quantum Core and Nanite Resonance. Quantum Core allowed him to change most of the rules of an established quantum world within a certain range.

    As it was only a normal superpower not backed a higher dimensional entity, it could not supersede the power of reality like Quantum Entanglement could. However, Dante didn''t need it to in this case, as he could take people into quantum worlds now and avoid quantum poisoning as long as they stayed 10 feet within the range of the initial quantum marker.

    So all Dante had to do was first rewrite the rules to make it such that the people he brought in could practice the quantum methods of that world in question. With worlds like the True Martial and Magus world, Dante could allow Beatrice and those he chose to learn External Arts, internal Arts, Knight Breathing, and Magus system powers because they did not physically need to be in the world to cultivate it.

    Not to mention he had already researched and created resources that could speed up cultivation, so he could mass-produce warriors for himself and create his own armed force.

    How would he keep them under control? Well, apart from his family members, all the others who would be granted this power would be clones!

    Dante would simply take his own gic code and splice it up to create a ''designer baby'' with perfect traits. That baby would then be nurtured to adulthood and then replicated over and over again until he had an army.

    Apart from the power system given to them, there were two ways to control these forces. The first was to directly imnt obedience as a gic code into their bodies, and the second was to use Nanite Resonance to create AI chips, Bionics, and Psionics for them to use.

    Since those nanites came from Dante, they would always belong to Dante.

    The second unactivated method was the humans that Aisha had ''captured'' who had superpowers naturally. They could also be given nanites by Dante and fed Mutation Cores up to the S Rank to boost their utility.

    A force of superpower users, even with trash superpowers, at the S rank was not something any universe would take lightly, and if Dante could bring them all in here, it would severely upset the bnce.

    The third unactivated method was obviously to leverage his influence and control in the True Martial World and Magus World to recruit already-made powerhouses like Volud and ndor, or Liang and Hao Donglei toe into reality and mess things up.

    And the list went on.

    Dante patiently got the skeletal framework of this base up and running before leaving his nanites with amand to continue. They would build the externals and the hardware, but not activate or touch the software since that one was still bugged.

    However, Dante had a few ideas on how to solve this. The good news was that since he had registered with the ck Spire, he could now freelye and go from the First Gate in the future, so he was not confined here anymore.

    As such, he traveled using his quantum marker to the Portinari n directly, appearing outside the resurrection chamber. He found that a tired Augeus was seated there with bloodshot eyes as he stared at the cultivation chamber containing his wife.

    Aunty Zest was also here, patiently waiting by the side but unable to hide her anticipation. Unsurprisingly, Beatrice was here too, seated by her father with a worried nce at Portia, who was obviously undergoing the final stages of her resurrection.

    When Dante appeared, Beatrice was the only one who noticed him due to her powerful senses. When she saw Dantee back, she took it for granted and beckoned forhim toe and sit beside her.

    After all, in her mind, he should have only gone to the Zero Gate to bully his fellow students for the ten fruits, so how much danger could he have possibly been in?

    She had no idea of the brushes with death that Dante had undergone in these past 2 to 3 days; otherwise, she would be utterly furious and filled with killing intent. Just as well, Dante was not in a rush to tell her not because he liked keeping secrets or creating misunderstandings, but because Beatrice was already more than 1 month pregnant and he did not fancy the idea of triggering her emotions so strongly.

    He calmly sat beside her with a smile and ced an arm around her shoulder, bringing her in close. Feeling his soft and warm Beatrice in his hand, Dante felt content and extremelyfortable, and the pains he had suffered to this point seemed to diminish.

    Oh, how easy it was for a man to be satisfied. One could go through hell and fire, but seeing his wife and child safe and happy could make him dive right back in, though he was terrified of it.

    Dante nced at Portia''s progress and saw that she had already been fully melted and the fire was reshaping her slowly. It was pulsing with life and energy as the nirvana process was just about to begin and how much Portia could gain from this was about to be seen.

    In a few minutes, the entire space began to tremble as the fire''s pulsation grew stronger and a vortex formed that surrounded Portia''s zing form. Augeus stood up and was full of excitement, but controlled himself as he knew this was the crucial moment.

    As such, he personally walked forward and pressed a button. A small tube beside the cultivation chamber lit up and small ck orbs began to rush into the cultivation chamber madly.

    Dante was full of wonder as to what it was until Beatrice saw his face and exined with a knowing smile. "Those arepressed Star Cores, basically energy orbs containing the entire energy of a star for its lifespan and especially when it undergoes supernova."

    Dante was thoroughly speechless at that. Portia was so overpowered and needed so much energy that she literally ate the equivalent of stars to subsist herself. Of course, she normally would not need so many of those things but she was undergoing Nirvana and she could explode up to 2 to 9 times beyond her current limit.

    This required an immense amount of energy and the basic energy within the small vial that Dante gave them to use on Portia was unknown if it could even restore her to her basic self, much less gain any benefits.

    Obviously, the Portinari family did not just want Portia back in her prime, they wanted her to be even better. Because Portia herself would want this, the ability to be so much stronger that even if one threatened her family and her precious daughter, she could put them down with ease.

    The ck orbs were sucked into the cultivation chamber one by one and merged with the fire, making its increase in intensity and power, its pulsation and power growing. More and more were sucked in to no end, but Augeus and Beatrice did not look worried.

    The Eternal Universe had already fully researched particle eleration to the max as well as matter and energypression. They could supply as much energy in this form as the nirvana fire needed because they had the equipment for it.

    Dante looked at this as his eyes flickered. He had some thoughts in mind but would share them after this important moment was over. Right now, he was more interested in seeing his mother-inw and her reaction to his existence.

    That wish was granted, and the cultivation chamber seemed to explode, and the nanites inside melted at once. Dante, with his new superpower, could practically hear them all screaming as they were turned to ash in seconds.

    But that was not as overwhelming as the performer who walked out of the cultivation chamber''s fiery remnants, her body sleek and smooth like a newborn baby and her sharp purple eyes scanning the room like a predator.

    Portia Portinari hade back to life!

 Chapter 254 Portia Portinari

    Chapter 254 Portia Portinari

    The room became silent as everyone nced at the renewed woman who exuded a great amount of power, with looks of disbelief. Even though they knew that the item Dante brought should revive Portia, it was one thing to know it and another to actually see it seed.

    "Portiaˇ­ my loveˇ­ is that you?" Augeus choked out slowly, rising to his feet as he nced at Portia with bloodshot eyes full of tears.

    Portia seemed a bit disoriented and dazed, but when she nced at Augeus, her eyes cleared up by more than half.

    "Auˇ­ geusˇ­?" She muttered slowly, as if knowing that this name meant much to her but was struggling to remember.

    Portia''s eyes moved to Aunty Zest, who was trying to wipe her tears, and her eyes became even clearer.

    "Zestiniaˇ­"

    Finally, Portia''s eyes turned on Beatrice, who was also crying but also looked scared and bashful. When Portia looked at her, her eyes flickered with confusion as she did not initially recognize this person, but then she seemed to see something that triggered her memories.

    Her eyes cleared fully, and her entire demeanor changed as she rushed over with red eyes.

    "Is thatˇ­ Bea? My darling baby?!"

    Beatrice could no longer hold back as she wailed and rose to her feet, rushing into her mother''s embrace.

    "Mama!!ˇ­ sob sobˇ­ mama!!" she cried out in a pitiful voice.

    She seemed to return to that toddler who had to watch her mother fight off powerful foes while protecting her, continually trying tofort the infantile her who was crying and scared while Portia made sure to use her own body to block the dangerous blows for her fragile daughter.

    Portia''s heart ached when she heard her daughter''s pained wailing, and her soul seemed to finally awaken after being dormant for so many years. The Nirvana Fire of a Phoenix was truly miraculous because it was a perfect resurrection.

    It was Portia in the full and truest sense, not just her resurrected body with her memories. Even her authentic soul that had dispersed to who knows where had returned and had been fully restored.

    This was why the ck Spire gave such a high price for each vial; this kind of miraculous item pretty much broke all conventional rules. What was even more amazing to think was the fact that it was due to the power of the Cosmic Tree that this could happen.

    Portia was very emotional as she looked around. She saw Augeus, who was smiling and smiled back at him even as she rubbed Portia''s back. The youngdy was clinging to her mother like a baby, not willing to let go as if doing so would make her disappear.

    Portia felt slightly amused by this and slipped into her familiar habit of gentlyforting her little crybaby daughter. She then nced at Aunty Zest with a smile and whispered something, which made Aunty Zestugh under her breath and nod.

    Dante understood that the family needed time for a reunion, so he had left the moment that Portia had returned. He only came back about 390 minutester, at which Portia was seated beside Augeus and Beatrice, who were catching her up with everything.

    When Dante suddenly appeared, Portia was the first to sense him this time, and her entire body tensed as she nced at Dante dangerously. In that split second, Dante felt the same kind of pressure he felt when he fought that void beast, but almost ten times stronger than that.

    Before things could escte, Beatrice hurriedly held Portia''s hand.

    "Mama, this is him." She hurriedly identified Dante before her mother could do anything rash.

    Portia, who was tense and ready to attack at the slightest notice, seemed to dete as her expression became one of pleasant surprise. She then sized Dante up subtly and nodded her head with satisfaction, her eyes narrowing.

    For all intents and purposes, Dante was far weaker than herself, and even weaker than her daughter at her current level, but she still felt a hint of fatal threat from him. It was as if, despite her almost monstrous stats that put her beyond Superman, she could still be somehow killed by him.

    Portia did not find this ridiculous but rather interesting and rare. After all, she had undergone nirvana, and her body had multiplied in power by an undisclosed amount of times, but she still felt this way from him.

    What a remarkable young man!

    Portia stood up and walked to Dante with brisk steps. Dante noticed this with Beatrice, but this family had really tall women. Beatrice herself stood shoulder to shoulder with him at 6 feet, and Portia was slightly taller, being at the same height as Augeus.

    Not to mention that Dante did not know how to feel looking at his mother-inw, which was basically an aged-up Beatrice. He had to tear his eyes off her and nce at his young and lively Beatrice, who sheepishly waved from the side to remember that this wasn''t his wife from the futuree to the past.

    Augeus touched his forehead with sympathy as he direly understood Dante''s dilemma. Minus a few minor differences, Beatrice was practically 99% his wife. It couldn''t be helped, the gap in stats between him and his wife was too damn high, and it was only through a miracle, as well as extreme hard work, that he could even get her pregnant.

    Portia nced back and seemed to understand the problem. She had been shocked and saddened deep down that she missed getting to see her beloved baby grow up, but she was also satisfied with how beautiful and perfect Beatrice had be in all aspects, which gave her aplicated feeling due to the contrast.

    "Hello, Dante. I hear that I have you to thank for being able to reunite with my family." Portia greeted with a smile as she stretched out her hand.

    Dante took it and shook it, marveling at the sheer dormant power he could sense in his mother-inw''s palm. It felt like if she clenched her fist too hard, she might just crush space itself and open a passage to sub-space.

    Dante couldn''t help but feel like it should be extremely tiring and hellish for Portia to restrain her explosive power at all times. Everyone with high stats had to undergo advanced training routines to restrain their power and mingle with everyone else, but at a certain level, the techniques could not possibly work.

    "It was nothing. More than anything, I just wanted to see Beatrice happy." Dante responded humbly.

    Portia smiled wider. "Come and sit down. You are family as well, and Beatrice even tells me that I have a grandchilding soon."

    Portia led Dante to sit beside her and nodded to him. "I want to know you better, so please tell me about yourself and your ns."

    Dante pondered and then told her what she told Beatrice. He then decided to give everyone an update of what he went through in the First Gate as well as his spections.

    When they heard this, their faces changed greatly.

    "INCORRIGIBLE!" Augeus roared as he smashed his wine ss on the ground with unbridled rage.

    Jesus Christ, his perfect son-inw who had done so much for their family and had so much potential to rise in the world was almostkilled while he had no idea.

    Beatrice was even worse. She was so angry that she felt faint, her breathingbored and uneven.

    What a good upper echelon, they had almost killed off her soulmate and rendered her child fatherless!

    However, Portia was far calmer. She seemed to silently ponder something and then spoke to Augeus. "Augeus, I have already caught up with the n''s matters through my AI chip but I have only just realized how much things have changed since I died."

    Augeus was pulled out of his anger by confusion and turned to his wife. "What do you mean?"

    "The First Gate and its details are usually taught to students in the second year of the Unique Batch. I would know, since I was also such a student. However, when exemry students like myself or even the current headmistress appeared, we were sidelined from the rest and told about everything ahead of time so as to be better prepared to shoulder the responsibility."

    Portia snorted coldly. "The only reason why I was able to reach the B Rank by graduation, and that Lara could reach the A rank as rumored, was because we were given free ess to the ck Land and Zero Energypared to our mates who still had schedules."

    Portia nced at Augeus, who seemed to understand something as his face changed and then switched her view to Dante, who was only mildly surprised.

    "Young Dante should have gone through the same process of treatment, especially given the fact that we are backing him. For him to go through this and be treated as such, the intention is very clear!"

    Portia''s lips curled up slightly with derision. "The top factions of the world do not consider us as one of them anymore! They wish to slowly shift you out of the circle of power and information before slowly devouring the n''s assets."

    Augeus became pale while Beatrice and Dante shared a look. During their pillow talk a month back, they had discussed something simr and hypothesized that this should be the case. However, as newer generation youth, they felt it should not be much of a big deal since they would outgrow many things in the universe soon.

    Technically, they still felt the same way even now. However, Augeus, as someone who had ruled a top n in the universe for many years, had farther vision and eyesight when it came to these things.

    He felt chilled when he thought about the current situation and the encirclement they were facing, quickly thinking up countermeasures to resolve them. However, he was snapped out of his thoughts when Portia gently patted his shoulder.

    "You are so handsome when you''re thoughtful like that." She teased, making Augeus smile a bit bashfully, something that made Dante want to vomit due to Augeus'' noble and stern features.

    "I can imagine the pressure you''ve been under since I perished, dear, having to manage a top n in the universe without deterring power to scare the rest. You and Bea have done an amazing job so far in keeping the position and retaking what was ours." Portiaforted her husband and daughter with a gentle look.

    She even turned and patted Dante on the head with a chuckle, making the young man smile sheepishly. "In fact, within a year at most, with young Dante as a part of our family, it would be entirely possible to resolve this problem and overturn the entire universe."

    Suddenly, Portia''s kind and motherly aura switched to something fierce and oppressive, making Dante shake as he felt like he was back in the First Gate and being stared down by that void beast.

    "However, there is no need to wait for so long. The fact is that I am back and there will no longer be a need for our n to suffer any grievances or be bullied ever again!"

    She said forcefully, making the other three in the room look up to her with awe.

    She cricked her neck and grinned. "I was wondering how best to announce my return to the universe, but Dante''s sufferings have given me the best tform to rip a piece of flesh from everyone who has bullied you all since I was away."

    "Come, my dear family, let''s go to the dreadnought that Beamands. I would like us to head to Earth and pay a visit to the Prime Human Council headquarters."

    Portia instructed with a cold grin.

    Dante smiled and used Quantum Transportation to take the four of them straight into the cockpit within seconds, startling only Augeus who did not know that such a method would be used.

    "Set a course Bea! Let''s go and smash the faces of those old fellows in!" Portia dered magnificently while folding her arms.

 Chapter 255 Storming The Council 1

    Chapter 255 Storming The Council 1

    Dante and Augeus shared uncertain looks. One definitely had ns to confront the Prime Human Council, but that was sooner when all his ns slipped into ce, while the other knew the length and breadth of the Prime Human Council''s power as well as the ramifications of what Portia wanted to do.

    Meanwhile, Beatrice and Portia wore the same confident grin as Beatrice punched in the coordinates without hesitation and looked at her mother with something akin to idol worship. Looking at the two beauties standing side by side, looking like one big sister and one little sister, Dante felt his head spin.

    Augeus patted his shoulder with a knowing look. The two men were not entirely sure about this venture, but they were here to support their women. Even if the sky fell, they would find a way to hold it up, though given Beatrice and Portia''s monstrous power, that might not be needed.

    At full warp speed, it didn''t take the dreadnought even an hour to get to the Milky Way system because the Portinari n''s gxy was not that far away.

    When the Inferno came up to Earth, they were pinged byary Control as to why they were here and given a ce to park. Beatrice nced at Portia for directions, and the older woman seemed to ponder before smiling.

    "Sure, let''s y nice for now. If I go violent right away, those fellows would not dare to gather in one room for me to smash their skulls in."

    As such, the Inferno parked in the military spaceport obediently as its crew disembarked. When they walked up to the space elevator that led down to the side, a few cyborgs led by a man in a military uniform decked with medals rapidly approached.

    His expression was cold and domineering as his eyes swept over the group when he came closer, trying to identify them. When he looked through, he noticed that their bearing was special but could not recognize anyone among them.

    After all, Portia had been dead for almost 20 years, Augeus was a n leader who nominally stayed in the ancestral home, Dante was a new sensation that did not show his face in social circles much, and Beatrice was well-known, but mostly stayed in her dreadnought.

    "Admiral Kessner of the 3rd Fleet. May I know why you havee to the home base without forwarding your purpose first or setting an appointment? We had to rush to clear space for you tond." He greeted and then questioned with a hint of unhappiness in his voice.

    Portia nced at him up and down and smiled. "Is that so? We must have given you quite the trouble bying in unannounced, but I have something important to tell those councilors that cannot wait."

    Admiral Kessner listened and felt his heart skip a beat. He then paid attention to the dreadnought itself, especially which admiral it had been issued to. When he saw the name attached to this dreadnought, his pupils constricted, and his brow was covered with sweat.

    "Right, you must be Admiral Beatrice Portinari, then! Greetings to you, fellow admiral!" The fellow made a military salute to Portia, stunning the group.

    Portia paused and yfully made a military salute back while Beatrice seemed to not know whether tough or cry.

    "My illustrious reputation has been hijacked by my mom... What should I do?"

    "Pleasee this way; I will immediately prepare a private shuttle escort to the Council Headquarters." Admiral Kessner offered, which the group took up.

    They were soon rushed through the space elevator down to the and hit the streets of what used to be the United States of America but was now the Prime Human State. The name had been changed a few thousand years ago since the former USA took up the mantle of being the center of the Prime Human Civilization''s governance.

    The Council Headquarters was located at the former pentagon and had beenpletely remodeled and reshaped. As the shuttle glided over a bustling cityscape below, filled with a deluge of awesome vehicles whizzing by.

    Traffic obviously flowed seamlessly, guided by automated systems run by Quantum AI. The chance of car crashes and the like were literally zero. It was more likely for the world to end than for a mistake to happen in that regard.

    There was a subtle noise in the air, one that was a hum of superior engines, quieter and more efficient than the previous makes utilized by humanity for travel. No more honking, swearing, and ''fuck your mother'' from drivers, just a gentle buzz of progress as AI drove everyone where they wanted to go.

    The power of technology surrounded everyone. Dante only needed to take in a single breath to feel his Nanite Resonance superpower wanting to connect to many things in the area, as the majority of hardware was based on nanobots. They were simply the best building blocks for anything and everything, used in every facet of life.

    Looking out of the shuttle window as they rushed through the ''streets'' of the city, which was in the air, giant holographic billboards adorned skyscrapers, disying vivid colors and messages. Advertisements for various products littered the space, clearly indicating that various building owners hoped to profit from ad revenue.

    The buildings themselves shimmered with a rainbow of lights, a vibrant disy of architectural artistry. Dante had not looked at the properly when he first came here since he was on guard against Beatrice, but now he could safely say that he could see the appeal.

    If Etonia looked cyberpunk-ish, then Earth was very much like The Jetsons.

    As they approached the Pentagon, the shuttle descended, revealing a massive structure transformed into a Council Chamber for all of humanity. The historic symbol of power now changed to unite the entire pure human species, beaconing a beacon of racial cooperation for benefits.

    The building itself was pretty much an architectural marvel, seeming to rise with limitless precision and endless grandeur across the ages. Its sleek, silver exterior gleamed under the sun''s gentle touch as blue lights crisscrossed across the building''s form in demarcated lines.

    Surprisingly, at least for a bureaucratic building, traffic flowed smoothly around the Pentagon, and it was evident that this ce was the heart of a universe-wide governing body. Vehicles, from elegant-side shuttles to advanced atmospheric hovercraft, ferried dignitaries from all over the universe to and from the building''s entrance.

    As Dante gazed at the spectacle, he understood that this was where the universe''s leaders came together to battle against a hub of unity for pure-blooded humans, shaping a better future for humankind at their expense.

    Once again, Dante could not help but thank the stars that he was a pure human and that pure humans ruled this universe. Otherwise, his rise would have been significantly bumpier if it was the clich¨¦ ''humanity are ves to stronger species'' kind of thing which might be present in other universes for all he knew.

    They got VIP parking and entered the building through the VIP entrance. A few aides rushed up to them and required them to identify themselves before they could continue forward, as they only had Beatrice on file.

    Even then, the council had summoned Beatrice and Dante many times, so she was quickly expedited through the process. However, when the aides identified a smilingAugeus, they bowed with respect, as this was one of the topmost rulers of the universe!

    However, Augeus could not be happy because he knew his title and position were empty. A country could im sovereignty all it wanted, but if everyone else refused to acknowledge its sovereignty, then it was as empty as smoke and gas.

    When they identified Dante next, there was visible shock on their faces. The name of Dante was pretty thunderous in the current social climate of the universe, and many different things were said about him.

    One thing that was true, though, was that the Prime Human Council had pinged him multiple times in a hurry, but he always found a way to escape, so why was he here now?

    Of course, their reactions were nothingpared to how they behaved when they finally identified Portia. The aides actually stepped back and became pale as if they had seen a ghost, and they could not even speak for a few moments.

    "What, why are you acting like this? Isn''t it normal for a person to resurrect after death?" Portia joked with a grin that made the aides even paler.

    "Oh? Not going to wee me? I mean, I have returned to take my official duties along with my husband." Portia''s smile disappeared as she began to frown.

    This made the aides feel a chill as they hurriedly bowed. "We wee Councilwoman Portia to the Council Headquarters!"

    Dante was surprised by this as he nced around to see that Augeus and Beatrice did not react to this. He had no idea that Portia, before her death, had been a member of the illustrious Prime Human Council, but then again, it also made sense.

    She was one of the strongest beings in the universe and was the wife of one of the n leaders of the top n. Inviting her to be a member of the council was an obvious choice the council would make in order to control this powerful chess piece by giving her a voice.

    Otherwise, what if she was a maverick and decided to do things gung-ho? With her level of power and influence, she could cause a great amount of harm, so it was better to give her power to shackle her down with responsibilities.

    What surprised Dante was that Augeus had also been a member of the council. Why did he lose his spot?

    Augeus seemed to see Dante''s confusion and smiled. "I took an extended leave from council duties for 50 years after what happened to Portia in order to focus on Bea and the n."

    Dante understood. It would be very damn strange if the n leader of what was called the number one pure human n was not even part of the council that ruled the universe. Augeus had been in the midst of grief and understood that his priority now was to focus on his daughter rather than pursue power.

    This choice might be another reason why the n was being slowly pushed out from the power circles of the universe. Whatever the case, both he and Portia were here now and ready to im their positions back by any means necessary, with violence as the priority means of a solution given Portia''s demeanor.

    "Ermm, councilwoman, the council is now in session. Would you like me to prepare a seat for you?" an aide asked after gulping.

    "Sure, sure, but lead me to the council chambers first. I''ve forgotten the way after being gone for so long." Portia patted the fellow on the shoulder with a genial smile, while the aide in question felt like his shoulder was about to st off into the sunset.

    Geez, how strong is this woman?

    He reluctantly led the group rapidly through the halls, using Portia''s position as a councilwoman to pass through many checkpoints until they appeared outside a set of double doors that led to the council chambers.

    Naturally, when the council was in session, it was sealed off from the outside, and people were to use a different entrance toe in and present their cases if necessary.

    As such, when Portia requested to be brought to the main door, the aide was puzzled but obeyed. When he noticed Portia standing before the door and sizing it up, he was about to inform her that she could not use that door and that he could lead her to the special entrance for council members when his words were caught in his throat as if someone had squeezed his neck.

    After all, Portia raised a dainty leg and smashed the entire door in, sending it flying like a missile into the other side of the council chamber as she casually walked into the room even with the rms ring.

    "Motherfuckers of the Prime Human Council, your Grand Ancestress Portia is back!"

 Chapter 256 Storming The Council 2

    Chapter 256 Storming The Council 2

    Even as the rms red and various defenses came to life to deal with the intruder, the fellows on the Prime Human Council were not scared nor worried. Rather, they turned to nce at the intruder with fury and disdain.

    "INSOLENT!"

    "ABSOLUTELY ATROCIOUS!"

    "WHO? WHO DARES?!"

    They roared out majestically, aiming to use this chance to establish their demeanors and aura because even though council meetings were done in a quiet chamber, they were still recorded for public reasons.

    If the public saw them not even fazed by an attack and even dared to berate the attacker, their status would rise in those hearts.

    Meanwhile, they also felt truly angry. Recently, the prestige of the Prime Human Council had been falling, and people had been getting away with doing whatever they wanted without their permission.

    First, almost 50 years ago, that damned Lara Sanguis had graduated from the Eternal Academy and quickly risen in power after entering the First Gate, enough that she strong-armed them into bing the headmistress from then till now.

    Secondly, 20 years ago, one of their own councilwomen and a very powerful fighter for their universe in the Universe Battlefield was ambushed and murdered because of petty n and business politics.

    And more recently, a new brat had appeared with great talent, looking like he would be another powerhouse for them, so they nned to drag him here and force him to sign some agreements to limit and control him, but he always found a way to brush it off without making it illegal.

    They were the Prime Human Council, ah!

    Back then, aliens used their name to scare their children into behaving, telling them that they would be sent to the Prime Human Council for a hearing if they misbehaved, and such children would burst into tears!

    Now, any random cat and dog could harm their interests anyhow! Even the Portinari n, after undergoing that tragedy, was slowly being bullied by the otherpeting ns and factions in a subtle manner, slowly removing them from the center of power and information.

    And look, someone even dared to kick their door in and speak such rude words!

    The Prime Human Council could not tolerate this kind of rubbish anymore!

    Just as well, this personing here and doing this was fine. The Prime Human Council could use the intruders to reestablish their prestige in the hearts of themoners by washing the universe with their and their families'' filthy blood!

    Thinking such vicious thoughts, many felt extremely dominant and cold inside, looking over with a death sentence in their eyes. Just as they were about to order the cyborgs to capture them so that they could slowly torture them brutally for the entire universe to see, their pupils constricted greatly.

    What did they see? A fucking ghost, that was what!

    How else could one exin that a woman who had cowed a whole segment of the universe into submission hade back to life and was standing before them, an arrogant and yful smile on her face despite being surrounded by enemies?

    Portia scanned the room and seemed to see many familiar faces, which made her expression even more vibrant.

    "Hah, it''s good to see that even after my death, all of you fellows managed to survive this long and retain your power. That''s great, that''s great." Portia chuckled as she stepped forward and walked towards the stage.

    "For those who are new and don''t know me, I will give a short introduction. I am the name that the older members of this council warned you about, the one that they fear the most."

    Portia stood atop the stage and became the center of attention for everyone as she folded her arms behind her back and coldly scanned everyone.

    "I am Portia Portinari, The Nightmare of the Eternal. Of course, that title was given to me by our foes from other universes due to my achievements on the Universe Battlefield."

    Portia''s demeanor changed and became more amiable suddenly as she smiled with amusement. "Locally, I am more well-known as the wife of n master Augeus Portinari and a member of this council."

    Augeus walked over with a smile and stood beside Portia, bowing majestically to the crowd. Seeing his familiar face, those who were skeptical and thought that this must be a trick were now uncertain and fearful.

    "Impossible!"

    A voice sounded out from the seats of the council representatives, causing all eyes to turn that way. Immediately, all attention fell on an old woman who had plenty of wrinkles and looked like she was one step into the grave.

    "Harrumph, don''t think you cane and y tricks here, you fraud. The real Portia Portinari was confirmed dead years ago, and I even inspected her corpse!" the old woman stated coldly as she nced down at Portia without fear.

    Portia saw her, and her eyes flickered. "Of course it would be you, old hag Dragon Witch!"

    Hearing her old nickname, the old woman was stunned for a second as reminiscence entered her eyes, and she couldn''t help but pause. After all, the way Portia said it was too natural and felt like old times.

    "Eternal Nightmare Portia? Is it really you?" The old woman asked with uncertainty in her voice.

    "As real as ever, Ao Zilong!" Portia replied full of heart and confidence.

    That''s right, the old woman was one of the 12 people who had been in the First Gate headquarters while inquiring about Dante, the current second most powerful in the universe after Lara and previously the third most powerful when Portia was alive!

    She was the current ancestress of the Ao n, the second most powerful n after the Portinari family among the Ten Great Pure Human ns! She was popr in the universe for her main superpower was Dragon Transformation, an SS rank superpower that did exactly as it said.

    It was publicly stated to be at the B rank in terms of potency, but given that 20 years had passed since then, she might have risen to the A or even S rank. However, that did not matter now as Portia was back and exponentially more powerful than before.

    "I don''t believe it! How can someone who was dead juste back to life?" A loud voice bellowed with refusal to admit the facts.

    This caused the center of attention to shift once more. This time, it fell on a bald-headed man with a thick mustache on his face and a burly body. Looking at his familiar features, wasn''t this Julon of the same group from before?

    "Shut up, Fierce Ogre! When I used to beat you until you cried back in the day, did you ever dare to speak to me like this?" Portia roared right back, causing Julon''s fierce momentum to disappear as he cowered, his past traumaing out.

    However, he soon became dazed as he realized that this feeling of familiarity couldn''t be fake. Like Ao Zilong, he began to believe that Portia had trulye back to life.

    "How then? How did you do it?" a soft yet majestic voice asked in the silence.

    This time, the person who spoke was Ophelia, the red-headed young woman of the same group with phoenix-like eyes. She had tied her hair up in an oriental style with the hairpin and the ornaments and everything, despite being noticeablyCaucasian.

    Portia scanned her up and down with a raised eyebrow. "Well, I don''t know you, youngdy."

    Ophelia did not seem insulted by Portia''sck of etiquette and rather stood up and bowed respectfully. "Sorry for not introducing myself; I am Ophelia Seers, the current Acting Head of the Seers family."

    Portia''s eyes flickered deeply. "Hmph, old Eunice has given up her power to you, then you must truly be remarkable."

    Ophelia''s eyes curled up slightly. "Thank you for the praise, but I am nothing muchpared to my grandmother."

    "Hmph, if I say you are exceptional, then you are exceptional. How dare you refute me?" Portia snorted coldly.

    Ophelia was left speechless at that.

    "And to answer your question, there are many means in the universe to achieve resurrection. However, the kind I underwent is not avable to the public, and I will not be revealing it," Portia said coldly.

    Many flickering eyes in the crowd who were thinking about how to strongarm this woman into revealing and sharing her resurrection method fell. After all, who wanted to die? Who didn''t have loved ones they were not willing to let go of?

    Portia had been dead 20 years but was now alive and kicking before them, and some had rtives that had passed for even shorter periods than that. If they could grasp the methods of resurrectionˇ­

    Greed began to surge in many hearts.

    "Anyway, you people seem to have the wrong idea. I did note here today to catch up with old ''friends'' nor exin how I am alive to any of you, nor do I even need your eptance with my level of strength." Portia suddenly said as her entire aura became cold.

    "I came here to ask you questions and demand answers from you all, and if they satisfy me, I will only inflict minimal punishments. If I am not satisfied, there will be more than hell to pay for those who have affronted me and my loved ones." Portia concluded as she released 1% of her aura, which was enough to cause everyone to fall on the ground.

    Only Augeus, Beatrice, and Dante were exempted, but they could sense that there was a primordial beast near them, which made them feel restless. Dante especially realized that even 1% of the current Portia had surpassed the void monster that almost traumatized him.

    Even Ao Zilong was suffering great pressure, though she began to shift into her half-dragon form, which barely allowed her to remain seated underneath the pressure, but only enough to save face. The others who had exemry power also revealed their powers to remain seated, but they only ounted for about 29 people.

    The Prime Human Council was made up of about 120 people, all of them pure humans of great renown and power across the universe. Either they represented top ns and factions or had great personal power themselves.

    Most were just barely around 30-70 points in SDI and could not withstand the pressure at all as they were nted face first into the ground. Even the rms shut down as they crackled sharply before they were destroyed, the protective cyborgs around crushed into tin metal as if someone had used The Force to squish them.

    Honestly, the people were only alive under her pressure because Portia had frightening control over her power after fighting in the Universe Battlefield for years and that she did not want to kill themˇ­ yet.

    "Portia, what are you trying to do?" Ao Zilong questioned with gritted teeth, ring at the woman angrily.

    "Nothing much really, just trying to establish my dominance using you fellows as stepping stones as well as seeking justice for my darling nephew." Portia replied nonchntly, making everyone almost spit blood.

    We all obviously know that''s what you''re trying to do, but must you state it so openly and obviously?!

    Ao Zilong felt like the wind had been sapped from her sails and did not even know how to continue. Luckily, someone picked up the pace for her as Dante walked over to stand with Portia with Beatrice by his side.

    Seeing the young man, many pupils constricted again. After all, while others may only know Dante by the name and not the face, these fellows definitely knew as his picture and even videos of him had been yed in the council while they had their debates about what to do with him.

    Looking at him here, some had confused reactions as they knew that he was summoned by was a no show, and that was as far as they went with him. Some had slightly guilty expressions as they had mored the loudest for him to be dragged here due to their little schemes in order to pressure him to sign contracts.

    Others had more guilty expressions as they even went one step further and had secretly assisted in the smear campaign against him, fearing his influence on their interests in the Zero Gate.

    While 7 distinct individuals, all who happened to be part of the true upper echelon in the First Gate, had their entire bodies be ice-cold as they finally understood the cause and effect for everything.

 Chapter 257 Storming The Council 3

    Chapter 257 Storming The Council 3

    Portia''s eyes narrowed, because how could the reactions of the seven escape her when everyone was subdued under her pressure? She also saw the expressions of the others and basically gauged who was guilty and who was not.

    The rest were small fries who Dante could revenge on himself using his own preferred means. Portia would not go as far as to chase them down for their petty schemes, but she definitely could not allow the attempted murder to go unpunished.

    "Just as I thought, it''s you lot. The so-called Supreme Council of the Eternal Universe in the First Gate," Portia sneered as she focused on the seven.

    To this, the faces of everyone became nk because they did not understand what was going on? What is a Supreme Council? What is a First Gate? They knew of a Zero Gate, but since when was there anything like a First Gate.

    Looking at the puzzlement of the other councilors, minus those who were added to the Prime Human Council for their strength - amounting to about 40 fellows at most - they were clearly utterly clueless.

    This observation shocked Dante greatly and made him pensive. If it was like what he thought, then his heart became cold because he realized that the waters of how the Eternal universe flowed were far deeper than he initially thought.

    In fact, even the seven were shocked by Portia''s slight reveal, and Juliano - the arrogant handsome young man - shouted out, "Eternal Nightmare, stop! What do you think you''re doing?"

    Portia nced at him askance, and that look alone was enough to make him wheeze in pain and close his eyes.

    "Hmm, another one I do not recognize. Must be another newbie," she muttered to herself.

    "Anyway, it doesn''t matter. This is your first punishment for crossing my family; I''m going to reveal your little secrets and plots to the entire universe. Let''s see how you deal with that," Portia announced coldly before turning to the rest.

    Sheughed at them with mockery. "Hahaha, what a cute Prime Human Council. You guys are the nominal rulers of the universe and decide on all matters affecting the universe, right?"

    "Well, let me tell you, some of your seats here are not even worth some of the other seats. You may be on this council, but without a superpower or great martial prowess, you will never be a true member of the ruling ss."

    The 50 or so fellows with superpowers and extraordinary power who were part of the Eternal Universe''s roster for the First Gate seemed to lower their heads slightly, while the remaining 63 people were slowly bing more and more aware of what Portia was trying to say.

    "You fight over the Zero Gate and think it''s the be-all and end-all, but it''s merely a training ground prepared for each universe to harvest resources to train fighters. The real power exists in the main warzone, a ce called the Battlefield of Universes."

    "There are millions of universes like our own out there in the near endless expanse of the void, but not everyone deserves to live and consume resources, so whoever created everything decided to set down a ce for us to meet and fight for supremacy and the right to live."

    "To get there, you must pass through the First Gate, which is essentially the same as the Zero Gate, but you need to satisfy one of two criteria."

    "Either your superpower grade reaches C and above, or your SDI reaches a minimum of 1000 points on average."

    Portia jerked a finger towards the calm Dante. "My son-inw satisfied both criteria, and everyone knew this from that school''s headmistress to those on this so-called Supreme Council, yet he did not even up to the moment he entered the Zero Gate."

    Suddenly, the clueless ones had some understanding as they red at those other people who were on the council with hatred.

    So it''s because of you assholes and your scheming that we''re being pressed to the ground in humiliation in front of nearly the entire universe?

    As for those who knew about the First Gate, they first felt ashamed, then confused. While they knew about the supreme council because they aspired to be on it, they had never known about any information ckout towards Dante.

    They had been even looking forward to having a powerful ally on the other side, because it would increase their collective benefits and survival chances. Why on earth would anyone want to sabotage something like that?

    Seeing the confusion on the faces of the powerhouses, everyone realized that they were innocent of this matter, and they only had to look at the faces of the seven, which were terrible at this moment, as if trying to withstand a volcano, to know who was guilty.

    Right now, the seven of them werepletely depressed because Portia had cruelly increased the pressure on them, such that they couldn''t even speak up to defend themselves or use words to sway the masses and trick them.

    They also could not threaten her with certain things to shut her up, but could only sit and watch by the side like a certain type of man who liked to ''watch.''

    As such, when the me-carrying eyes fell on them, they had to face a different problem, the pressure of a ruined reputation and possible explosive political fallout. In such a situation, having strong superpowers meant nothing because only Lara and Portia could ignore all things in the universe and be carefree.

    Beatrice too, to arge extent.

    Dante as well, but no one needed to know that.

    If any of these 7 were hit with dark matter or even anti-matter, they wouldn''t be like Portia, who was strong enough to survive for a few days and even terminate her life functions while preserving her corpse.

    As for the likes of them, they would literally disintegrate on the spot. Hm, maybe even going as far as anti-matter for overkill; a cleverly timed nuclear shot would be enough.

    "The Universe Battlefield is a deadly ce, and it''s where I got my nickname of ''Nightmare of Eternal,'' because to thebatants of the other universes, I was a nightmare, and I was from the Eternal Universe," Portia spoke calmly, facing the others, who she released from her pressure.

    They were confused but stood up and sat down quietly, deciding to listen to all this powerful woman had to say, both for their own good and to understand what was truly going on.

    "Everyone who knows my name also knows mybination of superpowers. Gluttony allows me to eat and store energy in great amounts, allowing me to eat anything that contains energy. It doesn''t have to be typical food."

    "Devour allows me to turn all the energy I digest into power for my body, raising my SDI. Devour works in tandem with Gluttony, but I was not born with it, I acquired Gluttony from the First Gate to enhance myself."

    "I was only born with my Regeneration superpower that allows me to heal from any damage as long as there is energy in my body. I acquired Devour by luck from the Zero Gate when I was a student."

    Portia flexed her arm, and to the shock of everyone, space literally cracked and broke before them. "Working with these three powers over time, I slowly raised my SDI till it became monstrous, beyond what any of you could imagine. Bionics and Psionics of this era could notenhance me, for I had far surpassed them."

    "With my great power, I fought in the First gate for us and captured over 15 territories, and spread our reputation within a small area, giving us the foothold we have today. Otherwise, forget there being a Supreme Council, we might be struggling to maintain our base with just their abilities," Portia stated bluntly as she forked a finger over to the seven, whose eyes darkened as they knew this was the truth.

    "Of course, the headmistress has also done her part and is a strong stabilizing force. However, what progress have these guys made since I died? Nothing, I bet, and instead of sharing the knowledge of the First Gate with the whole universe so that everyone can prepare, they had sealed it off for only those they want to know!"

    "And I am telling you all this because I want you to understand that the First Gate is no game. Only Lara and I can rtively easily walk up and down there. I may mock them, but these seven are truly strong, even for a cross-universal standard, but they cannot even guarantee their lives," Portia''s tone changed and became grave.

    Hearing a woman who literally cracked the fabric of space with her raw body''s power say this, it was clear as day to those who didn''t know how dangerous the First Gate was, and those who already did know nodded withplicated expressions, reminiscing about their brushes with death.

    "And yet, these tossed my son-inw in there without any information. Given the kind of danger I have spoken about, what do you think their intention for him was?" Portia asked coldly.

    Murder!

    Killing with a borrowed knife!

    The other council members were shocked, even those who fought in the First Gate. After all, one side considered Dante to be a good tool to use and bully at first, while the other were secretly looking forward to standing behind him while he charged forward since he was stronger.

    Their intentions were not pure, but they were nowhere near as cruel. In fact, they were behaving like typical humans, looking out for their own self-interest at the expense of others.

    But trying to kill Dante was foolish; that was like killing a golden goose!

    Whether out of morality or sheermon sense, no one does that!

    The Seven, who underwent a new round of dirty looks and mental scolding, were thoroughly depressed. Luckily, Portia seemed to be done and released her second level of pressure on them, allowing them to speak.

    "You, the girl with the sexy eyes, you can speak for them. Exin to me and the rest of the universe your secret council''s esteemed thought process," Portia prompted, leaving Ophelia speechless at being called ''sexy eyes''.

    It was not her fault that despite having a Caucasian lineage and a general physique, she had one of the best Asian eye shapes for females. It often made people misunderstand her as a sensual and yful woman when she was just trying to see, goddammit!

    However, she coughed and stood up. "Right, now that everyone knows about the First Gate and the Universe Battlefield, I will state our current situation on the other side as well as the intentions of the Supreme Council."

    She nced at Portia and saw that the woman was not stopping her and decided to forge ahead as best as she could.

    "Firstly, as Madam Portia said, the First Gate''s danger is extremely great, but it has gotten pretty good in thest 20 years. The reputation and suppression both Miss Portia and Miss Lara built up for us have yet to fade."

    "As such, I have good news in the fact that none of the territories that both parties captured for us have been reimed. In fact, we are actively developing them and have built multiple forward bases as well as outposts on them using our best technology, equipping them with thetest in anti-matter weapons, as such weapons still pose a threat tobatants whoe to the battlefield."

    Before Ophelia could continue, Portia rudely interrupted. "Huh? You only maintained them? What is that Lara woman doing? Why didn''t she conquer any more? She must have gotten stronger in this time after ruling the academy for so long."

    Ophelia''s expression became difficult, and the eyes of the other 6 flickered with deep meaning. Portia saw this, and her eyes narrowed, realizing that things were not as sweet as she thought with this Supreme Council.

    Clearly, as she herself had said earlier, some seats did not have the same value or importance as other seats. This seemed to ring true for more than just the Prime Human Council.

 Chapter 258 Storming The Council 4

    Chapter 258 Storming The Council 4

    "The Supreme Council that Madam Portia revealed was established only 50 years ago, in response to the increasing number ofbatants qualified to enter the First Gate. Some semnce of leadership was needed, and rather than putting it in the hands of one, we decided to opt for a council system simr to this very one."

    "It was also necessary to filter the membership to those who actually had significant achievements as well as the power to be a bastion in times of need. Some of you here probably feel indignant about being left out of the loop of such a power circle, but what''s the point of adding you if you''re not even qualified to enter?"

    Ophelia''s blunt words made the faces of those who were listening extremely ugly. Meanwhile, Portia surprisingly nodded her head in agreement because she felt the same way. Without entering the First Gate and seeing the true scope of the power of other universes as well as their tactics, you could never truly understand.

    How could one allow a person who not only did not understand but had no clue make executive and final decisions affecting many?

    "We did invite powerhouses like Madam Portia to the council, but she rejected because - in her words - she was a frontliner, not an armchair general." Ophelia nced at the older generation members who were there before her and felt sorry for them.

    All she was saying now were things she had read up from the council''s history and archives, but they had been there when Portia metaphorically spat in their faces without mercy. That must not have felt good.

    Portia herself puffed out her chest with pride, looking satisfied by her own words and actions. Mini Portia- *cough* Beatrice also puffed out her chest in pride of her unyielding and domineering mom.

    Seeing the two who could be taken as near-identical sisters like this, one couldn''t help but feel amused. Ophelia paused for a bit before clearing her throat and continuing slowly.

    "The council is actually made up of 12 individuals."

    "The Chairwoman, Lara Sanguis, Headmistress of the Eternal Academy."

    "The 1st Vice Chairwoman, Ao Zilong, Ancestress of the Ao n."

    "The 2nd Vice Chairwoman, Ophelia Seers, Head of the Seers Family."

    "The Battle Master Julon Terrier, member of the Terrier Family."

    "The Intelligence Chief Juliano Borgia, member of the Borgia family."

    "The Military Advisor Eustace Holt, 1st Admiral of the Prime Human Fleet."

    "The Base Specialist Olov Krutz, Chairman of the True Russian Blood group."

    "The 1st Organizer Cathly Mereew, Vice-Leader of the Gctic Feline group."

    "The 2nd Organizer nchette Boo, the Owner of the Spirit Group."

    "The 3rd Organizer Bastian Leo, Ex-headmaster of the Eternal Academy."

    "The Quantum nner Kurtaghagt Venrieere, CEO and Majority shareholder of the Etraverse Corporation."

    "The Adjudicator Xalindra Nobleese, Head of the Supreme Lords faction."

    Before Ophelia could continue, there was a great uproar in the council chamber. Much to what she expected, the fellows here were not that furious about being left out, but hearing that there were mixed breeds and even two aliens on the Supreme Council, their fury and killing intent were palpable.

    Ophelia was depressed because this was why Juliano and the rest did not want Portia to reveal the existence of the Supreme Council. News about the First Gate and the difficulties there they did not honestly care about.

    They mostly kept that to themselves to prevent themoners of the universe from panicking, but if they knew, so be it. What they feared was the rage of their fellow pure humans for allowing non-pure humans into a council that decided the fate of the entire universe.

    Didn''t that mean that those fellows had more authority than them from a different perspective? So while they sat here every other day makingws and deciding the fate of the internal running of the universe, there were non-humans also deciding their general/collective fate out there?

    Many clutched their chests as they fell extremely ill, as if they would vomit out their organs and blood in anger.

    As for Ophelia, she understood and sympathized with them. Whether it was any of them, the seven pure humans, they did not want any such people among them, especially since those fellows liked to cause troubles in meetings.

    However, the biggest problem was that they had no choice. These people had real power and were part of their registered candidates for the First Gate. It was either rope them in and let them have some semnce of authority to tie them down with responsibility or let them free roam and do as they pleased without caring about anyone''s opinion.

    The council made the right choice at the time, but it would be hard to exin this openly. So right now, they could only have ugly expressions as they were questioned and berated loudly by their peers on this council.

    The worst part was that they couldn''t afford to ignore their anger. They were not invincible like Portia, who could make other universes fear her name and called her nightmare 20 years ago, much less now.

    These people represented factions and cogs of universal society that formed the pir of the power structure, so even if one or two could be offended, it would be fine, but definitely not all of them at once.

    "Enough!" Portia spoke forcefully, causing the entire ce to be silent.

    She then turned to Ophelia with a hint of impatience. "The history lesson is over, now exin why you decided to harm my son-inw."

    Ophelia nodded. "Actually, the idea was first proposed by Xalindra, and she received great support from the other non-pure human council members. The idea was to create an information ckout to force Dante into bing one of our registered fighters since we strongly suspected he was not of this universe."

    All eyes fell on Dante for a bit, who did not break his calm smile. He made no indication as to whether this was true or not, but now, with his current backing and being a registered fighter of this universe, that actually did not matter anymore.

    "Initially, Dante should have been teleported to one of our bases and then slowly tricked into signing up for our universes through the ck Spire, but we found, to our shock, that he was sent somewhere else altogether," Ophelia exined with an ugly expression.

    The other six were also aggrieved. This wasn''t worth it at all; all they wanted to do was a little deception to get Dante on their side. If he was a native of this universe, then registering was a matter of course. If he was a spy, his true colors would be revealed.

    How could they possibly know what would have happened?

    "Instead, he was sent to the Wastnd of Death, the most difficult region of the Universe Battlefield. When we received a report that he had arrived there, we actually estimated that he only had a less than 0.01% chance of survival."

    Ophelia nced at Dante with aplicated expression. "It is... good... to see that he is back safely."

    Dante was amused. It was good because with him back, they now had a powerful fighter on their side, but it was bad becausewhen he came back, their deception was made public and led to this current situation.

    They must be having some seriously bittersweet feelings about this.

    "Interesting. So it''s all not your fault, just reasonable actions you took given the circumstances to protect our universe that malfunctioned through means not of your own doing?" Portia asked them as she folded her arms with a smirk.

    Seeing her smile, Ophelia was greatly chilled and knew that if she dared to admit that, the seven of them would die today, consequences be damned. She immediately shook her head and bowed.

    "As the 2nd Vice Chairman and the current spokesperson of the council at this instant, I propose three things in order to show the council''s sincere apology and regret toward its harsh treatment of Dante." Ophelia hurriedly added, ncing at the others who nodded subtly.

    They had also felt the chill and knew that they must be united at this moment to preserve their lives, and any cost was fine as long as they could weather this storm.

    "Firstly, we would like to offer Dante a seat on the Prime Human Council as well as the Supreme Council, with a title of his choice and obligations as well as some powers designated by himself."

    "Secondly, we would like to offer Dante and his n full autonomy from the jurisdiction of all powers at and below this council."

    "Thirdly, we would like to offer him a position within the universe to solidify his affiliation with us, in which he could partake in our culture and expand further."

    Portia did not say anything, surprisingly turning to Dante and nodding to him. After all, she was just the ''macho man'' here to look tough and beat up those who dared to disagree with him, but it was up to him to decide how he wanted to resolve things.

    Dante smiled thankfully at his mother-inw for giving him this respect and stepped forth confidently. He nced through the crowd slowly, keeping everyone''s faces in his memory andparing them with his database of important persons in his AI Chip.

    He assessed those who he could afford to offend right now and those he could not, as well as those who could help bring his overall n to life and those who could stop him dead in the water.

    "I thank Councilwoman Ophelia for the offer. For the first term, I ept. I will be ced on this Prime Human Council in the capacity as the seat of the Quantum Supremacy Group, a faction I n to establish soon."

    "As for the Supreme Council, I shall be simply titled the Quantum Lord, and you can count on me to make sure that things get done. After all, we''re all tied to the same boat, so I can only work hard."

    Dante smiled slightly. "As for the autonomy, I refuse. There is no one in the universe above thew, and I don''t want such a burden. When my fists are strong enough, thew will naturally bend to me."

    "Rather, I would change the second term to be a granted military position that would allow me to build my own private force of troops and armada openly in the universe. This is for the purpose of the First Gate, of course, so don''t worry."

    "As for the third offer, I naturally ept. As for the affiliated position, it shall be granted to my budding faction called the Quantum Supremacy Group. It is a mercantile establishment with a sole proprietor and employee in the form of myself, taking advantage of the special ability of my new superpower."

    Dante''s eyes narrowed. "That''s right, thanks to my luck and the kindness of the Supreme Council, upon entering the First Gate I managed to score myself some meager Spire Points and bought a random superpower."

    "This new superpower allows me to sacrifice a part of my lifespan and energy to duplicate most items in the universe and even transport items to and from quantum worlds. This will be the main aspect of the business, and you can consider my revtion of this its initial advertisement."

    Dante was pleased by the bloodshot eyes and the endless greed in the eyes of onlookers, as they would likely do anything to lick his boots in order to get what they wanted.

    But Dante was not done.

    "In order for my business to work, I need the ability to host and create Quantum Worlds, so I request the Supreme Council very kindly to consider convincing the Quantum nner Kurtaghagt Venrieere to release the technology to me under contract that I will not share it with any other soul."

    Immediately, the faces of the seven changed as they were shocked by Dante''s boldness and his limitless greed as well as ambition.

 Chapter 259 New Goals

    Chapter 259 New Goals

    Here is the revised text with corrected spelling errors:

    Initially, Dante''s n before entering the Zero Gate had been to acquire all the fruits and then replicate them before privately negotiating with the head of the Etraversepany for the technology behind their quantum worlds.

    Unfortunately, this technology was patented andpletely unavable on the market or in any database that Dante could ess as they had a full monopoly over it that was recognized by the Prime Human Council.

    Aftering back from the First Gate, he nned to open his own corporation first and then rise to one of the top factions through his abilities and what he could provide, then use his built-up influence to battle it out with the Etraverse Corporation until he swallowed them.

    However, his mother-inw was more direct and domineering, directly providing him a tform to seek what he wanted without paying any price. That was why he readily epted the terms the Supreme Council set and did not show any anger or dissatisfaction by berating them.

    Dante was willing to be honest and say that if they could really grant him this, he would wipe off around 60% of their grudge and only beat them up a little in the future. If not, it should be obvious what their fate would be for almost killing him.

    "Thisˇ­" Ophelia hesitated and nced at the others. They also had troubled expressions because it would be easy to use thew to twist the arm of the Etraverse corporation, but the person heading it was a true powerhouse who knew too many secrets.

    If he was furious and rebelled, decided to betray the universe, it would deal them a serious blow.

    "Are you people stupid? Putting aside the fact that one of the main pirs of our society is run by an alien, you are worried about his reaction when I can easily make up for a hundred of him?" Portia stated with dissatisfaction.

    Immediately, the seven woke up from the considerations.

    Yes, that was right, we had a nuclear warhead in our hands, why would we be afraid of a country that only had foot soldiers at best? If anything, they should obediently hand over their sovereignty if they wanted to live.

    Ophelia''s eyes shed. "We agree to your terms."

    This sealed the deal as Portia fully retracted her aura, and everyone finally felt like they could breathe. The other members of the Prime Human Council were pensive because they could feel a social upheavaling on with Portiaing back and Dante''s rise, as well as the existence of the First Gate.

    Incidentally, whether it was Portia or the Supreme Council, they never actually talked in detail about the ck Spire and its benefits. They did not even mention that the First Gate had thicker Zero Energy for superpowers than any ck Land.

    After all, some things were better left as a secret because the chaos they would cause would be too much.

    Since they were done, Portia calmly strutted out while Beatrice continued to mimic her like a groupie. Dante and Augeus shared a look and decided to remain to handle the aftermath and try to soothe various issues.

    Eventually, they all met up in the dreadnought a few hourster and returned to the Portinari n''s main hall. Seeing the other nes ands belonging to the Portinari n that were operating as usual, Dante was amused.

    They werepletely ignorant of the upheaval that had urred at the seat of the universe''s power and how greatly things would change for this n now that their main backer was back in action and even more powerful than before.

    Anyway, he now had other things to focus on, so he drew up his previous goals listed to see those which he aplished and those which still needed work from him.

    [Previous goals list:

    1. Conquer the Zero Gate in his home universe and monopolize itpletely, not even giving any other species - including his own - a chance. (COMPLETE)

    2. Spelunk in the Zero Gate of the Eternal Universe, which has been developed and researched, using it to understand the rules andyout of all Zero Gates. (PARTIAL SUCCESS)

    3. Slowly expand the technological capacity of humanity. (PARTIAL SUCCESS)

    4. Increase the grade of Quantum Entanglement and unlock new powers. (PARTIAL SUCCESS)

    5. Grant his parents and loved ones enhanced gics, Bionics, Psionics, and AI chips. (COMPLETE)

    6. Have a child with Beatrice. (COMPLETE)

    7. Resurrect Beatrice''s mother. (COMPLETE)

    8. Conquer all alien races of the home universe. (PARTIAL SUCCESS)

    9. Enter the upper echelons of the Eternal universe and discover advanced secrets. (SUCCESS)

    10. Conquer the Eternal Universe. (NOT COMPLETED)

    11. Find the high-dimensional being that saved him and find out why. (PARTIAL SUCCESS?)

    12. tten that damned academy and piss on the debris. (NOT COMPLETED)

    13. Acquire new power systems. (COMPLETED)

    14. Master his current power systems. (NOT COMPLETED).

    15. y around with this ''God of Technology'' and system-granting idea. (NOT COMPLETED).]

    There was nothing more important to a man than being able to achieve his goals in life. A man was a goal and sess-oriented being that thrived off hard work and aplishments, which was why so many modern men were depressed because it was impossible to realistically achieve most goals men consider important.

    For Dante, seeing the many pleted'' gave him a surge of joy and dopamine. The ''partial sess'' made him frown a little, but it was more of an "in-progress" thing in which he hadpleted a part.

    As for the ''notpleted,'' it ruined his mood and left him dissatisfied. He looked at the current list and then thought about what he had to do in the future before restructuring it by removing some and adding new ones.

    The new list was as follows:

    1. Secure the Wastnd of Death in the First Gate as his base. (Highest Priority)

    2. Reach the S rank and beyond with Quantum Entanglement. (Highest Priority)

    3. Officially marry Beatrice and have a grand wedding. (High priority)

    4. Rece all of his created tech in the home universe with his own personal creations. (High priority)

    5. Make sure to monitor the home universe''s Zero Gate and prevent anyone from essing the First Gate to prevent activating its battlefield. (High priority)

    6. Acquire the technology from the Etraverse Corporation and match with Quantum Core to create useful quantum worlds with personalized power systems. (High priority)

    7. Utilize his Nanite Resonance and Quantum Core to raise protagonists and soldiers in his private army. (Medium priority)

    8. Fully conquer the totality of the home universe and began preparing it for the First Gate through extensive education and training. (Medium priority)

    9. Communicate more with the Cosmic Tree and try to find out more about higher dimensions. (Medium priority)

    10. Try to contact other universes through the First gate and acquire ess to their realms. (Medium priority)

    11. Deal with the Eternal Academy and especially Lara Sanguis. (Low priority)

    12. Perfect the Raging Blood Halberd Technique, the Primal Ape Technique, the Inferno Ascension Technique and the Void Speaker Chant. (Low priority)

    Looking at it, Dante was happy because it was more condensed and organized. Hopefully, this time, he could achieve everything by the time his child was able to give him grandchildren of his own.

    Dante decided to get on with some of the tasks right now. His Quantum Clone had been re-summoned by him and was recreated on the spot. It gained his new stats and abilities, but did not gain his two new superpowers, much to Dante''s surprise and disappointment.

    That significantly impacted his ns, but he decided not to make too much of a big deal about it. He left the clone here to handle things in his stead, especially with the establishment of hispany and force.

    As for his main body, he naturally returned to the home universe''s central base on earth. ncing at it, his expression couldn''t help but darken when he thought of the fact that there were backdoors and loopholes in everything.

    Then again, that was exactly why he hade back, no?

    Thinking like this, Dante entered the core of his base, where the AI''s were. He then ordered them to shut down for maintenance, something which they fullyplied with as the backdoors that the Eternal Universe had left in the fundamental code were of the spyware type.

    They did not use the malware type or the takeover type, where they could forcefully take over hismand because what if Dante discovered it? He was also not their enemy at the time, so they only wanted to know his secrets.

    It was actually easy to eliminate, but Dante had trust issues now. He would rather rebuild everything from scratch than continue to use what others had ''spread their seed'' all over; he began from here.

    Using Nanite Resonance, the entire base surged with activity as the nanites that formed the building blocks of it began to restructure and reshape themselves, while the parts that were not made up of it were immediately covered by them and broken down before being rebuilt exactly as it had been.

    The difference was that now, Dante was sure that it was done using his own hands and was free of any external influence. With his Nanite Resonance at the EX rank, he could easily cover the entire and had the bases of earth undergo the same thing.

    Even humans with gic enhancements and nanites who had no backdoors built into them were restructured, but they hardly even noticed it with Dante''s current control.

    It took Dante all but an hour to get it done before he used his space magic to enter outer space with his raw body and then do the same for the orbital station in around earth and all the bases in the sr system.

    An entire day had passed, and Dante had to stop because he realized how futile his thoughts were. With how much his mechanical army had been conquering, if he were to dedicate time to rebuilding everything, he would need hundreds of years.

    Dante realized that indeed, he needed a fully software-rted power to clear this issue because it was mostly a software one anyway. As long as he could use a method to scour the entirework that he controlled and clean it up, the problem would be good as done.

    However, Dante was unwilling to give even one vial of Nirvana Fire of a Phoenix to the ck Spire. One or two could be exined, but having three or more made it seem like he had a constant source, which could alert the entity behind the ck Spire.

    Currently, Dante only had the qualifications to protect his life in the First Gate if he went all out. He was far from casually waving a hand and making everyone bow like in the normal universe.

    He would get there, but he needed more powers. Thinking like this, Dante considered his current powers and those he had nned to get and realized the importance of the Etraverse''s technology to him.

    As such, he could only let his AIe back online and continue their basic directives universe-wide before returning to the Eternal Universe. He only just returned to the observation deck of The Inferno when Beatrice contacted him.

    "Hey handsome, are you busy?" She yfully solicited him.

    Dante smiled. "Not for my babe. What''s up?"

    "You told me you could let us enter Quantum Worlds now as long as we stay near the marker, right? Well, I told mom about it and she had a great idea. Come and pick us up from the house." Beatrice said with a hint of excitement.

    "Oh? On my way!" Dante said with surprise.

    Knowing Beatrice and her tone, the two of them should have found a way to grant him even more power or something that would allow him to achieve his goals. As such, he did not waste even a second and left The Inferno, appearing in the European-style manor of the Portinari n''s main family.

 Chapter 260 Anime World

    Chapter 260 Anime World

    When Dante appeared in the living room, he found Portia and Beatrice standing together while they chatted about something in a lively manner. When they saw him appear, Portia smiled while Beatrice''s eyes lit up with joy.

    Dante smiled and walked forward briskly to hug his beautiful and perfect Beatrice tightly, basking in her warmth. Ever since she had gotten confirmation of her pregnancy, she stopped wearing her skin-tight polymer uniform and began dressing more like Portia, in a very casual and conservative manner.

    While this meant that her extremely voluptuous body was no longer outlined for the eye to feast on, it also added a homely and stable charm to her that soothed his soul. Currently, she wore a ck turtleneck sweater under a dark blue jacket, knee-length bloated skirt over a full lower body ck stocking that was fully opaque and revealed not even an inch of skin, as well as a pair of ck shoes.

    You could barely make out the fact that she was sexy thanks to her breasts pushing against the sweater, but even that was subdued. As such, it forced you to concentrate on her face more than her body, but that alone was enough to make you kneel and sing praises to the lord for blessing your eyes.

    She tied her shoulder-length purple hair into a ponytail, revealing more of her slender neck as well as making her look even younger than she already was. If Dante had first met Beatrice-like this in that alley, he would havepletely dropped his guard and spilled the beans to her.

    Portia was dressed in a simr manner, but hers was a bit more baggy and more colorful. The two sistersˇ­ cough, mother and daughter made Dante feel like he hade home after a long campaign at war.

    "What''s up, guys?" Dante asked with Beatrice still nuzzling in his embrace.

    Seeing her daughter being so lovey-dovey and cute, Portia''s eyes softened greatly, and she couldn''t help but smile brighter at Dante who brought her little baby so much happiness.

    "Bea told me about your new ability, and I remembered that your main problem was dealing with your gic limit, right?" Portia asked.

    Dante nodded seriously. This was why he practiced both external methods, even though they did not add much to his power. Every time he broke through, he could raise his genes to a new limit.

    However, this was a problem due to two factors. Firstly, Dante needed to break through the gic limit using forceful methods and secondly, even after he broke through, his body could only grow by a certain amount before ''locking'' itself and being unable to take a single step forward.

    Well, in truth, it was not a problem per se since everyone had this limitation. Otherwise, there would be no need for gene serum if others could simply raise their stats limitlessly with no barrier or bottleneck.

    Only those with powers like Absorption or Portia and Beatrice''s Devour could achieve such a thing, while the rest had to walk the beaten path. However, from what Portia was saying, she had an idea to help him achieve something beyond this?

    Portia scanned Dante up and down. "To be honest, I''m not entirely sure this will work, but Beatrice says you have a special constitution that allows things in quantum, worlds that function with quantum rules can work on you."

    Dante nodded once again. The best example were his Eyes of Illusion, which were directly imnted into his body unlike the other ones which were generated through effort.

    However, while some things worked, others did not. Not to mention that even for the things that worked, Dante was taking a risk by trying them out.

    Adding a power system to his body was like undergoing a surgery. The doctor was the quantum world he was in, and its quality as well as stability were the doctor''s ''qualifications''.

    Dante liked power, but he was not willing to put himself under the knife of a ''quack'' doctor just to pursue cheap power, which was why he avoided anime worlds and other fanciful powers, only sticking to the school''s worlds since they were the highest quality and the most stable.

    He had taken a big risk with the eyes back then and had hesitated every step of the way, but luckily it all worked out in the end. Otherwise, the best-case scenario would have been some slight pain and rejection and the worst-case scenario would be that he would have bepletely blind.

    So what did Portia have in mind knowing all this?

    "There''s an interesting yearly event ongoing in the anime world. That world is rtively stable given your standards but not enough so. However, we aren''t going in to gain anything from the power system, but to use a special method to fix your genes which should not harm you." Portia exined while cing her arms into her pockets.

    "Sure, let''s do it." Dante replied without hesitation.

    Seeing his unwavering trust, Portia was touched. She liked this amazing son-inw even more and decided to make sure that she could support him to achieve sess for their families.

    "Alright, we need to sign you up for an ount in the anime world and take you to the ce. You can leave your quantum marker on the spot and then bring the three of us with our real bodies." Portia exined with a smile.

    "Isn''t that dangerous?" Dante now hesitated because even if he knew that they would be immune to quantum poisoning within 10 meters of his quantum marker, what if something knocked them out of that range?

    "It is, but the risk is worth it. Bea and I both feel you are definitely worth it, and the possible reward is too good to pass up. We need toe with you because we are your greatest insurance in securing this method and making it real." Portia borated calmly.

    Beatrice raised her head from his chest and red at Dante slightly. "Why are you asking mom so many questions Dante, just obey~!"

    Dante couldn''t help but look down and kiss her small nose because of how cute she looked frowning with furrowed eyebrows and gleaming eyes. Portia rolled her eyes at the two who were not shy to openly disy their affection.

    The three went to sit down on the couches and leaned into the seats, logging into the Etraverse using their quantum AI chips. Dante checked the details of the anime world for the first time.

    [World Name: Anime World

    World Owner: Etraverse Corp

    World Creator: Etraverse Corp

    World Size: Grand

    World Type: Shared

    World Genre: Multi-genre

    Bionics Allowed: No

    Psionics Allowed: No

    Superpowers Allowed: No

    Requirements: Basic Etraverse Subscription

    Duration: Unlimited.

    Description: This is one of theunch worlds of the Etraverse Corporation, containing a massive world that merges all known animated series of the eastern bloc into one. Experience the feeling of firing a Kamehameha as a Saiyan, going Bankai as a Soul Reaper, using Chidori or Rasengan as a Shinobi or battling the marines as a Pirate with a Devil Fruit! Anything is possible in the anime world, so dive in and begin your epic journey!

    Objectives: Objectives vary per starting race and location you choose. Check your character menu for details upon logging in!

    Limitations: Limitations vary per starting race and location.

    Provisions:Provisions vary per starting race and location.]

    Didn''t say much, but Dante did not mind. This particr world had been live for so many centuries that so many had been born, grew up ying this game, got old, and passed away. It was ancient as hell, and many things had urred, even a few server resets due to troubles caused.

    He descended and was prompted to choose his race and starting location. Dante inly chose to be a human and chose to start from Capsule Corp, which was where Portia and Beatrice told him to drop in.

    When he spawned, he found that he was at the entrance of Capsule Corp, along with many other yers who were either walking up and down or taking tasks from Bulma and Trunks who stood at the gate.

    One could see Vegeta training furiously in the front yard, a few qualified Saiyan yers being his punching bags.

    Dante looked up and saw the floating cars and the tall buildings that littered West City. Looking around, both humans and various alien races walked up and down in harmony, probably the only ce where humans and aliens could coexist due to the world''s background.

    He immediately received a friend request from Beatrice and Portia, then epted them both. They then invited him to a party and began to exin what to do next.

    Dante listened and left the crowd,ing outside of West City to the grasnds where he saw Beatrice and Portia flying down to meet him. Interestinglyˇ­ or naturally? ˇ­ they both chose the Majin Race but retained their true features.

    They were basically very simr to Majin 21 with pink skin, red pupils and a ck cornea, as well as baggy white harem pants into high heels. A long pink tail and their upper torso mostly bare around the midriff but their chests covered by a ck top.

    Compared to them, Dante who had chosen a in human with his natural features seemed out of ce. The reason Dante didn''t bother was that unlike Beatrice or Portia who genuinely yed this game for fun, Dante would probably never truly ''y'' any quantum world.

    Due to his power, they were all sources of power or resources for him, so there was no time to idly role-y like he was truly there when he could quite literally enter it.

    Looking at him, Beatrice and Portia seemed to share an almost helpless look.

    "Told you, Mom, he won''t choose a Saiyan despite liking the series." Beatrice stated with exasperation.

    Portia sighed. "I kind of understand his reason why, but it''s nevertheless quite sad."

    Dante was speechless. It wasn''t a big deal since anyone could create multiple ounts for this particr world, and he was here on business with them, yet they made it sound like he was a troubled child who was a misfit.

    "Still, I''m surprised I can still ess my old ount. I thought I would have been deleted after so many years of disuse." Portia marveled as she nced at herself.

    She then looked at Beatrice and was amused. "Bea, you and I truly share the same tastes. I chose the Majin race back then because their abilities are simr to my superpowers."

    Beatrice smiled. "Same, I thought it would be close to how I am in reality if I used this race. Knowing that you chose them same makes me feel happy."

    "Anyway, Dante, you should follow us. As a human yer, you can''t automatically fly until you take Ki training lessons from Master Roshi so I''ll carry you." Beatrice said.

    And so, Dante was carried on her back as they flew in the air. Being powerless as a normal human, the experience was actually quite scary if one got too immersed into it, which Dante did not since he felt like he could descend with his real body anytime.

    He didn''t because he couldn''t be bothered and he was slightly scared. The power level in this anime world was so high that a random sneeze from someone like Vegeta might cause him and his past lives to die.

    This was one of the reasons the world was unstable because it had been strongly modified and made expansive in order to amodate so many power systems.

    Soon, they reached a very busy area, which had a giant portal in the center that did not seem to resemble the style of Dragon Ball. Seeing Dante''s puzzled look, Beatrice smiled and exined.

    "In order to achieve what we set out for, we have to go to another section of the game. Every major area had a trans-portal that allows you to travel in between the game world, and the ones that let you go to other game areas are only essible during special events."

    Dante nodded and followed the trio into the portal feeling almost nothing as he was transported from the outskirts of West City toˇ­ hmm?

    Wasn''t this Namek?

 Chapter 261 6000th Anniversary Event

    Chapter 261 6000th Anniversary Event

    They were specifically in front of a vige on Namek. Dante could identify the slightly green skies, weird lollipop-shaped blue trees, and the water that was clean but had a slightly murky color to it.

    Especially the Namekians themselves in the vige before him, dressed simply in their linen shawls with different colored vests and harem pants of different colors that left a small gap for their ankles before those strange shoes that looked like musty orange socks they all wore.

    Not only them, but many other yers were in the area, flying overhead or floating above the ground, going back and forth as they tried to aplish various things. Some also spoke to the Namekians, either taking missions or trying to purchase things from them.

    While Dante absorbed the feeling of one of his favorite anime worlds in the form of a thriving and bustling game, Beatrice poked his arm softly with a lovely smile.

    "Well, how is it? You always told me you loved this series, and I also think it''s cool."

    Dante smiled and hugged her by cing his arm around her shoulders gently. "It''s pretty awesome, but also kind of enticing. I did consider taking the Saiyan body and physique, but there are too many dangers in trying."

    "Besides, I would immediately be an alien species instead of a pure human, and things will be significantly more difficult even if you and Portia are around." Dante added as he narrowed his eyes.

    Beatrice patted his shoulder. "Saiyans are overrated; you can surpass them just fine with your abilities. Come, let''s show you the idea we had to make that happen."

    "Let me guess, does it involve visiting Grand Elder Guru and having him unlock my potential?" Dante asked as he was pulled along to a spot outside the vige where plenty of yers were amassing.

    "Errrˇ­" Beatrice and Portia paused with surprise, and Dante could tell from their expressions that they hadn''t thought about that at all.

    "Well, we can certainly try that after this, assuming this method doesn''t work out," Portia said with a casual brush of her hair.

    Now Dante was truly curious as they came to a floating building above the water where yers entered but never came out of. Beatrice carried him up once more as they entered the building, only to see a giant screen listing some details in the back.

    Conversely, arge screen appeared before Dante that was from the system, which asked him if he wanted to partake in the special yearly event. Looking at Beatrice and Portia, who were smiling and nodding, Dante rubbed his chin and agreed.

    Immediately, the three were teleported away to an instanced zone within the game world like many other yers, which was also shared between those who entered that separate instance for the event.

    When they appeared, they were floating in the air in a circle around a certain group of inds. Dante looked left and right to see hundreds of thousands of yers around him on each side, packed to the brim as they eagerly watched and waited for something.

    Dante was about to look when his sight was blocked by another screen, this one more detailed and golden in color.

    [Hello yer Dante Alighieri! Wee to the Annual Dragon Summoning Event - Namek Version!

    Background: Every year since the conclusion of the main story run on December 25th, 3998, yers have been allowed to enter an instance to battle with each other to decide who gets to make one or more of the three avable wishes from Porunga!

    Details: This event is slightly different, as we are celebrating our 6000th anniversary since the main storypleted. So, the event has been slightly modified. First, the major events of the Namek arc will be reyed, with yers having opportunities to either help or hinder the main cast. Secondly, when Porunga is summoned by Dende, yers will have to establish a safe zone around him for 60 seconds for him to speak out your wishes and grant them.

    Enjoy and happy 6000th anniversary!]

    Dante read through it in an instant and understood everything. He had to admit, the n of Beatrice and Portia was truly devious, because he himself had always had it in mind.

    Long ago, he even discussed seizing the dragon balls from this world and making a wish to perfect his genes or even raise his power, but there were fellows who yed this game day and night and had raised their power levels to obscene levels.

    Dante''s true body, with all his powers, was not qualified toe and fight with them. Currently, he was about as strong as Goku when he fought Vegeta the first time at best, and with Bionics and Psionics activated, he could reach Goku''s level when he first beat Burter and Jeice.

    There were folks out there who had already reached Super Saiyan God level power and were climbing through the super saga, not to mention the many sagas that cameter. In fact, the reason many came here to wish was that they wanted to unlock special sagas or attain powerful transformations like Ultra Instinct or Ultra Ego.

    Dante nced at Portia and Beatrice, the two Majins who stood side by side with confident smiles, and felt relieved. Even with Beatrice''s power, it was possible to fight off some yers and im the dragon balls, but he had no way to bring people in quantum worlds previously.

    Now with the gctic nuclear bomb that was Portia, only the topmost yers could even barely scratch, not to mention she woulde down with her superpowers of gluttony, devour, and especially regeneration.

    What was the point when your awesome energy beam was swallowed and refined by her on the spot, turning into energy for her? Besides, the three knew that the topmost yers Dante was worried about wouldn''te here.

    Porunga was far weaker than Shenron at the end, which was why he was hardly used in the series after that. Most didn''t even go to the Shenron one as they were fighting for the super dragon balls or even the ck star dragon balls in the universe.

    The kind of wishes they had were not possible for a mere Namek saga Porunga to grant. However, this was just perfect for Dante''s group as his wish was not something impossible for a Porunga to grant, and they might even be able to achieve more, with Portia and Beatrice holding the fort.

    "How long until the wish?" Dante whispered as he asked Beatrice and Portia, distancing themselves from other yers.

    "Porunga is summoned by Dende after Goku goes Super Saiyan for the first time to revive the Namekians and Vegeta, then send them to Earth. So basically after Goku transforms," Beatrice answered.

    Dante nodded and checked the progress of the event. Whether it was intentional or not, Beatrice and Portia had brought him in just as Vegeta was murdered after crying his heart out and Goku began to fight Frieza seriously in Kaioken times twenty.

    After that, the train of known events urred. Dante watched, from a first-person view, feeling the power levels and the rising tension and emotions he could only enjoy on screen in person.

    In no time, like those watching, he got immersed. He had bated breath as he watched Goku sneakily charge the Spirit Bomb while Polo stepped in to ''stall'' Frieza, but really just took about fiveto ten minutes of beatings that even a father wouldn''t do to this unruly son.

    The Spirit Bomb was thrown after the drama and my god, to see it live. That giant orb of pure positive energy made those of an evil alignment tremble with horror while those of a good alignment feel enlivened.

    Beatrice and Portia were Majins, so despite themselves, they couldn''t help but feel fear, while Dante, a pure human, felt his entire body feel good.

    Fast forward through the Spirit Bomb''s explosion and the team prematurely celebrating their victory. They couldn''t see but the yers could as Frieza emerged on that hill behind them with a beaten and battered body along with hatred in his eyes.

    PEW!

    The beam was fired, and Polo was killed, negating the Earth Dragon Balls as Kami died. Luckily, this was an instance, so it did not affect the true game world as yers should be fighting for the Earth Dragon Balls as well.

    However, Portia and Beatrice wisely did not want to push their luck because stronger yers fought for those ones.

    Next, the fateful scene urred.

    "GOKUUUU!!! HELP ME- ARGHHHH!!"

    "NO! KRILLIN!!!"

    Everyone tensed as this signaled that the time for the Dragon Balls was approaching. Beatrice herself poked Dante, who still wanted to watch the transformation for himself live in person and feel the power of a Super Saiyan, but he knew he had more important things to do.

    He reluctantly left along with other yers to the ind where Gohan arrived with Dende and the Dragon Balls. Immediately, Dante descended with his real body and ced a quantum marker on the spot before hurriedly sending his real body back.

    Then, he, Portia, and Beatrice logged out at the same time when they saw Dende begin the chant to summon Porunga.

    Waking up in their real bodies, Dante ced his hands on their shoulders and teleported with them using Quantum Transportation into the quantum world, right on the quantum marker.

    When they appeared, they were right beside Dende and Gohan, who were stunned by their appearance. By this time, Porunga had finished undergoing his summoning ''animation'' and fully formed, leaning down towards Dende as he asked in the Namekiannguage what his wish was.

    Gohan stood between Dende and the trio protectively, but Dante and co were not willing to tangle with the brat. They had the yers to worry about, and the purpose of the 60-second safe zone was to grant the fellow time to make the crucial two wishes for the storyline and leave one for yers to fight over.

    But if you were cruel and greedy - and especially strong - you could definitely beat Gohan aside and force Dende to give you all three. However, very few here had that kind of power, and they would also have to deal with Goku and Frieza, who were rushing over at this time.

    As Dende made his first wish, yers charged at Dante, Beatrice, and Portia with bloodshot eyes, greed overflowing from them. They did not care as to how the trio suddenly appeared there, thinking it was some special technique or could even be legendary instantaneous transmission, a very difficult technique to acquire.

    "Mom, let me." Beatrice requested as she cricked her neck.

    "Oh?" Portia was curious as to why but then saw Dante by the side and understood.

    So her daughter simply wanted to flex and show off to her man. Hahaha, how cute! Well, how could Portia possibly say no to that?

    "Okay, dear, but if I see you in any danger, I will take over." Portia acquiesced with a condition.

    "Naturally, mom. Watch me." Beatrice assented as she activated her Bionics and Psionics at full power, causing her entire aura to change drastically.

    Dante felt danger in his heart, the kind of danger that easily surpassed the vulture creature in the First Gate or that void beast that attacked him. With just stats alone, Beatrice could suppress one corner of the First Gate herself!

    She showed that power here too as she pped her hands together in front of her, facing the group of onrushing yers. Immediately, a humongous shockwave formed in the atmosphere that seemed to explode the atoms themselves.

    Every yer in range was either blown back or exploded into a blood mist right away. Those who were closer and weaker were the ones who bid farewell to this world and lost one respawn chance while those who were stronger or farther away were only sent flying like missiles on the loose.

    After doing this, Beatrice calmly ced her hands into her pockets and turned to Dante with an exuberant smile, expecting to be praised. She burst intoughter though, when she saw Dante''s shocked expression as his jaws almost dropped to the ground.

 Chapter 262 A Wish

    Chapter 262 A Wish

    What was going through Dante''s head at this moment could be simply summed up in one sentence.

    ''That''sˇ­ my wife?''

    Beatrice was only distracted for a second because while she managed to clear one segment of yers, others too charged in. After all, these were virtual bodies, and death only meant some in-game penalties, not that they would truly lose their lives.

    However, for the trio here, this wasn''t the same thing, so they had to treat the matter with unparalleled seriousness.

    Unfortunately, Beatrice and Portia were slightly handicapped since they could not leave ten meters of the quantum marker, or with their stats, they could probably use Ultra Instinct level movement to knock down everyone at once.

    As great as Quantum Transportation was, it was also limited in the sense that only the quantum marker they teleported to was considered safe. So Dante could not ce quantum markers in every meter of space around him to create a makeshift free zone for the mother and daughter duo.

    That was why they had to adopt a defensive posture rather than attacking and could only use ranged attacks.

    Beatrice continuallyunched fists into the sky, causing huge explosive shockwaves that could likely shatter an entire. It said more about the yers here that only those really close and unguarded actually died, but others took it head-on and were only blown back.

    It made Dante curious and a little daring. While the AI of this world was also quite powerful, since this was one of the corporation''s best and most popr worlds, it was not at the level of what the school used that made Dante wary.

    If it weren''t for the fact that he did not want to rush into using Quantum Core and exposing it before he got the method to create his own quantum worlds from the corporation, he would have used it here and now to change the rules of this event to be exclusive to him and the mother-daughter duo.

    However, he could try other things. Looking at the yers who were firing beams and ki sts at Beatrice to counter her onught, while others tried to sneak in from the sides to suppress her, Dante had an idea.

    He opened his quantum space and took out a nuclear pistol. Since this world could support energy beams and waves, and the DBZ world was even known to have somewhat advanced tech, it shouldn''t be a problem to use this much.

    He aimed and fired rapidly at a few yers. The recoil was the same as firing a normal gun because the bullets contained the miniature nuclear reaction safely within. Only upon contact would they explode, and they could be remotely controlled using the AI chip.

    To Dante''s surprise, this maneuver was quite effective. The nuclear explosions that urred in the sky were fatal to yers who did not protect themselves with their Ki at the first moment, causing many to be directly removed from the event.

    As for Beatrice and Portia, they had no worries about being close to the explosion, as fallout and radiation were terrified of them rather than they being terrified of it. As for Dante, the heat, shockwave, and radiation from the explosion were just energy that was converted by his Gluttonous Inferno, which he released to protect him.

    He could have simply used space magic to form a barrier or even entered sub-space to negate the effectpletely, but he had been traumatized by that, even though he knew that sub-space in the main universe and quantum worlds were empty.

    Only sub-space in the First Gate had beings within.

    The yers were shocked by this sudden change. They did not immediately think of a nuclear weapon and thought that it was the aftereffects of an unknown beam technique, which made many resist rushing forward.

    Beatrice nced at Dante with surprise, pleased with the drop in pressure. Meanwhile, Portia had been patting Gohan on the head the entire time and telling him what a good boy he was.

    Gohan was bashfully swinging his leg, not knowing what to say to the nice, tall, and beautifuldy. While this was ongoing, Dende had already finished the first wish and brought everyone back.

    Krillin, Vegeta, and the Namekians returned to life. Dende then looked back uncertainly as Gohan informed him to send everyone back to Earth for now. Dende began making the wish while Portia left Gohan alone and turned her face to the side with a cold look.

    From there, Frieza rushed over with a look of desperation and greed on his face.

    "Lowly trash, get out of my way! I must wish for immortality this instant!" he roared with madness in his eyes, the golden glowing Kakarot chasing closely behind.

    "YOU''RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE, FRIEZAAAAA!!" Kakarot bellowed with rage, grabbing the ''emperor'' by the tail and tossing him backward while he screamed with fear and regret.

    Portia looked away since Kakarot could clearly handle the fellow on his own and checked the progress of the summoning. Dende was just about done making everyone return to Earth, leaving only himself and Gohan behind.

    Dende turned to Gohan, who was ncing at Portia. Portia smiled and squatted to Dende''s level, rubbing his bald green head as she made her request.

    "Please wish for my son-inw to have his genes perfected. He''s the one standing over there, and his name is Dante."

    "O-Okayˇ­" Dende shyly replied and turned to Porunga, raising his hands as he began making the wish in Namekian.

    Meanwhile, the waiting yers who were partially cowed saw this and became crazed. One person even flew towards Porunga, unleashing a beam attack.

    "If I can''t have it, no one can!" he roared.

    After all, what could you do to him? He would ruin your day and hard work by killing Porunga, but the worst you could do was cklist him in the game. Even if you camped or griefed this ount, he could just log in with another and go somewhere you will never find him.

    "How dare you?!" Beatrice was furious as she delivered a kick, causing the beam to be sted in another direction, striking an innocent yer and turning them into space dust.

    Yet, inspired by that first yer, the others began focusing on Porunga. They sneered and jeered at Beatrice, using yer lingo to insult her and her five generations down and upwards.

    After all, he could block one, but could she block them all?

    "Hmph, overestimating yourselves," Portia''s cold voice came.

    She simply spun an arm in a clockwise manner rapidly, causing a huge suction force to ur that pulled all the wayward beams away from Porunga and towards her. When they converged, she simply grabbed andpressed them into one giant multicolored ball of energy the size of a small car.

    With a smile, she opened her mouth slightly and sucked in. The energy ball was like a roll of spaghetti on a fork, immediately pulled into Portia''s mouth as her Gluttony and Devour superpowers began working in tandem.

    The yers could only watch in stunned shock as their strongest attacks were ''drank'' by this woman, and she even released a small burp afterward, showing great satisfaction.

    Meanwhile, Porunga had already worked on the request as his eyes glowed red for a while, and he responded to Dende that his wish had been granted.

    Dante, who had stopped firing and was calmly watching the proceedings, knew that the moment of truth hade. He felt the familiar surge of quantum energy enter his body as the rules of this world, the rules of reality, and the binding agent that was his superpower began tomunicate.

    Dante did not have time to even pray for it to work as the surge in his body suddenly began to grow in power and force, coursing through his body crazily and repeatedly. He roared as he felt his entire body heat up in a good way, endless power coursing through him as he could faintly hear the sound of locks being shattered in the corner of his hearing.

    His Raging Blood Halberd technique and Primal Ape method began to activate and run on their own, surging along with the strange force as they rapidly passed through their stages, breaking through twice to reach the peak of their realms.

    100% Perfection Realm Martial God!

    100% Grand Knight!

    Dante felt as if he were reborn. Unfortunately, the two magical methods did not benefit from this, but it didn''t matter anymore as the biggest thing holding Dante back had always been his gene locks.

    With them gone and virtually smashed through, he could now rise as high as he wanted using the Apocalypse World as a backdrop. In fact, if he was willing, he could sell another vial of Phoenix Nirvana Fire and purchase the actual Absorption superpower permanently for himself.

    However, there was no need for that.

    Dante''s change was felt by Beatrice and Portia, who were overjoyed. Portia told Dende and Gohan to quickly rush and get to the ship so they could leave the while the other yers red sullenly as Porunga disappeared and the Namekian Dragon Balls turned to stone since Grand Elder Guru perished.

    No longer needed to stay here, Dante smiled and took the two out of the quantum world, leaving a bunch of furious and unhappy yers who felt like cuckolds.

    Back in the Portinari n''s manor, the trio appeared. Portia looked ruddy and healthy due to the energy she had just consumed, while Beatrice looked tired, as activating her enhancements to the max drained her carefully rationed energy.

    As such, Dante held her and gently helped her sit down while she panted slightly, sweat forming on her forehead. Dante was in a good mood as he gently ced her hand on hisp and let her rest while carefully stroking her hair.

    Portia nced at them and shook her head, deciding to give them privacy. She left to go and find Augeus, who was now swamped with work since Portia hade back, and many ns as well as factions in the universe were trying to curry favor with the Portinari n.

    After all, most of the footage from the council chamber had been circted around the upper echelons but had not trickled down to the general public. Portia did not care about this and did not pressure them to inform the public because doing so would just cause trouble.

    The ns and factions of the universe could see the trend of interest moving from the Zero Gate to the enigmatic First Gate, and as a ''top fighter,'' Portia was someone they had to be on good terms with.

    Interestingly, Lara was going through the opposite right now. Knowing that the Zero Gate was private property of every universe, used as a training ground to produce fighters for the First Gate, many factions were not willing to leave ownership of the school to her.

    The ones causing the most trouble were the Eternal Alumni, one of the top 20 factions. They were made up of graduates from the Eternal Academy''s Unique Batch who did not reach the C rank before theirst foray into the Zero Gate and so did not know about the First Gate.

    Rather, they wanted to get back into the Zero Gate and cultivate higher, but the school always stopped them on the grounds that they had their turn when they were students and now the current students were having their turn.

    Now that this faction knew about the First Gate, they were even more feral. They had picked up from Portia''s speech that the source of Zero Energy that they used to upgrade their superpowers came from the First Gate, so they must absolutely get there!

    And to think, this was without them knowing about the ck Spire, Spire Points, and the ability to buy superpowers or upgrade them. If they knew, Lara would probably be facing down an army right now.

 Chapter 263 Stats Farming 1

    Chapter 263 Stats Farming 1

    Of course, with the advent of having his genes perfected by Porunga, Dante could not be on downtime for too long. He spent some time with Beatrice while she was recuperating and then returned to his residence in the school.

    It was still within the month of December, and those kids would not being out of the Zero Gate anytime soon, so the school - at least for Dante - was terribly quiet. Thinking about how excited those students must be to know he wasn''t in the same realm as them, allowing them topete normally, left him amused.

    Dante logged into the Etraverse and headed to the section for the school''s worlds. There, he opted to enter the Apocalypse World once more, curious to see how far he could raise his stats before he needed to consider energy consumption.

    After all, Dante could definitely try to raise his stats past the current amount Portia had, but he did not have her Gluttony or Devour abilities that allowed her to literally eat the entire energy of a star during its lifetime and digest it for energy to sustain herself.

    Damn. Just thinking about it again made Dante feel overwhelmed. While you were out there getting full from eating a pizza box or a big burger with fries, someone was eating literal stars.

    Anyway, Dante would have to find his own sweet spot. A ce where his stats perfectly matched his consumption ability. The good news was that his Spirit Sense increased with his Intelligence, so the higher his stats, the more hellfire he could release, and the faster Gluttonous Inferno could refine energy for him to live.

    It was a positive cycle, but it had diminishing returns at a certain point. The long and short of all this was to find that point of diminishing returns and try to achieve equilibrium between power and energy consumption.

    You know, Dante was feeling a bit poetic even. He decided to drop on the city he firstnded on when he first arrived in this world, which was called Fallout Shelter. Like always, his character spawned randomly in the wild with Quantum Entanglement and Absorption together.

    There was no Nanite Resonance or Quantum Core because he had not registered those superpowers with the school. Anyway, he directly descended on his virtual body right away and overwrote it with his power.

    The moment his Quantum Core power activated and connected with the world, Dante''s face changed greatly. He looked up with cold eyes, finally learning and understanding how this world worked and why it was so special.

    It was like he thought, the special nature of this world was facilitated by a superpower, and one that was lower ranked than his Quantum Core. In fact, he knew that this superpower belonged directly to Lara Sanguis and was stuck at the SS rank.

    No wonder!

    No wonder that Mutation Cores in this world could only raise powers up to the SS Rank and everything after that was useless. The limit was literally set by the superpower that controlled it!

    However, what made Dante wary was that he still sensed a strong suppression from the superpower behind this world despite having his Quantum Core at EX Rank while it was at the SS Rank.

    This could only mean one thing... higher-dimensional being!

    Lara Sanguis already had a higher-dimensional being supporting one - or maybe all - of her superpowers!

    No wonder!

    No wonder she could dominate others and act like a grand ancestress within the universe. Literally no one else had even raised their superpower to the EX rank, much less begun to contact interested higher-dimensional beings for ''sponsorship''.

    Damn!

    Dante was annoyed because it meant that Lara probably knew a lot of his secrets since a great majority of his rise was rted to his escapades in the Apocalypse World. While he did not fully intend to antagonize her, his rtionship with her was not benevolent either, and he considered the fact that his ambitions would cause them to fall out in the future.

    So having her know so much about him while he only knew bits and pieces of her left him feeling very troubled and annoyed.

    Dante seemed distracted for a second as he cocked his ear to one side, like he was straining to hear something far away. After a minute or two, he sighed with relief, as he had received a message from the cosmic tree that basically said that his true body descent ability had long been masked by it.

    As for asking how this happened, it was redundant. Dante had already clued together that the Cosmic Tree was likely sitting at the top of the hierarchy for higher-dimensional beings, so doubting its abilities would be weird.

    Relieved, he checked the area to see that he had spawned in a ruined city this time. There were tall buildings formercial purposes on either side, telling him that he was in the business district.

    He released his spirit sense to scan around and found that the monster presence was quite high, but only full of F-rank or so monsters. There were very few E-rank ones, and the entirerge city only had one D-rank monster in the center, acting as an overlord.

    As someone who had ughtered S-rank monsters like they were toys, Dante could not help but feel amused. He simply entered sub-space and cast down the 3rd Rank Cosmic Nova on the city.

    The huge beams, the size of SpaceX rockets,nced through the city from above, causing the entire world to tremor and shake. When Dante stopped the spell, there was only a gigantic crater big enough to form a new sea if filled with water left of the city.

    Knowing that doing so would increase his Supercoin payout, he naturally did so. Even though he still had a huge amount left, he wanted to farm more and make the school feel endless regret and fear as to the day he would try to cash out on it.

    He then opened a portal and left the area, heading towards an area with S-rank monsters and above. On the way, while he teleported using space magic multiple times, he used replicated Mutation Cores to raise Absorption to the SS Rank.

    [Superpower Name: Absorption

    Superpower Rank: SS

    Superpower Description: Allows the user to absorb the energy of a defeated foe, increasing their own SDI by an epic amount.]

    At the SS Rank, Dante gained 1280% of the absorbed stats, which was basically 12.8 times. Yeah, this was just how nonsensical superpowers could be when raised to the higher ranks.

    Being ''buffed'' like this, Dante zeroed in on his target, an S-rank water element called the Overlord Killer Whale. It lived in a ce that students and natives of this world did not dare to go, which was the deep sea area.

    yers only found its information due to someonepleting a ''dungeon'' near the continental shelf area of the sea, which was far less dangerous, in which they gained information on many sea behemoths.

    That yer naturally sold the information for Supercoin and cashed out big. This student had done this long before Dante''s time, probably bing an old alumni by now.

    Well, now it would benefit Dante. He first entered subspace and plunged into the water, but it was really no different for him than being on the ground or flying through the air because he was not physically in that space and could not feel the water pressure.

    One thing he did notice with a frown was that his spirit sense was greatly suppressed in the water. Well, this was quite obvious since his spirit sense was birthed by the Limbo Enkindling me and his Inferno Ascension technique overall, which was a fire-type Internal Art.

    He was even lucky that his fire sub-type was hellfire, which was notoriously hard to extinguish with water or anything else, so it was only suppressed and not outright destroyed.

    Well, it didn''t matter anyway. The sea wasrge, sure, but the target he was looking for wasrge as well. Given that its area of activity had been narrowed down to here, all he had to do was search, and he would eventually find it.

    Luck was clearly on Dante''s side as he soon discovered the humongous white-colored what with reddish-ck spots. It was casually moving through the water, every swing of its tail taking it hundreds of meters away at speeds beyond the fastest sea vehicle known to man.

    Seeing it, Dante cycled through his powers and decided to use lightning magic since they were underwater. Unfortunately, he only knew up to the 2nd rank for lightning spells, so he chose the strongest one he knew.

    Lightning Bolt!

    A bolt of lightning with the size and circumference of a handle used for household mops was shot out from Dante''s hand and struck the monster right near its blowhole, causing it to writhe in agony.

    Even worse was the reaction from the ions in the seawater around that surged with energy from the bolt and feedback the charge, causing the entire sea area around here to light up with power.

    If Dante''s first strike was considered direct single-target damage, then this aftermath conduction was damage-over-time AOE. Unfortunately, while it caused his target pain, it did not one-shot it since it was only a 2nd rank spell, and Dante did not have any lightning spiritual cores, so no multiplier.

    Normal 2nd rank spells were meant for wizards with 2 spiritual cores of 100 Intelligence each, meaning a total of 200 Intelligence. Putting aside its Constitution and Vitality, which were above 1500, the whale had more than 400 points of intelligence on its own.

    However, the consumption of spiritual power was low for Dante, who was at the 5th Rank with 5 spiritual cores of 500 intelligence each. So, like a machine gun, he kept hurling 2nd rank Lightning Bolts at the whale, crippling it due to the stunning and paralyzing effect of electricity while benefiting from the active ions in the water.

    After about 30 minutes of this, Dante had to stop. After all, the beast was thoroughly dead, and he didn''t enjoy beating corpses. He simply collected the corpse into his quantum space and then left the water with a casual Short Blink spell.

    With this experience in mind, he naturally decided not to bother with any water monsters henceforth since that was not the kind of battleground he could enjoy fighting in and left using a portal.

    He was targeting the next S-rank monster as he wanted to umte up to 10 corpses and then absorb them at once for maximum effect!

    His next victim was naturally and-based monster, one that was basically a giant Tyrannosaurus rex. However, unlike typical rexes, this one had perfectly long and functional arms along with powerful legs that could likely sprint up the side of a mountain if given the chance.

    In fact, when Dante appeared, it was currently massacring a herd of wildebeests the size of small houses each with its ws, grabbing them up and tossing them into its maw jovially. It probably wasn''t even really hunting, more like snacking.

    It was akin to a human who was watching a show while sticking his crummy fingers into the Pringles can for another chip. The same way those Pringles chips magically avoided one''s fingers was simr to how the wildebeests futilely tried to scatter and avoid the Tyrannosaurus'' ws.

    The wildebeests needed a hero, one who was strong, one who was fast, and one who was fresh from the fight. Luckily, they had been blessed with the best possible option in the form of Dante.

    For while the Tyrannosaurus was about to grab another wildebeest with a look of yful greed in its eyes, it was suddenly sted away and sent flying through two mountains by a small figure radiating a blood-red aura full of martial power.

 Chapter 264 Stats Farming 2

    Chapter 264 Stats Farming 2

    The wildebeests that were left could swear that even though pink/ck-skinned humans were utterly ugly in their eyes, at this moment, there was no one more handsome to them than Dante!

    They cried out and scattered far away from here, not willing to watch nor engage in this fight, which was naturally the wisest choice. As for Dante, he felt the near-limitless blood qi in his body as a martial god and smiled.

    Using just this aura alone, he was sure he could dominate foes with up to 1.5x his stats, and he hadn''t even added his Knight''s Life Essence yet!

    With a roar, an explosion urred in the distance as the famous ''earth dragon,'' as called by the Orientals, broke out of its trappings using the shockwaves from its cry. It then shook off the rubble as it red at Dante with hatred in its eyes.

    Unfortunately for it, Dante was not bothered as he continued to fly in the sky using only his Blood Qi. Obviously, Martial Gods could fly in the sky, and so too could Grand Knights. Even his Internal Art allowed him to fly as early as the 5th level (Greed''s Ember Flow) while the Magus system was even earlier, where 1st rank mages could flypetently.

    Dante directly charged towards the beasts at his full speed, appearing right before its nose. The monster had not even registered the speed of Dante''s movement and was still ring at where he had been with an angry look.

    Dante just hovered before it in near stopped time, but the truth was that he was moving so fast that time rtively slowed down around him. It was quiteical to see the monster not even realize that death was upon it.

    Fortunately, Dante was not sadistic. He turned his blood Qi into the shape of a giant katana and swung horizontally, chopping the monster''s head off and letting his blood Qi infiltrate its body to destroy its vitality.

    When time ''resumed,'' the tyrannosaurus of the S rank was dead, not even knowing how it died. From its point of view, one moment it was ring at the floating Dante who was a few kilometers away, and the next, the abyss of death.

    Dante collected the corpse and then searched for another target. He based his targets not on proximity but on their stats. When he fought his foes, he naturally checked their strengths before doing so, and as you could imagine, not everyone had stats like him, Portia, or Beatrice that were equal in all fields, creating a perfect bnce.

    As such, he had to factor in the stats of the S rank monsters he was killing along with the Absorption superpower''s current multiplier. Even after he killed all ten S rank monsters and gathered their corpses, he could only frown as the maths still didn''t perfectly add up.

    In the end, he had to carefully kill some F rank monsters then mix and match until he got the perfect ratio. Satisfied, Dante directly absorbed them all and felt the sheer power surge into his body.

    This time, since there was no blockade, the absorption processsted longer, and Dante was metaphorically edging the entire time. No matter his willpower, which wasn''t at abnormal levels anyway, he couldn''t stand it as his eyes became bloodshot.

    Imagine you were getting the best gluck gluck 3000 with the supreme glizzy side twist and the heavenly lick of 1984, but the base of your young master was tied tight, so you were about to bust the nut of your 34 previous livesbined, but it was stuck, unable to progress while the sensation continued.

    That was basically what Dante was going through right now. Luckily for him, his hellfire surged upwards from his dantian and washed his spirit, cleansing him of the effect. Well, more than cleaning, the hellfire ate up the negative emotions that were built up and empowered itself further.

    Dante became clearheaded one moment and then fell back into the hellish state before being saved again. This went on for about 3 minutes, which felt like years to Dante. While he panted and felt extremely spiritually exhausted, his hellfire was rubbing its bloated belly as it had really overeaten today.

    However, he soon did not even have the energy to be tired as he checked his stats.

    [User: Dante (ID Number: DANTE10998-03-15)

    Age: 22 (Converted to Earth years)

    Race: Pure Human (99.9% gic perfection)

    Strength Index: 200,000 (20 million)

    Agility Index: 200,000 (20 million)

    Dexterity Index: 200,000 (20 million)

    Intelligence Index: 200,000 (20 million)

    Constitution Index: 200,000 (20 million)

    Vitality Index: 200,000 (20 million)

    Bionic Level: 10 (Quantum Lord''s special version.)

    Psionic Level: 10 (Quantum Lord''s special version.)

    AI Chip Level: 10 (Quantum Lord''s special version.)

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement (Rank B), Nanite Resonance (Rank EX), Quantum Core (Rank EX).

    Physical Powers: Raging Blood Halberd Technique (Martial God, Perfection level 100%), Primal Ape Technique (Level 6: Grand Knight, 100%).

    Magical Powers: Inferno Ascension Technique (Level 7: Heretical Inferno, 58%), Void Speaker Chant Level 6: Master Wizard (5th Rank, 11%).]

    Haˇ­

    Hahaˇ­

    HAHAHAHA!!!

    200,000!!

    200,000 in each field!!

    God, how long had it been?

    When Dante first came to the Eternal Universe 10 months ago, this was his SDI.

    ?User: Dante

    Age: 21 (Converted to Earth years)

    Race: Pure Human (99.9% gic perfection)

    Strength Index: 0.3

    Agility Index: 0.2

    Dexterity Index: 0.3

    Intelligence Index: 0.5

    Constitution Index: 0.1

    Vitality Index: 0.1

    Bionic Level: 0

    Psionic Level: 0

    AI Chip Level: 0.1

    Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement.?

    How far had hee?

    Who would have thought? That in just ten or so months, not even a full calendar year, that Dante would reach this level? Not even Dante himself back then dared to think he would reach here in such a period of time.

    But he did it.

    Now he was even stronger than Beatrice, ten times stronger in fact!

    And the best part was that this wasn''t his limit!

    He could keep going higher and higher until he surpassed even Portia!

    Dante stopped his wantonughter as his high from soaring past his wildest dreams began to subside. After all, a man could and should be happy to achieve his goals, but he couldn''t indulge himself for too long and had to snap back to reality.

    He could go past 200,000, but he had a few concerns. Firstly, his intimacy with Beatrice would be problematic the higher he went. Already, to match the current him, Beatrice would have to activate Bionics to x10; otherwise, they couldn''ty together anymore.

    Secondly, energy consumption, the perennial problem of high-power beings. In most situations within fiction, high-power beings were not shown to have energy problems, seemingly possessing infinite energy because that was precisely fiction.

    Reality was not so kind nor sweet.

    Thirdly, adaptation. You have to consider that Portia and Beatrice chose the anime world to descend to with their real bodies not because the Dragon Balls were the ONLY items that could fix Dante''s problem, but because the world itself had a huge tolerance for power.

    They could enter and not be suppressed or feel out of ce due to that fact and the sheer amount of resources the Etraverse Corp funneled towards their highest paying and most popr world.

    However, if Dante went too high, he would literally not be able to enter certain worlds again even with Quantum Core to adjust the rules. Even a person with the ability to rewrite reality cannot make the entire universe he lived in be 10 times its size with no consequences because where is the new matter and energying from?

    Rewriting involved taking what was already there and changing it or shifting it about to achieve a new format, not adding anything new. In this case, Quantum Core was within the same boundary.

    Hmmmˇ­

    Okay, long story short, if a program was allocated 4GB of RAM, you the coder could only change its functions within that 4GB of RAM. If you made changes that made it consume 8GB of RAM, you''d either have to find new RAM space for it or cancel things until it could squeeze into the 4GB RAM.

    Anyway, those were Dante''s main concerns. That was why he stopped here and patted his body down and casually spread out his Spirit Sense. He smiled when his new range of 2000 kilometers unfolded itself.

    From 2 kilometers to 2000 kilometersˇ­

    Forparison, 2,000 km was slightly below the distance from Texas to Washington. That was a 24-hour drive if you had a good car going around 80 km/h the whole time.

    Dante could freely scan everything in this area as well as release his voluminous hellfire without having to bear any loss.

    Just the thought of it was crazy, and it made him wonder how any of those true Immortal cultivators managed to die or lose fights since everyone had spirit sense and some could casually scan millions of kilometers at higher levels.

    Brother, before you think, have thought, have even thought about thinking and even before you thought about thinking on whether you thought to think, I have already seen your past, present, and future.

    How could you possibly hit me?

    But talking about this was ephemeral. 200,000 was just a number, without a proper point of reference. So after running simtions in his mind using his AI chip merged with the database of the Eternal Universe, Dante managed to quantify himself as such.

    In terms of Strength, he had surpassed Superman Prime and Goku at the end of the Tournament of Power. Using Eternal Universe scaling, Dante was now Gxy level in terms of power. This did not mean that a single punch could blow up an entire gxy, but that if one condensed the matter and energy of an entire standard gxy into aˇ­ a brick?ˇ­ Dante could crush it like Bruce Lee.

    Hmm, a better way to say it would be that, brother, if Dante hit you head-on with his full power in a punch, you were basically feeling the entire force of an entire gxy on your body.

    That definitely would NOT feel good.

    In terms of Agilityˇ­ well, this was hard to quantify because how do you put the leg speed of someone who could fly into useful terms? Then again, the good news was that Agility did not only affect his legs moving on solid ground, but also his speed in all forms of flight that were derived from his body''s ability.

    In fact, it was not entirely true that his leg speed was useless in space. It was said that one time, the Justice League helped Green Lantern face off some foes in the far reaches of space - or was it Darkseid? - and they teleported back to earth using the BOOM TUBES - Dante chuckled because the name was funny - only to see that Wally West''s sh had gotten there already using speed.

    Yeah, using his two human legs, he ran through the universe, outspeeding the literal vacuum of space and traveling iprehensible light-years of distance to get to earth faster than teleportation which took a microsecond.

    So maybe it was a bit too hasty to rule out the use of legs.

    Whatever the case, the fact was that Dante''s speed could no longer be easily limited to numbers; at 2500, he was at Mach 100. At 200,000? That was Mach 8163, or 10 million km/h!

    To think, there were fellow out there currently struggling to run even 5 kilometers on the treadmill.

    In terms of Dexterity, his hand speed was godly. In the 20 or so seconds that the Reverse sh revealed to Barry Allen that he was the one who jerked him off in the past when he was touched by Iris, Dante could also jerk the fellow off more than a hundred million times.

    Of course, not that he would do something like thatˇ­

    After all, we all knew Dante, right?

    Hahaˇ­ there was no wayˇ­ y-you believe in himˇ­ right?

 Chapter 265 True Qi

    Chapter 265 True Qi

    Anyway, dexterity at this level was basically more than just hand speed. It also affected the ''cooldown'' of many attacks under the physical methods system both for the Martial God and the Grand Knight systems he currently practiced.

    As for Intelligence, it mostly buffed his Eyes of Illusion, raising the threshold one needed to be at to avoid being affected. The best part was that his eyes were also affected by tech boosts, so his full power 20 million boost was effective, meaning that in a tight spot, if Dante really wanted to subdue an enemy, they needed at least 40 million intelligence to break out.

    Also, this was ''Intelligence'' not ''Wisdom''. It allowed Dante to calcte things he knew and turn data into information through processing, not infer things he did not know and had no idea of knowing, as well as things he had never experienced.

    Doing things like that was in the realm of low-quality fiction like on the big screen where that famous Mary Sue could master any power she saw without training and know anything she wanted because she wanted to.

    Constitution was the same but opposite of Strength in the sense that if Dante could punch out the equivalent of a gxy''s total mass condensed, then he could now receive a blow worth the entirety of a gxy and be hurt but not fatally injured.

    Basically, it was the amount of damage a man with 1 point of Strength could deal to a man with 1 point of Constitution. Obviously, we have seen street fights and know how many blows a person could take before going down, so Dante would need the equivalent amount of gxy-destroying blows to go down.

    In terms of Vitality, Dante could totally outlive the Dark Crow and groom his own Emperors with the Heaven''s Mandate. He could even be like those ancient sky-prides who sealed themselves during the Age of Spiritual Extinction while waiting for the Age of Spiritual Revival to usurp the opportunities of the young ones.

    As for regeneration, well. If you managed to preserve one quark of Dante''s existence, he could probably fully resurrect from that in time with ambient energy. Like Portia, his corpse could not be destroyed after death and would be full of vitality for millions of eons toe.

    The only thing that could hamper his regeneration would be antimatter because it was the pr opposite of matter. No matter how high Dante''s SDI became, like Portia, he was still susceptible to antimatter of the right quality.

    After all, his body was stillposed of matter, so this weakness was inescapable unless he changed his state of being.

    As for why antimatter of the ''right quality'' was needed, it was because their cells were too strong to be broken down by normal antimatter. It was like water, at 1 degree Celsius and 1000 degrees, it was still water.

    However, pour it over your skin, and your reaction would definitely be different.

    Interestingly, looking at his Bionics, Psionics, and AI chip, they had changed from ''Unique Student Version 15'' to ''Quantum Lord''s Special Version''. This was because Dante had naturally used his Nanite Resonance to restructure the nanites that formed the tech enhancements from the ground up, imbuing them with greater power.

    That was why his stats now could still be boosted by a hundred times. One should know that Beatrice didn''t limit herself to 20,000 in each field because that was her limit, but because her special military Bionics and Psionics could not boost anything above that.

    Of course, Dante had already restructured her own enhancements, so Beatrice would start actively increasing her power again. Though her progress would be slower than Dante''s because her abilities were a broken-down version of Portia''s and could not achieve normalcy.

    After all, only one of the same superpower could exist at a time within a universe''s database. Beatrice inheriting a broken version of the superpowers was already a special anomaly not seen before, much less now that Portia was alive again.

    However, it didn''t matter to Beatrice much as her current power was more than enough, especially since her mother was back. She was more focused on enjoying her life with her family, her husband, and her uing child.

    The only reason she would even bother to progress was to secure more power to protect her child, to assist Dante in achieving his ambitions, and to be able to match Dante physically so that she wouldn''t be barred from intimacy with him.

    At this time, Dante smiled and left the Apocalypse World right away. Rather, he traveled to the home universe and chose to use his space magic to teleport him to a random dead just outside our sr system.

    Standing on the''s surface, Dante did not feel ufortable despite theck of atmosphere and gravity. He felt perfectly normal and could forcefully attach himself to the dead ground beneath him, which only required a simple thought.

    He flexed his body and felt amazed at how the void of space could no longer realistically affect him. After marveling for a bit, he focused on what he came here to do.

    It was obviously time to raise his magical methods to perfection!

    With the amount of stats he had gained this time, he could take them both up to the limit without exception! The first target was the Inferno Ascension technique as usual, and Dante sat cross-legged on the ground as he began the usual chant.

    BOOOOOOM!

    Previously, the fire that surrounded him was huge and spanned many kilometers at a time, but this time it directly exploded outwards and engulfed almost half of this dead!

    Even though it was slightly smaller than the moon on Earth, this was still a veryrge area! The hellfire surged and coiled in this area, burning the dead earth ruthlessly as if it owed it money, but soon stopped bothering when there was nothing to take from it.

    This did not stop or affect Dante, though, who surged through the levels of the technique until he reached the tenth level''s peak. The moment he reached this stage, his main dantian surged with a ckish-red light, everything exploding outwards as the other 1023 dantians released their full potency.

    Under this explosion, it seemed like Dante''s entire existence should end here as blood mist, but what happened was that the hellfire energy froze just as it broke free and then was suctioned powerfully into a single point.

    This also included the hellfire that raged around Dante''s body for the size of half of this. It was quickly dragged back into his body like a whale sucking on water, soon leaving the entire area as clean as when he came.

    Meanwhile, within Dante''s body, where his dantian had previously been, was now a ckish-red orb the size of a bean that gleamed with untold power and spun on its own. Just looking at it made Dante feel fear, and he was the goddamn owner of the thing!

    He had done it; he had achieved the tenth level of the Inferno Ascension technique and acquired the special characteristics that came with it!

    [Level 10 - Paradise''s Inferno Awakening: The pinnacle of the Inferno Ascension Technique merges the mes of all levels into a transcendent ze. The user bes a vessel of pure hellfire, radiating an aura that engulfs the surroundings. In this state, Internal Force coalesces and upgrades into True Qi,a unique and unmatched energy on the same level as the Spiritual Energy of the Immortal Worlds.]

    Dante felt the plentiful and potent True Qi in his body and knew that he had truly outdone himself this time. It seemed like the tenth level of the Inferno Ascension technique was equivalent to thete-stage Void Core realm for Immortal Cultivators, or the Golden Core as they put it.

    Dante had the same benefits of that realm, including automatic cultivation, rapid energy restoration, and many others. Even better was the fact that he could now freely use all the special fires from the 1st to 9th levels of the technique.

    Level 1 was hellfire maniption, level 2 was spirit sense, level 3 was mental attack, level 4 was devour, level 5 was storage boost, level 6 was berserk, level 7 was demon conversion, level 8 was passive cultivation (i.e., early stage void core equivalent), and level 9 was illusions and clone creation.

    However Dante chose to use these abilities in the future could greatly benefit him and change any situation into one that benefitted him. The best part was that his cultivation did not stop here.

    While the technique had no more levels, he could now limitlessly increase the hellfire quantity by refining his base energy into True Qi for his core, allowing him to be linearly stronger and stronger.

    In fact, due to how much he had crazily increased his stats this time, his core rapidly swelled from the size of a bean to that of a small football, its potency having grown much greater.

    By the time it stopped, Dante felt bloated. If he released all his True Qi right now, he could probably fill a hugeke. If converted downwards, his True Qi could probably make an entire Jupiter-sized of hellfire internal energy.

    However, this wasn''t the end. After dealing with the martial side, it was time to deal with the magical. For this, Dante naturally encountered his first problem rting to the system.

    The Magus power system could only umte 10 Spiritual Cores full of elements in the body. Anymore would simply shatter upon forming, and this was the absolute rule of that power system.

    Unfortunately, as someone who used this power system, Dante was also bound by this rule. So if he created the remaining 5 Spiritual Cores needed to hit the 9th Rank peak, he would be wasting 195,000 worth of Spiritual Energy and only using 5,000 worth of it.

    Completely uneptable, right?

    So the solution was quite simple: Dante immediately shattered all of his umted spiritual cores and let the converted space elements go free, while the formerly condensed spiritual energy became messy and unclumped again.

    A normal mage doing this would be suicide because they raised their Intelligence and mind power precisely through their Spiritual Cores. However, for Dante, it was the opposite, as his Spiritual Cores rather benefitted from his innate mind power, so minus the loss of power and affinity with space, there was not much else.

    Dante was familiar with the process already, so he gathered up 20,000 points worth of spiritual energy - or 1/10th -and squeezed it into the shape of a core using his extensive psychic ability.

    Like a baker turning dough into cookies, he gathered up the spiritual energy and then shaped them nicely before moving on. Soon enough, he had 10 gleaming spiritual cores that were the size of a skyscraper in his mind space.

    However, as much as they were perfect, they were notplete yet, as they had to be filled with elements in order to work. As such, Dante stood up and teleported to the Sris Horizon E7 and set a course for a nearby Earth-like.

    After jumping through warp space, Dante hurriedly descended upon the, which was still in its ''dinosaur era,'' with only wild beasts rampaging around the without any sapient life present yet.

    Just as well, for Dante arrived near a forest fire and opened the hatch of the spaceship. He closed his eyes and collected all the ambient fire elements into his first spiritual core, soon filling it up to the brim.

    The consequence of this was that the fire was quickly put out, and the area even became chilly, with ice forming on the burnt trees and ground. After all, the very elemental essence that denoted fire and heat had been sucked away by him to fill his huge spiritual core, and given its size, its demands could cripple any inhabited, which was why he chose this ''empty'' one.

    Done with the first core, Dante moved to a sea area and filled his second spiritual core with water elements until the sea level quite literally dropped drastically.

 Chapter 266 Magemaxxing

    <h4>Chapter 266 Magemaxxing</h4>

    Here are the corrected sentences with spelling errors fixed:

    That''s right, after much thinking over this period of time, Dante realized that his original idea of having a space-only power system was bing more and more redundant given the enemies he was facing and the situations he entered.

    The previous Dante did not know about First Gates nor having an SDI of above 100,000 in all fields. Heck, his biggest goal was just to reach 2000 so he could be with Beatrice intimately.

    The current him had a wider scope of view and decided that versatility was more important than raw power. Yes, having all space cores would make even his 1st rank space spells be as strong as, if not stronger, than basic 9th rank spells without a multiplier, but so what?

    If we are talking offensive power, his mage system was no longer the first and best option, not to mention that there would be new power systemsing in soon. As such, he was going to use each one of his ten cores to have an element of its own.

    Funny enough mages severely rmended against this and thought it was trash because a magus with such 10 cores versus a magus with 10 ''pure'' cores was notparable. Thetter could ughter the former like he was their son, versatility be damned.

    Then again, Dante no longer needed to care about what mages thought nor the conventional mage system when their highest Intelligence value was 2200. After all, the base average for the 9th Rank was 2000, and one could raise intelligence slowly afterward through Astral Energy, but the rate was abysmal.

    Whatever the case, Dante''s 10 Spiritual Cores were such: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Lightning, Wood, Light, Darkness, Life, and Death.

    Fire seemed useless because of Inferno Ascension but hellfire was NOT applicable where normal fire was. Water was obvious, wind was obvious, and earth was obvious too. They were the rest of the basic elements.

    Lightning was the strongest offensive element so naturally it was added. Wood was the cross between the life element and earth element in terms of use, but also had summoning capability.

    Light was obvious, to harm dark-rted monsters and it had minor healing and strong offensive power. Darkness was to harm light-rted monsters while it had strong devouring and minor cursing abilities.

    Life was for strong healing of others and possibly resurrection, but Dante would have to find the spell first. Death was purely for necromancy, because why not?

    After filling his cores, Dante was officially a 9th rank mage at the peak of the pyramid! He couldn''t help but smile with pleasure, finally feeling aplished having brought all of his current power systems to their peak.

    Of course, before adding more, it was time to tie up loose ends.

    Dante''s eyes shed as he left the now barren and ravaged which had been piged of its natural elements. From a lush and ignorant ''youngster'' amongs, it was now a decrepit old man heading towards death.

    There was a price to pay for everything.

    However, that was all meaningless in the face of advanced technology and the power of science! Soon,-nourishing machines came and converted ambient potential energy, kic energy, and the likes into vital energy and injected it into the.

    Like a dying person shot with morphine and adrenaline, the trembled and began to work hard to make the most of this by converting the vital energy into the necessary elements to rece what was taken.

    Over the next few centuries, the should restore itself to its peak and be slightly better.

    As for Dante, he returned to the Eternal Universe and inquired upon the progress of the conditions he wanted. Being given the right to amass a private force and establish hispany were easily granted, but there seemed to be difficulty getting the Etraverse Corporation to spit out its special tech.

    Dante sneered as he knew this would happen, and it wasn''t necessarily a problem yet. He was also considering other ways to acquire that technology, especially through the First Gate. If that idiot of the Etraverse Corporation did not know what to do, then he shouldn''t be surprised when his entire corporation was leveled before him and his head smashed open.

    After all, Dante had not yet forgiven the murder attempt by that Supreme Council. That forgiveness was given on the basis that they could fulfill his terms, but if not, they would be subject to the same treatment at any time.

    Now, Dante no longer needed Portia to stand up for him; he could dole out the punishment himself.

    Putting that aside, Dante decided into his virtual avatar within the Magus World. It might seem like a long time since he had been here, but it was only really a month or two, and such that was negligible in the Magus world''s terms.

    Dante stood up from his meditation and cricked his neck. He disappeared with a thought and appeared in Master ndor''s study, where the aged half-elf was working on some documents with a slight smile.

    He raised his head with surprise and rm that a person could get so far into their building without tripping an rm, but rxed when he saw it was Dante. Before he could ask why Dante was here, he sensed Dante''s aura and was filled with shock as he rose to his feet.

    "9-9th rank peak??!!" he eximed shakily.

    "Huh? Also, a Grand Knight?! How could this be?!" Master ndor sat back down with a dazed expression, like he had been hit on the head with a baseball bat.

    He understood Dante was a prodigy and wished to cultivate him fully, but thest time the fellow came here, he was breaking into the 4th Rank! 2 months and he was now at the 9th rank?

    Dante was amused by the fellow''s reactions but did not me him. It was like seeing your nephew or niece who was 4 years old during Thanksgiving dinner and when Christmas dinner came around, they were now 10 years old.

    You''d probably think you were going crazy.

    "It''s time to deal with the Underworld Magisters, Master ndor. What do you think?" Dante suggested with a smile.

    Master ndor snapped out of his trance and pondered. "It''s a good idea, but now that we''re here I feel hesitant. The Wizard Council of Arcanum Haven City would not sit by and let a faction they dislike like us eliminate a faction they like, which are the Underworld Magisters."

    "Even though it''s allowed, they would find ways to interfere without breaking the rules and frustrate us. It would also help solidify their power in the city by announcing what happens to those who they dislike and how they can subtly help those they like."

    "I understand, but I have also fully awakened my demon bloodline. It is twice as strong as any 9th rank mage in this world." Dante revealed in order to give the old man confidence.

    He disyed a smidgen, just a little ounce of his True Qi to Master ndor after diluting it many times. Yet this small amount caused the old man to cough blood and fly backward, crashing into a bookcase behind him as endless fear surged in his eyes.

    Dante hurriedly retracted the True Qi and used a life element spell to help Master ndor heal. However, he only knew up to the?second rank, which was quite pathetic overall with the manyfold boost.

    Master ndor recovered and wiped the sweat from his forehead while casually ncing at Dante. "It''s okay, you don''t have to."

    Master ndor revealed his element, which was wood, and cast a regeneration spell himself which was enough to make him seem younger again. He sat down and smiled at Dante with appreciation, a hint of excitement in his eyes.

    "What a remarkable young man you are, Dante! I don''t know what kind of demon you were in the Abyss Realm, but you certainly must have been a Demon Prince at the least!"

    A prince?

    Dante blinked his eyes and almost felt insulted. In the Demon Realm, it started from low-level demon, to medium, to high, to lord level, prince level, king level, emperor level, and the supreme level.

    By saying Dante was a prince, he was rating him even lower than the Seven Deadly Sins he had created in the form of Aisha, Lucian, and Harold, who were technically at the Emperor level.

    Then again, it was also apt given the diluted smidgen Dante showed him, so Master ndor was rather quite urate in his gauging if anything. His experience was quite impressive as well as his breadth of knowledge.

    "Probably. I want to go and spend the next hour or so brushing up on my spells before we set off." Dante requested with a smile.

    Master ndor waved his hands. "Of course, you must only have up to 4th Rank spells in your inventory, so you have to fill in yourcking arsenal. Take all the time you need, and you can be sure that you will also have unrestricted ess."

    "Thank you, Master ndor." Dante began to stand to leave, but Master ndor stood up to lead him out with a nod while stopping him first.

    "Call me ndor from now on. We are peers, and it''s awkward to hear such honorifics from someone stronger than me." He said with a sincere smile.

    Dante paused and agreed for his sake. "Alright, ndor, thank you for everything."

    After that, Dante entered the library and began to devour spells. Previously, it was tough to learn spells since his Intelligence was low back then, but with 200,000 minimum, he could simply look at a spell and master it.

    He initially stated an hour, but it took about 50 minutes to learn every spell of every element from 1st rank to 9th rank in the Celestial Arcanists'' database. This not only included spells in elements he could not get, like Poison or Sound, Space or Time, but even ''useless'' spells that nobody would learn that acquired dust over the years.

    In no time, he was done, and he prompted ndor that he was ready. ndor sinisterly decided to use this as a stepping stone for the faction and decided to announce to the entire faction to follow them to the Underworld Magisters'' location.

    While everyone was confused and excited, the procession made endless noise and attracted attention under ndor''s ''hard work'', making it such that even folks more than three cities away were aware something was about to go down.

    Those in Arcanum Haven found it more obvious since the direction the procession was heading was obviously towards the Underworld Magisters, and their intentions could not be more clear.

    Naturally, the Wizard Council heard of this immediately, and so did the Knight Order. The Empire''s City Lord''s faction also heard of this, along with other smaller but also important groups.

    For a moment, the entire Arcanum Haven was buzzing with activity as everyone watched and waited with bated breath to see what would happen next. Only the Wizard Council, Knight Order, and City Lord dispatched elite forces to follow along casually, to act as the situation demands.

    Eventually, the procession reached their destination,ing to meet the Underworld Magisters who had gathered around their defense sin full force, ring at the iing group darkly.

    The ce was quite interesting. Just as you''d expect from a faction called ''Underworld Magisters'', the entire ce was styled with a gothic undead vibe, with countless skulls, ck towers with spiky spires and soul fires as well as glowing wisps wandering the walls and gardens within.

    There was a palpable silence as the two factions with long-standing grievances red at each other from ''across the bridge,'' while Dante and ndor stood side by side with amused expressions.

    In the end, the gate of the Underworld Magisters'' estate opened up to reveal Master Volud and his 9 Elders at the 8th Rank and below who had dark expressions. After all, they were not stupid and Dante did not hide his aura, so they could tell what was going on.

    Master Volud himself maintained a slight smile of confidence as he stepped forward and asked: "ndor, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

 Chapter 267 Here Comes The Sun

    <h4>Chapter 267 Here Comes The Sun</h4>

    "There is no pleasure to be found here," ndor replied coldly and arrogantly, not even giving Volud a good look. It was clear he no longer put his peer in his eyes, something which made Volud''s face darken slightly, but he suppressed it and maintained his elegance.

    "Well, seeing youe out like this, it''s as if you n to dere a Faction War against my Underworld Magisters, but that''s impossible, right?" Voludughed with mockery.

    "Nothing is impossible in this world, for we are here precisely to dere war. You have 1 hour to prepare your forces for our attack," ndor stated coldly.

    Volud''sughter cut off as he looked with a hint of surprise and confusion. He nced at ndor for a while to see if his former rival had gone mad and realized he was serious.

    Volud shook his head with disappointment. "And here I actually once measured myself against someone like you, thinking you my equal. ndor, oh ndor, do you really think that the brat beside you reaching the 9th Rank is enough to topple us?"

    Volud clearly held disdain for Dante, for putting aside how short his time of practicing magic was, how strong could he possibly be? He likely just broke through the 9th rank using some forceful means, permanently limiting his future after that.

    Besides, how many 9th rank spells could he have possibly learned in this time? Given his total cultivation time not even surpassing a year, he would be lucky to know any better than 2nd rank spells.

    Dante was likely the weakest rank 9 mage around, no better than an 8th rank mage most likely. Such a person, apart from having endless disdain for them in his heart, Volud felt pity.

    It would only take him a single move to deal with such a weakling.

    ndor could guess what Volud was thinking and also pitied him. If he hadn''t felt it himself, he would not have believed it either and would have had the same train of thought. However, that was fleeting, and the battle was now.

    Still, how could the various factions and powers spectating not interfere at this moment? With a sweep of magical power that was overbearing, three wizards, one old man, one old woman, and a young woman came over on the back of a blue-green wyvern.

    They rudely flew in-between Volud and ndor, facing thetter specifically. Even as Dante frowned and Volud smiled, ndor remained cold and indifferent.

    "Before you dere war, I would like to try and mediate the issue between the two factions. What say you, ndor?" The elderly male wizard stated bluntly with his arms folded behind his back.

    "Leave this ce, for in an hour there will be a bloody fight that follows the rules of war. Anyone deemed to be around or interfering willingly breaks the rules and bes susceptible to punishment," ndor replied straightforwardly, making the faces of the three change.

    "ndor! How dare you speak this way! Your Celestial Arcanists dare to challenge the Wizard Council?" The elderly female witch screeched with anger.

    "As far as I can tell, I am following the rules. By forcibly trying to coerce me under duress, I have leeway to report you to the Inter-ne Magus Council. Unlike a mere city council like you, they will not be prejudiced against us nor favor you," ndor coldly pointed out.

    The faces of the two became incredibly ugly as they knew what ndor said was true; otherwise, would they need to posture? Their council had more than twenty 9th rank mages, meaning that they could easily tten the Celestial Arcanists if it weren''t for a powerful and impartial overseeing force.

    "Humph, ndor, do not try to overestimate yourself. Nothing is set in stone. It''s best to give the council face now and let this matter go than topletely fall out. This is my personal advice to you," the elderly male wizard took a deep breath to calm his rage and advised seriously.

    "I know, don''t worry. You can leave now," ndor was nonplussed.

    "I''m surprised; it seems like not all 9th rank mages live up to the hype."

    Abruptly, a dark and cold voice spoke, which turned out to be from the young woman sandwiched between the two. When she spoke, she nced at ndor with a hint of disdain and derision in her eyes, like she was looking at a clown.

    Suddenly, ndor''s eyes sharpened as he nced at the girl, and a beam of greenish light shot out of his eyes towards her. Immediately, the face of the young woman changed from arrogance to fear, as she felt the pure threat of death wash over her body and soul.

    If that beam hit her, not only would her body be destroyed, but even her soul would be rent into nothing, preventing her from reincarnating ever again!

    "MASTER, SAVE ME!" She screamed as she tried to avoid the attack but felt like it had thoroughly locked onto her.

    "ELANDOR, STAY YOUR HAND!" The female elderly witch cried out as she manifested a hasty barrier to block the sudden attack, but it was shattered with ease.

    The male wizards saw this and rushed to help, manifesting another one, but it was also broken through, injuring him as he nced at ndor with shock.

    "How can he be so strong?! Didn''t the reports say he had stopped mediating and only managed the faction?"

    The beam went on after being weakened twice, only having about 20% of its former power. However, when it struck the final barrier the girl erected to save herself, it easily broke through again and struck her sternum, sending her flying like a rocket.

    She hit the ground with a thud and rolled for a long distance, her body no longer moving as her life and death were unknown. Seeing this, the female wizard who the youngdy called master went crazy as her eyes became bloodshot.

    "ndor, how dare you attack the innocent! You are using your power to bully weaker mages!" She used with hatred.

    ndor snorted. "If that were true, you would have called down for a trans-spatial arbitration. The reason you stand there and not even attack is because you know you hold no ground."

    "Your apprentice vited one of the sacred rules of magedom, which was to disrespect a 9th rank mage!" ndor pointed out.

    The eyes of Volud flickered as she nodded secretly. In truth, he had been appalled when that girl dared to speak to his rival that way, not out of any feelings towards ndor, but because it was a huge taboo.

    Even the two mages with her only blocked ndor''s attack slightly and didn''t dare to negate it or fight back because getting sted away was a mercy. If ndor seriously pursued this, he could have had her spiritual cores shattered then imprisoned, a far worse fate.

    By doing this, he was giving them face and saying that he was not trying to get into conflict with the Wizard Council. Given the situation, they could no longer cause trouble easily and could only pick the youngdy away.

    The elderly?male wizard red at the female one darkly. "You and your apprentice will have to exin yourselves to the council for this."

    "Hmph, that has nothing to do with you," she retorted fiercely, holding her unconscious apprentice gently.

    "It is precisely because of your foolish coddling that she has be like this and even dares to do something like this! Next time, I will not raise a finger to help you defend her if you do not n to discipline her!" The male mage said angrily and looked away.

    The elderly female mage''s face became even uglier, but she could not say anything as the male mage had stepped out of his boundary to help protect her disciple just now.

    Dante heard their talk through his spirit sense which covered the entire area and was amused. That Wizard Council in the city should notst much longer with this much nepotism and carelessness in its ranks, because they might provoke a monster one day.

    For example, the current Dante could tten thempletely if he wanted, but he wouldn''t because this was basically hisst bit of ''immersion'' before pulling out of this worldpletely.

    If anything, he might leave behind a few protagonists and pull them outter when he developed Quantum Entanglement further.

    An hour soon passed as more forces came to watch the show while the others remained in the back without putting any more trouble up front. Volud had long retreated into the base of the Underworld Magisters to take charge of their magic arrays for defense.

    The apprentices of various ranks below in the Underworld Magisters were nervous as their palms became sweaty and full of worry even as they manned their defenses. Meanwhile, those of the Celestial Arcanists were even more nervous as they were the besieging faction and would definitely suffer more losses to take the enemy down even if they won.

    This is why Volud criticized ndor''s deration. Even if he won, it would be pyrrhic as he would have crippled his own faction at best. At that time, the next bloke three feet over could also dere war on you and enjoy the spoils of both defeated factions.

    To work hard for someone else to enjoyˇ­ how could anyone tolerate this? This is why Volud truly thought that ndor had only made a show and nned to issue a non-fatal challenge, like a martialpetition or something.

    However, the elderly half-elf''s actions caused Volud to be filled with worry and fear. The sheer confidence he had now and the power he disyed earlier were even higher than his own!

    Just as the hour came to an end and the Celestial Arcanists expected their leaders to roar out the charge, they noticed that a huge surge of elements was rushing towards the area behind them.

    They turned to look and were silenced into shock as Dante raised a finger above his head, arge ball of fire hovering above the tip of his index that grewrger andrger per second until it was twice the size of the base below.

    Everyone raised their heads to nce at the monstrosity with different expressions, with most of them being shocked, fearful, and confused. They could not understand what they were seeing, even the 9th rank mages in the crowd.

    ording to the spell fluctuations, this was the 1st Rank Fireball spell that every mage knew, regardless of whether they practiced the fire element or not. However, even a 9th rank mage with 10 fire spiritual cores could not produce something sorge so fast.

    Well, that was obvious. After all, a typical 9th rank mage had 10 cores with varying Intelligence from 100 to 200 and sometimes 300. Dante''s single spiritual core for fire alone had 20,000 points within, ten times the total amount of a 9th rank mage.

    The amount of fire element he could mobilize and how far he could pull them from was not something these mages could possiblyprehend. Putting aside the base 150% boost, the fireball above Dante''s head was dark red, to the point of almost being ck, but don''t confuse it for hellfire.

    It was just heat elements so hot and pure that it visually took up such a color. Dante did not waste time and tossed the fireball down when it wasrge enough. ndor suggested that they enact the war properly with the apprentices fighting and then mages of different ranks joined inter.

    However, Dante was not patient enough for that and opted to solve everything at once. This led to the current scene, where everyone seemed to stand in stupefaction as the fireball slowly fell down upon its target.

    Suddenly, a mesmerized voice spoke slowly, almost dreamily, but it was like thunder in the ears of everyone spectating.

    "Looking at the size of that thing and the power contained withinˇ­ should we really be this close?"

    ...

    FUCKING RUN!

    Immediately the dignified and elegant spectators of varying top factions began to scatter like mice while screaming in fear. If this was the spectators'' current state, could you imagine how the Underworld Magisters were feeling?

 Chapter 268 Demons

    <h4>Chapter 268 Demons</h4>

    Quick question: have you ever had the fine opportunity to look up and see a ball of fire the size of two citiesing down upon you without any ce to run to?

    If you have, thenˇ­ how the heck are you alive right now?

    Anyway, the wizards of the Underworld Magisters, from the Unranked Apprentices still trying to form their first spiritual core to those at the 8th rank who formed the elders group with power beneath only Master Volud himself, were all of the same ord at this moment.

    "We''re going to die!"

    "Nooo! Save me! Save me mommy!"

    "Spare me, spare me! I am willing to join the Celestial Arcanists!"

    "Stop! Stop right now and we can let this go!"

    "No, I don''t want to die! Master Volud save us!"

    Screams echoed all over the Underworld Magisters territory as everyone forgot about taking defensive positions and tried to run. They remembered that there should be a teleportation formation for hasty escapes in the core of the building, so everyone rushed there.

    However, they were stunned to see that a barrier was erected outside the core area that knocked them all back and kept them out. Within it, Master Volud along with some of the core members of the Underworld Magisters were hurriedly slotting materials into the formation to activate it.

    The other members of the faction were stunned into silence for a second or two, even as the fireballs reached a few meters above them and began to burn away their skin and flesh. They could not believe that the gentlemanly and elegant Master Volud would sweat like a wretched dog as he hurriedly tried to escape while betraying everyone who put his trust in him.

    At thest minute, the formation activated and sent him and his group away. Till the very end, Master Volud never looked back, not even to gloat or to apologize. It was as if he never really put them in his mind at all, as if there were just insects being sprayed with insecticide.

    BOOOM!

    The entirend shook for miles as fire spread out and raged through many kilometers of distance in all directions. The shockwave and heat swept up to the location of the Celestial Arcanists, but Dante casually erected a spatial barrier around the whole group that isted them from this space.

    This gave the apprentices and wizards of the Celestial Arcanists front row visuals to the scene of what would happen if a nuclear weapon struck the earth, but in a slightly different style. They could not even fathom how they could be safe through all this, and even ndor was shaking because he thought he would die from the fallout.

    Seeing Dante casually iste them using a spatial 7th Rank spell made him shocked. Just how strong was Dante to cast a 7th rank spell in seconds, and even extend it to cover the entire group perfectly?

    If ndor himself tried that, even with 10 spiritual cores full of space and a full 1500% boost, his spiritual cores would likely shatter from the stress. Just what kind of spiritual cores did Dante have to do something like this?

    Not to mention the man himself bluntly stood in the fallout and waspletely unfazed by it. He seemed to be looking at something else as his eyes traced into the distance.

    "Fleeing to the underworld? Just as well, let''s see what the hell of this quantum world looks like." Dante muttered to himself and sent ndor a psychic message to return to the faction and handle the aftermath.

    After all, this was hisst time in this realm, so he couldn''t be bothered to handle the various processes that came after. ndor seemed to realize this as well and became silent, understanding that a mere faction like his with only one 9th rank mage could not keep Dante.

    Most likely, such an exemry young man would end up in the stars, battling other wizards to im nes for himself. As such, he only bid his farewell to Dante and told him to stay safe no matter what.

    Dante nodded and opened a portal that traced the path of Volud and his confidantes using an 8th rank space spell. He then stepped into it and was rapidly brought to a room with a teleportation circle that was slowly disintegrating.

    Immediately, Dante heard a roar of victory.

    "NOW!!"

    Space elements surged crazily around Dante, forming a cage that bound him tightly into it without a way to squeeze out. This was a joint 9th rank spell needed to be cast by at least 9 mages of the same rank and was almost basically a pseudo 10th rank spell.

    When the barrier formed, Dante saw that the 8 mages who cast it were Master Volud and 7 cloaked fellows who radiated a familiar aura. When they saw that Dante had fallen for their trap, they rxed and slumped to the ground while panting.

    However, the joy on their faces could not be hidden. Volud even burst into heartyughter, his eyes quickly bing bloodshot with a myriad of emotions. He pushed himself up to his feet and arrogantly swaggered over to where Dante was.

    "Well, well, ''Master'' Dante, how does our pseudo 10th rank Istion Zone feel?" he asked while folding his arms behind his back regally.

    Dante nced around. "Pretty insidious. It drains the active space elements from sub-space to form a zone where everything within is blocked from that of the outside, except sound. I guess sound is kept so you can hear the begging and screams of your captive?"

    "That''s right, human scum." A rough and gravelly voice spoke as one of the cloaked fellows came over.

    The fellow came to stand beside Volud and towered above him with ease. When the person flipped back their hood, revealing their face, Dante''s eyes narrowed slightly.

    It was as he expected, a demon!

    A high-ranking demon too, which made sense given his magical qualities. This did not intrigue Dante though, as he long knew that demons existed in this world before he showed his hellfire to Master ndor.

    "What are you looking at, human scum? Have you never seen a high-ranking demon with iparably noble blood?" The demon mocked with a hint of pride as it spoke about its own pedigree.

    This left Dante amused. The fellow could not tell what Dante was because of the barrier they themselves had cast; otherwise, without Dante even releasing his aura, they would be sensitive enough to sense his hellfire.

    At that time, their knees would ck together crazily with fear as they would not be able to even remain standing in his presence.

    "No, you''re right. I actually have never seen any high-ranking demons." Dante answered honestly.

    The demon sneered andughed. "That''s right, how could a mere human like youˇŞ"

    "It''s because I''ve mostly only seen a Demon Emperor at the least. I haven''t actually seen anything lower." Dante continued thoughtfully.

    The demon choked on its words and was left speechless. The other cloaked fellows came sound with interest, wanting to see this show for themselves. This made Volud feel dissatisfied since his faction had been destroyed, and this should be his moment to gloat, but he dared notin to these fellows.

    He could only be squeezed out of the range of the barrier with a dark expression, folding his arms coldly. Meanwhile, the first demon had recovered from its shock and looked at Dante incredulously.

    "You? A mere 9th rank mage has seen a Demon Emperor? Hah!"

    Another cloaked fellow removed his hood to disy the face of a small demon with hooked horns. "Such a lie. This meager world cannot even support the existence of a Demon Prince, so none have been dispatched here. How could you possibly have seen an emperor?"

    "Of course, I can see one. I created one myself." Dante continued to y along as he spoke the truth.

    The gathered demons were speechless. They shared uncertain looks, not because what they thought what Dante said was true, but because they realized he was mentally retarded and had delusions of grandeur.

    "Don''t believe me? Just watch." Dante stated as he disappeared from the spatial barrier, making the faces of everyone change.

    They immediately got into fighting positions as they expected Dante to ambush them from any side, so spells were readied up to deal with many situations as it came. However, to the surprise of those in the room, Dante casually reappeared back in the dome a few secondster.

    This left the demons speechless again. What the heck was happening here? Since when was there someone who coulde and go from the pseudo 10th rank spell they set up using all of their spatial elements?

    Dante then waved a hand forward, and three mes in the form of symbols wafted out of the barrier andnded before the group of demons.

    "Come forth, my servants: Aisha, Lucian, and Harold!" Dante called out grandly.

    The me symbols suddenly exploded with majestic light that caused all the demons in the room to be blown back, crashing into various furniture or walls and spitting out blood. As for Master Volud, since he was farther away and did not have a demonic bloodline, he did not suffer as much and only took a few heavy steps backward.

    However, the look of shock and dismay on everyone''s face was equally severe no matter their oue. They watched as the me symbol of a heart that had two horns and a fork-shaped tail coalesced into a slender and sexy body that would set fire to any libido.

    The me symbol of a humanoid stepping on another coalesced into a tall and slender male body that reeked of disdain and superiority. The final me symbol of an aggrieved humanoid face ring at another coalesced into a slightly shorter male form that made one grip their belongings tighter.

    "Aisha greets Lord Dante!"

    "Lucian greets Lord Dante!"

    "Harold greets Lord Dante!"

    The three immediately fell to one knee in obeisance the moment they coalesced. To them, nothing was more important than showing their loyalty the moment they spawned. It was not negotiable for them, even though Dante may feel it was a bit excessive.

    Dante nodded to his three hellfire demons and then focused on the other ones who were stupefied and trembling with fear.

    "So, what do you guys think? Aren''t they Demon Emperors?" He asked with a casual tone.

    It was then that the three hellfire demons noticed that there were others around and finally turned to regard them. Seeing that it was a bunch of high-rank demons, endless disdain appeared in their eyes.

    Lucian couldn''t even be bothered. He directly deleted all knowledge of their existence in his mind and focused on Dante once more. Aisha nced at them up and down before clicking her teeth boredly and turning away as well.

    Only Harold strode over with his hands folded behind his back.

    "You pieces of trash, quickly rise to your feet and greet your superiors!" he roared at them, causing them to scramble up from where they were in fear.

    They quickly lined up before Harold and prostrated themselves on the groundpletely, making the fellow''s face glow with joy. He then stepped on the heads of each demon and ground them into the ground, humiliating them thoroughly while he insulted them deeply.

    Despite this, none of the demons dared to move or retaliate, even replying to the insults with fawning voices. It was a truly pathetic scene and an eye-opener for Master Volud who had been beaten and bullied around by these fellows over the course of his life, forced to be their toady in order to secure resources to raise his rank up to its current level.

    But now, they were willingly humiliating themselves even more exaggeratedly before someone else, and there was no promise of reward!

    Dante chuckled. "Harold, it''s enough; let''sˇŞ"

    Dante only took one step out of the barrier to discuss his next step when his aura leaked into the room. While his three hellfire demons feltfortable and blessed, the other demons did not.

    Before they could even cry out, they all exploded into a blood mist.

 Chapter 269 Heavenly Scroll of the Infinite Paths

    <h4>Chapter 269 Heavenly Scroll of the Infinite Paths</h4>

    Uhhh...

    Dante stood there with stupefaction, and the eyes of the three hellfire demons bulged. Even Volud was stunned into silence as hey on the floor while ncing at the ce where his former ''partners'' were.

    The room fell into a palpable silence.

    Dante had heard that among certain species, bloodline was absolute and had near-metaphysical effects on each other. The Dragon race, the Phoenix race, and, in fact, many beast races had that limitation.

    It seemed that the one for demons was even more intense, as high-rank demons literally exploded into a blood mist upon him being near them without even consciously releasing his aura. Immediately, Dante sighed as he realized his n to subjugate the demon realm of various quantum worlds was now useless.

    It was impossible for him to suppress his aura any further than this, and apart from maybe Demon Princes and above, no one could withstand him. However, Demon Princes were not easy to find in quantum worlds because they surpassed the natural power limit.

    Like here, the strongest beings were 9th rank mages, but thesemon high-rank demons were at the 9th rank and even surpassed the quality of normal 9th-rank mages like Volud byparison.

    Only a special world like the anime world could have demons that Dante needed, but he did not dare to solicit demons from there. If the problem with normal quantum worlds was demons that were too weak, then it was the reverse for that world.

    If Dante tried to solicit demons like Alucard, Dabura, Janemba, or Majin Buu, he would be smashed into paste, 20 million stats be damned. Everyone knew that power levels in anime were not realistic and nonsensical.

    As such, he simply nced at the frightened Volud and flicked his finger, letting a small tongue of True Qind on him. Immediately, the entire realm of the underworld shook, and countless demonic wails sounded out, screaming for help.

    Dante was speechless when - even while Volud was also currently screaming pathetically as he was being cooked to death by hellfire True Qi - every demon within the range of his spirit sense exploded into blood mist as well.

    That was more than 2,000 km, but every demon in that range seemed to be affected by this tiny True Qi and suffered instant death. Who knew how far the actual range was since many demons outside the spirit sense range might have also perished as well?

    Dante began to wonder, am I a demonˇ­ or am I a demon yer? Which is it?!

    With a tired sigh, he collected his three hellfire demons and then left the Magus World. He initially wanted to create some protagonists in passing but decided against it. The limit of this world''s power was too weak; it would not survive in the First Gate without crazy stats.

    When he left, he did not release the trio. He rather directly ''redeemed'' his character ount from the Magus World, showing the totality of his resolve not to go back.

    [Supercoin Settlement for Dante.

    World Name: The Magus World

    World Type: Shared (5% Score Bonus)

    ˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞ

    Online Time: 1093:44:21 (D- Rank)

    Monster Kills: 1,770,000 (B- Rank)

    yer Kills: 239 (B Rank)

    Native Kills: 203,981 (A- Rank)

    Knight Breathing Final Rank: 2nd Rank, True Knight (D Rank)

    Meditation Technique Final Rank: 3rd Rank, Adept Wizard (C- Rank)

    Reputation: A legend among the top echelon, your name will be forever remembered among human and demon alike. (EX+ Rank)

    Final Score: A Rank

    Payout: 100,500 Supercoins (bonus added)]

    Hm, not bad. Dante did not expect much, but this was okay. He was not surprised that his rating for his techniques was low; after all, it was based on his virtual body, not his real body.

    That was why he often strived to train his virtual body sometimes, but he stopped bothering after a while. The only reason he probably even managed a rating this good was due to the final battle where his fireball exterminated an entire faction.

    Unsurprisingly, there were yers among the Underworld Magisters, about 200 of them it seemed. As a top faction with resources to reach the 9th rank, of course, yers would prioritize joining it instead of others.

    Dante entered the True Martial World this time, reconnecting with his avatar he hadn''t used in about 3 months or less. Hmm, thest time he came was actually before he put his ns into hibernation to upgrade them as he had been troubled by the chaos on earth.

    So it was actually about 4 and a half months or so. Whatever the case, when Dante entered his virtual body that was still lying on his bed peacefully, he was quite pleased. He jumped to his feet and stretched his limbs without feeling difort.

    It seemed like after training his virtual body thest time, it paid off as there was no muscle atrophy despite not moving for so long. He then descended with his real body and felt the full extent of his power return.

    Immediately, he wantonly spread his spirit sense out in all directions for 2,000 kilometers. However, unlike any other world where they could not detect nor recognize the spirit sense, this was the world it originated from.

    All Martial Grandmasters and above, as well as those who practiced Internal Arts that had surpassed the 3rd level detected the intrusion. Many expressions became ugly as various powerhouses roared ''impudent'', ''uncouth'' and such words.

    Those with the means tried to punish Dante by attacking his spirit sense, but their furious faces changed to fear and regret the next second as they begged for mercy. However, it was futile as their eyes, nose, ears, and mouth began to spray out ck hellfire, signaling that everything within that person''s head had been burned into g.

    Even their souls were not spared as the hellfire feasted on them before returning to Dante, nourishing his own mind and True Qi. Naturally, the powerhouses who could not react but could sense the intrusion became silent with fear after they ''saw'' what happened to those who attacked.

    They immediately retracted their heads and became like ostriches, not daring to show their faces on the ''public channel'' created by Dante''s overbearing spirit sense.

    2,000 kilometers was not short; Dante had even gone past the boundary of the Great Song Kingdom, which he was currently located in, and affected two other empires, one to the south and another to the northeast.

    Everything to the west was a barren desert with nothing but hostile monster life. Seeing this, Dante felt bored. He opened the game forums and scrolled through to see if there was anything interesting when something caught his eye.

    [Original Post

    Username: ZenMaster1

    Posted: Today, 10:12 AM

    Subject: Mind-Blowing Treasure Chaos in True Martial World!

    Hey peeps, just wanted to throw this out here! Anyone else been following the insanity going on in the True Martial Worldtely? There''s this crazy event happening with a random heavenly treasure, and it''s like nothing we''ve ever seen before.

    Reply 1

    Username: SeekerOfPower

    Posted: Today, 11:24 AM

    Yeah, I''ve been following this closely. It''s like a warzone out there. You can barely move without bumping into a Martial God or Grandmaster of some Internal Art. I heard the treasure can literally rewrite your cultivation technique!

    Reply 2

    Username: CosmicWarriorX

    Posted: Today, 12:50 PM

    What?! Rewrite your cultivation technique? Are you serious? Man, I wish I could log into the True Martial World right now. Stuck in Quantum Economics ss and my AI chip is already busy processing the sybus data.

    Reply 3

    Username: AlienSensei99

    Posted: Today, 1:15 PM

    Hey, I''m an alien here, just joined the Eternal Academy recently. This True Martial World sounds amazing. How do I get in on this heavenly treasure hunt?

    Reply 4

    Username: InnerPeaceMaster

    Posted: Today, 2:05 PM

    @AlienSensei99 Wee aboard, AlienSensei! To ess the True Martial World, you need toplete your orientation. Once you''re a full-fledged student, you''ll get a chance to explore it. But be warned, thepetition can be fierce!

    Reply 5

    Username: MartialSage101

    Posted: Today, 2:30 PM

    Back to the treasure, guys! I saw a video where some Internal Art Grandmaster was trying to sneak up on a Martial God, and it turned into a full-blown duel. The treasure''s gotta be something seriously special!

    Reply 6

    Username: CuriousExplorer77

    Posted: Today, 3:10 PM

    I''ve heard the treasure is called the "Heavenly Scroll of the Infinite Paths". Supposedly, it contains secret techniques from all known martial arts, and you can absorb their essence just by reading it! I mean, who wouldn''t go crazy for that?

    Reply 7

    Username: AlienSensei99

    Posted: Today, 4:00 PM

    Thanks for the info, InnerPeaceMaster! I''ll work hard to get there. The Heavenly Scroll sounds like a universal treasure. Can''t wait to be part of this adventure!

    Reply 8

    Username: TrueMartialMaster

    Posted: Today, 4:45 PM

    I managed to get a glimpse of the treasure, and let me tell you, it''s like the universe itself is contained in those scrolls. Whoever gets their hands on it will be unstoppable! The chaos isn''t ending anytime soon, folks.

    Reply 9

    Username: GrandmasterMonk88

    Posted: Today, 5:30 PM

    I''ve been meditating and observing the chaos. This treasure''s power is truly extraordinary. But remember, it''s not just about power; it''s about wisdom and bnce. Use it wisely, and you may find enlightenment rather than chaos.

    Reply 10

    Username: MysticAlien1

    Posted: Today, 6:15 PM

    @GrandmasterMonk88 Scram! How pretentious! I''m sure some shitty pure human is behind this ount!

    ˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞ

    Forum Notice: ount @Myustic Alien1 has been banned for racism.

    ˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞ

    ˇ­etc.]

    His eyes shed with greed. If he could acquire this scroll, he could take it out, replicate it endlessly, and create an army of Martial Gods with perfected martial arts. As long as he could find a way to raise their SDI, he could create an unstoppable army of killers.

    Immediately, he fished for more details and found the location of the current battle from fellow students. After all, to them,?this battle was out of their league and was just something to spectate, the ''NPCs'' fighting each other.

    It was more like game content or a game cinematic event to them, but Dante knew that every ''NPC'' was fighting with their lives on the line. Unfortunately for them, he now had gotten wind of this, meaning that no one else could have it except himself!

    Dante got up and left his room. He saw Jia Sus diligently training in his courtyard as always, still using the Enhanced Energy Elixirs he gave her. Unsurprisingly, the littledy who could barely enter thest parts of the Body Tempering Entry level was now a full-fledged Martial Warrior peak!

    In just four months, she had reached the threshold of peak Inner Disciples and even some core disciples. If she broke through to the Martial Blood realm, she was qualified to be an elder or even create her own dojo outside.

    When she saw Dante appear, Jia Susu showed joy on her face as she ran over. In her mind, there was no one more important and crucial to her than Dante, the one who had changed her fatepletely.

    Seeing her, Dante softened slightly and patted her on the head gently. He looked at the cute Jia Susu and couldn''t help but think of his child with Beatrice. He hoped that they would be just as lovable as this youngdy.

    "Elder Brother Dante, you''re back! Master Donglei came looking for you a few days back about the selection for core disciples to head to the Provincial Capital." Jia Sus reported after happily enjoying her headpats.

    "Oh? Just as well, I have something to say to him. Follow me along." Dante stated with a smile as he walked casually and freely out of his courtyard, stunning Jia Susu a bit.

    Why does it seem likeˇ­ Elder Brother Dante is different?

 Chapter 270 Heaven Immortal

    <h4>Chapter 270 Heaven Immortal</h4>

    As it turns out, Jia Susu was not crazy, nor was she imagining things. Dante really was different from how he usually was, at least within the True Martial World.

    Dante was a typical ignorant Westerner, and his view of Ancient China was exactly as depicted in the various web novels and webics from the same ce, not the actual history from the history books.

    So he functioned with the idea that everyone here was missing all their screws, and people killed for the stupidest reasons. A young woman could kill because you saw her naked, a man could kill because the girl he liked spoke to you, an old man could kill because you disrespected him by not groveling in his presence, and an old woman could kill you because somehow her disciple or daughter fell in love with you.

    So he usually strutted around acting as arrogant and indifferent as those main characters from those stories. When in Rome, do what Romans do, right?

    But now, his strength was so high that nothing and no one in this quantum world could possibly be his match, so there was no need to act or pretend to be someone he was not, and he could freely be himself.

    That was why Jia Susu felt weird because the cold and aloof Dante suddenly became kinder and more ''normal''.

    Dante walked through the Supreme Martial Hall''s courtyard and saw that his fellow apprentices were practicing diligently as usual. They also spotted him but did not react too strongly. It wasmon for people to disappear into seclusion for long periods of time, especially an Internal Arts user like Dante.

    Shui Binn was often cooped up for months on end in her room, chanting her own Internal Arts'' mantra to convert her base energy into her own Internal Force, so Dante was even more humane in this regard.

    Dante eventually entered the administration hall and walked straight into Hao Donglei''s office. The bald-headed muscleman was chatting with Xia Dongyin, the Hall Elder for Resources, who had a chest bigger than even Beatrice or Portia.

    When the two of them saw hime in, Xia Dongyin''s eyes shed with interest and hidden intent, while Hao Donglei seemed a bit unhappy that his ''private time'' was interrupted. However, he still nodded to Dante and gestured to a nearby seat.

    Dante nced at Xia Dongyin and nodded at her slightly before focusing on Hao Donglei. He smiled and sat down while he let Jia Susu stand beside him.

    It was then that the two noticed Jia Susu''s weaker presencepared to the powerful Dante, and their faces changed greatly. How could someone wearing the garb of a servant disciple possibly be in the perfection stage of the Martial Warrior Realm? Not even some top inner disciples had such achievements!

    Before they could even ask, Dante pped his hands loudly and pointed to himself. "Eyes on me."

    With their attention forcibly brought onto himself, he spoke casually. "I need you to contact the Martial God behind the Supreme Martial Hall in order to tell him two things."

    Dante raised his index finger. "First, I will be heading to the Ancient True Continent to fight for the Heavenly Scroll of Infinite Paths, so he can follow me if he wants to fish for benefits."

    Dante then raised his middle finger to stand beside the other. "Second, Jia Susu will take my ce as a core disciple of this hall and head to the provincial capital."

    Before they could speak, Dante chuckled. "Don''t worry, I am not interested in making demands without sufficient proof of capability. How does this feel?"

    Dante released his Blood Qi aura and let it envelop the entire city and beyond, wantonly releasing all his Blood Qi for the first time in his life. To his own surprise, the range easily surpassed his spirit sense, and even though his aura could not function as a spirit sense, he could tell that it stretched over the entire continent he was on and more, passing over the sea area inhabited by countless powerful demon beasts.

    Immediately, everyone within this range had their faces change greatly as endless fear surged into their hearts and souls. All of them, almost in synchronization, shouted out ''Martial God!!!'' and nced at the sky.

    Even more so when they felt the depth of the Blood Qi, even those who were ignorant of how the Martial God realm worked could tell that this was a Martial God that surpassed any Martial God.

    The Blood Qi aura was so potent that many people who did not have any cultivation suddenly broke through into Body Tempering. Those at Martial Warrior entered Martial Blood, and Martial Blood became Martial Masters.

    Even crazier was that Martial Masters became Martial Grandmasters.

    Oh God, even Martial Grandmasters became Martial Gods on the spot!!!

    Martial God!!

    The peak of the External Arts realm, craved by billions but had stopped more than 99.99% of Martial Grandmasters worldwide from enjoying it, was now easily essed by all Martial Grandmasters within the range of Dante''s aura, be they human or beast.

    As for Hao Donglei and Xia Dongyin, they were directly in front of Dante, so the former became a Martial God while thetter easily became a Martial Master, even reaching the peak.

    Strangely enough, Jia Susu did not break through, but she did sense the aura. In fact, she sensed it more intimately than the others, and rather than gaining a breakthrough, she gained enlightenment and insights into how Blood Qi worked.

    Suddenly, Dante retracted his aura, and everything seemed to be clouds and mist, like a dream that had happened but one could not remember. However, everyone who broke through could not forget, and their faces turned toward the direction of the Supreme Martial Hall from wherever they were across the sea and continent.

    Hao Donglei and Xia Dongyin were still in a daze from the aura they felt and the breakthrough they had, but Dante snapped a finger and brought them out of it.

    Hao Donglei rapidly shook his head to clear his thoughts and stood up with respect. "At once! I will immediately inform the Martial God of our faction! How long will you be willing to wait for him?"

    "Oh, nothing that critical. Just let hime as fast as he can," Dante replied casually, crossing his legs.

    Hao Donglei nodded and left to make the preparations immediately, leaving him alone with Jia Susu and Xia Dongyin. When Dante nced at the woman, her whole body trembled. One thing about this Hall Elder was that she survived by being down-to-earth and knowing her limits.

    When she did not know Dante''s true power and pedigree, she dared to plot to use a honey trap on him. Now that she had seen only 0.1% of his pedigree, she did not dare to even think about breathing too loudly in his presence.

    "Hahaha. Take this and find a boy called Liang for me. Simply give the item to him and return here with him in a day at most," Dante instructed her as he used Nanite Resonance to craft a tracker for Xia Dongyin and tossed it to her.

    Xia Dongyin easily caught it and nced at it with confusion. However, it soon disyed a 3D map of the entire Great Song Kingdom and showed a red dot where Liang was, around 300 kilometers away and where Xia Dongyin was as a blue dot, in Green Wind City.

    "Simply follow the map to the red dot and?hand the item to him. Now go," Dante instructed simply.

    The woman bowed, creating a marvelous sight that made Jia Susu''s face go red, and then left. As for Dante, he was thinking about Liang''s location, which was that valley where he left resources for him.

    In truth, when he left back then, he didn''t think he woulde back, but he had to wrap things up properly. Anyway, Dante gave Jia Susu more Enhanced Energy Elixirs and let her train by the side.

    In no time, Hao Donglei hurriedly returned and informed Dante that their Martial God would be arriving in about 2 hours as they were traveling from the capital of the Great Song Kingdom at full speed.

    Dante nodded and waited patiently. Before Xia Dongyin came back with Liang, a strong aura made itself known to Green Wind City, causing the faces of everyone with some power to change.

    However, the aura rapidly approached the Supreme Martial Hall and converged, bing indistinct from normalcy. This caused everyone to have countless spections since the original overwhelming aura that caused many of them to level up also came from there.

    Within the hall, though, an old woman appeared in the administration hall beside Hao Donglei. She looked to be in herte fifties, with graying hair tied into a bun and very slight wrinkles on her face.

    She was freakishly tall at almost 6 foot 6 and had a somewhat voluptuous body that had not even begun to sag, like it hadn''t realized what age it was. She wore a long Daoist robe and had fluctuations of potent Blood Qi around her since she was using her full power to rush over previously.

    Looking at her, Jia Susu seemed moved and inspired, as if looking at what she wanted to be in the future. Hao Donglei looked at her with utter respect and obeisance, a hint of filial affection as well.

    As for Dante, he was surprised because he sensed that she had the aura of extreme stability in her realm, meaning she was not a low-level Martial God but a rtive moderate one. On top of that, his superior senses could detect that she had the aura of lightning on her, meaning she practiced a lightning element Internal Art.

    Tsk, no wonder the Supreme Martial Hall was so powerful that even the Great Song Kingdom and all nearby kingdoms were forced to have its branches in every city. This is a top-notch Martial God who also had an Internal Art!

    Who would not dare to give her face??

    She also seemed to be checking out Dante, and what she sensed made her expression change greatly. "Perfection Internal Art! True Qi! You are a Heaven Immortal!"

    That''s right. Don''t forget this was a martial arts wuxia world, not an immortal cultivation xianxia world. The realms and terms they used were different though some were generally simr.

    The External Arts system was straightforward, and all the names were maintained. However, the Internal Arts system was a bit mixed due to influences from ''higher realms'' down here.

    Internal arts had up to 10 levels. The quality of the Internal Art was decided by the number of levels it had. However, that wasn''t important, but what was actually relevant was the fact that actually achieving these stages as a practitioner afforded different titles.

    Achieving the first level made one an Internal Disciple. Achieving the third level made one an Internal Master. Achieving the fifth level made one an Internal Grandmaster, while getting to the seventh level made one a Human Immortal.

    Reaching the 9th level made one an Earth Immortal, and reaching the final tenth level, which for all Internal Arts condensed true Qi, made one a Heaven Immortal!

    The gap between Early Immortal and Heaven Immortal was as far as the sky. Having reached the peak, Dante could affirm that Internal Force was like water that was filled with dirt and waste, while True Qi was like Mount Fiji water.

    Her reaction was justified because Dante stood at the peak of this world in terms of realm. Internal Arts users were far superior and more respected than External Arts users due to their scarcity and the kind of power they would manifest.

    As an Internal Disciple, an Internal Arts user - even without practicing External Arts - could defeat up to an early-stage Martial Blood realm warrior. An Internal Master could ughter up to Martial Grandmasters, and an Internal Grandmaster could suppress any Martial God with ease.

    The Human, Earth, and Heaven Immortals were in leagues of their own, living closer to the center of the world and controlling all the top resources and powers with ease.

    However, Dante, a young man who casually sat before her, was one of them!

 Chapter 271 Liangâ€™s Fate

    <h4>Chapter 271 Liang''s Fate</h4>

    The Martial God of the Supreme Martial Hall had initiallye here because of the aura she felt that transcended the limit of what the Martial God realm could reach, but now that she saw that the same person was also a Heaven Immortal whose True Qi was so potent it caused her own Internal Force to tremble, she could not stay calm.

    Hao Donglei also heard the term ''Heaven Immortal'' and was stunned. Bing a Martial God was one thing, but reaching the peak in Internal Arts? The requirement on talent and time was stringent.

    As for Jia Susu, she heard ''Heaven Immortal'' and nodded her head with a look of ''as expected''. Well, she didn''t know what the hell that term meant, but it sounded cool and powerful, and her awesome Elder Brother Dante definitely deserved to be called that.

    "Greetings. Let''s chat while we wait a bit for something," Dante offered the Martial God who was still stupefied.

    She snapped out of her stupor and bowed respectfully before sitting down. With a graceful smile, she introduced herself immediately. "My name is Mei Leiluo."

    "My name is Dante, it''s a pleasure to meet you," Dante responded casually.

    Soon, the two began to share basic pleasantries and chatted on useless topics for a while. The entire time, Hao Donglei stood to the side like an errand boy, while Jia Susu''s mind wandered, dreaming of scenes where Dante took her to eat delicacies until her belly became huge, and he carried her back home.

    Funny enough, the entire time, Mei Leiluo''s eyes often fell on Jia Susu, estimating her importance to Dante and also marveling at her monstrous talent to reach her level by the age of 16.

    Seeing her interest, Dante smiled with amusement. "You need not wonder. This is Jia Susu, my former servant disciple who solely attended me but is now my rmendation to take my slot as a former core disciple of the faction."

    Mei Leiluo was surprised, then she became shellshocked. She took her eyes off Jia Susu and then ced them on Dante as if looking at a scammer. Former core disciple? Do you mean to say that you were a student here previously?"

    Hao Donglei coughed. "That''s right. Dante joined our faction over 8 months ago during our annual testing, and he was detected to have the base blood energy of a Martial Grandmaster back then, so I directly recruited him as a core disciple and gave him some privileges."

    "That was you?! No wonderˇ­" Mei Leiluo''s eyes shone with understanding.

    "You heard of me before this?" Dante asked with surprise.

    Mei Leiluo chuckled as she leaned back in her seat. "Of course, I built this faction from the ground up. All the techniques you see were either purchased by me, designed by me, or fought for by me across the world throughout my life. I pay attention to many major developments and news about your existence shook the faction deeply that even I heard about it."

    "You were praised as the next Martial God of the faction, and many have been eagerly rubbing their hands while waiting for you at the Province-level topete with you and test your mettle. However, it seems that such a thing is pointless as you have ascended beyond their wildest dreams."

    Mei Leiluo shook her head when she thought of the many geniuses who had been moring to beat Dante down, even in the capital headquarters where she was. If those fellows saw him now, they might just explode into blood mist from his aura.

    Dante nodded his head and continued chatting with Mei Leiluo, this time gathering some basic information about this realm, its history, and the interesting things she encountered on her travels.

    Jia Susu and Hao Donglei listened with enraptured expressions, gasping when Mei Leiluo narrated her dangerous encounters and cheering when she overcame them. Dante was busily logging the details in his AI chip for another purpose.

    Soon, Dante received a ping on his AI chip and smiled. "Well, we have a guest now. Hao Donglei, go and bring them in, please."

    Hao Donglei nodded and walked outside, while Mei Leiluo curiously scanned the area. She also had a spirit sense due to her reaching level 6 in her Internal Art, but its range was limited.

    When she saw Hao Donglei opening the gate for Xia Dongyin, her brows furrowed and she couldn''t help but roll her eyes. Looking at how Hao Donglei''s eyes never left that swaying chest, one could tell that he was fully enraptured by that woman.

    It was only a moment or soter that she noticed the conspicuous boy that followed her. He was only about 13 years old and had the makings of being a peerlessly handsome young man when he matured, but there was nothing else special about him.

    However, the fact that Dante could call him here made him unique for some reason, right? As such, she decided to probe a bit further, but was surprised when her spirit sense was rebuffed from thed''s body.

    Even more shocking was the fact that his eyes, which were casually scanning the courtyard of the Supreme Martial Hall, locked onto her even from outside the building, as if he could see through the walls.

    Dante rolled his eyes and nced at Mei Leiluo speechlessly. You dare to investigate a protagonist? Do you think just because you are a bit old, you can be spared from being tricked into his harem?

    Be careful, or in 50 or so chapters, you will be bearing his children and go from a fierce Martial God to a toothless housewife who simpers for her husband.

    Hao Donglei brought the two in, and Xia Dongyin''s eyes shed with severity when she saw Mei Leiluo. She immediately bowed and greeted her, to which Mei Leiluo responded with a smile and a nod.

    Xia Dongyin felt greatly blessed and bade farewell after reporting to Dante that her mission waspleted. Hao Donglei looked around and realized he would be no longer needed here and also left.

    Feeling awkward, Jia Susu also wanted to leave, and surprisingly, Dante allowed her to but instructed she must stand just outside and wait. Seeing this, Mei Leiluo understood that Dante had some private matters to discuss with the boy who just came in and randomly made an excuse about inspecting the disciples of the faction to leave.

    Soon, it was just Dante and Liang, and the two stared at each other in silence. Dante expected him to speak first and inquire about many things, but the fellow wore an indifferent expression and seemed unconcerned.

    This made his lips twitch because, boy, I literally gave you your system and personality. There is no one more anxious than you right now, standing in front of what should be the creator and owner of your ''golden finger,'' but you dare to try and act nonchnt?

    Man, what was wrong with these protagonists?! Will you die if you act like a normal person for two seconds and stop that ''neither servile nor overbearing'' shit? Like, don''t you get tired of squeezing your face and not feeling emotions every day?

    "Haahˇ­. Liang, or the Whispering Death, let''s get this over with," Dante finally caved because?he really did not have time to y games with this stuck-up protagonist.

    He simply sent an info pack into Liang''s subordinate AI chip containing everything he was going to waste more than an hour exining in one. Liang''s eyes suddenly zed over as he received and processed the information.

    Dante patiently waited for about 5 minutes until Liang was done and his eyes seemed full of emotion for once. He seemed lost and unable to decide what to do, so ironically, he became more like a real youth as he stood before Dante awkwardly.

    "So you''re up to speed. The Whispering Death isn''t real, it''s just a persona I created for you because the original you was not ruthless enough to maintain your sister''s safety," Dante stated with a smile.

    "Oh," was all Liang said, his eyes showing that he clearly did not believe Dante. He could believe the whole shtick about quantum realms, the Eternal Universe, and superpowers, but he would not believe that his former life was fake.

    This was exactly why Dante refused to use the Eyes of Illusion on his family or friends ever again. Even Beatrice had to be thoroughly reassured and convinced that her memories were fake, and she literally knew everything about Dante.

    Liang, who only knew some general information, would definitely not believe it. Not to mention that these protagonist-type characters were the most distrusting fellows in the universe. They only trusted themselves and their judgment, no matter how wrong it was. Usually, the world would bend itself to validate their opinions and judgments as well.

    Dante couldn''t be bothered to go back and forth. "So here''s what''s gonna happen. I''m going off to go and fight for some heavenly treasure at the center of this realm that can be useful where Ie from."

    "You, on the other hand, have a choice. I will leave you as you are and drop you some Enhanced Energy Elixirs so you can cultivate yourself, or I can upgrade your system and grant you a whole new range of abilities that you could have never dreamed of," Dante offered casually with a look of interest in his eyes.

    You could say that this was the typical second turning point for a protagonist. His first was acquiring his golden finger, and his second was making a decision between two huge things, mostly to do with his golden finger.

    Usually, the protagonists in stories always made the right decision, but Dante felt like Liang was more poised to make the wrong one. After all, who would trust someone to ce something in their bodies even if it was for an upgrade?

    Liang seemed stumped and pondered silently for almost 10 minutes. Eventually, his eyes became bloodshot as he nced at Dante deeply and spoke with a hoarse voice.

    "Pleaseˇ­ give me the upgrade."

    Dante was stunned for a few seconds. He looked at Liang up and down and began to wonder if he truly had created something that was close to the truth. All this time, he called Liang a ''protagonist,'' but it was mostly with a disdainful and sarcastic tone.

    Even Dante did not dare to consider himself a protagonist, much less that someone he casually blessed could be one. However, Liang was truly shaping up to be such a person since he was able to make the right choice at this moment.

    Dante nodded and took out some high-quality nanites and used Nanite Resonance at full power to modify them. He sent them into Liang''s body, causing the fellow''s system to reboot and gain new functions.

    The new functions were also truly great, and Liang''s system was truly OP. Dante even used his Quantum Core ability to modify the rules of this world slightly to make Liang a true protagonist, at least within this realm.

    Such a modification did not trigger the AI managing this world, as its directive for a subroutine was to randomly pick protagonists for each era, and it still had some slots open. Giving one to Liang now did not create any stir; it was like casual nepotism.

    Changing rules that already existed by a small amount was safe. What was dangerous was modifying rules by arge amount or even worse, creating new rules out of nowhere or deleting old rules.

    After sorting out Liang, Dante spoke. "You can explore your new abilities. I have given you the power necessary to stand out, as well as the means to start your own faction. Try and raise some capable elites, and I wille for you guys and take you to the Eternal Universe when you arepetent."

    Liang snapped out of his stupor at analyzing his new abilities and resolutely bowed before Dante. You know how these protagonists were, they would never trust you until you dumped loads of ''cash'' onto them, then they would suddenly take you as their benefactors and swear to pay you back.

    Dante opened a portal for Liang to return to where he was and managed his sister who had begun to recover. Interestingly, from the world rules, Dante could tell that Liang''s sister was already a chosen protagonist of this era and the strongest one.

    But hehe, that was a problem for Liang to deal with. Cmities would be iing for both him and his sister, and if young Liang didn''t take advantage of his upgraded system features, he would be fodder for someone else.

 Chapter 272 Goodbye, True Martial World!

    <h4>Chapter 272 Goodbye, True Martial World!</h4>

    After dealing with Liang, Dante called Mei Leiluo back and instructed her to follow him. As for Jia Susu, she would remain at the Supreme Martial Hall''s Green Wind City branch and be nurtured by Hao Donglei personally until she was ready to ascend to the province level.

    In the meantime, Dante casually cast a 9th Bank teleportation spell that took them exactly where he wanted to go. This spell could even cross nes for 9th Rank mages; crossing continents was pretty easy.

    When the two stepped out on the other side, they found themselves within the scope of a barren wastnd with craggy rocks and huge craters.

    Mei Leiluo looked at this destion in disbelief. "Would you believe me if I told you that this was previously a beautiful forested area withkes and rivers?"

    Dante smiled knowingly. "I can tell. The traces of battle still linger, and it seems like we are not toote."

    Mei Leiluo was startled and scanned the area with her spirit sense. Her range was far less than Dante''s, only reaching about 12 kilometers, so it was not enough to see the ongoing chase that was happening.

    Dante simply gestured ahead and took a step forward, moving hundreds of meters per second while bringing along Mei Leiluo using a simple wind element spell of the 5th rank.

    Mei Leiluo floated slightly above the ground on a current of wind, the world around her bing a blur as she rapidly moved forward.

    Soon, they arrived at a zing area that was on fire. Thunderous explosions echoed, and the sky was illuminated with various colors.

    Mei Leiluo''s face changed greatly as she retracted her spirit sense. She could sense the battle fluctuations directly and knew that releasing her spirit sense around fellow Internal Arts users was the fastest way to get detected and attacked mentally.

    Dante, however, had no such qualms. He directly arrived above the battlefield, looking down on the free-for-all between over 100 Martial Gods and nearly 40 Internal Arts users.

    What surprised Mei Leiluo was the fact that there were no Immortals. That is, there were no human, earth, or heaven immortals around, which left her puzzled.

    This kind of item had ignited the entire world in greed and battle. Mei Leiluo had been keeping tabs on the entire affair from her base in the Great Song Kingdom''s capital and knew that the death toll of experts had surpassed the triple digits.

    If it weren''t for the fact that this world was not threatened by some external invasion plot, they would have been practically crippled in terms of overall battle power.

    As for civilian casualties, well, who bothered to record the deaths of a bunch of ants?

    Dante, though, did not care. He immediately identified the party that was carrying the scroll, which glowed with divine power. It was clear that the person could not use, destroy, or store the scroll due to its nature, so unless they defeated all enemies or escaped, this battle royale would continue.

    Dante reached out a hand and made a pulling motion. The Internal Arts Grandmaster who was holding the scroll with a death grip was shocked to have it yanked out of his hand and up into the sky.

    This immediately caused the fighting to stop as everyone''s expressions changed. Their heads snapped towards the sky to see the smiling Dante who collected the scroll and Mei Leiluo, who was nervous beside him.

    Dante did not even pay them any attention and ced the scroll in his quantum space. No matter how special this item was, in the face of the almighty Quantum Entanglement, it could only lower its head in obedience.

    Just as he opened a portal to leave, he heard a roar from below. When he turned with a frown to look down, the variousbatants were rushing into the sky with bloodshot eyes, not caring about anything as they did not want Dante to just reap the reward without paying a price.

    Dante pondered to himself. "Hmm, this is Eastern Fantasy, right? They often have things like Forbidden Zones and Inheritance Zones. Let''s leave one here."

    Mei Leiluo did not understand what Dante was saying as he muttered to himself like this, but her face changed from confusion to utter terror when she saw Dante snap his fingers.

    Immediately, a giant portal opened up in the sky, and arge humanoid hand made of bones covered with ck energy mmed down, smashing all the iing warriors into the ground and causing the entire continent to tremble.

    9th Rank spell, Skeleton God''s Palm!

    The death energy spread around the crater and covered the entire ce. Thend that was already beaten up became worse, a ck miasma rising from the earth and spreading around to cover the entire fallout zone.

    Filled with pure death energy and elements, anyone with enough talent couldprehend death element-rted abilities or even create unique Internal Arts and even some External Arts.

    However, those without sufficient strength would be assimted by the zone and be undead at best, at worst, they would simply disintegrate, their body and soul being destroyed, preventing them from entering the cycle of reincarnation forever.

    An Inheritance Zone and a Forbidden Zone all in one!

    Dante felt satisfied and nced at Mei Leiluo, whose pupils had constricted to the max. The void behind the skeleton palm gave her a feeling of great fear, not to mention the palm itself, which could easily extinguish her existence.

    Then the leftover fallout was enough to give her great trouble if she entered unprepared, even as a Martial God and Internal Arts Grandmaster. Basically, only Human Immortals and above were qualified to enter, or Martial Gods with more than three times the average Blood Qi of someone in the same realm.

    "If you know them, you can go and raid their home bases for resources. This is my gift to you," Dante stated straightforwardly and took out a piece of paper that his Quantum Clone had fetched from the Eternal Universe.

    He smiled and imbued the paper with magic, then tossed it to the dumbfounded woman. "This is a magic scroll with the 4th Rank Trans-Spatial Movement spell, allowing you and up to three people to travel anywhere within 100,000 kilometers by forming a portal on the spot."

    "It has about 50 uses, so manage it well. Use it to get to the locations of these guys'' factions and raid them before the news spreads."

    Dante then paused and turned to nce at her onest time. "Also, make sure to take good care of Susu."

    He then took his real body out of this quantum world and redeemed his ount, ending his run here. Mei Leiluo simply stared at the spot where Dante had once stood with a dazed expression, her braingging as she tried to process everything.

    "Did Iˇ­ just meet a god?" She asked herself in a muted voice.

    [Supercoin Settlement for Dante.

    World Name: The True Martial World

    World Type: Shared (5% Score Bonus)

    ˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞˇŞ

    Online Time: 1511:12:04 (D+ Rank)

    Monster Kills: 0 (F Rank)

    yer Kills: 0 (F Rank)

    Native Kills: 156 (EX- Rank)(AN: Because of the specific people, not the number itself)

    External Martial Arts Final Realm: (Martial Blood, Entry level 12% (A- Rank)

    Internal Martial Arts Final Realm: (Level

    1, Internal Disciple (D- Rank)

    Reputation: A supreme who will be remembered for being the greatest Martial God and Human Immortal to ever grace the world. (EX+ Rank)

    Final Score: S- Rank

    Payout: 525,000 Supercoins (bonus added)]

    Dante returned to The Inferno and sighed as heid on the sofa within the observation deck. Beatrice was not here, spending much-needed time with her mother while Portia stressed and micro-managed every aspect of Beatrice''s prenatal care.

    One condition Portia raised was that Dante could freely spend time with Beatrice as she was his partner, but they couldn''t get intimate. Dante wholeheartedly epted this as he wasn''t really into pregnancy sex in the first ce, not to mention he would be busy for a while.

    It was Portia''s turn to enjoy her daughter. When Beatrice gave birth, he would seize back his wife and the mother of his child!

    "Oh right, new power system," Dante muttered as heid deeper into the sofa.

    It was time to add some more useful powers to his repertoire. External Arts/Internal Arts, Knight Breathing/All Element Magic, and Eyes of Illusion upied three slots, and he had a total of five, meaning he still had two free slots.

    Well, thepany establishment was still underway since Beatrice told him she would surprise him with something in a month, so Dante was willing to wait. He was also still waiting on the technological information for the quantum world hosting, so there was a dead end there too.

    In the end, the only thing he could do now was to casually scroll through quantum worlds and see which ones interested him. He was not really searching for one with great utility, more or less having great synergistic power overall.

    In other words, he was not looking for ''cool'' or ''overpowered,'' but rather something that would fill in the gaps that his current array of powers could not. This caused him to browse through rapidly until hended on a world he had considered in the past but put aside because he was not sure how it would work.

    [World Name: The Beastmaster World

    World Owner: Eternal Academy

    World Creator: Eternal Academy

    World Size: Super

    World Type: Shared

    World Genre: Beast Taming

    Bionics Allowed: No

    Psionics Allowed: No

    Superpowers Allowed: No

    Requirements: Student ID

    Duration: Unlimited.

    Description: This is a world that has been styled in a pure tribalistic setting. Humans in this world have to contend with powerful beasts that can disy great power, but also have the unique ability to tame these beasts and share their power, along with allowing these beasts to grow.

    Objectives: Tame the most and the strongest beasts.

    Limitations: All Bionics and Psionics are not allowed because they are not needed. Superpowers are also banned, and AI chips cannot be used.

    Provisions: You will be able to choose your starting point, which will influence the speed of your growth as well as your final score. The higher your starting point, the lower the difficulty multiplier for the payout.]

 Chapter 273 Hello Summoning World!

    <h4>Chapter 273 Hello Summoning World!</h4>

    Well, Dante only inspected the world but did not enter right away. In truth, while he did consider the ''external'' help type of power system, beast mastering or beast taming had different iterations.

    There was the rank system of beast taming, where beasts were separated into stages and broke through each major stage in a simr manner to Eastern Fantasy martial arts or cultivation. Beasts of this system usually were Asian or oriental in nature and they possessed attributes.

    Naturally, Dante least considered this system for his use because they were the most useless to him. Beasts of this system typically required a lot of time and work to manage, and although they sometimes fed power back to the beast master, it wasn''t much.

    Besides, elemental beasts were the most useless since Dante could cast any spell of any element himself, why would he need a beast to do it for him?

    The other type were the capture-type beast mastering, which was based on the famous Pok¨¦mon. These beasts do not harm humans and naturally live mostly in tandem, but can be captured using special means and enved into battle until death.

    Of course, there were things like ''bonds'' and ''trust'' that the humans often said tofort themselves that they weren''t actually just taking part in a massive, cross-continental animal fighting ring.

    Dante also did not need this system. While he did not necessarily need the beasts to feedback their power to him, the capture-based style also featured elemental monsters in the end. Though they were convenient because they leveled up and evolved on their own through fighting or even experiencing life.

    There was also partner-based beast mastering to consider, which was the type seen in mostly Dungeons and Dragons-style settings. This involved a single man with the right aptitude binding his life within a single beast where the two shared their senses with each other.

    For example, a man and a wolf, a man and a bear, and so on.

    There were other styles of beast mastering after these, and Dante flipped through them but did note up with anything that felt like it was the one for him. Eventually, he did fall on one option which made him pause and actually sit up a little.

    It was a world for summoners!

    That''s right, while it was not exactly full-on beast mastering, one could call it an offshoot of normal magic and beast masteringbined!

    This one featured ssical summoning rules, a stable power system with stages for each summoner to reach to unlock ''soul tethers'' that could bind summoned beasts to them. Simr to other school worlds, the levels only reached up to 10 from what Dante could see from the forums.

    "Well, let''s take a look first," Dante muttered as he chose to enter this world.

    It was a school world, so the usual rules applied. When Dante began designing his descent, he decided to go with the biggest possible background after doing some research. There was no need to enter a faction and be low key because he mostly surpassed the maximum level of this world conventionally.

    When he made his decision, the system even warned him that there would be a 90% reduction in his Supercoin payout at the end, but Dante did not much care. The current wealth he had in that regard was enough to make the school''s Central AI bite its teeth day and night.

    In fact, there was pretty much nothing that the school could offer that Dante could not afford. Finding something useful for him to buy was the biggest issue.

    When hended in the world, he opened his eyes to see that he was currently seated in a majestic hall that wasrge enough tofortably fit giants. He was currently in the center of focus, sitting on a throne beside a man that was guarding him to his left.

    The man was staunch yet fully cloaked, only revealing his serpentine yellow eyes that were curved into slits. In the room, spread across a row of stands were men and women, even children, of extremely potent attire radiating energies that made Dante''s eyebrows rise.

    Based on his senses, most of these men and women could one-tap Mei Leiluo while others were either at her level or slightly lower. Even the children were stronger than ordinary Internal Grandmasters.

    In the center, where most of the space in this gigantic chamber was left, was a huge array that Dante immediately identified was for the purposes of summoning. He could tell because due to the background he chose, the AI of this world was forced to ce some knowledge of his current situation in his mind in order to generate this scene.

    "Saint Child Dante, please go ahead and begin when you are ready," the man to his left spoke softly, trying to convey respect but his raspy voice made him sound sinister.

    That''s right, Dante chose to be the literal Saint Child of the biggest ''sect'' in the Summoner''s World, the Holy Saint Summoners. They weren''t exactly an eastern fantasy-style sect but did have many characteristics of one.

    Today was his first summoning session, which would decide his fate. In this world, summoning was decided by two things, the quality of your soul (and soul tethers) and your affinity (luck basically).

    Students who descended all started out with the usual 1 point in all fields, and this didn''t really affect anything. The quality of the soul had nothing to do with the Intelligence stat on your SDI; it was purely spiritually based.

    How this quantum world detected something like that and calcted it was part of the secret of the Eternal Academy and their notoriously high-quality school worlds.

    Dante was curious as to what he would turn up, so he raised his head and smiled at the crowd. Every eye focused on him, waiting to see how?his first ceremony would go and whether he lived up to the ''hype.''

    "Greetings, envoys and friends from afar. I am grateful you could make it here to see my first summoning ceremony," Dante greeted everyone pleasantly, surprising them.

    This was his first debut in public as the Holy Saint Summoners had hidden him from the world as part of his training, then invited all of them here to witness this event with pomp and arrogance.

    It was nice to see that he was good at public rtions, which was also strange since it was a well-known fact that such Saint Children, even in other factions, usually had their noses so high up in the air that one could see the hairs within.

    "I will now release my aura. Due to special training and circumstances, it might rm you all, so please be prepared," Dante warned with a soft smile.

    He did not wait for their reactions and directly descended with his main body. While he said he would release his aura, that was obviously not true because if he didn''t, they might all burst into a blood mist.

    However, just being around them could cause extreme stress since he could not conceal his stats. Blood Qi, True Qi, Spiritual Cores, and Life Essence he could hide, but not those 200,000 points in all fields.

    Just as soon as he descended, the faces of everyone changed greatly as sweat formed on their brows and their bodies trembled. Some directly spat out blood andy in their seats weakly, ncing at Dante with horror.

    The serpentine man beside Dante morphed into a wyvern and leapt away from Dante, his slitted pupils dting rapidly as he stared at Dante with shock and fear. The humans could only sense Dante''s bodily strength, but for this wyvern that disguised himself as a human, even though 200,000 in all fields was exemry among the Dragon race, it was not enough to make it recoil so strongly.

    However, as a magical beast with one of the best bloodlines, he could sense something deeper. In his eyes, Dante who sat there was surrounded with a cloud of ckish-red me that seemed to burn reality itself.

    Suddenly, the ckish-red me congealed and formed the face of a supreme demon. The demon face turned to nce at the wyvern with utter disdain and released a red light from its eyes that struck the draconic beast head-on.

    The man-turned-wyvern was immediately sent flying the next moment, crashing into the wall and bing nearly unconscious.

    All of this, of course, urred only within the wyvern''s spiritual mind. He was still sent flying in reality, but no one else could see the manifestation of Dante''s True Qi, only thinking that he had suffered a bacsh for being the closest to Dante physically.

    Dante nced at the fellow speechlessly, wondering if he was alright in the head. He was standing there one moment and then sent flying the next; was this some kind of theatrical y?

    Seeing the speechlessness on Dante''s face, the slowly recovering wyvern felt unbnced. It was clear that Dante could not see the spiritual apparition of his own power, which made the wyvern feel more secure because it was less likely to mean that Dante was an evil force imnted into their faction.

    Because frankly, what was the point of summoning with power like that? More than nine-tenths of the beasts in this world would crumble under your aura, much less be able to take blows head-on from you.

    In fact, the wyvern suspiciously sized Dante up and down then wondered if he was a Divine Beast that had transformed itself into a human. Damn, that would actually make so much sense!

    Just as the wyvernforted himself with made-up lies, Dante did the unthinkable, at least, to him. He actually managed to activate the summoning array the next second and begin the process of summoning.

    After all, it was obviously logical that summoned beasts could not summon their own beasts. Otherwise, why would they bother with humans? Just sneak one or two beasts over at first and let them summon and summon morepatriots, then take over the lush and lucrative human world for themselves.

    So this proved that Dante was definitely not a beast. If so, then what the heck was he?

    The array on the ground shone brighter and brighter each second, the light and palpitations causing everyone to fall into silence. Dante himself had closed his eyes and was experiencing the feeling of summoning for the first time.

    He understood why they called it soul tether because his mind was currently in the form of linked chains that floated within a pseudo-void-like area with hundreds of lit tforms containing beasts of various kinds that were looking around.

    The beasts seemed to be actively looking for soul tethers of their liking to bind to, and this formed the summoning ceremony. When Dante spawned in this realm, his soul tether was around the size of a small star, causing all the beasts nearby to be disced as they screamed with fear.

    If it wasn''t for the rules of this world, their minds and souls would have been destroyed by being in close proximity to Dante. Dante himself was surprised by his soul power, but felt it was normal given that all his magical systems enhanced the soul subtly.

    Even superpowers enhanced the soul to arger extent, and he had two normal ones at the Ex Rank, and one higher-dimensional one at the B Rank. You obviously had to expect that his ''girth'' would be huge.

    Dante looked around and saw that even the mighty Dragons and Phoenixes paled in sizepared to his soul tether, looking on with a mixture of fear and greed as they sent invitations to him crazily.

    If they could bond with a powerhouse like this, their future would be set!

    Before Dante could do anything, the entire realm quaked as a massive hand formed in the void that grabbed his chains and brought him elsewhere. He became dizzy for a second or two until he realized he was now in a new area.

    This one was far smaller, but to Dante''s shock and surprise, even the smallest tform in this area was twice asrge as his soul tether!

 Chapter 274 Divine Beasts!

    <h4>Chapter 274 Divine Beasts!</h4>

    The previous area had been truly vast and expansive, covering an area that Dante could not even fully see despite his soul tether being sorge. There were likely billions, if not trillions, of those tforms that held various summonable beasts of different kinds and species.

    However, this area was different. Its total size was not much, only about the size of a rtivelyrge state in the North American continent at best. Each tform was spaced out equidistantly, though their sizes greatly varied.

    The closest to Dante was twice the size of his soul tether, while thergest, which hovered at the very back, was so immense that Dante could not even fathom what existed within.

    Interestingly, the hand that had even dragged him here slowly wafted towards thatrge tform and disappeared within the next moment. Immediately, Dante felt a wave of power wash over his soul tether as information came over.

    Upon parsing it, Dante understood the gist of everything as well as what was going on. The previous area he was in was the normal summoning zone, and the highest rank of beast he could summon would be a Legendary beast.

    The ranks for beasts were Common, Umon, Rare, Epic, and Legendary. Usually, most people drew Common beasts, and the quality of beasts rose based on the quality of the person and their nurturing.

    Like the Holy Saint Summoners, they expected Dante to get at minimum, a Rare beast and at maximum, a Legendary beast. Anything below that, and the typical scene you''d expect would happen; he would fall from the beloved Saint Child to trash that was bullied.

    However, there naturally existed ranks above Legendary, which was the Divine!

    As one might expect given the scene here, the gap between Legendary and Divine was bigger than the gap between a human infant freshly born and a max-power Legendary Dragon beast.

    Of course, this particr ranking system was referring to the innate quality of beasts, not their level of umted/cultivated power. When in this summoning zone, regardless of Common or Divine, every beast was at ''level 1'' or its equivalent in this world''s power system.

    Dante''s soul tether had been too high quality for the lowly normal area, so the strongest Divine beast automatically dragged him over so that he could choose from among them.

    This impressed Dante. In truth, seeing hisrge soul tether and the strongest Legendary monster in the previous area being 1/10th its size, he felt like he was even wasting his time with this power system.

    He didn''t expect it to have a crazy and unlimited power cap, but it should at least positively add to his arsenal, not drag him backward. It was clear that such a thing would no longer be a problem with how even the weakest Divine Beast was twice his soul strength.

    Dante understood that he should not underestimate these quantum worlds. While his power might be able to shatter them on the surface, there were also very useful hidden elements that could be exploited.

    Dante looked at the various tforms here and saw that they only numbered around a hundred. Some of them were lit up, but more than half were dark, which likely meant that someone had contracted the beast there in the past.

    Those that were still lit up were covered by some veil, preventing Dante from seeing whaty within. This made him pensive, but he gingerly approached them. Suddenly, the group of lit-up ones seemed to realize they had a guest and became excited.

    After all, as you could imagine, there were very few people qualified toe here since the dawn of time, or the less than a hundred of them would not even still be here given the sheer numbers of humans who were born every day or qualified to be summoners every day.

    Not to mention that Dante was not a pushover. He might be smaller than them, but there was yet to be a human qualified to reach their level. Humans mostly benefited from the soul tether connection when summoning, but summoned beasts would soon be surpassed by humans as they were slowly strengthened.

    Dante had a high starting point, meaning he would grow faster and reach the stage of feeding back to them very soon. As such, many of the Divine Beasts expressed interest in being his first summon.

    Because of their interest, those that reached out to him revealed their forms, and they were quite splendid in terms of looks. What was more impressive were their powers, which caused Dante''s face to change greatly.

    They did not have element-based powers anymore like beasts of the legendary rank and below, but rather had esoteric and abstract abilities! There were even those with rule-based powers!

    Rule-based powers!!

    One of the most overpowered and terrifying power systems in the multiverse, something Dante had previously dared not covet because rule-based powers dealt with the higher dimensional!

    Among the Divine Beasts, ten of them actively reached out to Dante and sent him their information, so Dante quickly categorized them.

    The first one was called the Timeless Beast. Its ability was Chrono Maniption, which basically meant that it could alter the existence of time in a limited area or on a specific item. In terms of looks, it was like a small hedgehog with white fur and smooth spikes, appearing cute yet ageless.

    The second was the Infinity Beast. Its special ability was Endless Expansion, which basically meant that it could expand or contract its form infinitely. It was simr to a pufferfish without thorns in terms of looks, but its body seemed to stretch into eternity, never fully visible.

    The third was the Silence Beast. Its special ability was simr to the quantum fruit Dante gave his father, called the Aura of Stillness. This ability freely nullified sound and motion within a radius. The silence beast was more simr to a Sableye in terms of looks, and paced around its tform without making any sound. Strangely, it also had a calming presence.

    The fourth was the Law Beast. Its special ability was to change the rules in a specific area, causing things to shift in reality. For example, it could make up be down and left be right. In terms of appearance, it was in the form of an aged wolf with eyes that gleamed like starlight.

    The fifth was the Soul Beast. Its special ability was Soul Weave, allowing it to see the shape of souls and manipte them. This was a very dangerous and cruel ability because very few people had soul-rted defenses. Its form was a bit like a floating cloud of greenish-blue mist, ethereal and constantly shifting form, like a living dream.

    The sixth was the Paradox Beast. Its special ability was called Contradiction sh, which basically meant that it could create and resolve paradoxes at will. It informed Dante that it had no true form, appearing differently to each observer, which defied logic. In Dante''s eyes, it manifested as a cat lying atop a box.

    The seventh one was the Bnce Beast. Its special ability was called Bnce Echo, which basically meant that it could forcibly restore or disrupt bnce in any system or situation. This beast was not even shaped like a beast, basically being a floating yellow with writings on its body in a weirdnguage, two small red orbs forming its eyes. It seemed to release a visible harmonic resonance.

    The eighth was the Oblivion Beast. Its special ability was named Banishment Will, which was crazy because it basically meant that it could erase or create nothingness. It was like a ck hole, possessing a form that flickered between existence and non-existence.

    The ninth was the Truth Beast. Its

    special ability was called Truth Unveiling, which basically meant that it could, upon being prompted, freely reveal any hidden truths or secrets rting to a certain matter. It was a hawk-like creature with sharp eyes that seemed to pierce through all facades.

    The tenth and final beast was the Anti-Matter Beast. Its ability was quite unique, in that it could freely turn things made of matter into anti-matter and vice versa. In terms of form, it looked like a small bat that had gleaming energies around it that fluctuated in potency.

    Dante was naturally quite lost as he did not know what choice to make right away. All these abilities were super useful and could have many applications for him in his ambitions and pursuits in other quantum worlds, the real world, or even the First Gate.

    In truth, he currently favored the Truth Beast the most. One thing he had heard growing up from both his parents was that ''knowledge is power,'' and Dante truly believed that as a young adult.

    If he had this beast previously, would he have been tricked by the Supreme Council and almost been killed in the First Gate? Would he have been ignorant of many things, like why the Cosmic Tree helped him, where to find resurrection items for Portia, and how to acquire the technology to host quantum worlds?

    Yeah, this Truth Beast was not the strongest bloke, and itsbat capability was not very high. However, Dante had 10 slots for contracting beasts, and his soul would only get stronger after this, meaning he would inevitablye back here when he broke through using this world power system.

    What he favored was that its ability could resolve a lot of questions and problems for the current him, so he could not pass it up. As such, he directly linked his soul tether to the tform of the Truth Beast, causing it to be surprised and ted while the other divine beasts sighed with regret and decided to keep waiting.

    Anyway, they also knew that Dante would be back 9 more times, so the chances of being selected were pretty high.

    As for Dante, he easily managed to form a connection with the Truth Beast, and it was sucked over through his Soul Tether, entering his real soul space immediately. The Truth Beast curiously looked around at its new home, but it was shocked by what it saw.

    To the left was a giant core that gleamed with a strange energy, and to the right was a cloud of small nanites that buzzed endlessly. Each of these manifestations gave the Truth Beast immense pressure despite being a Divine Beast, and it dared not go near.

    However, what almost caused it to be crippled was the giant gate that stood in the center of the soul space and its various additions by the side. Behind the gate was a long number of threads connecting it to a glowing tree that radiated endless power.

    Somehow, the Truth Beast felt itself connected to this tree, as if the source of its power came from it. Interestingly, this also expanded the scope and potency of its base ability, making it surprised.

    Dante watched from the side casually with a strange look in his eyes at the beast''s behavior. He then noticed that his soul tether was forced out of the summoning space in the next moment as the summoning ceremony was over.

    Eventually, he opened his eyes in the real world and saw that the Truth Beast had physically spawned above the summoning circle. Unlike in the summoning zone, its size was not that of a small hawk that could sit on his shoulder, but around the size of a small car, big enough for Dante to stand on its back as it flew.

    The hawk nced around casually, taking in the sight of the human world for the first time. Meanwhile, the already battered crowd took a second round of blows from the hawk''s aura, especially the wyvern, who wailed in agony as he shouted.

    "Divine Beast!!!"

    Zoom!

    Xiu!

    Whoosh!

    Immediately, powerhouses from the depths of the Holy Saint Summoner faction rushed over upon sensing the aura, while some of the powerhouses in the crowd shared looks. Immediately, they stopped feigning weakness and charged at Dante, some going for him, and some going for the Truth Beast while summoning their own beasts.

 Chapter 275 Summoner Power System

    <h4>Chapter 275 Summoner Power System</h4>

    "Young man, let us check that beast!"

    "I suspect that the Saint Child has been possessed by a spirit element beast, I shall save him!"

    "There is a strange fluctuation going on around the Saint Child, we must help!"

    Those powerhouses in the crowd who struck were not brainless, daring to attack in the home base of the strongest faction like apes. They timed their strike perfectly and even shouted out righteous words, making it hard for the Holy Saint Summoner faction to take their lives if things went awry.

    After all, they were leaders of factions only one step below this one, and even if they were inpetition, they would not easily risk their precious and noble lives without leaving a backup. Apetent thief nevermits a robbery without an escape route.

    "STOP!"

    "HOW DARE YOU ALL!"

    "PROTECT THE SAINT CHILD!"

    Immediately the iing elder sensed the movement here and were shocked, doing their best to arrive on time and block for Dante. After all, their Saint Child had surpassed all expectations and constructed a Divine Beast.

    A Divine Beast!!

    Usually, those who got Divine Beasts where generational prodigies not seen in 100,000 years and even then, it was in their 9th or 10th summoning ''slot,'' so they only got one or two at their peak.

    Never before has there be someone qualified to contract a Divine Beast in their first slot. Such a person was destined to conquer the entire universe and stand at the top of all beings.

    How could the Holy Saint Summoner faction let such a beloved Saint Child die? Conversely, how could the other factions allow such a monster to live?

    "No!" The battered wyvern was filled with fury and regret, hating his own weakness as he tried to rush to stand in front of Dante, but the consecutive blows had rendered him weak.

    He had been tasked to protect the Saint Child and had failed majestically in his duty. If anything happened to Dante, he would end his own useless life because he couldn''t bear the shame of failing to protect the prodigy of a generation.

    Meanwhile, as all this yed out, Dante was amused. From his point of view, everyone was moving in slow motion, and his spirit sense allowed him to view everything from different angles.

    To him, it was like a scene ying from aggy youtube video from a TV show about eastern fantasy stuff. Even his Truth Beast was ncing at the iing fellows with shock and anger, preparing to defend Dante.

    However, while its quality rank was divine, itsbat/power rank was currently at the lowest level. No matter how awesome a level 1 Mewtwo was, it could not beat a level 100 Charizard.

    Dante sighed and decided to let this farcee to an end by using a simple Rank 1 Wind de spell to behead all the iing elders as they rushed forward, their faces still locked in confident and malicious smiles as they charged over.

    The heads slid off their necks and fell onto the ground, the bodies also losing their support as they charged towards Dante and ended falling into the tiled floor, sliding all the way to Dante''s feet while leaving a trail of blood behind.

    Immediately, all movement stopped as everyone slowly parsed what they were seeing with incredulous gazes. Both those on Dante''s side, those against Dante and those who were watching neutrally in order to see what would happen were dumbfounded.

    How could such powerhouses be killed without even making a peep? It should be known that many of those who struck had reached the power cap with Rare or Epic beasts in their line up, representing the top echelon of this world.

    If they could be killed like this, then what about the others?

    A chill seemed to pass through everyone''s heart as their eyes fell on who they assumed to be the culprit, Dante. However, Dante simply chuckled and nced at the Truth Beast with appreciation.

    "Good job, partner, for protecting me against evil."

    As Dante said this, the Truth Beast pped itsrge wings and created a small wind storm before screeching majestically. Seeing this response, the hearts of everyone became more bnced as they ced the me on the Truth Beast.

    Well, if it was a Divine Beast, it was normal for it to breakmon sense, right? But to be so powerful at the first stageˇ­ many eyes began to flicker and worry whether they should risk it because if Dante grew, they would all practically be ves under the Holy Saint Summoners.

    However, it was toote. The top powerhouses of the Holy Saint Summoners had arrived and securely ced Dante in their midst, ncing at everyone with naked hostility and rejection. One of them even stepped forth and ''politely'' told everyone to leave while having all his top-notch beasts face the crowd with killing intent.

    This made the crowd feel annoyed and insulted, but they moved their legs quickly and left. No one wanted to be the one to be the scapegoat for the Holy Saint Summoners to teach everyone a lesson.

    When everyone left, the elders warmly spoke to Dante and inquired about his experience. Dante naturally shared what he went through and even added some embellishments, causing the Truth Beast to be speechless.

    ''My Brother in Christ, I am a TRUTH beast!! Even if we assume I wasn''t directly there and saw everything, I can bloody tell you''re lying!!''

    However, it knew which side it was on and naturally kept quiet. It only nced at the Wyvern by the side who had managed to pick himself up but was unsteady and unsure whether to even show his face given his failure.

    Dante also noticed it and smiled. "In truth, I have to thank this guard you sent to protect me. Without his intervention by telling me to activate my Divine Beast''s other ability, I might not have been able to repel those fellows."

    The fellows who had initially ignored the fellow with the mentality of dealing with himter were surprised and nced over. The wyvern''s face changed but quickly understood that Dante was protecting him and giving him a way out, which made him feel endlessly grateful.

    Saint Childˇ­ if it wasn''t for the fact I was someone else''s summoned beast, I would definitely do my best to sign a contract with you!

    Dante soon resolved the various aftermath matters skillfully. He was soon exclusively taken to the head of the faction, who gave him the details of the technique needed to advance his summoning ability.

    Unlike other power systems, he did not select a unique technique for himself but practiced the strongest technique that the faction had, which was incidentally the reason it could rise to dominate the world.

    It was called the True Summoner''s Will. It condensed the three different main technique summoners needed to practice into one along with a special technique unique to this faction.

    The first was the method to gradually increase their soul power to break through to the next realm and condense another soul tether.

    The second was the method to feed one''s beast exclusively produced soul power from the summoner''s soul through the soul tether to the soul beast, gradually increasing its power.

    The third was the method to feed oneself the power from their beast, both in terms of stats and in terms of gaining some parts of the beast''s ability for oneself.

    The unique technique was the fusion ability, allowing the summoner to fuse one or all of his beasts into his body for a short period, gaining all their abilities and bing a transcendent being.

    ?yer Name: Dante

    yer Race: Human

    Faction: Holy Saint Summoners

    Soul Meditation Technique: True Summoner''s Will

    Beast Growth Technique: True Summoner''s Will

    Summoner Growth Technique: True Summoner''s Will

    Realm: 1-Star Summoner Beginner.

    Strength: 1

    Agility: 1

    Dexterity: 1

    Intelligence: 1

    Constitution: 1

    Vitality: 1

    Linked Beasts: Truth Beast(Divine Rank, 1 Star).?

    That''s right, in this world, the power system was very simple. Each stage was split into stars, from 1 star, which was the weakest, to 10 stars, which was the highest. So when introducing one''s beast''s power, they would say ''name of Beasts power rank'' and then ''name of beast''s quality rank''.

    For example, the Wyvern was an 8-star Epic Beast.

    Summoners also used the star system, but the titles attached were different.

    [ssification of Summoners in the Summoners World

    1 star: Beginner Summoner

    Just starting out, and can usually contract up to a Umon beast. They have one beast, and this is one of the slowest realms to be in because the beast requires feeding to breakthrough before you could feedback to yourself. Depending on the beast, your SDI can range from 1-50 at the peak of this realm.

    2 star: Moderate Summoner

    Here, summoners can now attempt to contract a second beast, still usually up to the Rare realm for most average people. Regardless of the beast''s rank, it will start from 1 star and have to be nurtured to the 2nd star, while the first beast was likely already in the 2nd star. Speed of cultivation increases from here slightly. SDI ranges from 20-150 in this realm depending on the beasts.

    3 star: Advanced Summoner

    Here, summoners can now attempt to contract the third beast, usually up to the Rare Realm still. Same rules apply with cultivation. Speed of growth increases even further, almost 1.5x of the 1 star realm. SDI can range from 50-300 in this realm.

    4 star: Master Summoner

    Here, summoners can now attempt to contract the fourth beast, usually up to the Epic Realm this time. Same rules apply with cultivation. Speed of growth increases even further, now at 1.8x of the 1 star realm. SDI can range from 80-500 in this realm.

    5 star: Grandmaster Summoner

    Here, summoners can now attempt to contract the fifth beast, usually up to the Epic Realm still. Same rules apply with cultivation. Speed of growth increases greatly, now being 3.2x of the 1 star realm. SDI can range from 120-800 in this realm.

    6 star: King Summoner

    Here, summoners can now attempt to contract the sixth beast, usually up to the Legendary Realm, which began to draw a gap between those of the same level. Same rules apply with cultivation. Speed of growth increases even further, at 5.3x of the 1 star realm. SDI can range from 200-1200 in this realm.

    7 star: Emperor Summoner

    Here, summoners can now attempt to contract the seventh beast, usually up to the legendary Realm still. Same rules apply with cultivation. Speed of growth increases even further, at 7.7x of the 1 star realm. SDI can range from 400-1700 in this realm.

    8 star: Saint Summoner

    Here, summoners can now attempt to contract the eighth beast, usually up to the Legendary Realm still. Same rules apply with cultivation. Speed of growth increases even further, almost 9.9x of the 1 star realm. SDI can range from 600-2000 in this realm.

    9 star: World Summoner

    Here, summoners can now attempt to contract the ninth beast, usually up to the almighty Divine Realm. Same rules apply with cultivation. Speed of growth increases exponentially, almost 19.4x of the 1 star realm. SDI can range from 1200-2300 in this realm.

    10 star: Divine Summoner

    Here, summoners can now attempt to contract the tenth and final beast, up to the Divine Realm. Same rules apply with cultivation. Speed of growth is capped at 30x of the 1 star realm. SDI can range from 1500-2500 in this realm.]

    Dante collected the technique and most of the important data from this world by going to the library so that he could fill up his database. He then informed the elder that he was going into a special realm with the Truth Beast that existed on a different ne.

    When they heard this, they were worried and skeptical, but Dante forced the Truth Beast to lie, which made it clench its beak with unwillingness.

    Of all the masters it could get, why did it have to contract a vile liar, it roared in its heart!

    Dante then left the Summoners World and returned to the Home Universe, nning to handle some matters here. However, he immediately frowned when his AI chip received an update from his various bases andworks around the gxy.

 Chapter 276 The State Of Humanity

    <h4>Chapter 276 The State Of Humanity</h4>

    A few months ago, Dante had been betrayed by the top echelon of humanity who wanted to enve his android clone at the time, who made moves to make the world a better ce. As such, he had been greatly disappointed by his ''race'' because even among those of the lower ss, half were mindless apes that robbed, raped, and caused trouble using important matters as a guise, and the other half were a bunch of terminally online fools who believed anything their overlords told them.

    Such a race was not worth his effort. He would not spend his time to personally cultivate them because they would only prove destructive with it. Dante had seen the history of the Eternal Universe, and one fact that separated both universes was the fact that the Eternal Universe humans were far more daring and less easily controlled.

    When they saw a universe full of species and powers, everyone from man down to child roared with desire and charged out, using trickery, cheating, and any means to advance forward as a race until they became rulers.

    Be honest with yourself. If the home universe humans had the same level of technology and realized that there was a universe full of species, putting aside the upper echelon, the average man would be caught in an argument as to whether aliens had ''rights'' and whether it was right to conquer the universe.

    With such a mentality, forget bing conquerors, the human race of the home universe would never amount to anything. They could probably attain some diplomatic ties with kinder alien civilizations, but the moment they met a stronger one that was wicked, it would be an Independence Day movie.

    But still.

    Still.

    Despite all this.

    Dante was a human too. He was born and raised on earth, and if not for a special set of events, would have lived, birthed progeny, and died in the soil of earth. As a 21-year-old man, he did not yet have the indifference and apathy that 10,000-year-old monsters did to be able to ''cut all ties.''

    So even as Dante felt betrayed and hopeless for the race, coupled with his family''s harsh judgment, he decided to take over the human race and allow them to develop slowly and in a controlled manner while exploiting their own nature.

    It was really the only sustainable way for the race to grow. Without a strong, impartial hand like AIs, the destructive human race would ruin everything and probablymit genocide themselves if anything.

    So like a ''rich man'' who was not wicked enough to ignore the beggars on the street in the city but not kind enough to make a personal sacrifice for them, he ''delegated'' the work to his secretary (Central AI) and allocated some funds (resources) to him to sort it out.

    After that, he took his eyes off the issue and even kind of forgot. He traveled abroad for a while and saw the clean streets and forgot about the beggars at home, and when he eventually came back, he inquired as to the state of them from his secretary.

    Whether it was the rich man in the example or the current Dante, they did not like what they heard. While Dante did not care much about humanity''s fate, he was appalled when he saw the reports from the central AI about the cruel takeover and the forceful subjugation.

    As a conqueror in this universe, with him now owning an entire gxy that was still being interwoven into a system, Dante was no neer to battles and the cruelty of a takeover. However, it did not mean that he was a ss of beings that had truly submitted.

    Not to mention that this was his own race. If the AIs could cruelly treat humans today when given ''free will'' and ''liberty'' to use any means necessary, what about him? If he ever ended up under their hands, what would they do to him?

    Dante put aside what he came here to do and teleported back to Earth, specifically in front of the base he created on McDonald''s Ind back then. He connected to the systems and received a more in-detail report of everything that went on.

    What he saw made him hesitate.

    It had to be said, impartiality had its pros and cons. Its main con was theck of empathy, given how the AIs cruelly ughtered those who even dared to flinch slightly in rejection of the takeover. In the AIs'' eyes, humans could be regrown in pods if necessary, so there was no need to care about poption.

    The main pro was that, damn, it was organized and efficient. Currently, the rest of Earth and the remainder of humanity werepletely different. In terms of knowledge and gics, after fulfilling various tasks set by the AI over the course of the past few months, they were 10% of the way to achieving the basic standard of the Eternal Universe humans.

    This was crazy because after achieving space exploration, it took the Eternal Universe humans more than 3 millennia of warfare and the rest of the time consolidating and nurturing themselves to get to their current standard.

    However, this universe''s humans could reach there in but a few more years. The kind of growth, even with the immense resources provided by Dante, would not achieve this level of transformation without the cold hand of impartiality.

    So Dante hesitated. Changing the system seemed to be detrimental to humanity''s growth at this moment. The reason was that the AI did not cultivate just their bodies through genes and their minds through knowledge, but especially their temperance.

    If Dante had beenzy, he could have basically had his base transmit all the information of universes, technology, and how to advance for humans and left it to them to sort themselves out. However, if he hade back to check the, it would be a miracle if it was not in an apocalyptic wastnd.

    By not only making them work for it but continually letting them know that this knowledge was made for the purpose of their advancement and racial unity, the home universe humans were being slowly changed into something akin to the Eternal Universe humans without the ws.

    If everything went as the AI nned, the home universe humans would turn out to be a superior species variant than those on the other side.

    Dante pondered and decided not to focus on the system itself. Whatever the case, that couldn''t be taken back as he had changed human society too much from the ground up, whether positively or negatively was up to each sentient to judge for themselves.

    So let''s focus on the problems that this takeover had brought up and fix them.

    Thinking like this, Dante floated up into the sky, heading straight to outer space with his raw body. He looked down on the beautiful blue that floated in the darkness of the void with a deep nce.

    Then he stretched his hand down and began casting a tough spell that required a lot of calction and focus. It was a breeze for him, but even a normal 9th Rank mage with 2,000 Intelligence would need a few minutes toplete this.

    6th Rank Life Element spell, Greater Mass Resurrection!

    The whitish-green motes of life energy light converged into Dante''s hand as he cast the spell and then spread downward to his realm. They passed through the very fold of the as if existing in a different form of space-time or dimension.

    Immediately, Earth exploded with white light all over its surface as a billion or two people suddenly formed from the ashes they had previously been, their faces nk as they did not understand how one moment they were in an empty void of?nothingness and the next, back here.

    Those who had survived the takeover were shocked to see their friends, family, and lovers return to life near them, then burst into tears. Only they knew the kind of pain they had been suppressing in their hearts and minds due to the fear that the AI chip would notice it and deem them as dangers as well.

    Dante informed his Central AI to integrate those who came back slowly and surely, no longer using raw force but could use other means like exclusionary tactics. After all, all the systems of the world were now tied to the various Minister AIs, so to exist in society, you would need to be chipped and integrate yourself.

    Also, even if Dante resurrected those who were killed, he did not bring back those that were legitimately deemed criminals by the AI. The one who had been revealed to cause harm during the protesting after Dante ''died'' stayed dead, among others.

    The integration of the resurrected could not be done in a day. Doing so would significantly set back the ns and work of the AIs, causing the humanity of the home universe to take longer to reach their peak, but that was fine.

    No one could threaten them within this universe, not with his current level of power. They had all the time they needed to develop freely.

    Satisfied, Dante left Earth and massaged his temples. Even with 200,000 points, resurrecting so many people who had been dead for months without even any flesh left of them was not easy.

    Anyway, that was a thing of the past. He came to the administrative center of his ''kingdom,'' which spanned the entire Milky Way and Andromeda gxies together. It was a gigantic space base that was about the size of three Jupiters put together.

    It was solely run by AI and robots, with not a single organic life within. It was shaped like a floating fortress in space rather than a Death Star-like existence. Around the base, one could see many interceptor-ss fighters patrolling the void slowly and casually.

    When Dante docked into the base with his ship, he couldn''t help but marvel at the size. It was quite amazing to think that this could be achieved with just technology, as this base and its firepower could overwhelm him in his previous 2500 SDI average state.

    Dante was guided by an android assistant and guarded by a group of elite guards who escorted him to the control center of the base. Upon entry, Dante noticed that it was a humongous chamber styled from the core of technological perfection, and only the impartial intellect of androids and AI dwelled within.

    The walls were very dark, the only lighting from them was the pulsating glow of holographic screens. Rows upon rows of these screens stretched as far as the eye could see, disying data streams and star maps, the very essence of the gctic territory Dante controlled.

    In the center of the room, a colossal holomap hovered, a slowly rotating mosaic ofs and their star systems. Androids busily moved around it, their mechanical fingers covered in synthetic human flesh swiping rapidly across the holographic interface.

    They monitored the movements of ships in Dante''s army - as well as those belonging to various other entities - calcted trajectories for various events and ns of action, then executed suchplex maneuvers with the precision only heartless machines could achieve.

    Dante briskly walked to his seat at the center of the room while taking in this sight. Even though androids did look like humans, his senses told him that they were far from that, which understandably caused Dante to feel solitary.

    At this moment, he couldn''t help but dearly miss Beatrice and her ability to bring him joy with her smile. How good would it be to be able to cuddle that beautiful and perfect woman in his arms right now?

    While thinking of this, he set a quantum marker down here and waited for his quantum clone to teleport over. When the quantum clone returned, Dante wasted no time in collecting him back and then spawning him again.

    However, as one would expect the quantum clone was much different this time. After obtaining the ''update,'' it was ready to unleash power like never before.

    Dante nodded to his clone and then returned to the Eternal Universe while the quantum clone sat in the main seat and made a sharpmand.

    "Restart the conquest! We must have the entire universe under our banner within the next decade!"

 Chapter 277 Questions And Answers

    <h4>Chapter 277 Questions And Answers</h4>

    Here''s the text with spelling errors fixed:

    As for the main body, he returned to the Eternal Universe andy in a couch within The Inferno''s Observation Deck. As he settled in, he summoned out the Truth Beast, who manifested into reality with the protection of the Quantum Entanglement superpower, meaning that it was immune to the negative effects of entering reality.

    The moment therge Truth Beast appeared, it was about to squawk at Dante with grievance for being such a filthy liar when it froze. Its eyes became zed over, and a strange explosion of intangible energy emerged around it.

    Dante nced over casually and decided to go to sleep, something he did not need to do biologically but felt he needed to do spiritually. While he slept peacefully, the Truth Beast remained in its state, causing the observation deck to surprisingly be silent and very harmonious.

    Suddenly, the Truth Beast seemed to revert back to normal a few hourster, its body not undergoing any changes. However, just from its expression and the depth of its eyes, one could tell it had gone from a naive youth to an old monster who had seen the vicissitudes of time.

    At this time, Dante opened his eyes and then rubbed his forehead lightly to remove the remnants of his casual nap. He then nced at the silent Truth Beast that was looking at him withplicated emotions.

    "Finally up to date, huh? I had a feeling that bringing you out here would ''update'' your database of truth," Dantemented lightly.

    "Before we do anything, let''s first introduce ourselves properly. My name is Dante Alighieri, the husband of Beatrice Portinari and your current summoner," Dante began as he nced at the Truth Beast pointedly.

    The Truth Beast feigned silence for a short while before speaking in a masculine voice. "I don''t have a name."

    "Then decide on one. I can''t call you Truth Beast forever. That''s your race and title, not your name," Dante pressed with a smile on his face.

    The Truth Beast hesitated greatly. Eventually, it seemed to make a decision and spoke softly. "Fine, then I shall take the nameˇ­ Levi."

    "Well, Levi, let''s get to work. I''m a Beginner Summoner at 1-star, and you''re also a 1-star Divine Beast, but that doesn''t mean we can''t put you to use right away," Dante pped his hands with finality, brooking no argument.

    Levi had no intentions to argue anyway, as revealing truths for his summoner was what he was made for anyway. He simply nced at Dante and waited for him to ask.

    "Let''s start with something mild. Is Lara Sanguis stronger than me currently?"

    Levi''s brows furrowed for a short while, but he nced at Dante and shook his head. "The current Lara Sanguis is far weaker than you. The true Lara Sanguis stands above everything."

    Huh?

    Dante sat up seriously. "What? There''s a true Lara Sanguis? How can this be? Then who is the headmistress?"

    Levi pped his wings slightly and repositioned himself onto a couch, making sure his talons didn''t pierce the fabric. "The one you call headmistress is merely a clone of the true Lara Sanguis."

    It was as if thunder struck Dante''s mind. The woman who was seen as the strongest in the universe before he resurrected Portia and he unlocked his genes was just a clone? Then how strong was the ''real'' her?

    "Don''t bother asking more about Lara Sanguis. As you yourself said, I am only at the 1-star rank at the moment, and it''s already good that I can reveal this much at my current level. Digging into her information might alert the real her and have her descend on us," Levi warned straightforwardly, shaking his head.

    Dante snapped out of his shock and nodded. "Okay, let''s move on. What exactly is special about me that I managed to achieve what I have so far?"

    Levi sized Dante up and down and smirked. "ording to what I can find, the original you had a trait of 1% green luck, 80% grey luck, and 19% ck luck. So from the perspective of fate and destiny, there was nothing special about you. You were definitely above average, but not enough to reach your current level."

    Dante hurriedly interrupted. "Luck? Fortune? Is it like in the stories where you have a cloud over your head of various colors?"

    Levi paused and nodded. "That isn''t functional, but only those with the right abilities can perceive such a thing."

    "So then ck means demise, grey means average, green means beneficial, blue means special, red means potent, purple means transcendental, golden means divine, and rainbow means perfection?" Dante further inquired.

    "Sort of. Since you had a maximum of green luck in small quantities, you would live a rtively beneficial life and make some small achievements in a niche field before passing away," Levi concluded with a shrug.

    "What about the current me?" he asked with interest.

    Levi was speechless. "I am the Truth Beast, not the Fortune/Fate Beast. That fellow was probably asleep when you came in, otherwise he would have reached out to you as well."

    "But I can still answer your question. The current you has a full cloud of rainbow that is swollen like it''s about to explode. Your fortune is the highest among all beings across the universes," Levi spoke silently as he nced at the space above Dante''s head.

    Dante was about to ask why he had so much luck, but shut his mouth. It would be a very stupid question, because there really was only one thing attached to him that could cause such a big change in his fate.

    The Cosmic Tree!

    Just being sponsored by it took his luck from the dumps to the very limit the universe can tolerate? Just what was the Cosmic Tree anyway? Was it really a higher dimensional being that was stronger than all others or was it something more?

    "Can you tell me what the Cosmic Tree is?" Dante asked after careful thought.

    Levi shook his head firmly. "No, I cannot. My current existence and abilities are fully sponsored by the tree in question. Its near limitless power allows me to ess almost every taboo truth and even not be noticed by the persons in question for peeking into their secrets."

    "In the same vein, I cannot detect anything about it. Just like you, I am being ''sponsored'' by it, but its level surpasses my abilities."

    Levi pondered for a bit and spoke. "One thing I can tell you is that you should stop calling it a higher dimensional being."

    Dante frowned at that. "Any particr reason?"

    "Hmm, how to exin. Basically, think of it as a sentient ant that can speak calling you a superior monkey. Its technically true, but also insulting because you are far more than that." Levi exined with a hint of amusement.

    This left Dante speechless.

    "Any more questions?" Levi asked calmly.

    "A lot more. So many more. However, you''re still 1-star, and pressuring you to answer them would be wasting both our times. Let''s get you to 10-star so that I can ask whatever I want without being told no," Dante responded after careful thought.

    He had a lot more questions, both big?and small, to ask. However, just the revtion that Lara was a clone of a more powerful being was enough of a blow that he needed to digest it. As such, he recalled Levi and moved to the Ster Vanguard II to continue cultivating his Quantum Entanglement superpower.

    He wanted to reach the A Rank and acquire the information about Quantum Worlds before heading back to the First Gate and starting his rampage there.

    He estimated the time needed to achieve the A Rank and saw that it would require slightly over 3 months of nonstop work. Dante decided to get the form for that pink incense the school used while he was at it.

    Like this, around 15 days passed.

    Dante opened his eyes and ended his work. He had risen to 15% of the way until the A Rank, which was pretty good and consistent progress. With a bit more dedicated time, he should be able to achieve his goal.

    The reason Dante even stopped was that today was the 30th of December. In a few minutes, those students should being out of their Zero Gate expedition, ready to report their gains.

    Naturally, as a student himself, he had to be there. Not just as a student but as a representative of his own force, ready to ''buy'' the fruits off them. Dante couldn''t help but smile and teleport over to the ck Land directly.

    The teachers and various powerhouses as well as faction leaders who were arranged here were startled by his sudden appearance, then their faces changed greatly. They were all forced back many steps as Dante wantonly released his aura to cruelly suppress everyone.

    Everyone was shocked, because even though Dante was known to have a high SDI average, it had not been this tyrannical previously. However, they thought about his revtion that he could source quantum items and thought that he must have relied on some item of some nature to achieve this.

    Immediately they realized this, their hearts sank. They understood that Dante would only be stronger to the point where they couldn''t resist at all, even in their own dreams. Not to mention that he was no foolish enough to sell them the same method he used to strengthen himself.

    The pure humans were mostly fine, mostly envious. It was the mixed human and the aliens who felt pressure and hatred deep down. The pure humans had Lara, Beatrice, and now Portia and Dante.

    What the heck did they have?!

    Were they destined to be suppressed in this universe until the end of time?

    The one who felt this the most was Kurtaghagt Venrieere, the CEO of the Etraverse Corporation. He was a tall alien with a face full of octopus-like tentacles and two pupils, green eyes that were shaped likerge ovals.

    He wore a human-like suit thanks to his general humanoid form and had hands that were like ws and feet that were simr, but both appendages were fully webbed. He reminded Dante of a mixture of the Glorft and Vilgax.

    Kurtaghagt''s expression was the ugliest out of everyone. Recently, he had been under immense pressure from all sides. The Supreme Council wanted him to quickly cough up his secrets to appease Dante and save their lives.

    The other aliens and alien factions secretly plotting to overthrow the pure humans constantly put pressure on him not to concede on the basis that they would help him resist the fallout of refusal.

    However, Kurtaghagt was not a child. He was the only one who knew the special details of the technology used, so if he died, that technology died with him. While it would be a big loss for the Eternal Universe, to the rebels, it was far better than ending up in Dante''s hands so that he could strengthen himself and potentially more pure humans!

    Kurtaghagt obviously cared about his life and wanted to concede to Dante, pressure be damned. The technology he had was not worth dying for, and while he did sympathize with the rebels as he had been bullied within even the Supreme Council by their pure human members, he had a wider scope of things.

    Other universes had even worse and more cruel situations for their fellow races under the thumb of the most dominant race in that universe. Their universe was oftenughed at for being soft, and pure humans were being mocked for ''courting death'' by not either eradicating or enving the other species in the universe.

    However, pure humans were surprisingly very antagonistic to the idea of very for some reason, which was the sole reason that the mixed humans and aliens had not yet been cored. Knowing about this, Kurtaghagt and the other members of the Supreme Council hadplicated emotions towards the human race.

    So his attachment to the rebels was low. The only reason he even paid them any mind was that his foolish son was one of their 5 main leaders in their own council. Not only was he the one applying pressure on him, but he also didn''t even realize the rebel faction was using him as a pawn to try and control him, Kurtaghagt!

 Chapter 278 Danteâ€™s Cold Fury 1

    <h4>Chapter 278 Dante''s Cold Fury 1</h4>

    But now, hearing this, Kurtaghagt was obviously more inclined to side with the rebels. Goodness gracious, Dante only disappeared for half a month and was now giving him the same fatal feeling that Lara Sanguis did.

    Originally, he had been willing to cave, but now that Dante was like this, he understood that he had to hold on a bit harder and try to push things back. What he did not expect though, was that after everybody nced at him, Dante would teleport right over, right into his face.

    "CEO Kurtaghagt in the flesh. It''s good to see you here because I can now receive an answer today about my inquiry towards mypensation from the Supreme Council," Dante said straightforwardly, not even doing any useless small talk.

    Immediately, Kurtaghagt''s expression froze as he understood that Dante was basically saying that everything would be resolved here and now. Either he spat out what he had to or he died, along with the other guilty Supreme Council members.

    Kurtaghagt could only grit his teeth internally. It was one thing for him to die, but if other aliens and three mixed humans were killed too, there would never be hope for the rebellion. One could not imagine the torturous work they had put in to get 5 out of the 12 members to be non-pure humans.

    Even if they and the pure humans died, those like Dante could refill the gap and prevent them from ever truly standing up for themselves. It was an oue that could not be allowed to happen!

    Many other powerhouses by the side heard what Dante said and they couldn''t help but feel second-hand fear and pressure. Just thinking of what it would be like to be stared down by that vicious young man who had that crazy woman as his mother-inw, they respected Kurtaghagt for being able to remain standing without his knees cking together.

    "Well, haha. It''s nice to finally meet such a strapping young man like you. Our efforts in the First Gate have been meager these past few years, but with you now on the battlefield, I assume that it should be-" Kurtaghagt began in a falsely confident voice but was cut off by Dante who waved his hand.

    "Let''s not y games. I''m here to deal with my beloved ''ssmates'' who got to feast at my expense, so you are not the main target today. You canpletely decide to leave here without giving me what I want, and that''s fine."

    Dante then smiled and used his psychic ability to transmit his voice. "But you wouldn''t want me and Beatrice to have to ''arrest'' Young Master Shaitan, do you?"

    Kurtaghagt''s pupils constricted. Shaitan was not the name of his son, but rather his title within the rebel group. For Dante to mention it now, it was clear what he was implying and Kurtaghagt''s defenses brokepletely.

    He did not have the ability tomunicate telepathically like Dante, at least not to the extent of not being overheard by others with high mental strengths, so he opted to send an encrypted message to Dante''s AI chip.

    When Dante opened it, he looked through casually and smiled. He patted the slightly taller Kurtaghagt on the arm and walked away after leaving a message.

    "Good job, I will send you a congrattions gift in a few days for being so sensible."

    Kurtaghagt felt deted. He was in a current mixture of relief for finally sorting out this issue and in denial because he knew the repercussions of his actions and could not do anything but watch them unfold.

    Seeing Kurtaghagt''s demeanor, the hearts of many sank as they realized that either Dante got what he wanted or had put measures in ce to ensure that he would get it. This made many curse Kurtaghagt internally and re at him with anger, ming him for caving in.

    As for why they didn''t step up to help him bear the pressureˇ­ why are you asking such reasonable questions? Such questions don''t matter; what matters is everything is Kurtaghagt''s fault!

    Kurtaghagt ignored them. He only cared about the bigger picture, and the anger of such small fries could not make him waver. If it could, he would have staunchly refused Dante from the beginning.

    As for Dante, he came to stand in front of the portal, alongside the teachers. Many speechless nced at him, opening their mouths to tell him to scram back with the others but not finding the words to do so.

    "All of you, stand back." Dante stated domineeringly, waving his hand and emitting a strange force that pushed the teachers back by about 10 steps.

    The teachers were shocked and furious, but they found that they could not speak or make any sound no matter how they opened their mouths. To their horror, Dante had used sound magic to strip their ability to create any of the said elements within that area.

    He wasn''t in the mood to listen to the various "how dare yous'' and ''disrespectful!'' from these fellows who could not even elicit the slightest bit of respect in him. The only one he was partially wary of was Lara, or specifically, her clone acting as the headmistress.

    However, Dante could precisely act wantonly because he knew two things. The first was that he was stronger than the clone Lara, and that was something she would take into ount. The second was that from the very beginning, Lara never cared about the school but her agenda.

    That agenda obviously mostly involved him, so as long as he did not stray out of her ''interest'' zone and continued to disy such excellence, she would likely tolerate anything he did for the most part.

    As such, when about 30 minutes passed and the first student came out, they were relieved to finally be out of the danger zone. When they scanned around and saw that they were the first, their expression became weird, though it was not necessarily bad to be the first out.

    However, before this student could rx, they found that there was something wrong. The people meant to receive those who got fruits were standing far back with their heads lowered slightly while the teachers were even further away and looked like cuckolds who just found out the truth but did not dare speak.

    It was then that the student''s eyes fell on Dante who was standing at the front with a calm smile, and his pupils constricted greatly. His body trembled, and sweat formed on his brow spontaneously as his legs shook.

    After all, every student - after 30 days - had realized that the monster they feared the most was not around. In fact, it was only the first years who expected Dante toe along with them.

    As part of the school curriculum, everyone in the Unique batch from the second year onward would actively study and prepare for the First Gate.

    So yes, they knew about it, and they inevitably found out that Dante would be squeezed into there. They were not direct participants of the Supreme Council''s plot, but they realized something was going on and decided to y along.

    In fact, the Supreme Council wanted to bind Dante to them, not kill him, but the students didn''t know that and thought that this was a way to execute him.

    As such, the moment they had entered the Zero Gate and did not see Dante with them, not only did they breathe a sigh of relief, but theyughed cruelly and wantonly, thinking that such a greatpetitor had met his end.

    Who asked him to grow so fast and be so strong?!

    Seeing him here and now, standing in front of everybody like this, even a dog could calcte that things were not good. Before the student could speak, Dante scanned him up and down and looked disappointed.

    He simply waved a hand and bound the student''s mind and body, lifting them up and letting them float to the side. As more students came out, Dante did the same to them after they all went through their reactions of horror at seeing him live and well.

    By the time an hour passed, students of the second to fourth years had already mostlye out and were captured. Among them, seven special students from these four year groups had fruits with them, so they were made to float right behind Dante, separated from the rest.

    Eventually, the first of the first years came out, looking tired and exhausted. When he saw the scenario he was stunned for a bit, but his eyes fell on the floating seniors and were filled with anger and hatred.

    "Oh?"

    This surprised Dante, and he beckoned a finger over, pulling the student before him. He first used a 1st-rank Rejuvenation spell to make the student return to their peak before inquiring as to why he looked at his seniors like that.

    "Dante, when we went into the Zero Gate, they banded together, saying that you had caused them great mental distress, so we the first years had to atone for your sins. They used us like cannon fodder to acquire the fruits!" Dante''s ssmate said with extreme grievance.

    When this was revealed, the teachers showed shocked expressions as well as furious ones. What the hell, what had they been teaching these vermin?! How could they do something like this?!

    Even the cutthroat faction owners at the back were aghast. If such a habit were to be cultivated, forget the Zero Gate, the Eternal Universe might end up being ughtered in the First Gate! Is this what the school had been allowing all this time?

    The pupils of the senior students constricted greatly. The worst possible oue had urred, and they didn''t even have any way of defending themselves being sealed like thisˇ­

    "Hoh? Interesting. Did any of our ssmates die?" Dante asked with a fading smile.

    "Yeah, more than half of our ssmates are dead. The rest were bound up and left in the Zero Gate because if the news came out, they would be in trouble." The first-year student revealed which caused a second wave of shock.

    "Luckily, you know my superpower, so I was able to hide away and sneak out when they all came through." The student concluded as they fought back tears.

    Dante knew this student. He was Ethan ckwood, ranked eighth in their ss with the superpower of Shadow Traversal. He must have carefully bided his time and used clever means to escape the search and sneak his way out here.

    "What about Slessor, Humphrey, and Louisa?" Dante asked, his voice bing cold.

    "Slessor and Humphrey were crippled and bound up while Louisa was the first to die under their machinations." Ethan revealed after wiping his tears with his ragged sleeve.

    "Alright, Ethan. Rest for now, leave everything to me." Dante patted the fellow on the shoulder and cast a 1st-rank calming spell on him. Due to Dante''s super-strong spiritual power, it went all the way to act as a sedative, making Ethan fall into a peaceful sleep.

    Dante paused and turned to those behind him. "You guys heard everything, so don''t say or do anything stupid, or I will break the rules as I want. The only ones who can punish me are my own loved ones and my conscience, so don''t push me down that road."

    "Just quietly watch, that is the smartest thing you can do right now." Dante added as he ced Ethan in a separate pocket dimension using a space element spell and then walked toward the Zero Gate.

    What was terrifying was that all the senior students who had just escaped that hell were being pulled along with Dante, their eyes widening and constricting rapidly with fear and horror. After all, everyone knew that the danger level of the Zero Gate outside of the 30-day weakening period was very high.

    While Dante could survive it, they certainly couldn''t!

 Chapter 279 Danteâ€™s Cold Fury 2

    <h4>Chapter 279 Dante''s Cold Fury 2</h4>

    The faces of the teachers and the various powerhouses changed slightly. Because, as you could imagine, many of these students were their proteg¨¦s, family, or rted to their factions. Even if they had done something wrong that deserved severe punishment, they couldn''t allow death toe upon them!

    Heck, if these students had even sinned bymitting the most heinous crimes possible, they would still leverage their power to protect them!

    Yet...!!

    Yet!!

    Watching Dante calmly walk forward towards the Zero Gate itself, they couldn''t find the words to speak to stop him. His words yed constantly in their heads, not to involve themselves and avoid any fallout of this event.

    With each step it took, it was like a hammer being used to smash their hearts and throats. They did not even realize that the reason for their hesitation was not because of fear but because of Dante''s building anger; his demonic spiritual entity had manifested itself and wasughing wantonly at the sky.

    Its eyes fell on all the teachers and powerhouses with endless greed, waiting to devour them down to the very core of their souls. It was due to this predatory nce that caused these beings to be filled with hesitation and fear, like a deer going silently after hearing the bushes nearby rustle.

    Dante eventually walked through the portal and took all the students along with him. Only when he disappeared did everyone breathe out deeply, not realizing that they had been holding their breath all this time.

    Then they were shocked by their disposition and felt their shoulders slump. Almost everyone, at the exact same time, realized that Dante had be an existence on par with Lara and Portia, someone who could do whatever he wanted in the universe, and they could only receive it.

    As for Dante, when he was in the quantum tunnel that was beaming him toward the First Gate, he saw the fork that led to the Zero Gate and switched to it. As for the students with him, he had tied them to him using a spatial spell so that they were spatially linked, meaning that they were in the exact same quantum tunnel as he was.

    They did not have the skill nor stats to possess ''conscience'' during quantum travel since it was so fast. To them, they entered the portal, and the next second, they were in the familiar Zero Gate.

    Only that this time, the Zero Energy was so potentpared to just a few minutes ago. At the same time, excited and furious roars rang out as the suppressed beasts had regained their power and were venting their anger on each other as well as anything they could get their hands on.

    Hearing this, the students trembled greatly with fear as they knew that danger was upon them. Many began to cry and break down, but they were still bound and silenced, so the tears fell from their eyes but they could not even move a muscle.

    Dante scanned the area with his spirit sense and raised an eyebrow. He seemed to smile, but his smile was so frightening that no one could feel happy from it. Dante teleported forward and brought the entire group along with him to a nice vantage point, where they could watch what he saw.

    When the students looked down, their pupils constricted to the max, and their stomachs churned, though they did not have the ability to vomit. For below them, they could see a group of monsters actively tearing the corpse apart of a year 1 student, devouring them alive.

    The person in question had already died gruesomely, leaving these beasts to fight over the remaining meat.

    While some wanted to vomit, some became almost hysterical. In truth, they had hoped that things would be salvageable since they had only left an hour ago at most. Even though some students had died in the earlier days from being used as bait, they had various ways they could theoretically get out of it.

    But witnessing this live, everyone''s AI chips had recorded it. If forced to provide footage for legal reasons, there was no judge or council that would spare them for doing something like this.

    Even worse was when someone who was technically above thew saw this and had their lives in his very hands. What would Dante do in response to this?

    What surprised the students was that Dante only casually waved a hand and ughtered the beasts before collecting some remains of the corpse. Then for the next half hour, he teleported across the realm, salvaging what he could of his batchmates and letting these seniors see their gruesome oues.

    Eventually, he managed to gather the corpses of everyone, including Humphrey and Slessor, who had died fighting to theirst breath. Dante also noticed that three fruits had not been harvested, leading to some monsters converging there to fight over them.

    He naturally and easily took them away while pushing aside the beasts.

    After fulfilling his task, he left the Zero Gate through the portal. What chilled the seniors was that Dante had not uttered a word this entire time, nor had he done anything to them. It''s as if, rather than meting out justice, he was an investigator here to collect evidence.

    Once they came out, Dante noticed that there were even more people here. Councilors from the Prime Human Council, all the Fleet Admirals and the top military men, as well as the n masters of all the top ns and factions.

    And of course, Lara Sanguis.

    She silently sat in her throne with her legs crossed, ncing downwards at Dante with her blood-red eyes filled with near demonic intensity. Everyone''s eyes fell on Dante and the students behind him who floated helplessly like chicks; their faces changed greatly.

    Whether it was fury, hatred, fear, joy, schadenfreude, or whatever else, none of them uttered a word as all eyes fell on the only one truly qualified to stop Dante''s actions here, Lara Sanguis.

    Dante casually scanned the crowd and then raised his head to gaze at Lara. The two stared at each other for a while before Lara unfolded her legs and lightly leapt down from her throne, walking towards Dante calmly.

    For Dante, it was quite a novel feeling. Normally, Lara was always sitting in his presence, so apart from her face, one could not tell much about her. Now that she stood like this, he saw that she was not very short at all, at around 5 feet and 10 inches.

    Her body was slender and feminine, possessing the basic hourss shape, but she did not have much in the way of sex appeal in terms of size. However, her movements and demeanor exuded a different appeal, one of a dominant and superior entity facing another.

    Her ck and tight-fitting military uniform with red lines through the hems and core seams merged with her ck and red cape, which she flung behind her. Her messy white hair usually seemed short but actually reached her shoulder, and her cold expression gave way to a strange smile.

    "Well well. What an interesting sub-universe to be able to not only give birth to a being like you, but for the forces at y to pit us against each other. I find it amusing," Lara spoke in a slightly amused tone.

    Dante''s brows furrowed. He felt tension build suddenly as Lara''s aura began to rise. He was surprised that the woman neither questioned him nor monologued about how he had stepped on her authority or something.

    She seemed like she was ready to get down to it from the onset, and Dante began to prepare himself for a battle. Even though

    Lara was said to be weaker than himself by Levi, who knew if she would summon her true body down as a projection or something?

    Those at the back also seemed to realize that Lara was approaching Dante with nefarious intent, and their hearts shifted. They wondered who woulde out on top of this sh, and knew that they were about to witness a historic moment.

    Either Dante won and rose to be the new voice of the universe or Lara won and maintained their absolute control over everything. Either way, this battle was destined to be legendary!

    Let''s not even talk about the trapped students, whose hearts had be numb and dead from fear, suddenly being filled with hope and light. When they saw their family, friends, and masters abandon them due to fear of Dante, they had thought the worst possible fate awaited them.

    But now, the almighty headmistress was here to defend her honor!

    As Lara got closer, mes emerged in her hands. This time, rather than the usual blue mes, she manifested white-colored mes, of which even Dante''s hellfire cringed away from.

    Dante''s face changed greatly. He was not a fire expert, but his hellfire was telling him that this fire was basically the strongest in the lower dimensions.

    The White Fire of Annihtion, the Heavenly Punishment me!

    Dante understood that he suppressed Lara in terms of versatility and raw power, but she could still threaten him slightly with various means. It was like being a level 100 yer and going against a level 60 World Boss alone.

    You''ve outleveled that World Boss, but those annoying world boss special skills could potentially kill you if you were careless.

    Lara raised her hand, ready to throw the me, and Dante tensed, his Hellfire True Qi emerging as he was ready to counter and use temporal magic to seal Lara''s own time-based superpower.

    Lara thrust her hand forward, and the white fire shot out like a snake, coiling in the form of an Asian dragon. Dante removed his blood battle halberd from his inventory and was about to strike it away when he noticed that the me dragon was not evening for him.

    To his shock, it actually went behind him and opened its maw, swallowing all the students he had trapped in the air. They did not even have the time to scream before their bodies, souls, and spirits were thoroughly annihted from the world.

    Dante sensed with his life element magic spiritual core that he could not resurrect them at all, even with a Pseudo 10th Rank spell. This surpassed mere killing and was aplete wipeout. Only maybe the Nirvana Fire of a Phoenix could bring them back, but that needed a body to melt down.

    Not just Dante, but everyone''s faces changed to one of horror. Dante did not know, but Lara''s famous white fire was popr among the upper echelons because she had used it on the previous principal to secure her position.

    At the time, there was a person who possessed a resurrection superpower at the B Rank that tried to bring him back, but the attempt caused her to suddenly be burned by white fire that came out of nowhere, taking her life.

    Many parties had tried to resurrect the two using various means, but it either did not work or the person who tried paid a price. Everyone then began to understand that this particr white fire was very potent and negated the resurrection of a person.

    Lara dispersed her me dragon and smiled at Dante, but it wasn''t a friendly smile. It was a smile of mockery and amusement, like an adult looking at a child trying to act tough.

    "In this universe, I am the supreme. Nothing can make me do anything I don''t want to do. Only those I acknowledge can do things I don''t want them to do, otherwise everyone else shall fall in line."

    She turned and began to walk away, not even looking back at Dante who was coldly watching her leave.

    "And let it be known today that Dante is someone I acknowledge, along with Portia Portinari and Beatrice Portinari."

    She left those words behind and sat in her floating throne, leaving the area casually like she hade to chat and not execute hundreds of superpowered beings.

 Chapter 280 Danteâ€™s Cold Fury - End

    <h4>Chapter 280 Dante''s Cold Fury - End</h4>

    Many onlookers were still dealing with the shock and horror of Lara''s cruel actions in ughtering so many prodigies at once that they did not even have time to process her words full of tyranny and domineering nature.

    Dante, who casually looked back at the spot the students had been and the leaving Lara, had an expression that was bing colder and colder by the second. He took a step forward and disappeared.

    Lara, who had folded her legs and closed her eyes with a slight smirk of satisfaction, was suddenly forced to open them when she saw Dante mounting her throne rudely and staring down at her.

    "Get down."

    Dante said this coldly and grabbed Lara''s face, pushing slightly as the throne was shattered to pieces and Lara was sent flying into the ground, crashing into it for a short distance. The dust billowed and blocked everyone''s sight, but was soon cleared.

    In the end, one saw that Dante was pressing Lara''s face into the ground casually while raising his head to nce at everyone else. This sight was so shocking and so life-changing that everyone looking on truly and genuinely had their minds go nk.

    "Ignore her earlier words. In this universe, everyone is free to decide what they will do with their lives and themselves based on their own strength. Because I am strong enough to put her face into the ground, I can do what I want without her acknowledgment." Dante stated loudly, speaking slowly so that everyone could hear him.

    Meanwhile, pressed underneath his hand, was Lara''s rtively small face that was half into the dirt. She wore an expression of shock as if she never expected to be in such a position in all of her life, and so did not react at first.

    It was right at the moment, Dante casually let go of her head and calmly stood up to move to the side that her expression changed to one of insane fury, her entire body exploding with her Heaven''s Annihtion me.

    The area around her became scorching hot and many onlookers panicked as they fled quickly to avoid being caught in the fallout. The way the fire was spreading too, it was as if Lara wanted to wipe them all out to prevent her humiliation from being broadcasted.

    Meanwhile, Dante continued to stand beside her, but he was cloaked in his hellfire true qi which resisted the white mepetently. He realized that he had underestimated his hellfire true qi, even though it was of a lower grade than the white-colored fire.

    Topare, it was like in the summoners'' world Dante had just been to, where Lara''s mes were a 3-star Divine Beast and Dante''s mes were a 10-star legendary beast. Even though the quality was lower, the quantity and raw strength were far higher due to the boost from his stats among other things.

    Lara pushed herself up from the ground and wiped the smudges of dirt that clung to her face off, watching as they were incinerated into nothingness by fire that did not follow any scientific logic or basis.

    Her pupils rapidly expanded and constricted in a bizarre manner as she gritted her teeth. Hatred of an enormous level radiated from her, and eventually, her eyes fell on Dante. Her mes calmed down slightly as her expression regted itself into a cold one immediately.

    Meanwhile, Dante finally understood that there was something fundamentally wrong with this woman. She went through too many extreme emotions far too quickly and with a false sense of self-control.

    It was as if she wasˇ­

    "Insane." Levi spoke solemnly.

    Even though he was not summoned out, he stayed in Dante''s soul space to nourish himself and cultivate their bonds so he could see everything that Dante saw as long as Dante allowed it. Naturally, having a truth beast being able to see anything from his eyes was like having an always-active encyclopedia; he could get answers in real-time to troublesome issues.

    However, Levi''s'' words startled Dante because it was what he thought too. "Insane? I thought she was cold?"

    "That''s just an act. The real Lara Sanguis is the most insane and unstable existence in the greater universe. Her nature is so troublesome and her power is so great that the creator of our entire multiverse had toe and beat her up, then sealed her true body away." Levi revealed a shocking truth casually.

    Dante was silent for a while before furrowing his brow. "Wait, why are you saying this now? I thought you couldn''t reveal more about her?"

    Levi nced at Dante''s soul projection within his soul space with a hint of disdain. "I said I couldn''t pry too much because it would alert her and attract her hostility. Putting her clone''s face in the dirt has soared past that, so what''s there to hide?"

    Dante shook his head, unbothered by the me in Levi''s tone. His decisions were not up for debate, though he wouldn''t mind being influenced by his loved ones positively. However, he knew that whether it was his parents, Beatrice, Augeus, and most especially Portia, they would have been disappointed in him if he had done nothing at this moment.

    He focused on Lara who began to walk forward as a strange trail of darkness began to emerge from her body, which contradicted her white fire. However, the darkness seemed to coexist with the white fire because they came from the same source, one of her superpowers.

    The darkness stretched out to cover an area of about 20 kilometers around them, forming a domain devoid of light, sound, hearing, and all other sensations except touch. Even the bright white fire disappeared from view, leaving one naked in terms of senses and defenses.

    Dante was not suppressed though. His sense of touch still existed, and he could sense the movements of the wind by how they affected his skin. However, there was no need for suchplex high-level y, not when he could simply spread out his spirit sense and see everything.

    Lara was currently behind him, mumbling something with a slowly twisting expression as she ced her hand near his back, aiming to st him through the torso.

    Dante saw this and reacted quickly, opened a small portal to subspace behind him in which Lara fired her basic blue me into it, while he himself removed his blood battle halberd from his inventory and swung backward with full force.

    Lara simply scoffed and used her left hand - which shifted its atomic structure into metal - to swat away the de edge of the weapon like it was a mere toy. Dante easily regained his bnce and began swinging rapidly at her, while she maintained pace with him by blocking with both of her augmented hands.

    Dante did this, even in its futility, because he wanted to apply pressure and create a short period of time in which he couldmunicate with Levi.

    "Tell me what are her real superpowers and their current ranks as well as their abilities." Dante asked Levi seriously.

    Levi hesitated. "She doesn''t really have superpowers, at least not in the way you and everyone else does."

    Dante''s soul projection''s face changed. "So her abilities are just natural?"

    "Correct, sort of. To describe Lara''s true body, you can think of her as a divine being. What she uses are not powers granted by fruits but authorities she possesses over certain elements or rules." Levi answered immediately.

    He pointed a wing forward into the void of Dante''s soul space, but it was likely a gesture?to point at Lara.

    "The only reason you have a fighting chance is because this clone has less than 0.1% of her main body''s true power and control over the authorities, orws, as you like to call them. Because she is sealed, her main body cannot assist the clones either; otherwise, there would be no need for them." Levi exined slowly.

    "Oh? Lara must have a purpose for creating a clone and sending it down here. Is it to help her true body break free?" Dante analyzed the facts he was given and inquired on this.

    "Yes, but you''re making a mistake. I never once said that this was her only clone." Levi casually revealed another bombshell.

    This time, even the poker-faced Dante in the real world who was fighting almost made a mistake and nearly hit himself, causing Lara to show a hint of disdain on her face, thinking that Dante''s stamina was running out.

    However, Dante''s mind was in greater turmoil from the revtion to care about her mockery.

    "What do you mean she is not the only clone?" Dante asked quickly.

    Levi nced at Dante''s soul projection with an enigmatic air of a seasoned master who had seen the vicissitudes of life, which annoyed Dante so much that he wanted to give Levi a knock on the head.

    Seeing that Dante was truly getting annoyed, Levi stopped his nonsense and answered quickly with a cough. "I know what you''re worried about. There are no clones in this universe apart from this one so you don''t have to worry about reinforcements or ambushes."

    Dante breathed a huge sigh of relief. "And so? Continue."

    "Well, Lara''s true body still has some power left because the one who sealed her had some lingering attachments and did not want to be too cruel. This allowed her to split the remnants of her power into seeds that descended to every lower universe in existence and form a clone." Levi shrugged and stated.

    Dante had an incredulous expression. "You mean to tell me that every single universe out there has one Lara clone in it, hiding somewhere here out in the open? Even the Centralis Universe?"

    Levi simply nodded but didn''t continue.

    Dante did not have the chance to continue to question him because Lara seemed to have grown tired of effortlessly blocking his pointless attack and punched his blood battle halberd head-on, causing the head to crack slightly.

    Dante''s expression changed as he quickly recollected the weapon into his quantum space to prevent it from beingpletely ruined. Even though the blood battle halberd was weaker than his level, he could nourish it with his blood qi to have it catalyze and elevate upwards into a special spiritual weapon.

    If Lara destroyed it here, though, that n would go up in smoke.

    The darkness domain retracted, and visibility returned to the world. This allowed Dante to see that the cknd beneath their feet had been totally destroyed and ruined by their repeated sh during this short while.

    Interestingly, the outside was still popted as the various powerhouses were still around, but this time, even various important civilians and especially media houses hade to cover this tumultuous event.

    When they saw the dark barrier receded and the remnant devastation as Dante and Lara coldly faced off, their expressions changed. Even the residual heat that had been suppressed by the barrier rapidly washed over them, causing many blisters to appear on the skin as well as some burns.

    Those who were stronger took action to protect the weaker ones, not because they were genuinely kind, but because the cameras were rolling, and it was a free chance to look good and righteous before the public.

    However, the main thought on everyone''s mind wasˇ­ who woulde out on top? The established Empress of the Universe, Lara? Or the rising Dragon Dante, who was like a speeding train in terms of growth?

    Dante''s tensed body rxed as he nced at Lara. "Anyway, I said what I needed to say. As for killing those students, it was not what I would have done, but it''s now your problem to solve. I don''t have time to waste on a mere clone since the First Gate awaits me, not to mention I have ssmates to save."

    Dante ignored Lara and began casting a 4th Rank Mass Resurrection towards the corpses of his fellow students which he had preserved in a separate space - not his quantum space so they don''t get poisoned - and began working on them.

    In doing so, he purposefully turned his back to Lara and gave her a wide opening.

 Chapter 281 Faction Building

    <h4>Chapter 281 Faction Building</h4>

    Lara''s eyes were basically scarlet at this time, and her hand lit up with mes of a purple color. She seemed like she was going to attack Dante in his moment of weakness, but despite her posture, she never actually made a move.

    It was not from fear, but because of the spectators looking on. It was not conducive to her ns for her reputation to be any more negative than it already is. The killing of the students she could easily justify given what they had done, Dante had already recorded and uploaded enough evidence to the Central AI for the school.

    That was what even brought her out here so quickly. Partly because Dante had grown so powerful so quickly and partly because she needed to be the one to resolve the situation, not Dante.

    But as it was, it was obvious that Dante was using some sort of ability to try to resurrect his ssmates who had been harmed by the seniors. If she interrupted such a thing, the consequences were not something she could easily bear.

    Lara didn''t leave any harsh words. She just fixed her expression and dispersed her power, ring at Dante coldly before opening a portal and walking through it. Dante, who was working on the resurrections, furrowed his brow.

    "Levi, just how many authorities does she have?"

    "She only has one actually, which is control over all the elements in existence." Levi answered casually.

    All element authoritiesˇ­ how overpowered.

    Dante understood that if Lara had even slightly more control over her power, she could easily wipe not just him, but even Portia out. Such an unfair and insensible opponent was very troublesome to think of.

    Hepleted the resurrection and watched calmly as his fellow ssmates were restored to life, all 28 of them. Excluding the one fellow who escaped, everyone else hade backˇ­ but there was a problem.

    "M-My superpowerˇ­ it''s gone!" Slessor cried out with shock.

    The faces of the others changed as they tried to ess their abilities but found that they could not feel it or ess it. Immediately, they began to panic, for their superpowers had long be their very identities and what qualified them to stand in the upper echelon of the universe.

    It was not so bad for the pure human since their status was already high, but this was a fatal drop from grace for the mixed breeds and especially the aliens. Just thinking about the cold treatment their family, friends, and faction might give them made them despair.

    "Not necessarily gone," Dante stepped forward and said to the despairing students.

    At this point, the students had long broken down, so factoring in Dante, who had miraculously brought them to life, anything he said seemed to be the song of the angels in their ears.

    Before they could hound him, Dante raised a hand to stop their questions and worries. "I have been granted the right to establish a force in the universe for the protection of my faction, family, and especially to spelunk in the first gate."

    "As such, I have many ways to grant you guys strength in terms of SDI and superpowers of various kinds. This is a special recruitment I will only do for those I like, so make sure to consider carefully-"

    Before Dante could even give the terms and conditions, all 28 of the students - yes, even the guy who escaped and kept his superpower - hurriedly knelt down without hesitation, their eyes showing their desperation and fervency.

    What left Dante speechless was that some of the onlookers stepped forward with shining eyes, hoping to join this recruitment wave. How he knew that this was genuine was the suddenness and the fact that the faction leaders who brought these guys along were shocked and furious.

    However, it was wrong of Dante to be surprised. In the current universe, it was literally the case where factions took in those with superpowers and gave them basic nurturing and then used those superpowered people like servants to farm more superpower fruits.

    No one literally gave out superpowers and the way to grow them in exchange for work. One had to have a superpower to qualify to even be a worker in the first ce, and even then, the factions dared to be picky.

    If Dante put out a recruitment order, more than half of the universe would rush to his gate to beg to enter his budding faction.

    It was funny when you thought about the fact that Dante once nned to conquer this universe. He had thought up ns and worked hard to set up foundations for a future invasion and drawn-out war, but now he could literally snap his fingers and cause the majority of the universe to be his willingckey.

    It seemed redundant to say this, but it was an inescapable truth that this change was brought upon due to an increase in power. Power, raw power, was one of the only things that could change a situation so drastically in terms of difficulty.

    Imagine how torturous it would be to live in a world where there was no extraordinary power, and the best one could do was go to the gym to bulk up!

    "For now, I am only epting these 28, specifically because we have some connection, and also because of the fate dealt to them. As forter recruitments, let''s wait until I set up my corporation in a few days and advertise my wares." Dante smiled and nodded to everyone else thankfully.

    There was no need to act arrogant and unapproachable, especially when that was not his nature. Besides, he only took in his former ssmates because it would elevate his reputation in the universe and give him a lot of prospective followers and fans.

    As for doing it out of the kindness of his heart, are you joking? Dante was admittedly soft-hearted about many things, but more than half of these guys had been spying on him maliciously when they still had powers, and the other half wished death upon him even in their sleep.

    Dante also created a portal and told the 28 to walk through, which took them to the spaceport of the Eternal Academy. Unfortunately, his 9th rank space magic could not beat the scientific technology of spatial blockade, only Quantum Entanglement could.

    As such, hemissioned amercial ship to send the students to Etonia.

    That''s right, as part of hispensation, the entire sector in which Etonia was located was granted to him, with full rights and control of all its functions. Of course, all the officials and establishments within stayed and were still tied to the basic government system, but Dante could override and do what he wanted at any time.

    Naturally, Dante was not the destructive type who would smash a working system down and rebuild it just because. He maintained everything mostly as it was, but he did n to use Etonia as amercial base, so it was undergoing a lot of turmoil as questionable entities were relocated to others withpensation and the political structure was being shifted around.

    As Dante had been busy working on Quantum Entanglement all this time, the one to handle this was naturally his lovely wife, Beatrice. She had been enthusiastic about him establishing a faction all this while, so you know she put her heart and soul into this.

    Dante teleported directly to Etonia''s new capital city, Avalon City. The former capital had been Ferris City, but it was changed by Beatrice since she first met Dante in that alleyway, a moment she called their fateful encounter.

    That particr alley had been cleaned up and renamed as the alley of truth, and Beatrice had ced a lifelike statue of her holding up Dante by the neck when they first met, turning the alley into a popr tourist attraction for this sector and for many who were now crazy about Dante since he was the ''strongest'' being on paper.

    You know how crazy celebrity worship can be, so imagine it on the universal scale?

    What left Dante speechless and red-faced was that Beatrice even added another statue in the middle of the street, which was now cordoned off, of Dante following behind her while staring at her ass.

    This left Dante embarrassed because it meant that she had caught him as far back as then, and he thought he had been sneaky with it. When he arrived in Etonia, hended in the new estate that Beatrice was building for them.

    It covered about 1/5th of the entire city''sndmass, and acted as their personal home in which every inch was reinforced and protected from outsiders. Huge walls mixed with antimatter were built to prevent prying eyes from seeing into the estate and their personal business, while 10 kilometers in all directions from the walls were an off-limits zone, patrolled by androids created by Dante but would soon be reced with hellfire demons.

    The actual office building for Dante''s corp was located in the former center of the city and was built very tall andrge. Even though Dante was the only one working there, the business was dealing with the top list goods and needed an aesthetic grandeur to match its status, Beatrice argued.

    Like any husband, when the wife starts remodeling and renovating the house, Dante quietly supported her and scratched his head the whole time.

    You know, as men, we were content with the barest minimum. Aesthetics were nice to look at, but we could go without it. However, anyone who had married or had a serious girlfriend living with them would admit that when their partners did their magic, it really was amazing to look at.

    Dante was also amazed and pleased with what Beatrice had done when he arrived. The woman herself was radiant and full of passion, wearing her usual conservative attire but it couldn''t hide her growing baby bump.

    Portia was also here, but Augeus was tasked with handling all the matters for Dante and the Portinari n in terms of their political revival and resurgence, so he was too busy to even sleep.

    Meanwhile, Portia and Beatrice were having the time of their lives. Being able to freely direct and design like this with nothing stopping them fully released their feminine artistic tendencies.

    For the first time, since they confessed their feelings for each other, Dante was actually unnoticed by Beatrice for a minute or two while she continually nned this and that with her mom.

    Meanwhile, Dante was not even bothered or jealous. Instead, he got a full minute and slightly more to look at his beautiful wife being at the peak of her joy, her cheeks rosy from happiness and her lips sore from smiling andughing so much.

    His heart swelled with satisfaction and happiness, and he couldn''t help but engrave this special sight in his heart. If he ever questioned himself in the future, if he ever faltered or doubted himself at any timeˇ­

    He would remind himself of this moment, and it would be enough to make him stand up once more.

    Beatrice eventually lifted her head and seemed to sniff the air. Her head turned to Dante, and her eyes lit up, as she abandoned what she was doing and rushed into his embrace. Dante had been craving the feeling of hugging her for a while, so he made sure to enjoy it for a good long while.

    Portia noticed Dante and smiled with amusement, before walking over.

    "How''s everything? Did those students give you trouble?" Portia asked jokingly, as she knew that Dante was going to the school to ''collect his dues''.

    Dante stroked Beatrice''s soft purple hair and sighed. "A little bit more than that. I think something historic just happened a few minutes ago, and I''m not sure if I entirely like how it turned out."

    With that, he sent them the details of the events firsthand from his recordings, making the faces of Beatrice and Portia change greatly.

 Chapter 282 Daughters Of Heaven

    <h4>Chapter 282 Daughters Of Heaven</h4>

    "How dare she!" Beatrice was furious, looking like she would unhesitatingly brawl with Lara this very instant if she could.

    Meanwhile, Portia was solemn. "Lara is truly crazy to kill so many children like that. Even if they hadmitted a great crime, it is better to make them atone for it rather than extinguish them."

    Dante patted Beatrice''s back softly tofort her and help calm her down while he nodded to Portia. "Despite my unhappiness at the moment, I thought the same thing. At the end of the day, the three of us are anomalies, and we do not represent the average standard of quality for the Eternal Universe."

    "Put in any other universe, we would shine just as brightly, and the Eternal Universe would have to depend on the likes of those students to maintain its position in the Universe Battlefield. Killing them is like digging out the metaphorical eye of the Eternal Universe."

    "She''s mad! No one is stupid here, even if she ims she did it to punish them, it was still too much!" Beatrice eximed with a huff.

    "That''s what I also don''t understand. Killing them like that is badass sure, and it might satisfy one''s emotional feeling for revenge or justice, but in the long run, it''s a foolish thing to do." Portia muttered with confusion.

    Dante sighed. "She is crazy, and she might think that her actions are eptable, but that is because she has a different viewpoint from us."

    "Oh?"

    Beatrice and Portia were startled because from the way Dante spoke, it was as if he knew something crucial.

    Dante didn''t keep them in suspense and waved a hand, summoning Levi. Levi stretched his wings out majestically and nced at the mother and daughter duo, his eyes gleaming with surprise and amazement.

    Before Dante could even introduce him, Levi directly spoke.

    "Dante, I think I understand why you came to this universe specifically and why you were ced on this to meet your now partner."

    Levi raised a wing and pointed it at Portia. "That woman reeks of Chaos Will. She is the daughter of the heavens, the chosen one of the Eternal Universe who bears all its luck and glory."

    "It''s why she was assassinated 20 years ago because a stronger universe paid a huge price to send over some forces to attack while disguised as aliens. If they could kill the manifestation of the universe''s will, it would severely weaken the universe as a whole."

    Levi then pointed its wing at Beatrice. "She is an anomaly, a bizarre existence. The daughter of heaven''s will is not supposed to give birth, but the use of technology allowed for the impossible. As such, she is a sort of half-daughter of heaven''s will, which is why her superpowers, although the same, are broken and weakened."

    Levi then pointed at Dante. "You were saved by the Cosmic Tree after your freak ident and brought here to meet with the half-daughter of the heavens and be her partner. The Cosmic Tree seems to have made some kind of deal with the will of the Eternal Universe, and the main beneficiary is you."

    Levi once again pointed, but at Beatrice''s swelling belly. "The two of you have created the next daughter of heaven''s will because at the time the child was conceived, the first daughter of heaven''s will was dead. That was your purpose anyway."

    Levi tucked his wings in with satisfaction and seemed amused. "Now the Eternal Universe is stuck between joy and confusion because it has three daughters of heaven''s will, one full one who is more than twice stronger than before, one half one, and one iing one."

    The trio were stunned speechless by Levi''s revtions. Dante felt like ever since he got this Truth Beast, he had for sure been learning more truths and secrets, but they were far more explosive than he could have ever predicted.

    "Will there be a problem?" Dante stifled his other questions because Levi gave him a look that said this was all he could say for now.

    Levi hesitated. "Yes and no. Maybe. Sort of."

    Levi raised a wing and stroked its beak like a man would his mustache when thinking. "Having heavenly blessed beings is not free; the universe has to sponsor them and validate them. This requires Chaos Origin, and there are only two ways to acquire that."

    "The first is through growth. Over time, a universe naturally produces Chaos Origin as the species within grow stronger and spread farther. This is why the existence of life seems to be subtly encouraged by the world. Though, this method is slow, and the amount produced varies greatly."

    "The second method is very straightforward, through the yearly dividends from the First Gate. Every captured territory and zone within the First Gate generates a certain amount of Chaos Origin for the universe every year. This is why the Universe Battlefield is so treacherous; all the universes are not just fighting for survival but for benefits too."

    "Currently, the Eternal Universe is bringing through its savings of Chaos Origin meant to upgrade its will to maintain the existence of the first daughter of heaven, who is much stronger, the half daughter of heaven, and to facilitate the growth of the new daughter of heaven."

    "What!!"

    "So doesn''t that mean that if the savings run out, Portia, Beatrice, and my child might suffer?" Dante asked with a dark expression.

    "Suffer is putting it nicely. My advice is to not let it get to that state." Levi spoke bluntly and honestly.

    The trio became quiet and pensive. In the end, Portia sighed deeply.

    "You know, I have been having this nagging worry that I need to hurry up and enter the First Gate. When I heard that Lara had not expanded any of our territories since my death, I was filled with irrational fury, but I now know where it''s from."

    Beatrice''s face changed as she seemed to understand something. She became worried and held her mother''s hand quickly. "Mamaˇ­?"

    Portia''s face softened greatly when she looked at Beatrice, unable to hide the depth of love and doting she had for her daughter. "Oh Bea, you are so perfect. You are everything I wanted in life and more, so I cannot stand to let anything happen to you."

    Portia stoked Beatrice''s belly with a soft smile. "Especially since my grandchild ising. I haven''t even had time to pamper them yet, so how can anything be allowed to happen? Don''t worry; it isn''t like I am going to sacrifice myself. Mommy just has to go to work and bring some money home."

    Dante by the side couldn''t help but feel a hint of pressure. Even though Portia was talking with a soft tone, it couldn''t hide the domineering nature of her words. Nothing in the First Gate could harm her, and she was simply doing some ''work'' to bring home ''cash'' as if that didn''t involve ughtering countless beings and seizing territories for the universe.

    "B-Butˇ­" Beatrice began to whine, but Portia pressed a finger to her lips to silence her.

    "No buts, darling. Your task right now is to stay still and stay healthy so your daughter can be born without problems while assisting your husband as best as you can. Leave the heavy lifting to me and your dad; after all, that''s what we''re here for." Portia asserted with a tone that brooked no argument.

    Beatrice could eventually acquiesce but hugged her mother tightly. Portia hugged Beatrice back and then nced at Dante, who was watching by the side with a troubled expression.

    "Dante, my excellent son-inw. It''s up to you to take care of Beatrice while I am away. Do not rush to return to the First Gate, even though you are strong enough to carve out your territory there."

    "Familyes first. Spend more time with your parents, your uncle, and everyone else. Establish your presence and continue to build your faction until you are ready to make a huge ssh in the First Gate." Portia advised kindly.

    Dante nodded seriously. He could have long jumped back into the First Gate any time he wanted, especially after fixing his genes, but he especially wanted to secure his backyard before making frontal pushes.

    Nurture subordinates in the form of Hellfire demons or superpowered warriors, acquire power and resources as well as favors through the sale of certain quantum goods, establish quantum worlds under his own control with specific power systems that catered to his needs and especially raised Quantum Entanglement to at least the A rank.

    There were many things for him to do before that, so Portia''s worry was unfounded. Besides, Dante would also love to be more present with Beatrice when she was going through her pregnancy rather than run up and down seeking power.

    Especially since Portia was leaving now, Beatrice would definitely be lonely without him since Augeus was swamped with work.

    Portia had to repeatedly coax her daughter over and over again since Beatrice held tight and didn''t want to let go, scared that her mother might leave her again. Portia''s heart ached, and she felt intense hatred towards those who ambushed her the other time, causing her to give this trauma to her daughter.

    Thinking of this, she nced at the silent Levi who was posing coolly.

    "Oi, bird. State the name of the universe that orchestrated my assassination." Portia demanded from Levi coldly.

    After all, she didn''t have a good impression of this fellow who came and dropped bombshells, bursting Portia''s happy bubble and forcing her to face reality even though it was for her own good.

    Well, your doctor holding a glove stating that he has to do an anal checkup was for your own good, but did it mean that you had to like it?

    Levi was speechless. What did I do? I just did my job, which was to state the truth!

    "It was one called the Revenant Universe. They are at least twice as strong as the Eternal Universe''s natural forces, excluding all daughters of heaven, half or otherwise, or foreign invaders like Dante and Lara." Levi answered honestly, fearing the wrath of a powerhouse like Portia.

    "Oh? Great job, can you also state their main territory in the First Gate?" Portia''s coldness softened when she realized Levi''s usefulness.

    "It''s within the Southern Quadrant, approximately four hundred territories to the southeast of the Eternal Universe''s main territory. The coordinates areˇ­" Levi began listing numbers and letters like a nerd while Portia listened seriously.

    "Thanks, bird. I don''t know what you are, but you''re useful." Portia finally acknowledged Levi with a nod, and the fellow couldn''t help but preen himself proudly.

    Portia turned to Dante. "Please send us to the Zero Gate. I can only return to the First Gate from there."

    Dante nodded and recalled Levi before taking the trio right in front of the Zero Gate. Looking at the massive gate that had only a portion revealed, Beatrice marveled. She was an Elite Batch student, so she didn''t qualify to enter the Zero Gate and get fruits; hence, this was her first time seeing it.

    Portia rubbed Beatrice''s head onest time and then nodded to Dante with an approving smile before resolutely walking through and disappearing into the gate. Beatrice looked distraught, but Dante quickly held her and reminded her that literally no one could harm the current Portia and even if something did happen, they could bring her back.

    Beatrice wiped her eyes and nodded, being taken back to Etonia with Dante. From there, the duo continued to design the rest of the architecture and structure of their political authority as well as the business scope.

    After about a week, when everything was finally done, Beatrice came to find the Dante who was actively practicing the True Summoner''s Will technique to break through to the next rank for himself and Levi.

    Beatrice wore a smile on her face as she told Dante to follow her to meet someone who was crucial to their business ns.

 Chapter 283 The Analyst

    <h4>Chapter 283 The Analyst</h4>

    Dante followed behind Beatrice with a look of curiosity. Beatrice had hyped this person up for a good long while, ever since he first gained the idea to start a faction. Now that it was finally time to meet them, you could be sure that Dante was wondering whether they lived up to the hype.

    Beatrice led him into the guest residences within their estate, where important people who could enter their living space but were not necessarily part of the nuclear family could stay for different periods of time.

    Within the guest residence, Dante was made to meet a very strange duo. When they entered the house, Beatrice and Dante saw a young couple who were near a full body mirror, the female grooming the male skillfully.

    The woman was quite tall, being just below Portia''s level and slightly above Beatrice. She had a head of short and curly purple hair that gleamed brightly in the light. Her lips were painted red, and her eyes shone with a deep blue light, disying sheer focus in them at the task she was working on. She wore a sundress with open shoulders and a very elegant design, which fit her slender body.

    The fellow who was seated with a calm smile was quite handsome, with pale skin, a neatly trimmed mustache, and a short goatee. In fact, he looked quite simr to Augeus but seemed to be younger and less weathered than the head of the Portinari n.

    His neat ck hair was being trimmed and washed by his partner, who was diligently grooming her partner. Seeing the atmosphere, Dante opted to wait patiently with Beatrice by the side.

    Beatrice looked at the woman grooming her partner and then at Dante, and her eyes seemed to gleam with an idea. Meanwhile, Dante naturally knew what his wife was thinking and did not dare to think of what she might do to his lovely hair.

    Soon, the couple were done with what Dante wouldter find to be their daily ''ritual.''

    "Sorry to keep you waiting. We had already begun our usual routine while waiting for you since my beloved wife doesn''t take long at all." The man spoke as he washed his face and wiped it down with a face towel that was 3D printed on the spot.

    His wife smiled and curtsied gracefully to the duo before seating herself on the couch. Beatrice rolled her eyes and walked up to the woman and pulled her up from the couch before hugging her lovingly.

    The woman chuckled and hugged Beatrice back with a clear look of fondness. As for Dante and the husband, they both shook hands firmly with appreciative smiles and introduced each other.

    "Greetings, Dante. My name is Connor Baines, currently titled The Analyst."

    Dante was surprised. "You''re the famous Analyst? The one who had raised everypany that hired you into the top 200 universes wide?"

    Connor smiled a bit proudly. After all, it was a big deal for the current number 1 in the universe - in the eyes of the majority - to be aware of his reputation and sesses.

    "And this is Elizabeth Baines, or you can call her Lily. She''s my direct cousin," Beatrice said while mushing her cheeks against Lily''s.

    Looking at the two lovely women who had the same pale skin, red lips, and purple hair, Dante was speechless. He was a fool for not seeing their resemnce right away since only one n had females who propagated this gic trait in their main line so strongly.

    "Please have a seat," Connor was amused and guided Dante to sit down.

    Lily and Beatrice also sat down, each of them beside their respective partners. Connor gestured for an android butler toe in and take their orders for refreshments. Since Beatrice was on a strict prenatal care n, she couldn''t take anything, but Dante ordered a smoothie.

    "Right, so, it''s good to finally meet you, Dante. As far back as a few months ago, Beatrice had already reached out to me through Lily with the intention of helping yourpany grow to the top, on the ount that you could provide special goods no one has seen before but everyone would crave."

    Connor rubbed his hair with a sheepish smile. "Personally, I found it hard to believe such a thing. However, it was a request from family, so I''ve canceled all my jobs for the next year to focus solely on your business and do my best to make it grow."

    Hm?

    "Wait, you canceled for a whole year? From your past exploits, you never needed that long. Sometimes, you only had to give apany founders some pointers and they would skyrocket," Dante was rmed.

    Connor made a gesture of ''can''t be helped.'' "As I said, this one is a matter of family. The level of importance beats strangers I don''t know."

    "Also, I made it a year because prior to a few minutes ago, I had no idea when you would be free to start working on your enterprise," Connor exined with a smile.

    Ah...

    Dante felt extremely embarrassed. In other words, this fellow had been sitting at home without any work because he was patiently waiting for Dante to stop running up and down doing this or that and finally get to establishing the corp.

    No matter how rich or powerful you were, one thing you must always respect is another person''s time. If you waste the time of others freely without any shame or remorse, you should not be surprised when they prioritize you less in their lives.

    Knowing that he had unknowingly wasted more than 6 months of this fellow''s time did not feel too good. However, Connorughed it off.

    "It was actually a mini-vacation for me. I''ve spent far too much time working for others and neglecting myself and especially Elizabeth. It was only when I had time for myself that I realized how much I''ve let her down all this time," he said as he wrapped his arm around his wife''s shoulder gently.

    Lily seemed deeply moved as her eyes moistened slightly. Beatrice also seemed touched and held Dante''s arm softly, making him feel guilty because he was always running around trying to gain power and not spending enough time with his own partner.

    "So before we begin the process, we need to talk for a bit. I need to find out exactly what scope you want your business to achieve, how widespread and what exactly it is you can provide because Beatrice has been very vague about that," Connor moved onto the main issue smoothly.

    Dante nodded. "In terms of scope, I am basically nning to run a half-auction, half-barter type of business because what I offer cannot be valued in any native currency our universe circtes."

    This surprised the duo, and they couldn''t help but anticipate what Dante would reveal that made him so confident. "My superpower grants me the ability to retrieve items from quantum worlds, which offers me the ability to acquire a vast array of useful goods that would not otherwise exist in reality."

    "They include resurrection items like Elixir of Soul Reawakening, Resurrection Stone, Starlight Resonance Crystal, etc. There are items like Manta Style from DOTA and Galeforce from LoL, The Leviathan''s Breath from Destiny, and the Chug Jug from Fortnite."

    While Dante was mentioning these things, he took them out from his quantum space one by one. Everyone''s breaths hitched when they felt the uniqueness of the resurrection items and the sheer power emanating from the?various game world items.

    "Of course, these are just my basic supply of goods. What I will be headlining and only trading sparingly are these, Mutation Cores from the Apocalypse World." Dante took out 1 F Mutation Core of each rank up to A because that was the highest he would sell to.

    When Dante ced the Mutation cores down, the pupils of Connor and Lily constricted to the max as their bodies trembled. Dante nced at them and smiled.

    "I heard that you are both superpowered people. The Analyst possesses the rare superpower of Supreme Data Analysis, which allows you to calcte even better than some of the greatest quantum AIs, while Miss Elizabeth is known to possess the superpower of Artificial Intelligence, which allows you to control certain functional AIs."

    "The two of you should know what these items are since you were graduates of the Unique Batch of the Eternal Academy. I don''t know the current ranking of your superpowers, but you can freely test the validity of these items by ranking up once."

    Dante made this offer to tie them to his boat and also to thank them for waiting patiently for so long. It was trivial for him to raise their superpowers by one rank, but for them, it was a life-changing favor.

    After all, the difficulty of raising one superpower rank outside of being a student in school had already been harped on about. Just as these two felt extreme shock and desire, so too would every superpowered being in the universe, and they would offer up their best items to Dante in exchange for them.

    Huh? What was that?

    How would Dante identify good items from bad?

    Well, why do you think he chose Levi out of all the awesome choices he had? A Truth Beast has no fighting capability and can only snitch on others'' secrets, very few people would choose such a thing.

    However, Levi could freely identify items using his ability and even their hidden functions, so nothing good would escape Dante''s hands. He was nning to do a clean sweep of the universe before heading to the First Gate.

    "Are you... sure?" Connor asked with bloodshot eyes, remaining calm in his seat despite gripping the armrest tightly.

    "Hahaha, look at you, didn''t you say something about family earlier? Why are you behaving like this now?" Danteughed away the tension, so as not to make things awkwardter on.

    Connor was moved and his eyes regained their color as he calmed himself down. "You''re right, I was being too formal. My Data Analysis is at the B Rank."

    Lily smiled and nodded at Dante. "My Artificial Intelligence is at the B Rank as well."

    Dante almost put his hands on his hips in order to size the two up. My gosh, people who reached the B Rank in any superpower were rare in the universe, being fewer than a hundred in number among countless beings, but he seemed to be meeting all of them nowadays.

    And what was it about the Portinari n that made them so lucky... ah. Daughter of heaven... right.

    Dante gave them 10 B-Rank Mutation Cores which they easily absorbed in order to reach the A-Rank. Reaching the peak of the superpower ranking just below the ''godly'' levels which were S rank and above, the two showed a remarkable shine in their eyes.

    You could just tell that their abilities had been boosted strongly.

    "I have a list of items I can sell which I shall forward to your chips. It includes them, their abilities, and their quantities I can procure in a certain amount of time," Dante stated as he forwarded a 3.21GB file full of words.

    Connor and Lily quickly went through and were left speechless by the end. Not a single item on this list was simple and was enough to turn any single person into a powerhouse. Not to mention those that could heal any disease and also resurrect the freaking dead!

    Forget selling this stuff, who was even qualified to buy them? What could the people of this universe possibly have that could match the value of what Dante was selling?

    Previously they had felt his words were arrogant, but seeing this list and tasting the sweetness for themselves, Connor and Lily fully believed that trading any of these items for Etrans would be madness.

 Chapter 284 Concoction Of Absorption

    <h4>Chapter 284 Concoction Of Absorption</h4>

    But what they thought was also the same thing that anyone would think. Does anyone in this universe have anything of value that could possibly be worth such items?

    Unfortunately, Spire Points in the First Gate were not tradable. This was to prevent factions from using ves to farm Spire Points and then harvesting them without actually putting in any effort.

    Lord knew that if such a thing were possible, even the aliens and mixed breeds of the Eternal Universe might be in short supply by now.

    Dante saw the doubt on their faces and predicted their next question, so he answered ahead of them. "The Eternal Universe has been spelunking in the First Gate for many years before even Lara was born. Even though progress during that period was middling at best, there came an uncountable number of strange things that could have been brought in from the outside."

    Connor and Lily shared a look and could only acquiesce. At the end of the day, it was Dante''s decision to decide what his goods would be worth, and it was their job to facilitate the smoothness of his business model.

    After that, the group discussed various finer details and hashed out the initial n for everything before shaking hands. Connor saw Dante and Beatrice out with Lily in tow, and his eyes were bright and full of fighting spirit.

    Danteˇ­ this young man would certainly rise to a height never seen before. It was an amazing prospect to be able to help him along his path.

    ......ˇ­..

    Dante settled down for the next month and focused on spending time with Beatrice. Ever since her mother came back to life, the hardy and yful exterior she had developed in response to her emotional trauma had shattered, and the almost juvenile version of her returned.

    Or like most people who suffered such trauma from a young age, her juvenile self never left but was simply suppressed behind the pain and the memories. This usually meant that Beatrice acted more childish nowadays, which was cute at times but also frustrating at times.

    This meant that he had no time to meditate on his superpower to bring it to the A Rank, nor could he practice the True Summoner''s Will for long periods of time. The good news was that he had a lot of time to digest and work on the information that Kurtaghagt had given him.

    Beatrice was quite helpful in this regard, almost out of guilt for being so clingy and needy during this period of time. She couldn''t fathom why her emotions were all over the ce recently, especially when she had been perfectly happy to watch Dante achieve his goals and grow in power before, even at the cost of their personal time.

    She was also worried that her recent behavior would cause Dante to feel annoyed and tired of her since it was starkly different from what he was used to. This constant worry and turmoil left Beatrice in a low mood nowadays, and she tried to hide it.

    Luckily for her, Dante was extremely perceptive of her mood swings and tried to amodate her as best as he could. From a young age, he knew rtionships would have ups and downs because his mother had taken time to educate him on such a thing.

    Aileen had spent her youth being raised to manipte emotions and use words to control others, so the first thing she naturally taught her son was how to manage his own emotions and be perceptive of those of others.

    As such, Dante assertively cornered Beatrice again and made her spit out what was bothering her. When he heard her worries, he was amused, so he informed her of Levi''s powers then called the Truth Beast out.

    "Levi, who do I love most in this world?" Dante asked.

    Levi pointed a wing at Beatrice.

    "Who do I hate the least in this world?"

    Levi pointed at Beatrice.

    "Who will I love till the day I die?"

    Levi first pointed at Beatrice, then hesitated and pointed at Beatrice''s belly.

    Errˇ­ Dante''s romantic flow was nowpletely ruined, but Beatrice couldn''t help butugh at his irritated expression towards Levi who looked aggrieved because he simply could not lie.

    Anyway, Beatrice felt heartened, and all her doubts were dispelled. She became much more rxed and calmer over the next period of time, often giving Dante space to practice his various methods much like before.

    In fact, she had recently been spending a lot of time in a catered medipod that helped with her prenatal care, often spending time in the Etr, helping Dante build his quantum world.

    It was an inescapable fact that he would need the facilities and resources of the Etr to do this. While he could avoid the Etraverse corp''s domain on the quantumwork, Dante could not host his quantum worlds in nothingness.

    It was not the same as the inte where one could theoretically have an intr because quantum worlds were literally existences simted using the maniption of special quarks to derive atoms, then molecules up to cells and tissues for organisms or matter for all non-living things.

    The world in question they were making was a small one. It couldn''t be helped again; the kind ofputing power and resources, especially in terms of time, it would take to make one like the True Martial World, which wasrge and shared, would take many years.

    It was a small instanced world featuring a simple the size of Earth undergoing an invasion from an outer space species called the Void Terrors. It was a typical scenario of ''humanity was about to be annihted until the chosen one appears.''

    When the work was finished, and the world was about to beunched, Dante used his Quantum Core superpower for the first time. It felt so good because there was no AI presence to limit his control, and since the world was small, he could alter many more things.

    He immediately tweaked the power of the world to grant the humans the ability to awaken a special power to be able to passively and actively absorb energy from any source into base energy for their sustenance.

    This included kic energy from movement, potential energy from standing still, heat energy from the sun, among others. To achieve this, they would need to ingest a special liquid that appeared randomly in the world called the Concoction of Absorption.

    Yes, that was right; Dante was aiming for his 5th power system slot to be one rted to energy absorption because that was his biggest issue currently. Really, until he solved this issue, there was no need to talk about the First Gate because he would always be forced to rely on ambient Zero Energy to maintain his performance.

    Rather than using Gluttonous Inferno to do that, he would rather create a unique power system for Energy Absorption in itself. Alternatively, he could have gotten a superpower for it, but meh.

    He would need to give things to the ck Spire, and the only thing that could amount to that value were the Phoenix Fire. Anyone, whether cautious or reckless, could agree that it was not wise when he could just use a slot from Quantum Entanglement.

    Dante and Beatrice activated the world together, and its first instance ran. Dante entered within and spent some time in the world, about 7 days, exploring the entire ce and doing some ''bug fixing''.

    Finally, he went to collect the Concoction of Absorption, which was a golden liquid that condensed on the tip of a special flower that grew near the Earth''s core. This?was so that the humans of this world could ess it, but the Void Terrors could not since light and heat were fatal for them.

    Dante nced at the world onest time and couldn''t help himself. He used the 7th-tier Space Spell, Space Storm, to cause all the interster ships of the Void Terrors that hovered around the to be destroyed and saved humanity from extinction.

    He then left the instanced world, which meant his actions were pointless as the existence of this world was ended. Then again, he didn''t do it out of heroism or anything, but simply because he could.

    Now out, Dante immediately replicated the Concoction of Absorption and ced the original ones to the side with all other ''original'' items from quantum worlds in his quantum space. He then took out the replicated one and ingested it.

    Immediately, he felt a surge of energy rush through his body as his skin seemed to be airy. Immediately, he felt like he had be a vortex as all the energy around him was slowly sucked into his body and converted into base energy.

    Dante had the feeling he could switch from slow passive absorption to voracious active one. The best part about this new power system was that it followed the same rules as the Eyes of Illusion.

    It did not have ''levels'' or ''ranks'' nor any techniques that needed to be practiced, but its effectiveness scaled off his raw stats. How this one, in particr, worked was simr to an appliance.

    When plugged into a socket, an appliance would draw the necessary power it needed to aplish its tasks. Dante was the same. The range, power, and conversion speed of his absorption were exactly as much as his body needed.

    So if he was in a ce with thick energy, he might only absorb energy from a 1-kilometer radius to manage his consumption, but if he was in a ce with scarce energy, he might spread out his energy absorption to even 1 million kilometers.

    It was only possible because of the tweaking from the EX Rank Quantum Core. After all, this kind of unscientific rule-breaking ofmonws was only possible by superpowers.

    Beatrice wanted to ingest the concoctions, but Dante held off. He did not want her to ingest any special item while she was pregnant, and only do so after giving birth lest they harm their daughter unknowingly.

    In the end, Beatrice could only agree. She wanted the concoction because she also had energy problems, which was why she stopped at 20,000 in all fields. However, even with her superpowers broken, she could still continue to progress forward and catch up to Dante in time.

    As for this matter, Dante nned to not only fix Beatrice''s superpowers but also her energy problem, or he wouldn''t have made something as simple as the Concoction of Absorption that can easily be ingested and required little stress to work.

    Now that this was done, the duo spent another month together in which Dante mostly worked on his Quantum Entanglement since he was getting closer and closer to the A Rank.

    In the meantime, Connor and Lily had already handled most of the business''s early steps. The current universe was in an uproar from the information revealed and the list of goods avable.

    If Dante had literally not just beaten Lara on camera for all to see, many would have directly descended on Etonia to rob him. Even though they knew they would die, many almost couldn''t resist!

    Any of these items could change a person''s life and value, not to mention the superpower-enhancing items that made those of the Alumni faction have bloodshot eyes day and night, even when they slept.

    Many tossed and turned in their beds, eagerly awaiting the opening day of Dante''s business and the first auction. Many dug into their treasure vaults to find any strange and special items that had never been able to identify since Dante imed he could.

    Meanwhile, while everyone part of the Eternal Universe honestly scratched their heads on how to buy Dante''s items, those who were not a part of it were full of panic and worry.

    As Levi had revealed, other universes had ced their spies in this one to monitor apetitor, especially after the initial rise of Portia who conquered so manynds before her death.

    These spies were now having constipation at the thought of Dante!

 Chapter 285 Uproar Leading Up To The Auction

    <h4>Chapter 285 Uproar Leading Up To The Auction</h4>

    As you could imagine, ever since they had gotten rid of Portia, they had been singing and dancing every day. Thepletion of that particr job came at a very high cost, but it all paid off in the end.

    The best part was that they still remained in the shadows since they had manipted the hatred of alien rebel factions to do most of the dirty work, which led to the current severe suppression of such groups.

    When Beatrice began to rise up, they mostly did not dare to touch her because the Eternal Universe had be alert. Obviously, no matter how the Supreme Council or the Prime Human Council felt about Portia, the simple fact was that she was a strong stabilizing power for their universe.

    Losing her filled them with rage and regret, forcing them to stop their advance and now focus on defending their territories with all they had, with the asional smattering of help from Lara.

    This had significantly stagnated the progress of the universe as a whole, and now learning about the Chaos Will and Chaos Origin that the universe needed, it was clear why another universe would pay such a high price.

    They mostly let Beatrice grow and were relieved when she simply opted to be an admiral within the universe rather than take her significant strength into the First Gate. They hadn''t needed to do anything until Dante first appeared and wasbeled as a talent.

    The orientation made them put their eyes on him, and they began observing him. The more Dante shone inter periods, the more unsettled they became until that fateful day when his stats were released.

    Like the rest of the universe, they were shocked. Such growth was reminiscent of Portia''s rise, and they began to quickly implement measures to take down Dante in the cradle. However, they were left speechless and helpless because before they could rally any forces and do anything substantial, Dante had already soared past what they could deal with.

    After his recent fight with Lara, the spy factions were at an all-time low in terms of morale. It was so bad that many of the members had constipation nowadays, unable even to sit on the toilet and release anything.

    Even worse were the faction leaders of these extra-universe factions who could not even get it up when they went down on their babes. Many times, they would wake up crying and thrashing at night, screaming Dante''s name as if he was killing them.

    And all this was without Dante even knowing where they were!

    Now with the announcement of hispany and his goods, the spy factions were frothing at the mouth. If the Eternal Universe were to monopolize Dante''s wares and buy them up, their power in the First Gate would soon begin to rise greatly!

    However, they quickly calmed down and realized that they were worried for nothing. There was little difference all this could make because the Eternal Universe controlled who entered the gates, and those who went in the first time hardly went in the second time, to the point where it was literally treated as punishment.

    Thinking like this, they realized it was even good. With many people increasing their power but not entering the First Gate, they would likely vent their newfound arrogance on each other within the universe, causing war, turmoil, and suffering in which they could exploit!

    Their bowels began to move, and their pricks began to rise as the beautiful future they painted for themselves seemed thrilling and deeply fulfilling, but one piece of news shattered all of that and took them straight from heaven to hell.

    Dante had announced that anyone who purchased any of his goods, especially one rting to superpowers or the acquisition of powers, would have to sign a higher-dimensional binding contract to enter the First Gate and fight for the universe.

    This news sent a second wave of deep uproar throughout the universe, this one being filled with negativity and reluctance. After all, who wanted to go and fight on the battlefront when they could stay at the backlines and enjoy their superior position and the benefits that came with it?

    Besides, didn''t they have fellows like Dante or Portia, or even Lara, to hold up the sky? Why did small fry like them have to go and risk their lives and die? It was immoral, unfair, bullying!

    Immediately hundreds of arguments appeared all over, especially on the Etr, as to how maniptive and evil Dante was, and how the Eternal Universe would be unsafe under his iron fist.

    This left Dante amused because why did all civilized societies try to use the same tactic to rein someone in when they became too strong? Using public opinion to put pressure on them and berate them into doing what one wanted only worked if someone considered this so-called peaceful society as their backbone.

    For those like Dante, on whom the peaceful society entirely rested on his whim, it was even more amusing rather than annoying or frustrating.

    Towards such movements, there was only one correct response, to shut them down. Taking a step back, no matter how small, would embolden them, and they would ask for countless concessions until you finally could not take any more.

    As such, Dante released a statement saying two things. Firstly, the purchase of his wares was optional, and if one did not like the terms, they simply could not buy. Secondly, all those who had championed the noise-making were banned from buying his products henceforth.

    Immediately, theints were silenced like someone whose throat was gripped tightly. Those who had thought of using thismon tactic to get some benefits and pressure Dante into conceding were filled with horror and regret, while those who had kept quiet were relieved.

    Then they looked at his first statement and were speechless. Was Dante trying to use this stupid argument to rebut them? Yeah, they were his goods, and no one was entitled to them, but such wares that were supremely attractive were things that couldn''t be passed up by anyone.

    It was practicallypulsory to buy them; the only question was whether one had the purchasing power or not. This matter concerned the life and death of many people and many factions, so how could he say something like this?

    However, the noise had been reduced to incoherent grumbling as no one dared speak. Those who had been banned were furiously contacting friends and loved ones to step in for them and buy extra on their behalf.

    However, Dante shut that avenue down as well, stating that anyone who acted as a proxy for those who were banned would also be banned as well. As for how he, Dante, would know, they should not be worried, for he had the means.

    Immediately, the ''family'' and ''friends'' distanced themselves from those who were banned among their midst; some even outright expelled them or disowned them. They did not want the excuse of harboring these people toe back and bite them.

    This shocked many of those who were banned, as their lives were practically ruined on the spot with no hope of redemption! All they had done was just try to be clever, without any real murderous nor fatally malicious intentions, so how did ite to this?

    Dante was also speechless when he saw this and rified that there was no need to go so far. He did not want the negative karma of destroying so many lives indirectly, even though it was not his intention.

    Of course, it was toote for this. Even if the expelled fellows were taken back, the rtionships had be dead, and the trust was broken. Fathers whoughed with their sons now passed by each other without greeting.

    Brothers who swore to go through?life and death together now pretended not to know each other when they met in public.

    Sad!

    While this was ongoing, Dante finally announced the opening of the premier auction, and he split the seating into political sectors. In other words, each sector had its seating area within the auction venue, as well as a limited number of participants who could enter per sector.

    In the wide Eternal Universe, there were currently 20,348 officially recognized sectors. Each sector covered an uncountable number of light-years of distance, with more than a billion gxies within each sector.

    The sheer number of people to be covered was astounding, and Dante knew that if he didn''t put some form of limitation or control, things would veer out of control. Even roadside dogs were longing to visit his auction, so you could be sure that those without the purchasing power would still like toe and witness the spectacle.

    Wellˇ­ witness it from home!

    The event was streamed, and due to the help of countless quantum AI making countless calctions per second, those at home could use their chips to bid and present items even though they were not present.

    That was why Dante initially thought, though, until Connor pulled him to the side and made a new suggestion. When Dante heard it, his eyes gleamed with shock and awe. Truly a merchant, what a vicious and cruel n!

    Not only was it perfectly logical, but it would maximize Dante''s benefits while putting him in control of everything.

    Thank God the fellow was on his side, or he would have toˇ­ Dante thought as his eyes narrowed at Connor behind his back, making the handsome mature man shiver.

    Like this, the auction venue began to fill up as dignitaries arrived from outside in endless pomp and grandeur, causing those who were watching at home to be awed and amazed by the faces and names they were hearing.

    Thetest spacecraft of the era were continuallynding, revealing pure human, mixed breed, and even alien dignitaries who were dressed up in thetest fashion of the universe, their eyes filled with arrogance and superiority since they knew themoners were watching from home.

    Look! Take a good look,moner scum! This is the gap between you lot and me, hahaha!

    If a mind-reader were to be present here, they would be speechless as all the dignitaries seemed to be thinking this same thought, as if they all shared the same brain cell in their heads.

    Meanwhile, those who were watching were filled with endless envy and jealousy, wishing to be like those fellows. Some even went a step ahead and began worshiping them in their hearts, cing these fellows on a pedestal!

    Dante and Beatrice watched the events ongoing from a distant ce near the top, their expressions filled with amusement. Just as these dignitaries looked down on the general public asmoners, these fellows were just slightly richermoners to the likes of the two of them.

    After all, despite all their arrogance and suave walking down the aisle to their seats, they obediently sat down and did not make any noise, frankly behaving like good kindergarten children being lectured by their teacher.

    They dared to posture before the public but not Dante, who could ban them on a whim. The funny thing was that they didn''t realize that this only served to make them foils for Dante and built up his reputation even further.

    The cameras had not stopped rolling, so the public could obviously see the switch from arrogance to obedience, and even if one was extremely slow upstairs, they could fathom that the reason why was simply because of Dante''s presence.

    When everyone was seated, Connor came out with Lily, the two dressed spectacrly and in the best fashion, standing on the stage in front of the crowd. Immediately, countless eyes fell on them, and even though they did not dare to release any auras, just having so many powerhouses who could decide the ups and downs of the entire universe focus on you was not easy.

    However, Connor and Lily weathered it with ease, their own endless confidence beating back the eyes on them. After all, they were not the same anymore, being wielders of A-Rank superpowers!

    In the public database, only Lara had achieved such a thing, so that meant that they were now technically on the same level as Lara! How could they be intimidated by such fellows?

 Chapter 286 Auction Begins

    <h4>Chapter 286 Auction Begins</h4>

    "Wee,dies, gentlemen, and all indigenous species of our humble universe. My name is Connor Baines, and this is my beloved wife and partner, Elizabeth Baines. We will be your hosts for this special event that shall ur very, very infrequently within the years toe, the Grand Universe Auction!"

    Connor spoke softly and elegantly, but his words were easily transmitted throughout therge venue and even to the homes or workces of various watchers using technology.

    "However, before we begin, I would like to inform you of some very important things. Firstly, if you sessfully win a bid for any item that is sold today, you are automatically agreeing to the terms that were publicized a few days ago."

    Connor looked at the crowd pointedly, with a slight smirk. "I''m not going to be vague for the purpose of legality. I''m specifically referring to the use that any party that makes a purchase of things sold by universe-renowned powerhouse, Dante Alighieri, would be required to enter the First Gate for at least a year."

    When Connor said this, there was a collective groan as many parties hoped that this matter would have been dropped or was just a joke or something. Hearing that Dante was actually serious about it made many faces be ugly.

    However, they lowered their heads as a light of cunningness shed in them, thinking of various ways to deal with this problem efficiently. Connor nced at the crowd andughed softly.

    "Of course, I know this requirement is not desirable for all parties, but the seller has put this forth, so what can one do? Also..."

    Connor''s eyes narrowed. "I know many have ideas right now, from various methods of cleverly sidestepping the task or trying to use loopholes, to outright nning to take the goods without heeding the requirement."

    As he said this, the lips of everyone twitched slightly as they knew they had been seen through. Their hearts sank because this meant that Connor - through the source that was Dante - would definitely ce safeguards against such things.

    And their worst fears came to light as Connor continued. "In the end, contracts and agreements are only considered binding if they can be enforced. The agreements we have with you are enforced by the strength of Dante and his allies, including Portia Portinari and Beatrice."

    "If you feel your fist is as strong as theirs or even stronger, you can freely ignore all terms stated and do what you want because you can weather the consequences. If you don''t have equivalent strength and still dare to do so, you should not be too surprised when your entire lineage is destroyed." Connor concluded with a slight bow.

    The atmosphere in the avenue became tense as many faces hardened in response to Connor''s words. After all, this was a threat, a tant and unconcealed threat, but as Connor himself stated, the stakes were too high.

    "Secondly, the format of the bidding has changed. Rather than have everyone submit what they think is valuable, we will use a special method to scan for the most valuable item worthwhile to what we''re exchanging and inform the prospective bidder. The bidder can then choose to make the bid or not, and others canpete if necessary."

    Connor didn''t allow the crowd to enter unrest because of the sudden change, as he was the one who thought it up himself after learning more about Dante. With this, he should be able to secure the most valuable goods that the Eternal Universe had to offer.

    "Without further ado, let us begin!" Connor began the event right away.

    A tray was wheeled up by some androids, and a holographic image of the item on it was broadcasted to the crowd visually and digitally. The holograph was huge and perfectly replicated the item while highlighting its strength and weaknesses.

    The item in question was the sword Excalibur from Arthurian Fantasy, taken right from a quantum world with that theme. The Golden Sword of Victory shone with a resplendent light, making all those who gazed upon it feel the kingly virtues and the lion''s might from it.

    Everyone''s interest was piqued, and as for those swordsmen and sword fanatics, they were being driven crazy. If it wasn''t for the strange bidding mechanic, they would have already roared out their bids by now.

    "Those who wish to secure the item, please forward your names to me," Connor requested with a smile.

    Upon being done, he forwarded it to Dante, who turned to the calm Levi. "Well, which one among these has the best item most suitable for me, my family, my purposes, and my goals?"

    Levi closed his eyes and lowered his head, seemingly entering deep thought mode. When he opened his eyes, they shed with knowledge and insight.

    "The Loncano Family. They are a mixed-breed family who merged with the cursed swords alien race, so they have the ability to devour swords to increase their sword''s ability."

    "The one who wishes to buy is not scared of entering the First Gate after seeing Excalibur, for if he is able to consume it, he could easily carve himself a tiny territory in the easier parts of the First Gate."

    "However, what he has to offer is the best. As a cursed sword mixed breed, they have acquired a special cursed sword that perfectly suits the demonic nature of the Deadly Sins, especially Wrath. If you ever create a Wrath-sin hellfire demon, they would have their power effectively doubled by using this item."

    Dante nodded and ryed the information to Connor, whose eyes shed with surprise. He turned to the anxious-looking young man from the Loncano family who was sent here because he was currently their heir and the most talented youth in their family.

    "Patriarch Loncano, it seems you''re in luck. Your n has something we want and are willing to trade for Excalibur. Are you willing?" Connor asked straightforwardly.

    All eyes fell on the Loncano Family group, and their faces changed greatly when put under this scrutiny. However, they also felt joy within at being the ones picked because they really couldn''t sit still in the face of something so great.

    "We are willing! May we know what item we possess that interests you?" The Patriarch quickly replied while cing a palm on his restless son''s head to calm him down.

    "It is the Ancient Demonic Sword," Connor said simply.

    Hearing this, the faces of the Loncano family changed greatly. If it weren''t for the venue, they would have stood up and roared their disbelief because this was their n''s deepest secret that they had never revealed since inception.

    In fact, not everyone in the family knew,?as that was reserved for the main line and elders only. If they didn''t know that they were a rtively small n even among the top factions and had never leaked their secret, they would begin to suspect that they had a traitor in their n.

    "Is there a problem?" Connor asked knowingly, smiling pointedly.

    Patriarch Loncano''s face settled as he smiled bitterly. "None whatsoever."

    At this point, he had to trade even if he didn''t want to. Now that Dante knew he possessed this item and wanted it, who knew what he would do to get it if he was refused here and now? Rather than court death or disaster, it was best to give up that troublesome and unruly sword for something that could change their family''s fate forever!

    The more he thought about it, the more Patriarch Loncano felt like his reaction was foolish; he was the one winning out from all angles, trading a rare but useless item - to him and his family - for something that was more than useful.

    Most importantly, if this had been a normal auction that required mary bidding, he would not have been able to outbid more powerful ns and factions. It could be said that his family had been the direct beneficiary of this strange auction.

    Soon, the next item was brought up, and it was another legendary sword from mythology that was swiped from the quantum worlds and replicated to be usable in reality by Dante.

    The auction went on like this, with Connor representing the goods, taking the names of those willing to bid and passing them to Dante, with Dante also taking them and inquiring from Levi as to which bidder had what he needed most.

    Upon getting the details, he would ry it back to Connor who would announce the details to the crowd and inquire from the bidder if they were willing. If the bidder agreed, it was all roses and peaches, but if they refused, the item would be moved down to the second best bidder.

    Of course, like Patriarch Loncano, most forces chose to trade because they realized that Dante having knowledge about these things and wanting them might lead to disasters, so it was better to trade it off. Besides, what they were getting was in no way worse and in some ways, was even far better.

    Of courseˇ­ there were some who were oblivious to this fact and actually refused head-on.

 Chapter 287 Auction Ends

    <h4>Chapter 287 Auction Ends</h4>

    The auction was in full swing, and Dante acquired numerous useful items that could either enhance his followers and family. Very few things in the universes could help the current him, so one shouldn''t expect much from that.

    Dante could only really get new things through three methods. Firstly, increasing Quantum Entanglement''s grade and acquiring new amazing abilities. Secondly, trading with the ck Spire in the First Gate. Thirdly, drafting and augmenting quantum worlds to create special items for himself.

    The eventsted for more than a few hours, but it was shortpared to simr events of its scale, and especially for such a hyped-up spectacle that almost everyone worth their salt was paying attention to.

    One of the most significant segments was the break, in which a small reception was held for the dignitaries present. They were led into arge chamber withfortable seating and great music, being served some of the best delicacies from quantum worlds.

    These items had been reced, so some special foods that had magical effects were replicated, like some longevity fruits from the Immortal World or special demon beast meat full of blood energy from the True Martial World.

    At first, these powerhouses looked at the things strangely, some even scoffing that Dante had gotten some bizarre outrements for them to sample. However, once the various dishes were publicly introduced and their effects made known, many of the dignitaries'' faces changed as they grabbed their tes protectively like a student trying to prevent another from copying their exam answers.

    Even those elegantdies who liked to eat slowly, in small bites, and often left half of the food to go to waste since they were on a ''diet'' were gorging themselves like ravenous beasts, ring at anyone who dared to nce at them like cruel lionesses.

    Despite this, those watching from home did not look down on them. In fact, their eyes were bloodshot as they really wished they could be there to even take a small bite. Some went to the extent of licking and biting at the air from their couches or beds - as they were watching using quantum chips not screens - otherwise, it would be their screens that would have been defiled.

    Connor and Lily hosted this part as well, and they also ate from a high table overlooking the guests. As for the two of them, they had already made bulk orders from Dante and filled their pantries with the stuff, so they ate disdainfully and arrogantly, making some of the guests who had finished their meals in one bite want to walk up to them and attack.

    "Why are you posing, huh? Why are you flexing? Why are you eating better than me, huh? Why are you living better than me, goddammit?"

    Many began punching the air with these words in their minds, imagining hitting Connor and Lily while thinking such lines. Immediately they felt much better and their anger was greatly soothed, at the cost of making them look like retards on camera, of course.

    After the break, the second half of the auction began, and the really good things were starting to be traded out. Here, even top items like pet beasts were traded out, cosmetic items from RPG-style worlds.

    They had nobat capability and were aesthetic only, so Quantum Entanglement adapted them to be the same in reality. Some also bought spell scrolls from the Magus World of various ranks, special elixirs and pills from the True Martial World and immortal world with mind-numbing effects, among others.

    At this level, Dante no longer epted only items, but also took favors into ount. Many factions that bid had to concede power, financial and social rights, and evens or gxies as well as giving up what Levi identified as useful.

    It could be said that by the time they reached the finale, basically everyone had sworn themselves into Dante''s dog. If Dante was the ruler of the universe on paper due to power, now he literally legally owned almost the entire known universe.

    This time, Dante didn''t joke around. He directly brought out 9th Rank Spell Scrolls of Binding Agreements, making the parties sign. This caused their souls to be bound, and the terms affected not just the signee, but everyone affiliated with the favor.

    For example, if the promise was to give up a gxy to Dante, the dignitaries and everyone in the gxy who had some political power would be bound by the contract. That way, the dignitaries could not y tricks on the side and me unruly subordinates for causing trouble.

    Everyone who could cause trouble or hinder the agreement had been locked in, so unless it was a genuine external faction causing trouble, one could not escape. This kind of foolproof method made many grit their teeth with hatred and dismay, but what could they do?

    However, most of the top 20 factions refrained from bidding at this stage. Even though some of these items made them grip their seats with desire, they came here with one single focus.

    Eventually, the finale came about, which was what everyone was looking forward to. Here, the items that everyone had been drooling for since the announcement of the auction were revealed, the Mutation Core!

    "For this part, we will auction a set of Mutation Cores per bid, which means 10 individual Mutation Cores of a specific rank. So there will be 10 sets of F-ranked cores, 10 sets of E rank, 10 sets of D rank, and 10 sets of C rank." Connor revealed, which made the faces of many change into anger and horror.

    After all, the amount was far too little for the needs of the entire universe! Even if one faction swallowed all these items, it wouldn''t be nearly enough to fill in the gaps between their teeth. Did Dante treat them as beggars or something?

    Connor heard theints and shrugged. To him, none of this was something he cared about, and if they didn''t like it, they could leave. Seeing his nonchnt attitude, the various factions could only cover themselves and cough blood into their buckets to vent the anger in their chest.

    The first set of Mutation Cores was traded with fervor, as the top 20 factions fought to bring out their best things. Even Levi was troubled because he couldn''t pinpoint anything that was the ''best'' among them.

    Seeing this, Dante smiled. "No need to bother anymore then. Let Connor use his discretion to award who and what the items. As for us, we have to return to the summoner World to contract my second and third beast."

    After all, Dante had long broken through the 3-star Advanced Summoner stage while Levi was already a 4-star Divine Beast. This was why Dante trusted him to identify good stuff within the universes.

    He was even looking forward to when Levi reached 10-star and could probably reveal secrets of the First Gate to him.

    Dante sent his instructions to Common and recollected Levi before teleporting to his bedroom. He found that Beatrice was lying on the bed while sleeping softly, and he couldn''t help but want to go over and tease her.

    However, the room was also upied with android nurse mothers and midwives who red at Dante with coldness and killing intent. Their eyes seemed to say that if he dared harm the mother and the baby, they would chase him to the ends of the earth.

    Dante was speechless because it was precisely he who programmed them to react like this to any intrusion on Beatrice when she?was helpless. However, how could he have possibly known that the first one to be bitten by this would be himself?

    He sat down on a couch within therge master bedroom and entered the Summoners World right away. He naturally descended into his virtual avatar that was at the back of the Holy Saint Summoners estate faction, growing his power in a secret chamber.

    When he opened his eyes, Danteined mentally about the same issue as always, stuffiness and muscle atrophy. He immediately descended with his real body to remove the difort and got up.

    The moment he came out, he found that the Wyvern fellow had transformed back into his human form and was with two others guarding his door seriously.

    The guards were surprised to see the Saint Childe out so soon, but when they nced at him, their faces changed greatly. This world had its way of identifying the strength levels of various people.

    As such, they could straight away tell that this Saint Child had shot up from the 1-star level to the 3-star level!

    The heck!

    How long had it been, a month or less? And he had already surpassed summoners who were given official titles and made to watch over entire towns in various provinces.

    Was this a Saint Child or a Demon Child?

    "Greetings, guardians, thank you all for your hard work. Can you please inform the faction head of my breakthrough so that I can summon my next beasts?" Dante spoke to them politely and with a friendly smile.

    This made the trio snap out of their stupor as they were pleasantly surprised. The original guardian, the wyvern, simply smiled knowingly because he was already familiar with their Saint Child''s kindness, as he had saved his life previously.

    This was why even though two other guards were posted, he insisted on joining them. He nned to be the Saint Child''s follower, since he was currently a tamed beast without a master.

    The other two guards were the same, one being a Dragon Elephant and the other being a Crimson Tiger in human form, both at the 8-star Legendary rank as well. Luckily, the True Summoner''s Will technique practiced by this faction ensured that if the summoner died, especially of natural causes, the beasts would not be forced to die as well.

    It was just that they would not be able to bind with another ever again, so their realm would remain the same forever. They could, however, acquire some rare resources from the faction to maintain their realms and progress forward slightly, which was why they stayed in the faction after their human masters died.

    The wyvern nodded and rushed out to fulfill Dante''s missive while the other two stood about awkwardly. Technically, this was their chance, if they could build up a good rtionship with Dante, their days ahead would be smoother and far more

    But really, what could they say that was appropriate? There was nomon ground between leftover beasts like them forced to guard to ''make a living''pared to the mighty and talented Saint Child.

    Soon, the wyvern returned with a bunch of elders in tow who seemed excited. When their eyes fell on the confident Dante, their pupils constricted and they couldn''t help but wonder just how far Dante would go and how powerful he would be.

    In the end, they enthusiastically greeted him and brought him towards the central hall where the summoning circle was being redrawn and infused with power in order to carry out the summoning.

    Even though Dante had ess to the divine space, that was only after he entered the normal space. So he could have to use this rtively rare quality summoning circle to basically make a ''transit flight''.

    Dante sat in the center seat once more and waited for the circle to bepleted. Once it was done and he was given the go-ahead to fire up the procedure, he smiled and began the summoning process.

    Dante felt his soul space quiver and he was stably pulled into the vortex and expunged within the astral-like world full of brightly lit tforms spread all over. As usual, his Soul Tether was too big for this space and caused all the tforms nearby to be sent flying.

    It was a good thing that this displcaement did not cause the tforms to shatetr, or hundreds of summonable beats would have died.

 Chapter 288 Two New Divine Beasts!

    <h4>Chapter 288 Two New Divine Beasts!</h4>

    Immediately, Dante felt the calling of the divine space and traveled right away. He did not even spare a nce for the lust-filled legendary monsters who kept pinging him, be they dragons, phoenixes, or whatever else.

    When they saw Dante leave, they wailed in agony. It was just like back in school when your crush was walking down the hallway, and you waved at her, trying to say hi, but she didn''t give the loser that was you a single nce.

    Within the divine space, Dante saw that nothing much had changed from hisst visits. There were still just over 100 tforms, and more than half of them were already dim and empty, including where Levi had previously been.

    The Truth Beast nced at his former tform withplicated eyes. He was once a ''kid'' that was part of the ''orphanage,'' but now he had been ''adopted'' and found a new home.

    Meanwhile, Dante was looking at thergest one at the back that did not deem it worthy to deal with him yet. A hint of desire was in his eyes, but he knew when and how he would capture that arrogant and all-powerful beast.

    The Divine Space began to buzz with activity as countless wills connected with Dante''s soul tether. When they recognized it was him, there was endless shock and aweing from the wills, and they even attracted the attention of otherrger wills that did not deem it worthy to deal with Dante previously.

    Now that they sensed his grown power, they were puzzled as to why it was such a big deal. However, when the other more active Divine Beasts ryed that Dante had only been here just under a month ago with less than half of his current prowess, they were naturally dumbfounded.

    Jesus, what frightening growth speed!

    One should know that Divine Beasts were the strongest but also the hardest to raise. What Divine Beasts considered the most was talent and growth speed because if they signed with you, they did not want to spend years fighting every day while being weak.

    So naturally, a prospect like Dante who could elerate their growth very fast was very attractive to them.

    Dante, feeling the growing interest, easily guessed their various thoughts and decided to strike while the iron was hot. He released Levi within this space and allowed all the other dormant divine beasts to see their ''pal.''

    "ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE!"

    "HOW CAN THIS BE?"

    "I DON''T BELIEVE IT!"

    Naturally, the response was very strong. Even if some of these divine beasts did not know Dante from the previous time, they knew Levi, and since Dante hade here half a month ago, he naturally had to have contracted one of them, which should be Levi.

    But what was this? The omnipresent rule of their world was that any monster that was contracted would have to start from the 1-star level and grind its way to the top. So no matter what mental gymnastics one went through, it was a simple fact that in less than a full calendar month, Levi had gone from 1 star to 4-star.

    However, this was only really one aspect of it. The fact that Levi had grown so quickly under Dante''s care alone was enough to make them shook, but the next fact they discovered made Dante''s value soar greatly.

    It was the fact that Dante himself was only at the 3-star rank!

    In the cultivation of a summoner and his summoned beasts, the summoner was always ranked ahead because a majority of their power and progress came from the summoned beats during feedback, which propelled the summoner forward and gave him the capital to feed back to the summoned beats so that it could progress too.

    But what was this? Dante was behind Levi, so it literally meant that Levi had been the one to benefit more from their connection, even as a Divine beast!

    What the heck?

    Was Dante the Divine Beast, or was it them? How could a human have a soul so powerful that even Divine beasts were able to benefit from it more than he did Divine Beasts? Had thews of the world changed? Or was it a fluke?

    The best representation was the change in some beasts'' attitude towards Dante. Where they had been slightly interested and adopted a ''wait and see'' approach, they were now pinging him with red eyes like that toxic random teammate who was calling for a rez after trying to solo a full team on his own.

    The ones who had been disdainful and did not bother to even look at him were now sneakily sending messages while snorting majestically as if they weren''t moved by the situation.

    Previously, only 10 or so beasts out of the 48 avable had sent their details to Dante when he first came, but including those same beasts, the new ones, and excluding the no longer present Levi, Dante now received around 24 applications.

    The original 9 were the Timeless, Infinity, Silence, Law, Soul, Paradox, Bnce, Oblivion, and Anti-matter. Along with these fellows were the Fate, Fortune, Power, World, Devourer, Wild, Ascension, Justice, War, Love, Wisdom, Hope, Despair, Faith, and Sess.

    Looking at their abilities, Dante consulted with Levi. They both used the elimination system to remove the various beasts until they narrowed down it to two choices that would be useful for Dante in the long run no matter what.

    In the end, Dante did not waste time and made his choices.

    He took the War and Faith Beasts.

    The War Beast was arge brown bear with sleek fur and a slender build for its species. Its body was covered in armor, and its eyes were filled with deep battle intent yet also clear, able to see the full picture.

    This was because its ability was not to fight directly, though like Levi, he could also engage in fisticuffs. The War Beast was basically a tactician-type beast, who granted its wielder the ability to easily see the entire battlefield control his deployed troops with ease.

    Even better, the War Beasts provided many active buffs depending on its rank to the army, be they organic or non-organic, so even robots would be buffed by its abilities.

    As for how it was useful to Dante over the others, it should not need to be said.

    Then there was the Faith Beast, which was basically a pristine white dove that glowed with a holy light. Just being around it made one''s spirit feel cleansed and uplifted, and its personality was very soft and feminine.

    Its ability was something Dante wanted to experiment with, which was basically the ability to gather faith energy for its master''s use. Unfortunately, this divine Beast was not strong enough to enshrine Dante, granting him a Divine Altar with a lit Divine Fire, forming his godhood.

    It just gathered faith energy directly at him and stored it. It could not even purify the faith energy into Divine Energy that Gods of the western fantasy pantheons used, so its utility was far lower.

    However, that didn''t matter. Putting aside the fact that Dante disdained the faith/divine power system since it relied on external power to sustain itself, faith energy had many uses, even though it was impure and slightly dangerous for mortals to wield.

    Because Dante had a thought. Given what we know about faith energy from the affiliated fictional materials and even from the Summoner''s World itself, faith energy was the condensation of the belief, thoughts, and wishes of one''s?believers.

    However, shockingly, Faith Energy existed in science too!

    Looking at that description, wasn''t Faith Energy basically Psion Energy? The energy of thoughts and beliefs?

    The Eternal Universe had mastered Psion Energy ages ago and moved onto the higher-level ones, but it was also the one energy that they had spent the least time on and used the least universe-wide due to how dangerous it was.

    The theory of "Faith=Psion" was not discovered by Dante, as he was not the only one with a brain and a creative imagination. However, that research hit a dead end because it was not possible to achieve anything without actually having faith energy in its truest form topare.

    Dante had now achieved that, and if he could resurrect this research, he could cut costs by using Psion Energy to raise his own Gods.

    Rather than a Divine Spark, he would create Psion Sparks.

    Rather than a Divine Altar, he would create Psionic Altar, or a better name would be the Psy tform.

    Rather than a Godhood, he would create the Psy Soul.

    Just thinking about it filled him with excitement for the future. As such, he collected Levi and the two new beasts and was expelled from the summoning realm. The other Divine Beasts that applied but were not chosen looked depressed, but pped their cheeks and knew that with this monster''s growth rate, they would be seeing him again soon.

    As for Dante, he finished the ritual as the War and Faith Beasts appeared in the summoning circle, releasing their pressure wantonly, causing all the elders and their summoned beasts to quiver.

    "Two Divine Beasts! My God!"

    "The Saint Child is mighty! The Saint Child is mighty!"

    "Hahaha! My Holy Saint Summoners Faction shall dominate the world for 10,000 years!"

    All of them were giddy, and their aged faces became ruddy as if they were young boys being told that they were going to be given a PS5. They seemed to be able to envision a future where their faction ruled the world using Dante''s power as a springboard.

    As for Dante, he was amused. He simply informed them that he nned to go back into seclusion, and the elders nodded like chickens pecking rice. They spoke to Dante in kind and loving tones, like grandfathers and grandmothers who doted on their grandchildren.

    After securing his avatar, Dante left the world. In reality, he opened his eyes in his residence and released his three summoned beasts. Levi was fine, but the War Beast and the Faith Beast were frozen as they were forcibly ''updated'' by the universe in coboration with the Cosmic Tree.

    Dante and Levi watched silently until they were done. The War Beast and the Faith Beast hadplicated and shocked expressions as they realized what they had been and how great it had been to be brought out of that quantum world by Dante.

    "Before anything, what are your names?" Dante asked the two.

    "Hmmm, I think I like the name Bernard." The War Beast said in a very masculine voice that was even deeper and more powerful than Levi.

    "I think I will go by Dorothy." The Faith Beast chirped by the side, her mature and elegant female voice causing Levi to stir slightly.

    Wee to the team Bernard and Dorothy. This is your predecessor, Levi, and we''ve worked together for a short while now. He can guide you on the details of my ns and how to work best together.

    Levi nodded to the two in greeting, and they greeted him back. Dante then collected them into his Soul Space and stood up, ncing at the still sleeping Beatrice as a soft smile appeared on his face.

    He left and headed toward his corporation''s giant building in the center of the city, specifically to the back portion which held his forces. After all, Dante possessed both a corporation for business and a legally recognized military force.

    After dealing with the ''light'' and money side, it was naturally time to deal with the ''dark'' and bloody side.

    When he arrived at the location, he was updated by some of the AIs managing the base that everything was going ording to his instructions. The 28 students from the Year One of the Unique Batch who were ruined by their peers had long arrived and been undergoing basic propaganda brainwashing as well as basic preparation.

 Chapter 289 Establishing A Force 1

    <h4>Chapter 289 Establishing A Force 1</h4>

    Dante nodded and walked inside, gazing at the decorations and style of his base. Sitting right in the heart of the city, nestled amidst towering skyscrapers that breached the atmosphere''s limit,y the discreet yet conspicuous sprawling territory.

    Its outer walls that faced the public shimmered with a dark ck force field, making anyone who had curiosity on their mind to enter this property feel hesitation.

    Hovering transport ships entered and exited through an anti-gravityunch bay, their sleek metallic surfaces reflecting the barrier''s dark glow. They continually brought in necessary materials and personnel from outside who were necessary for the base to function.

    After all, you didn''t expect Dante to manually be carting things up and down like when he was first setting up on earth back then? There was no need since he was now in the Eternal universe, the source of it all.

    Once through the giant ss doors that had dark-green orb-like scanners to check everyone and everything that entered the base officially, one could finally see the interior of the sprawling establishment.

    Inside, the base buzzed with a familiar symphony of silent mechanical hums and soft whirrs. Luminescent panels lined the corridors, guiding soldiers in biomechanical suits to their destinations. Tubes filled with iridescent liquid connected chambers where bio-warriors cloned using quantum species gics rested and regenerated.

    After all, Dante had killed a lot of things in his various escapades, and he often kept some in his quantum space. After replicating the corpses and removing quantum poison, he threw them into theb to be spliced and rbined into troops of the organic kind.

    His earlier idea of having only androids or synthetic troops was quite foolish and shortsighted, limited by his ignorant perspective back then. Unfortunately, as awesome as it seemed, using a mechanical army only worked when the technology level of the opposing force was lower than yours.

    Putting aside the Eternal Universe, which was the same technology level as Dante''s current means, more than 90% of the universe qualified to enter the First Gate had achieved this level of technology.

    More than 60% had better technology than the Eternal Universe, and Dante by extension. Using technology there was ill-advised, which was why the Eternal universe hadn''t simply run rampant with anti-matter weapons or dark matter weapons to push forward.

    Not only did the enemy have anti-anti-matter technology, but they could either pull out weapons of the same ss, and if you were unlucky, weapons of a higher ss. At that time, it would be toote to cry ''uncle!''

    Dante continued straight to the military base''s control center, which was a football field-sizedbyrinth of holographic screens and neural interfaces.

    A colossal viewscreen in the center - a running trend with things in this universe, Dante noticed - disyed important information about the faction''s operations, their recruitment, as well as expansion, blinking with the knowledge of interster travel routes.

    While Dante was observing the screen, a group of 50 people walked toward him, led by three in the front. When Dante turned to regard the group with a smile, the three in front naturally being Aisha, Lucian, and Harold, immediately fell to one knee in reverence.

    "Aisha, Sin Demon of Lust, greets the Quantum Lord!"

    "Harold, Sin Demon of Envy, greets the Quantum Lord!"

    "Lucian, Sin Demon of Pride, greets the Quantum Lord!"

    Their voices were loud and powerful, causing a heatwave to surge through therge room that felt abyssal in nature. Those who followed them felt a hint of pain and fear in their very souls, as if these three were entities that they absolutely should not be so close to in any way.

    Dante nodded in approval. "You may rise."

    It may sound a bit pretentious given where he came from and who he was just under a year ago, but Dante did not feel that way. The moment he had decided to walk down the path of a conqueror, he expected to be treated differently.

    He wasn''t the type for false modesty, to insist that his subordinates call him in a friendly manner and act disrespectfully towards him in public. Maybe in private was fine, but everything had its time and ce.

    The trio of Deadly Sin Hellfire Demons stood up with a respectful smile. Dante then nced past them to see those they brought along, and he was satisfied. Among them were the 28 students from his ss and a smattering of others who were sent here by his confidantes.

    Connor sent over 3 of his younger cousins, while Beatrice and Lily contributed almost 10 youngsters of the Portinari n. Peter, Dante''s uncle, had been roaming the universe in these months and had built himself a small alien harem.

    Among them, some of the aliens and mixed breeds rted to the woman begged Peter to speak to his nephew and send their younger brothers or sisters over, and they made up about 6 people.

    The final 3 were from Harold and Lucian''s families.

    Now that the way things have been said, it would seem like these youngsters were being sold off to Danteˇ­ which wasn''t far from the truth. However, they were more than willing toe and even fought for this chance for many obvious reasons that should not have to be stated.

    "Hmm. It''s good to see you all here. You already know who I am, so there''s no need for an introduction. Also, you can be sure that I know exactly who all of you are." Dante began addressing them as all eyes fell on him.

    "Each of you will walk up to me one by one and receive your new power from me. You have already been briefed by my three generals, and I hope that there are four of you with enough talent to fill the rest of the gaps."

    Dante pped his hands. "Without further ado, let''s begin. Humphrey, youe over first, then Slessor."

    Humphrey was startled but walked over with a calm expression that was clearly forced. He had gone from a top talent with the perspective of being top of his batch to a waste that no one in his n cared about until Dante mentioned he would take them in.

    The speed at which he went from heaven to hell and now to thisˇ­ heaven?ˇ­ was still weighing on his mind. In truth, he did not mind being subordinate to Dante given his talent and abilities. After that second mock exam in the virtual zero?gate, his mind had cleared up, and he no longer regarded Dante as his peer, but a peerless monster with no equal.

    The reason that he couldn''t be calm was that, in the end, the power that Dante would be giving him would be foreign, external even. It would never be his, like his Aerogenesis had been.

    Dante seemed to see Humphrey''s turmoil but did not offer sce. Even though he certainly understood how Humphrey felt and where he wasing from, the fact was that he would be in the underworld by now if Dante hadn''t resurrected him.

    He was lucky to even have all of his body, spirit, and soul in one piece along with his stats and memories. To expect his superpowers toe back when the universe could only support one holder of each was a joke, of course, the universe took it back the moment he genuinely died.

    As for being resurrected, well.

    It had nothing to do with the universe and he had died already, so there was that. As for Portia, not only was she the literal Daughter of Heaven, but the Nirvana Fire of a Phoenix was tyrannical enough to not only snatch back her soul from reincarnation, it even recollected her superpowers and activated them.

    But of course, Dante was not going to use Nirvana Fire for his darling fellow ssmates, otherwise how could he have them here before him like this, seeking power at the cost of their freedom?

    Dante immediately began infusing Humphrey with his Hellfire True Qi and stopped when the fellow entered into a cocoon to begin the transformation. He moved the cocoon to the side and continued with Slessor after that and everyone one by one for the next few minutes.

    By the time he was done with thest person, Humphrey''s cocoon was about to split open since the man inside had alreadypleted his conversion. In another few minutes, it burst open, revealing the now naked and handsome half-elf to the world.

    Before Humphrey could even gain stock of his ability as well as where he was, he heard a voice filled with amusement off to the side that was familiar.

    "Oh? I never expected this. The popr Humphrey of the Unique Batch definitely became a Sin Demon, but I did not expect you to get this sin at all."

    Humphrey turned to see Harold ncing at him with amusement while Lucian was disdainful. As for Aisha, she was only here to goad and instigate, so she giggled as if to say that their words were true.

    Humphrey was puzzled. Sin demon? Which one was he then?

 Chapter 290 Establishing A Force 2

    <h4>Chapter 290 Establishing A Force 2</h4>

    Humphrey was surprised to feel the power coursing through him. When he checked, he felt a tiny porous core within his abdomen area that was slowly spinning. It was full of a nearly liquid-like ckish-red energy that filled him with intimacy and a sense of power.

    More than that, he felt that his entire physique had changed. He had gone from a rtively short half-elf that was handsome to the point of being beautiful to a rtively bulky being that was like a fat strongman.

    However, the funny thing was that Humphrey knew that this form was packed with severe power and could be discarded at any time. It was like aˇ­ like a suit. Like a separate suit that was very intimate with him.

    A name came to mind: The Seven Deadly Sins, the Power of Gluttony!

    His special ability was the power to devour and regain his battle power endlessly. His fleshy form was meant to act as a defense and a form of ''engine'' for his consumption. Therge body could split open at the stomach area and toss bodies or things into it and convert them to energy for Humphrey.

    However, looking at how atrocious and demonic his outer form was designed, Humphrey could understand why the others made fun of him. As a supremely handsome fellow, being turned into this was the biggest irony ever.

    Dante by the side was especially surprised, looking Humphrey up and down like he was seeing him for the first time. "Interesting, I didn''t know you were a glutton."

    Humphrey jolted and nced at Dante with disbelief. "Did you read my memories or something?"

    "Nah, there''s no need for that. When I turn someone into a deadly sin, they transform into the sin they are most guilty of. If that sin is taken, they do not transform and be a normal hellfire demon," Dante exined, giving Humphrey a pointed look.

    Humphrey immediately flushed, as he switched back to his elven form. He now understood why the others mocked him, as it was not because of how he looked but what he ended up bing.

    Seeing the group ncing at them, Humphrey felt he needed to defend himself. "I-I like food. And my dad said that the height problem runs in our family, so if I want to grow tall, I need to eat more!"

    Hearing this exnation, everyone was dumbfounded.

    My Brother in Christ, it was 10998!

    You could literally have a single gene reconstruction surgery and fix your height problem for generations toe, what was with that excuse parents gave to children from the 21st century in order to get them to eat their food?

    "Ehhh, suddenly I understand a lot. The usual cold and arrogant disposition is because he is scared that once he befriends people, his secret would be leaked," Aisha said knowingly with a smile.

    Dante nced at the woman with approval. If there was anyone here who could read emotions as well as he did, it would have to be her. However, given she was an ex-mafiadonna in the heart of Italy for a while, she naturally had the skill to read others.

    As for Harold and Lucia, they were youngsters who had grown up rtively pampered. Even Harold who whined andined was only average among pure humans. In the scope of the universe, he was basically a 1 percenter.

    Humphrey, having his true nature revealed waspletely embarrassed and stood around stupidly. Aisha''s eye lit up with a predatory look, finding the fellow to be quite cute and especially innocent to some degree.

    Just what she liked.

    Eventually, the cocoon of Slessor broke open next, revealing themia who had changed greatly. She was no longer even humanoid, having grown in size about ten times to be a monstrosity that gazed down on all of them.

    Apart from her ''head'' area which glowed with a red light, the rest of her body was a mass of thick and powerful tentacles that could likely whip a giant tree into the sky. A red light energy emanated from her head, denoting what should be her eye.

    Immediately, all theughter stopped as the others felt extreme trepidation and fear. Even the base went into alert mode as hundreds of bio-warriors and androids equipped with weapons rushed into the control center and aimed their weapons at Slessor.

    Even the now four Deadly Sins nced at her with shock and a hint of confusion, but no fear. After all, would one be scared of their own direct cousin?

    Dante was the most surprised though. "Stand down, she is not a threat. She has achieved something greater than anyone could have expected."

    The base calmed down, and all the warriors shuffled out, but if you looked harder, the majority of the bio-warriors had cold sweat on their backs as they felt extreme fear when poised to fight Slessor as she currently was.

    "Umˇ­ what''s wrong with me?" Slessor''s voice sounded out in their minds, as her current form obviously did not have any speech capabilities.

    Hearing her still feminine and youthful voice filled with its usual exotess, the four sins could not help but feel a sense of dissonance. Meanwhile, Dante did not find it strange since he already knew the cause and effect.

    "Nothing is wrong with you. When I imbued you with my hellfire true qi, I expected you to be a deadly sin. What I did not expect was that a mutation urred with your bloodline and you achieved some form of atavism, bing the peak of the serpent species, the strongest demonic being among them: The Gorgon," Dante exined.

    "That''s it, the Gorgon! I knew she looked familiar, and the kinship aura she was giving me was not as strong as these three, but also not too far off!" Aisha eximed as she finally put a name to her suspicions.

    Slessor transformed back into her normal form, only that hermia body had disappeared, and she had be fully humanoid. After all, she was previously a mixed breed human like Humphrey, with serpentine ancestors mixed with human ones.

    Now both bloodlines hadpletely separated, the serpentine side manifesting as the Gorgon while the human side was left to do its own thing. All in all, she still looked mostly the same as her upper body was always humanoid, only that she had legs now.

    Just like in hermia form, she was quite tall, at around 6 feet, and her body was extremely voluptuous due to her serpentine lineage. As amia, her chest area had already broken many records, and it didn''t reduce one bit even now.

    The interesting part was that her newfound legs, hips, and backside had joined the crew and expanded outwards, giving her a very, very noticeable hourss shape. Her former red scales for her legs formed a sort of skirt for her that covered up to her upper thigh while she still wore the bra pad on her upper body.

    Her short red hair still remained the same, looking stringy and coiled like resting snakes. Her nose was high, her lips wide yet thin, and her eyes slitted with a deep amber color. Slessor had always been attractive, even as a Lamia, but very few made a move because Lamias were ''dangerous'' sexual partners.

    After all, once they imprinted on a male partner during intercourse, they became fixated on their partner for life, unable to look at anyone else. The downside was that this created near-yandere tendencies that could lead to disasters.

    Everyone imed they wanted a yandere, but that was a ''perfect'' yandere who was just obsessed without the negative aspects of being obsessed.

    So essentially everyone just wanted a loyal partner.

    No one actually wanted a real yandere in reality because your life would be a living hell. The amount of trauma and stress you would go through on a daily basis was simply not desirable.

    Anyway, the current Slessor did pull at the heartstrings of those here because with a fully humanoid body, they could trick themselves into thinking that she had lost those fearsome traits, when in truth, they had probably grown stronger.

    Slessor blushed slightly when she sensed the slight arousal of the males around her, but her eyes showed slight disappointment when she nced at Dante and realized that he had no such feelings towards her.

    Aisha walked over and patted her on the shoulder knowingly, while Dante could only sigh internally. It wouldn''t work between him and Slessor even if he wanted it to because it would just be an attraction of the body, not the soul.

    Anything Slessor could do sexually for him, Beatrice could already do and do better, plus he cherished everything about her from head to toe. There was no need to seek any external pleasure from outside.

    Otherwise, Aisha, whose body was simr to Valeria''s in terms of being his type, would have long been devoured by him.

 Chapter 291 Deploy!

    <h4>Chapter 291 Deploy!</h4>

    After Slessor, none of the others had any surprises and became normal hellfire demons. After all, to be a Deadly Sin, it was mostly about infusing more energy from Dante, but it also required a special something.

    Dante would not have known before, but now he knew that it was fortune. If the fortune cloud above your head did not have even a hint of red, then it was impossible to be a deadly sin, and one would remain a normal hellfire demon.

    "Now that you all have changed, you are probably aware of your newfound power and its scope, but that is only transient. One can only know the full extent of their ability through practice, so let''s get you guys a chance to do so." Dante addressed them with a nod toward the four sin demons.

    The four sin demons stepped forth and naturally assumed a leadership role for the rest of the hellfire demons who had changedpletely in demeanor. Whether they were students of the Portinari n, cousins of this or that, they were now hellfire demons wholeheartedly united under Dante''s banner.

    They reorganized the 48 normal hellfire demons into groups of 12 under each of them. They then moved toward a battleship that was prepared for the Deadly Sins when they headed out on arge-scale expedition called TheAbyssal Mandate.

    The Abyssal Mandate took to the sky once fully boarded, heading into the atmosphere of Etonia and towards the starry sky as the quantum warp drive was initiated. Meanwhile, everyone else began to stir once their various observation methods and personnel reported that Dante had made a move. Only an hour or two after entering his base, he was now on the move to somewhere, and quite rapidly too.

    What was the so-called strongest in the universe up to now?

    Everyone could not help but wonder what was going to happen next.

    ...............................

    Meanwhile, in themand deck of the Abyssal Mandate, Dante sat down in the captain''s seat while Levi stood beside him, gazing into the mesmerizing vortex of colors that existed around them without any sign of confusion.

    For some reason, it seemed like summoned beasts did not have to go through the test of the universe, which Dante felt was more likely to be attributed to his superpower and the cosmic tree more than anything else.

    After all, regardless of pure human, mixed breed, or alien, everyone went through it all the same for the first time.

    "Well, have you got an answer for me?" Dante prodded Levi impatiently.

    "Wait a bit, their details are surprisingly hard to track. They have definitely used special means from the First Gate to block their tracks, but I can crack it in time." Levi answered with a look of concentration.

    Dante settled down while Levi began to do his work. Normally, this would crazily consume Dante''s energy, but when it came to Levi - and any of his summoned beasts for that matter - the one who handled their bills was the cosmic tree.

    So given whatever method that the other party used, it was futile. Even if their method was potent, it definitely had a limit in terms of its energy, and as long as Levi kept prodding it, he could quickly consume it to death.

    Cheating? Hmph, it''s not cheating if I like it!

    "Got it. They are within the Paragon Sector, specifically the Lupin gxy. They have taken a chain of leisures as their base and have been hiding there for years, controlling it from the shadows." Levi soon reported after seeding in his task.

    Dante nodded and took Levi back. "Heh, hiding there eh? It''s not going to save you lot. Your time has finallye."

    After sharing the coordinates with the system, they came out of random warp and entered targeted warp. The initial warp was just to throw off those who were watching and make them wonder where they were going.

    Their actual destination was the ce Levi had pinpointed just now, and it was imperative that the fellows there did not know he was arriving; otherwise, they would probably scatter and flee.

    That''s right, Dante was targeting the spy forces!

    Specifically, the forces that orchestrated the death of his mother-inw. He was going to take his troops there and livestream the iing ughter for the whole universe to see, firstly to highlight the power of his forces and what his hellfire demon could do, and secondly to avenge Portia.

    Portia had definitely nned to do it herself but wanted to focus on Beatrice first and revengeter. Then she was forced by circumstances to rush into the First Gate to work for some ''cash'' for her and her line of girls, so she had to put this aside.

    Beatrice too was pregnant and could absolutely not afford to even exert herself in the slightest. As such, as a capable son-inw, Dante had to present a bted Christmas and New Year''s gift to his mother-inw in the form of her assassin''s heads.

    Dante slowly briefed his group on their target and the details that he got from Levi, including their specific locations, their strengths, and their abilities. This would leave his troops with the initiative to handle things however they wanted.

    As for him, he began preparing a pseudo-10th rank spell.

    Dante stood up as spiritual energy surged around him crazily, making the warp space that the ship was passing through quiver slightly unstably.

    He chanted words and made gestures with a serious and focused face. Unlike even 9th rank spells which he could instantly cast, even fake 10th rank spells required him to focus because it was meant to be cast by multiple 9th rank mages at once.

    The current spell he was working on was called Spatial Blockade. There was a spatial blockade spell for every rank, but Dante doubted if any of them below the fake 10th rank could stop the means those guys had, not from a technological perspective, but in terms of special abilities, superpowers, or items they had.

    Even 9th rank spells, while powerful, could not match superpowers because superpowers were recognized by the universe. Only fake 10th rank spells possibly could be they soared past being mere spells and had achieved hints of universalw as well as heavenly rules.

    If it wasn''t for the innate limitation of quantum worlds and the server it was hosted on, with how long the Magus World had been in operations, mages would have long broken through 9th rank and discovered a new peak.

    The ship soon sted out of warp space, right in the center of the gxy that Levi had identified. In the few seconds before the various forces could detect their presence, Dante quickly sucked over all the spatial elements needed for the spell and released it, having finished casting and was holding it at the precipice all this time.

    Immediately, a spatial shockwave urred that surged throughout the gxy and surrounded it from all directions, forming a giant purple sphere. Every living being within the gxy felt suppressed and constricted, as if their movements were hindered.

    While most normal people were puzzled, the spy forces hidden on variouss began to panic when their detection methods told them that Dante was here and he had cast this blockade.

    They immediately sent out an internal rm and began to escape quickly. They were definitely not going to make excuses for why Dante was here and watch him to see what he would do; were you crazy?

    Even if they were wrong and fled wrongly,it was better to be alive than to be right. If such spy factions were so dense and stupid, they would have long been eradicated from the various universes they were ced in.

    Dante also realized he had slightly underestimated these fellows when Levi reported that they were escaping. Levi didn''t even need to tell him; he could feel the pressure on his spatial blockade as the items they were using were ripping it apart from the inside.

    Dante''s eyes became bloodshot. He cast a 9th rank portal spell that opened four portals that led to four differents, near the location where those forces were.

    "Deploy!" He roared.

    Seeing their master was so serious, they did not dare to dally and rushed through the portals, aiming to take down their foes swiftly and cruelly. They unleashed all of their hellfire from the get-go and moved like sniper bullets set loose towards their target locations once through the portal.

    The members of the spy factions in those locations had their eyes bulge out when they felt the aura and malice rushing towards them from so close, especially when they were still cracking the spatial blockade. Meanwhile, Dante sat down in his captain''s chair with a slight look of fatigue and made a casual order. "Begin the livestream. Make sure it has priority on allworks."

    The AI acquiesced to his order and put the session live, causing the universe to stir as many of their programs and activities were interrupted by this.

 Chapter 292 Progression

    <h4>Chapter 292 Progression</h4>

    292 Progression

    nsmith6: "Well, well, what''s this? Dante''s started a stream!]

    [Jarfulos: "Dante, bro, you''re live everywhere! Is this the start of your universal takeover?]

    [RupeThereItIs: "OMG! Is that Dante, the legendary quantum traveler? Pinch me, I must be dreaming!]

    [GrumpyOldFart74: "Oh great, another Dante spectacle. Just what the universe needed!"]

    [DrEnter: "Dante, my dude, you''re trending in the Andromeda sector! What''s the big news?"]

    [MoonWalker87: "Did someone forget to tell Dante it''s not April Fool''s Day?"]

    [Nesavant: "Dante is live! Everyone, stop what you''re doing and watch the Quantum Lord!"]

    Thements rapidly came in as the livestream started, and people were naturally excited and jovial, passing jokingments and greetings toward Dante or each other. However, even though Dante was the one who initiated the stream, it never focused on him or his ce on the ship.

    Rather, the livestream was split into four, focusing on each of the four deadly sin demons and their troops massacring the shocked spy factions who had yet to react. As such, thements quickly changed from joviality to confusion and shock.

    [Yaluckyboy09: The heck! I thought I came to watch a stream of Dante; why am I watching some strange species dismember a bunch of innocents?!]

    [Aura_ck: Ha, I always knew that there was something up with this Dante fellow. What a sick bastard to force us all to watch this gruesome sight!]

    [Tsunematsu: Hold on, we may be rushing to judge without knowing the full facts. Why don''t we give Dante a chance to exin himself?]

    [Masterkiboi: @Tsunematsu fucking nerd lol.]

    [Kartster: @Tsunematsu how do Dante''s balls taste?]

    [DaMatrix: @Tsunematsu dick riding champion of 10999!]

    Since Dante did not exin anything, people understood it as they saw it. Dante initiated a livestream to show his forces ughtering someone who offended him, and given that they looked helpless and taken by surprise, it was likely some meager force that might have slightly offended him only a little.

    What made people''s expressions colder was that all of these fellows were aliens, or at least, they were not exactly humanoid. Their species varied, but they definitely fell into the category of what the Eternal Universe would call an ''alien''.

    Dante suddenly began to speak, and the entire livestream became silent due to surprise. They couldn''t see his face, but they could hear his words clearly as if he was standing right beside them.

    "In the First Gate, every universe must battle for territory in a capture-the-g sort of style. These captured territories do not only allow us to expand our forces and im morend, but it also benefits our universe immensely."

    "The long and short of it is that the more territories we capture there, the stronger every being in our universe bes passively, and every child born, regardless of species, within this universe will have a higher chance of having superpowers."

    "As you can infer, such a benefit is to die for. We fight so much over our ''free'' training ground the Zero Gate, so you can imagine the turmoil within the First Gate itself. Other universes will go to any length to secure an advantage, any length."

    At this time, the livestream camera focused on Aisha, who held up one of the spies with her long demon tail, her lips parted as she blew a pink mist on his face. The fellow''s struggle slowed down as the entire universe watched his eyes be ck, and he popped a shameful boner, alien-style.

    Aisha simply smiled yfully and made the fellow face the direction of the camera, which was a drone that scanned the area in 3D. One could choose to view as if they were watching through a screen, or they could project their minds into the scene in real time, invisible to the broadcaster and intangible to the world, but almost physically on the scene.

    At first, most people chose to watch in 3D mode because of the gruesome ughter, but now that the focus was on the sexy Aisha, many directly entered 3D mode so that they could get a better look.

    When they appeared, they naturally enjoyed themselves thoroughly for a brief moment at the top-tier eye candy, since Aisha''s demon form was scantily d and bursting at the seams with flesh in the right ces while extremely thin in other, equally right ces. However, they soon became unsettled when they saw Aisha grinning at them directly as if she could see them. But that was impossible because they were simply projections that were not holographic for the viewers'' privacy.

    "Tell the world who you are and where you came from, thrall," Aisha spokemandingly to the charmed fellow, and he spoke immediately in the samenguage as this universe.

    "My-my name is Pakrouti... I am a low-level warrior from the Avernus Universe that was sent here to monitor and disrupt the operations of the Eternal Universe along with my colleagues."

    The fellow revealed secrets he swore to die with before his masters with ease as Aisha made him recount everything they did since they set up in the Eternal Universe. As scandal after scandal was released, the faces of the Eternal universe denizens changed from shock to anger, to hatred, and then finally to fear.

    The amount of things they had done were truly frightening, and they even yed a major role in the current political conflict between aliens, mixed breeds, and humans by agitating all sides many times in secret.

    The killing of Portia was their biggest operation, and did the most harm, but the current universe couldn''t understand the magnitude of that and rather felt it was a small thing. This was fine with Dante as he wanted the universe to learn about these things piece by piece.

    When done with him, Aisha exploded the fellow''s head live on camera, but no one was disgusted anymore. Rather, their eyes were bloodshot, somementing that Aisha was too brash!

    Such a fellow could have been tortured for days and nights before being killed miserably!

    "So you now understand the purpose of this expedition. This is a new era for the Eternal Universe, one helmed by me and my forces. I will not be like previous powers who kept you all in the dark, ignorant of the dangers you are facing as well as the choices you can make at the highest level for fear of public uprising," Dante continued speaking as the livestream split into the four deadly sin demons rushing to the next hidey-hole of these fellows.

    "These tumors have existed here for too long and must be surgically removed to grant us a chance to heal, no matter what. Learn from this and seek strength," Dante concluded as he went silent to allow the universe to digest everything.

    Meanwhile, the four teams were still moving rapidly between locations and engaging the various forces head-on. This was a subtle move by Dante to allow everyone to directly witness the power of his hellfire demons to prove the legitimacy of his ims of domination, as well as incite others to join the faction.

    Many wanted to join for sure, but Dante wanted quality over quantity. Thesefirst groups of chosen ones were from family friends and former colleagues, so it was more of a nepotism thing. From here on out, recruitment would be solely based on the quality of the applicant.

    Also, it was not like Dante specifically needed the entire universe to join him so that he could have numbers. He could easily turn everyone and give them a variety of powers, yes, but no king conscripted all the peasants in his kingdom for war unless he was either an idiot or desperate.

    Dante was neither at this time. The universe also benefited from the growth and reproduction of species, so those without the qualities to be exemry warriors need not enter the battlefield and should continue to focus on the maxims of mundane life.

    Dante checked the spatial blockade and saw that its integrity was still above 30%. Even though the spy forces had continually bombarded it in desperation, as they were culled rapidly by his forces, the offensive power of such methods against his blockade waned.

    With a thought, he refilled the blockade with purified space elements, causing its structure to return to form and leaving the few remaining spies who had hidden even more extensively filled with despair and unwillingness.

    In a matter of a few minutes, they were all dragged out and killed, some captured to be experimented onter in Dante''s base. When the four teams returned to the Abyssal Mandate, they found a satisfied Dante waiting for them.

    In a spontaneous disy of loyalty, they all fell to their knees in their arranged lines and loudly paid their respects to Dante. This part was also caught on camera for the livestream, making the faces of many change as they seemed to feel the sweltering heat and power from the words even through the Etr.

    Looking at Dante, who had his hands behind his back and his eyes gauging the worthiness of his subordinates, he really did look like a lord of sorts.

    "Rise."

    Once on their feet, he nodded to them. "Debrief and head to your quarters. We are returning to base."

    After acknowledging hismand and dispersing, the livestream was cut, leaving the denizens of the universe to deal with their thoughts, the things they had seen and heard, as well as the question of what to do from here.

    Dante let the ship enter warp space back to the base while he pondered his next move. It was about time to go into seclusion to work on Quantum Entanglement and his new power system in tandem, while also growing his forces.

    He wasn''t leaving to the First Gate until Beatrice gave birth anyway, and that was over 5 months away from now, more than enough time for him to achieve many things. Thinking like this, he settled into his seat and sighed with a hint of fatigue as he rubbed his brows, but he soon pped his cheeks and became focused again.

    When they returned to base, Dante was informed that countless dignitaries were offering their sons or daughters to join his force, so he calmly published the requirements for joining to the universe.

    Upon seeing it, the various powers could only sigh because they understood that Dante was walking the path of elites, which was exactly what they would do in his shoes, so how could they be angry or dissatisfied?

    The fact that he was willing to grant this awesome power to those outside his circle alone showed his magnanimity and his will to help the Eternal Universe grow. Now that everyone knew the stakes of the Universe Battlefield and

    what it entailed, they were naturally less inclined to be

    small-minded.

    This gave Dante the chance to settle down with his beloved and his family, entering the much-needed period of peace and seclusion that he craved. Focusing first on the True Summoner''s will, it took him a short few months to raise Levi to the 10-star level as well as Bernard and Dorothy.

    He did not im his remaining seven beasts as he himself reached the 10-star Summoner level, aiming to do so in one fell swoopter. Rather, he spent the next 2 and a half months focusing on Quantum Entanglement day by day, until his hard work paid off.

    Finally, on the 21st of June 10999 in the Eternal Universe calendar and 2031 in the Centralis Universe calendar, Dante finally broke through the A-Rank in his main superpower!

 Chapter 293 A Rank Quantum Entanglement

    <h4>Chapter 293 A Rank Quantum Entanglement</h4>

    The first thing Dante felt was extreme rity. Hisconnection to the Cosmic Tree grew closer once more, and he could feel its near-limitless power even more, making him realize that its power was greater than he previously imagined.

    As usual, along with the growth of his superpower came a fresh list of options for his upgrade path.

    [A Rank Upgrade Paths for Quantum Entanglement]

    1. Quantum Singrity: Users can manipte quantum markers to create localized singrities, which temporarily disrupt thews of physics in the vicinity. This can result in warped spacetime, altered gravitational forces, or even bending the paths of projectiles, making them unpredictable.

    2. Quantum Echo: The user can now establish a stable connection between two quantum markers ced in different dimensions, allowing for seamless travel between these realms. This offers them the ability to ess unique resources, bypass obstacles, and uncover hidden knowledge within alternate dimensions.

    3. Quantum Voidwalk: This upgrade grants the user the ability to enter a state of quantum voidwalking, rendering themselves undetectable by both physical and supernatural means. They can pass through barriers, evade surveince, and move silently in and out of any location without leaving a trace.

    4. Quantum Implosion: The user can now create quantum markers that implode upon contact, causing an instantaneous, devastating release of energy. This upgrade allows them to set traps, create explosive surprises, and manipte quantum detonations with precision.

    5. Quantum Omnipresence: The user can temporarily extend their consciousness to all quantum markers simultaneously, granting them an omniscient perspective and unparalleled control over their surroundings.

    6. Quantum Augmentation: Users can enhance the physical and mental attributes of individuals within their marked zones. This sub-ability grants temporary boosts to strength, speed, intelligence, or other traits, depending on the user''s focus.

    7. Quantum Insight: This upgrade enhances the user''s understanding of quantum entanglement, allowing them to detect and analyze any quantum disturbances in their surroundings.

    8. Quantum Siphon: The user can now siphon quantum energy from their surroundings, replenishing their base energy reserves. This ability enables them to maintain prolonged control over all their powers without fatigue.

    9. Quantum Lock: This ability enables the user to temporarily freeze or lock quantum markers, immobilizing objects or individuals in their entangled state.

    10. Quantum Nullification Field: Users can create a nullification field around a specific marker, temporarily nullifying the superpowers and abilities of those within its radius.

    [A Rank New Sub-Abilities for Quantum Entanglement]

    1. Quantum Symbiosis: The user can establish a symbiotic connection between themselves and another being, allowing shared ess to quantum markers and enhancing both parties'' abilities.

    2. Quantum Reversion: With this advanced ability, the user can reverse quantum changes in objects or beings. They can repair damaged structures, revert injuries, and restore the original state of quantum systems.

    3. Quantum Seer: The user can peer into quantum timelines, gaining glimpses of possible future events and making informed decisions based on quantum foresight.

    4. Quantum Sovereignty: This ultimate upgrade empowers the user to establish aplete quantum realm under their control. They can manipte quantum physics, rewrite universalws, and shape reality within this realm, granting them god-like authority within this pocket of existence.

    5. Quantum Ascension: The pinnacle of elementalization abilities, Quantum Ascension lets users transcend their physical forms. They can exist purely as quantum energy, bing nearly omnipresent and nigh-invulnerable within 300 meters of their markers.

    6. Quantum Ether: This sub-ability grants the user ess to the quantum ether, a realm of pure energy where they can draw immense power for various purposes.

    7. Quantum Imbuement: Users can infuse objects or individuals with quantum energy, granting them temporary superpowers or enhancements.

    8. Quantum Void Gate: This advanced sub-ability lets the user open portals to the quantum void, granting ess to unknown dimensions and resources.

    9. Quantum Revival: In dire situations, users can tap into the quantum fabric of reality to revive themselves or others within their marked zones. This sub-abilityes at a great mental and physical cost but cannot be stopped or interrupted.

    10. Quantum Erasure: This sub-ability allows the user to erase quantum entanglement connectionspletely, eradicating their traces and impact on reality.

    Dante had thought he was past that stage where he would feel agony over decisions, especially since he hade so far and had gained so much power, but the Cosmic Tree was here to remind him that he was not that guy yet.

    His eyes werepletely bloodshot once more as he read and re-read the abilities offered to him. Due to the strengthened connection between him and the Cosmic Tree, the number of options had directly doubled at the A rank, but he could still only make one choice from each.

    This was impossible to do because he naturally wanted them all!

    If not all, then at least more than half of each category!

    In the first category, he could do without Quantum Singrity, Quantum Echo, Quantum Implosion, and Quantum Siphon, but the rest spoke to him in some way.

    Quantum Singrity and Quantum Implosion because they were attacking methods, and he did not need attacking methods for his superpowered abilities, but rather special esoteric methods with multiple uses.

    Quantum Echo because cross-dimensional travel was useless to him at this time. Quantum Siphon would have been an instant get if he hadn''t already put his final power system as the Concoction of Absorption.

    In the second category, apart from Quantum Ascension, Quantum Void Gate, and Quantum Erasure, everything else was even more intense in terms of value.

    Quantum Ascension was not needed because it was abat-based ability. Quantum Void Gate was the same as Quantum Echo; he did not need to bother with alternate dimensions at this time.

    As for Quantum Erasure, it was all-around not appealing because he had yet to discover an entity that could see or interfere with his custom markers. They might exist out there, but definitely not in huge numbers and definitely not strong enough to interfere with something that was backed by the Cosmic Tree.

    Dante had to rely on his usual decision-making method, checking his goals list and seeing which abilities fit him the most. This time, he naturally added Levi to the decision-making process and directly asked the Truth Beast which ability would be best for him.

    Levi could only helplessly remind Dante that it could not assist him with anything regarding the Cosmic Tree. It was supplied by it but not controlled by it, and even the energy it supplied was not enough to crack its own code.

    In other words, the Cosmic Tree did not mind Levi prodding and poking, but even at max power, Levi was too weak to get anything from it and anything directly attached to it, namely Dante''s main superpower.

    So it could only give its opinion based on FACTS and LOGIC.

    In the end, looking at his opinions and weighing his choices, Dante could onlye to terms with his reality and choose the two abilities of Quantum Nullification Field and Quantum Revival.

    I mean seriously, the choices were sweet, and some of them were super cool, but when it came right down to it, anyone who understood the stakes would have made this choice in the end.

    Dante felt the abilities connect to him, and he perfectly knew how to utilize and manipte them. He sighed withment and regret as he watched the list disappear, all the non-chosen abilities wailing like people thrown down a canyon, never to be seen again.

    Levi saw Dante''s difficulty and patted him on the back with a wing. Eventually, he managed to remove himself from his wallowing and rose to his feet, checking the time. When he saw the date and there was about a month and a half left until the birth of his baby, Dante was excited yet nervous.

    He knew he had to go and check on Beatrice at this time, but his knees began to ck together, and he chickened out due to anxiety. In the end, he procrastinated and decided to sort the issue of his remaining seven slots for summoned beasts first.

    As such, Dante descended into the Summoner''s World once again. The routine was the same as always: he logged into the virtual avatar, brought his main body down, and then exited seclusion.

    The guards were shocked by his aura, the elders rushed out; they too were shocked. They fawned over Dante, who was their Saint Child and h h.

    Eventually, the summoning ceremony was started, and Dante went through the familiar steps he needed to pass through to enter the divine space.

    This time, the Divine Beasts were ready for him, and the moment he appeared, they threw their applications over with such force that Dante was actually sent reeling.

    This was actually a joint decision by all the Divine Beasts that had been rejected by the fellow. They assumed that when he came back, he would be at least a 5-star summoner, so if they bombarded him, it would knock him unconscious, which would teach him a lesson for overlooking them.

    As such, they were smug when they fired it out, feeling as if all the dissatisfaction and depression in their hearts had been thoroughly vented this time. Hmph, how dare he overlook them? Were those other fellows he chose better than they were?

    However, they immediately realized that something was terribly wrong. The size of Dante''s soul tether was farrger than that of a 5-star summoner. In fact, it was sorge that it towered over the entire divine summoning space!

    Even the chief at the back with thergest tform was now overshadowed by Dante, and it became rmed. As for the fellows who dared to attack him, they could only look up with fear and horror on their faces.

 Chapter 294 Goodbye, Summonerâ€™s World!

    <h4>Chapter 294 Goodbye, Summoner''s World!</h4>

    294 Goodbye, Summoner''s World!

    However, Dante was only amused by them and did not have any ns to punish these petnt children. Rather, using the sheer superior force of his soul power, he stripped away the barriers around the tforms that prevented one from seeing within unless the Divine Beasts themselves gave approval.

    Being stripped naked like this, the various divine beasts were furious and embarrassed, but after what had just happened, and what they could see, they did not have the guts to make noise about it.

    Dante then looked through them, including the remaining 24 who had ignored him, even thest time he came and showed much potential. The original 25 who sent applications were Truth, Timeless, Infinity, Silence, Law, Soul, Paradox, Bnce, Oblivion, Anti-matter, Fate, Fortune, Power, World, Devourer, Wild, Ascension, Justice, War, Love, Wisdom, Hope, Despair, Faith, and Sess.

    Dante had taken Truth, War, and Faith.

    The new 24 were Freedom, Beauty, Peace, Knowledge, Vengeance, Imagination, Dreams, Emotion, Consciousness, Change, Empowerment, Decay, Miracles, Evolution, Divinity, Quintessence, Enlightenment, Counter, Synchronization, Order, Chaos, Creation, Destruction, and finally, the big fe at the back was called Cosmic.

    Standing over them, Dante perused them like he was an old auntie in the supermarket looking through produce. The Divine Beasts felt humiliated by his casual nce, but the current Dante was not someone they could resist.

    And was he someone they even wanted to resist? The current him could make all their dreamse true and shoot them to the fabled I()-star in no time.

    Sigh!

    They felt like ambivalent young maidens who wanted their boy crush to lean in for the kiss without being told, all the while outwardly acting in a rebutting manner. This made these dignified beasts feel miraculously deep down, unsure of how to describe their current feelings.

    Dante looked through and thought carefully. He wanted 3 beasts with offensive power, 3 beasts with defensive power, 3 beasts with supporting powers, and the 1 Dorothy who served a misceneous use.

    Bernard and Levi fell into the category of support. As such, for the final support beast, Dante grabbed and captured the Synchronization Beast. It was in the form of a yin-yang fish that was part ck and part white.

    Its ability was Synchronicity, allowing Dante to transfer some of his abilities and powers onto others and vice versa. However, since Dante had the ability to create hellfire demons, this aspect of it was not very useful for him.

    However, he could now establish a solidwork through this beast, allowing others to ess things tomunicate with him cross-world. One time in the past, hemented that his protagonist growth n was wed because the ''system shop'' could not function autonomously like in most novels.

    As for sharing things like superpowers and abilities from quantum entanglement, especially, you should know it was out of the question. The best Dante could share from his body was a portion of his stats.

    Why a portion? Well, not everyone had perfected genes granted perfectly by Porunga himself. A sudden load of power would shatter their bodies and cause them to explode.

    Don''t forget, the standard was to have a maximum of 500 SDI average in the Eternal Universe without superpowers. Only superpowers could allow one to break that limit.

    As for the offensive beasts, Dante grabbed Anti-matter, Oblivion, and Soul. Destruction did not appeal to him because he could cast magic with simr effects from the Magus power system.

    Antimatter was a small bat with a shonen-like aura around it, Oblivion was shaped like a miniature ck hole, and Soul was just a floating cloud of greenish-blue mist.

    For the defensive beasts, Dante grabbed Bnce, Counter, and Infinity. He could also have chosen Creation or Imagination here, but they did not appeal to him much because Dante could predict their limitations based on established patterns.

    Bnce was a small yellow bell that floated along, two red dots forming what should be its eyes. Counter was a honey badger that was standing upright and posed like a battle monk, its arms and legs wrapped in bandages. Infinite was a fat pufferfish-like entity that seemed to swell to infinitude.

    When Dante made his choices, he didn''t even look at the other divine beasts before taking his soul tether out of the summoning space. Those top beasts like Order, Chaos, Creation, and Destruction that had never given Dante a second look were left red-faced and furious at being indirectly rejected.

    However, the anger calmed as their faces changed. They looked behind them at thergest tform where their overall boss stayed, the Cosmic Beast! This fellow''s ability was to create a miniature universe that could grow, standing at the peak of Divine Beasts.

    Still, even it had been left hanging by Dante, something that made the others realize the problem. The Cosmic Beast was just as stunned and furious as they were, expecting Dante to choose it, which would allow it to ''reluctantly'' follow him.

    But what was this?

    It couldn''t even hate from outside of the club... because it

    couldn''t even get in?!

    The divine summoning space had be very awkward,

    and no one spoke within for a very, very long time.

    ..................................

    As for Dante, he concluded his final summoning ceremony and spawned his 7 new beasts above the summoning circle. Given the size of them, the ce got crowded quickly, but that was not a problem for the elders by the side who were excited to just be here.

    Dante was amused by their behavior and openlyughed at them, making the excited elders blush with embarrassment. Dante collected his seven beasts first and decided to chat with them after they entered reality and were ''updated''.

    For now, he had to resolve some bits of karma. He turned to the elders and spoke softly.

    "The Holy Saint Summoners faction has raised me for so long, and it will always be my home in this world."

    Dante then sighed. "However, you have all been aware from the start that one like me is an anomaly in the world. From my great soul power to my continuous divine summons, I am not someone meant to flounder in this world."

    The excited elders settled down and became quiet. Many of them had discussed things in meetings over the months

    that Dante was away, having a headache as to how to

    maintain their Saint Child when he matured.

    Because this was no longer a Saint Child, but the reincarnation of a god from some divine world. Unlike the Apocalypse World where natives had an idea of descending students, the True Martial, Magus, and Summoner''s Worlds - despite being shared worlds - had no clue about students.

    To them, Dante was a true native, which was why the background input was necessary. Still, despite this, his growth was just too fast and too terrifying for them to rationalize, and theywere the number 1 faction in the world!

    "I feel a calling from a higher ne. One must achieve aplete set of divine summons to be qualified for this calling, and I believe Immortal-level summons must exist in this world," Dante continued as he gazed upward. The faces of the elders changed greatly. Many showed yearning as they pictured the world Dante talked about, something that many had spected to exist in the world but never found to be real.

    However, with Dante confirming it, they couldn''t help but feel regret that they weren''t talented enough to qualify, and that the conditions were so stringent. Still, they also felt happy to know that their Saint Child qualified.

    Dante chuckled. "Don''t look so sad. When I be strong enough, it will be possible for me to descend and bring you all up with me. At that time, you will all undergo a rebirth of sorts."

    Whoosh!

    Suddenly, the master of the faction appeared, an aged man with a long beard that seemed to billow in the wind, and nodded toward Dante.

    "Go in peace, young one. Remember where you came from and where you want to go," he said simply, his tone full of support.

    "Naturally," Dante stated before subtly casting a spatial spell.

    Suddenly, grand phenomena urred that shook the entire world, a heavenly pir of light falling on the Holy Saint Summoners faction that caused everyone to rush over quickly. They wanted to see what was going on this time.

    Eventually, they saw Dante ascending to the heavens through the heavenly pir, countless majestic phenomena appearing around him. This naturally left all onlookers stunned and confused as they watched in silence, right up to the moment he disappeared.

    In the end, they murmured among themselves before surrounding the Holy Saint Summoners in a bid to get answers. Naturally, the Holy Saint Summoners did not see the need to hold anything back and revealed all the information to the public.

    Hearing about it, those who still harbored grudges with the Holy Saint Summoners and specifically Dante after the ughter of many top faction leaders felt a chill in their hearts. Not only could they never see vengeance, now they had to be wary of him returning to ughter them casually.

    ..................................

    Meanwhile, Dante naturally redeemed his ount in the Summoner''s World since he was done with it.

    [Supercoin Settlement for Dante.

    World Name: The Summoner''s World

    World Type: Shared (5% Score Bonus)(90% reduction for high starting point)

    _______________________________________________________________________________

    Online Time: 00:30:11 (F- Rank)

    Monster Kills: 0 (F- Rank)

    yer Kills: O (F- Rank)

    Native Kills: 13 (EX Rank)

    Summoner Rank: 1-star Beginner Summoner (F- Rank)

    Highest Beast Quality: Divine (EX Rank)

    Highest Beast Rank: 10-star (EX Rank)

    Reputation: A Saint Child who created a timeless legend of

    Divinity and Ascension. (EX+ Rank)

    Final Score: SS+ Rank

    Payout: 2,250,000 Supercoins (bonus added)]

    His original payout should have been 22,500,000 with the 5% bonus added, but the 90% reduction was a severe punishment indeed. Anyway, he had been forewarned by the system, and he didn''t much care because his Supercoin bnce only ever went up, not down.

    Whatever the case, he settled down at home and called out all his ten beasts. Levi, Bernard, and Dorothy introduced themselves before Dante bluntly told his newly summoned beasts that he dealt with names, not titles.

    The beasts looked at each other and began to share what they felt they should be called.

    "Please call us Synkoi," the Synchronization Beast asked in a half-male, half-female voice, the male voiceing from the white yang fish and the femaleing from the ck yin fish.

    "I would like to go by Killian," the bat-like antimatter beast said in a cold, sinister voice.

    "For me, cko would do," the ck hole Oblivion Beast said; how it spoke, no one knew.

    "Hmm, I would go for Weaver," the cloudy Soul Beast said in a soft, infantile voice.

    "Call me Brium," the Bnce Beast, which was like a bell, said in a simrly childish voice, that was high-pitched.

    "The way that is known is not the way, and the way that is not known is the way. Call me Dao," the honey badger posed like a battle monk, spoke in a profound voice.

    "Well then, call me Biggie," the Pufferfish said in a joyous voice filled with amiability.

    Dante nodded with satisfaction. "I will cultivate you guys to the 10-star rank so that you can begin to execute your duties for me."

    He then let the superpower update them, which took a few hours like usual. Dante spent this time transferring soul power over, so even as they were incapacitated, they were still rapidly making progress.

 Chapter 295 Time Trickles Away

    <h4>Chapter 295 Time Trickles Away</h4>

    295 Time Trickles Away

    Focusing on cultivating those fellows was not much of a problem for the current Dante. By the time they woke up from the update, they had already shot up more than a few levels collectively.

    Each of them wore the sameplex and troubled expressions after realizing their former existence as well as knowing about their current state of being. They weren''t just the lucky ones to be chosen by a great talent; they were literally lucky to be able to truly exist!

    "All of you must be feeling it, but don''t think too much about it. There is much more to see and explore out there. You may have been almighty Divine Beasts in your quantum world, but here, you will have to fight to prove your worth." Dante addressed them all straightforwardly.

    The beasts could only ept this and return to Dante''s soul space.

    Now that Dante had achieved the A Rank, he had checked the difficulty and time to reach the S Rank, and it was an estimated 6 months of non-stop cultivation. That was not possible given that Beatrice was only under a month and a half away from giving birth.

    Realizing that he could no longer procrastinate, Dante pped his cheeks and teleported to their estate. He walked up to their bedroom where the android midwives were still caring for Beatrice''s every need.

    Immediately, their kind and jovial expressions turned into hostility as their eyes went from blue to red, locking onto Dante immediately. Dante rolled his eyes and ignored them because he could connect his A1 chip to them to gain recognition.

    The reason they reacted like that to him was because Dante was paranoid. As the ''strongest man'' in the universe, who wouldn''t want to cripple him? Or even in terms of his goods, who wouldn''t want those Mutation Cores for free?

    The best way was to kidnap his wife and soon-to-be-born child while they were helpless and then ransom them. To that end, one could use various means, even superpowers, to achieve this.

    Even superpowers that allow people to assume Dante''s auras and physical body existed. That was why only a special code from his A1 chip was recognized, because no superpower could mimic his A1 chip since it was crafted by the cosmic tree and was augmented by Dante''s EX Nanite Resonance.

    Whatever the case, as annoying as it was, it was better to be stared at by a bunch of androids than to be doing something and receive the heart-sinking news that someone had attacked and kidnapped his wife.

    Of course, Dante knew Beatrice was strong. Up until Portia came back and his genes were repaired, she was practically the strongest stats-wise in the universe. However, even OG Portia was taken down because she had to protect Beatrice, much less Beatrice now who was nurturing life in her body.

    It was entirely possible - and honestly actually wise - for her to surrender and follow her captors rather than fight and risk something irreparable happening.

    Countless thoughts ran through Dante''s mind, but they were all banished when he saw Beatrice lying on the bed while being fussed over by the midwives. Looking at her amused yet helpless expression, Dante couldn''t help but marvel at just how lucky he was to secure such a timeless beauty for himself.

    The best part was that her beauty wasn''t just external but internal as well. Dante loved every aspect of her: her snarky and yful self when she was in admiral mode, her sweet and soft self when she was around her mother, and her loving and clingy self when she was with him.

    As usual, the moment Dante arrived, Beatrice seemed to lock onto him as her eyes roved over to his direction almost immediately. When she saw him smiling softly at her, she couldn''t help but smile back and pat the side of her bed.

    Dante briskly walked over and sat down, gently stroking Beatrice''s luxurious purple hair. "How are you doing, babe? Is everything up to standard?"

    Beatrice leaned on his torso and seemed to be significantly happier. "I cant even lift my own arm to clean my body now; these guys do everything for me. I''ve spent more time browsing the Etr these past few months than my entire life."

    Dante chuckled. Listening to herin about this was quite amusing, but it made sense. Before their rtionship... no, before her pregnancy, Beatrice was always on the dreadnought, either rxing between missions or dispatched to ughter another rebel force.

    In essence, she was a woman of action, so asking her to sit down in one ce without doing anything was definitely a trial for her. Thinking like this, Dante had a few ideas.

    "It''s always better to y with loved ones. Choose any non-school world you like, and we''ll y together. I won''t use any superpowers or the like; it''s just gonna be me and you together." He suggested after some thought.

    Beatrice''s eyes lit up, and she held him tight. "Sure? Aren''t you busy with anything at the moment?"

    Danteughed. "The only thing keeping me busy is anxiously waiting for my beloved wife to duplicate herself into my daughter so I can love them both."

    "Heh, alright then. Let''s y Dungeons and Dragons, 235th edition! They have a really cool instanced world for up to four people to y together." Beatrice chuckled.

    "Sure, then scoot over and let''s y." Dante agreed and squeezed onto the bed with Beatrice, holding her hand as hey down beside her and essed his chip.

    Soon, he saw an invite from Beatrice to join her custom session and epted it. They were both brought to the character creation menus, in which Dante chose to be a high-half-elf wizard, and Beatrice chose to be a human Sorceress.

    Looking at Beatrice who was dressed in tight-fitting sorceress robes, with her voluptuous curves, a nefarious intention couldn''t help but shine in Dante''s eyes. However, he suppressed it because he only needed to wait for about 90 days before he could ravage her again.

    In the end, the duo chose a typical low starting point and entered the world afresh, going through dangers, perils, and meeting newpanions to add to their party along the way.

    At one point, they found a sweet little half-elf girl who had lost her parents and clung to Beatrice since she was the one who rescued her. Her maternal instinct was fully triggered, seeing as her own daughter wasing, and Beatrice couldn''t bear to let the child go.

    In the end, she poked and prodded Dante until the fellow reluctantly agreed to try and preserve her. He descended with his main body and ced her into a medipod for cryostasis and ced her safely in his quantum space.

    When he acquired the means to grant random quantum lifeforms the chance to exist in reality - aside from

    through special means like the summoning world - he

    could use it to wee her to reality.

    Either that or when she became older, he would turn her into a hellfire demon.

    Before doing any of this, Dante asked the girl, called Ka, many times if she was okay with this and exined in child-like terms what might happen in order to deter her. Dante was not wicked, but he was not very benevolent either.

    He personally did not like the idea of taking in any stray childrenbecause there were millions like Ka in the universe. If they were to take in this one, what right did they have to leave those other ones out there to starve?

    However, Beatrice was in the height of her emotions at this moment. The normal her would probably dislike this idea even more than him and would only have helped the girl within the quantum world rather than try and bring her out.

    But right now, what was going through her mind was something along the lines of: ''Oh dear, what a poor little baby. If it were my own little baby who was stranded, I''d definitely want someone to help her, so why don''t I build good karma by doing this now?'' which was pretty predictable.

    Even worse, she justified her thoughts by saying to herself, Well, my daughter will need a ymate, and she is just

    perfect!'', so the matter was settled in her mind.

    No matter what, Ka was adamant about going wherever Beatrice went because she had imprinted on his wife, especially after her recent trauma. Her parents weremoners that were ughtered by tieflings in the town that Dante''s party stayed in for the night.

    As Dante and his group were basically at level 8 after ying for over a month, those level 3 tieflings who thought they could run rampant were met with death quite quickly, but not quickly enough.

    Seeing the furious Beatrice appear before her and ughter the tiefling that was about to carry her away, the little one naturally became dependent on her savior.

    Eventually, Dante sealed the child in a medipod and ced her in his quantum space. Well, at least within cryostasis, she wouldn''t have to worry about anything, and Dante had cast a calming spell on her, so her dreams during this period would be full of happiness and positivity.

    Seeing that the time was ripe, Dante pulled them out of the world and began to watch the midwives prep Beatrice for the procedure. Each day that passed made him more nervous than thest, and he even had a short meeting with Augeus who came to check up on his daughter and granddaughter.

    He took a break from his swamp of work to be present here, and Dante entertained him since he could tell that the fellow had been really fatigued. Thinking about it, he asked Augeus if there was any superpower from the list of fruits he had that he wanted.

    He chose the Pure Death Fruit, which granted him the power to control the power of decay and even spawn undead as well. Looking at Augeus, Dante realized that he did have the looks and bearing to be an epic necromancer.

    Soon, Portia also returned. She looked noticeably moreposed and condensed, like the great power she had gained after rebirth had been thoroughly exercised and be a part of her.

    Before, she radiated an aura of uncontroble power, like a neutron star about to go supernova, but now she was like a normal life-bearing, seeming natural and established, with endless potential.

    But Dante knew that for her to reach this stage, countless beings from other universes had to have died underneath her crushing power, bing nutrients for her growth. Who knew how many territories and lives she had taken in this time?

    Yet there was not even a hint of killing intent on her. It was as if she simply went to prune flowers rather than kill people for benefits. Or as she said it, she was going to earn some ''cash'' for her family, so how could she have killing intent?

    Connor and Lily also paid a visit, while Aisha insisted on being here so that she could learn for her own future. Slessor hesitated and also came over shyly, looking forward to learning about the process from Beatrice.

    David and Aileen - Dante''s parents - were naturally present for this as Aileen and Portia especially took over from the midwife androids. David and Augeus seemed normal, having already gone through the nervousness of a father and conquered it, chatting together about cosmic football/ser.

    One could hear arguments about howary Chelsea and Sr Manchester United were facing off and who would win.

    Meanwhile, Dante himself was a mass of anxiety walking, pacing up and down with a troubled expression. Nothing anyone could say or do could calm him down, and David and Augeus stopped the others from interfering.

    This was a process every man must go through on the cusp of bing a father.

 Chapter 296 Antonia

    <h4>Chapter 296 Antonia</h4>

    296 Antonia

    Eventually, Dante could not continue to pace around and cause everyone to nce at him from the corner of their eyes.

    That was because a beaming Portia and Aileen came out of the room, their faces full of satisfaction. Dante''s head whipped up, and when he saw their expressions, his thumping heart seemed to calm down greatly.

    He briskly walked over to them. "How was it?"

    "It was fine, Dante. Rx. You can go in and be with Bea for now." Portia replied with an amused chuckle.

    Meanwhile, Aileen gently patted her son on the shoulder and gave him a look that he was familiar with, which meant that he had to calm himself. Almost out of reflex, Dante took a deep breath and sorted out his emotions before realizing how his mom had Pavloved him from a young age to be in control of himself.

    He never really realized that before, but he had little space to think about it now as he walked right into the room.

    Technology in this age had made childbirth not only painless, but the risk of anything happening to the child or mother was so low that any ident urring was an anomaly. Moreover, all of the machines and tools were handcrafted by Dante using his Nanite Resonance, so they stood at the peak of the universe.

    Dante was not worried about Beatrice''s health, though he hoped that their child being a darling of the universe wouldn''tplicate things. What he was worried about was how he would present himself to his child and whether there were anyplications.

    As he walked in, the android midwives gave him space and led him to the bed where a slightly tired Beatrice held a baby in her arms, draped in swaddling cloth. As usual, when he entered, her eyes fell on him, and Beatrice released the most dazzling smile Dante had ever seen.

    "Dante...e and look at her. She''s so perfect." Beatrice beckoned him over.

    Dante almost floated over to the bed and sat beside Beatrice, gazing at the lovely little darling within. What surprised Dante was that the girl was born with a full head of purple hair, like her mother and grandmother.

    It seemed that gics were hard to erase, because even her bright little eyes that were full of intelligence were purple as well. Even her features were simr to Beatrice in the sense of the softness and femininity Beatrice possessed, but her skin color was the same as Dante''s, and her demeanor seemed somewhat simr too.

    However, what shocked Dante was the power he sensed from the child. Dante had mastered multiple power systems so he could sense some of them from the infant, which left him frazzled.

    Immediately, he called Levi out.

    Levi took one nce at the baby and said congrattions to Beatrice then nced at Dante with a slightly superior look. When Dante gave him a re that suggested a beating, Levi became honest and spoke.

    "Your daughter possesses a semi-quantum body. She can enter quantum worlds and exist in them freely, just as she can in reality. She can also freely learn and adopt quantum powers like you, but the number she can learn is limited."

    Levi then leaned forward and squinted at the curious infant who wondered what this giant bird was doing.

    "Also, she has inherited your hellfire ability as well as Beatrice''stent radiant ability. She also has a condensed spiritual core, and her eyes have the power of illusion, but it remains dormant."

    "Most importantly, her basic stats are all at 10 points each, which surpasses every other baby in existence within this universe. In terms of potential, she can reach great heights, but she cannot surpass you nor Beatrice unless the universe gets more Chaos Will." Levi concluded.

    Thest part made both Dante and Beatrice frown. It didn''t matter the situation, any parent hoped that their child could eventually surpass them and reach new heights; it was basic instinct. Hearing that one''s progeny would be restricted in the future was not a nice thing.

    "It seems we need to take the First Gate even more seriously than I thought." Beatrice said, her eyes flickering.

    Dante stroked her hair with a smile. ''We can all go and take a look. With you and your mother there together, the other universes will have to scream for help."

    Beatrice was pleased by this. "I have been thinking about it, to be honest. However, my style is too simr to mom''s and I have far lower stats."

    ''Yes, but I have spent this time going through various quantum worlds to prepare things for you. As Levi said and as you told me months ago, you have great Internal Arts talent for the holy/radiant element." Dante said with a smile and took out the Heavenly Scroll of Infinite Paths.

    Beatrice nced at it but didn''t take it because her arms were full of the baby. She only looked over and her eyes lit up. "Just by giving it a casual nce, I can feel my entire body churn as a strange energy emerges. Later on, I''ll make sure to look through it carefully!"

    Dante nodded and put it away. He then nced at the silent baby that had been watching everything with curiosity and a hint ofprehension. He marveled at it and felt that this child will probably start speaking soon.

    "What do we name her?" Dante asked the million-dor question.

    The duo had discussed some names in the previous months, but now, with the actual being in front of them, it felt like everything they prepared before was not enough.

    Beatrice did not seemto have this problem, though, as she smiled at Dante and kissed the baby on her chubby cheeks.

    "We''ll stick to the name we chose, why are you backing out now? Her name will be Antonia."

    The baby - Antonia - heard the name and her eyes seemed to light up. She immediately began tough and make jolly, which also made Beatriceugh as she cuddled the infant lovingly.

    Looking at this, Dante''s heart warmed and surged with intention, the will to protect. He stood up and nodded to the waiting android midwives, kissing Beatrice on the cheek before doing the same for Antonia.

    "I''ll leave you two to the post-natal recovery. I''m sure everyone outside can''t wait to hear about her name and what happens next." Dante said as he waved to Beatrice and walked out of the room.

    Seeing this, Portia and Aileen walked back into the room after giving Dante pointed looks of amusement. Augeus and David stood up and came to either side of Dante, patting his shoulder.

    "Dad... there is this burning feeling within me right now. The will to protect my family at all cost, to challenge the world to carve out a safe space for them and to provide for them everything they want." Dante spoke his heart to his two dads.

    "Never forget that feeling, son. You will carry it for the rest of your life; make sure to act on it when you can."

    "This is part of the journey of fatherhood, Dante. You can only ovee, never sumb."

    Both Augeus and David smiled knowingly as they advised Dante earnestly.

    Dante sighed and sat down with the two men, listening to their advice and their shared stories of some of the difficulties they faced and how they resolved it. Most of them were martial, financial, and macro-issues that could affect the entire family.

    Soon, Portia and Aileen came out once more, stating that Beatrice and Antonia were resting. Dante coulde tomorrow to check on her, so he left to another guest room and spent the night tossing and turning, thinking of his adorable daughter and how much he would pamper her in the future.

    When morning came, he excitedly rushed upstairs but paused and felt it was too early. As such, he used quantum entanglement to leave the estate and return to the home universe.

    He floated before the massive Zero Gate of the Centralis Universe in silent ponderance. His fleet had started building a massive space station around the entire Zero Gate, walling it off and preventing other species from essing it, just like in the Eternal Universe.

    It was a massive project that required more resources than one could imagine. Luckily, the universe was vast, and Dante had conquered many sectors so far, some even yet to be inhabited.

    Ever since he learned about Chaos Will, his quantum clone had implemented the policy of rapid gestation. The rewards for migrating to news and giving birth across all the species had been greatly increased, especially for races with poor fertility.

    Those with high fertility were not given much because high fertility usually came with the w of low-quality gics/existence. An example would be the insect race, with the highest fertility but each individual insect was worth about one millionth of a single human.

    Rather than waste time filling the ck with low quality, Dante used technology and even magic to enhance the fertility of significant races, causing them to enter a flourishing golden age. Currently, most of these races forgot that Dante was a tyrant who had taken over their freedom and praised him to the high heavens.

    Imagine being kidnapped, but you are taken to a luxury mansion with butlers and maids to serve you, food of every type you liked imported for you, any games you wanted avable for you, and even the power to create your own animes/manga to watch/read with top beauties paid handsomely toe and y with your young master as and when you wished.

    The only caveat was that you couldn''t leavepletely.

    Who wouldn''t enjoy such a life?

 Chapter 297 Sudden Conflict

    <h4>Chapter 297 Sudden Conflict</h4>

    297 Sudden Conflict

    While Dante was pondering what to do, his face changed as he received a report from his AIs that handled the war front. It seemed that he had been stopped by a strange being that had annihted an entire fleet by itself and was rapidly piercing through his forces, making a beeline for his control center.

    Dante recollected his quantum clone and teleported to his Ster Vanguard 11 gship that hovered outside the Zero Gate area. It seemed that the strange yet powerful being was rushing towards her, and its speed was truly cataclysmic as it caused space cracks wherever it passed.

    Dante stood on the edge of the ship''s exterior, ncing into space as he felt the existence approaching through his spirit sense. When he sensed their presence, his eyes narrowed greatly because it was exactly who he expected it to be.

    In a sh of zing light that seemed like a miniature sun had been careening through the universe, the entire area was swept by heat and shockwaves of the like that could shatter entires.

    Dante waved a hand and isted all his ships and property in another space so that they would be unaffected by the damage. He then red at the center of what was previously the burning sun which retracted itself, revealing a familiar figure.

    "Lara Sanguis."

    That''s right, it was Lara. Still dressed in her ck and red tight-fitting military attire with her cape billowing behind her, she looked domineering and majestic. Especially that lush white hair paired with those glowing red eyes, she made anyone she looked at feel inferior.

    Lara nced at the area and saw that nothing was damaged. She flicked a finger and Dante''s spatial spell was cracked easily, sending all his items back into the material ne.

    Despite this show of power, Dante was unfazed. He might have been bothered if he didn''t know, but Levi had revealed most of Lara''s secrets long ago.

    He knew that she possessed higher-dimensional authority over all elements, so his meager space spell, even if it had been at the 9th rank, could not hold up against the authority of space, even when it was diluted to 0.01% in all of Lara''s clones.

    Seeing the unsurprised Dante, Lara frowned slightly. "Lesser being, how dare you try to im sovereignty over this universe''s Zero Gate without my permission?"

    Lara''s eyes held infinite disdain for Dante. As Levi also revealed the clones were not mentally linked, so this Lara clone which originated from the Centralis Universe did not know about Dante.

    To her, he was just another lower-dimensional being.

    This made Dante smile.

    "Are you mentally inept along with being existentially mediocre? Do my words warrant a smile from one such as yourself? Quickly answer me or I will-" Lara frowned as she folded her arms and began to speak arrogantly, but her words were cut off when Dante suddenly appeared before her.

    "I didn''t get a chance to smash your stupid face in thest time, but now youe to my home base and make noise? Die." Dante whispered to her as Lara was stunned from shock, unable to fathom how such a lower being could move so quickly.

    Danteunched a punch filled with his Martial God level blood qi that was as thick as an entire, striking Lara in the gut with his full force. Feeling her soft flesh receiving the full extent of the damage, Dante initially thought she would burst into blood mist on the spot.

    Rather than that, she was simply sent flying through space like a speck of light. Dante was surprised and summoned Levi out to ask about this, who had been observing everything through his eyes.

    Levi was speechless at Dante''s inquiry. "She calls you a lower-dimensional being and your thinking proves her right. Long story short, higher-dimensional beings can only be killed by higher-dimensional methods."

    "Like, you''re a human, so only a human on earth can kill you, using his fists, a weapon, a gun, or something else from the 3rd dimension. A game character manifested from a two-dimensional game in the 2nd dimension CANNOT directly kill you no matter the kind of power they possessed in the 2nd-dimensional world." Levi exined slowly.

    "Huh? So if I were a normal human and Superman jumped out of the pages of aic to punch me, I won''t die?" Dante asked with confusion.

    "Not directly. Depending on how he manifests, he may or may not keep his great power, but even if he does, what would happen would be the same as right now. He would punch you, but it won''t be enough to one-shot you, only cause great pain."

    "What would kill you would be the friction from being sent flying, crashing through buildings, etc. If he takes a building and smashes it on you, you will turn into people because that building is a 3rd-dimensional object."

    Levi then nced at Dante. "But you won''t be able to easily kill Lara here. After all, you are in your dimension, not hers. Using the same example, it is like you are sucked into theic book world and meet Superman. No matter how he punches you, no matter how many buildings that you crash through, you cannot die in that world through the means of something naturally born in that world."

    "And there is also that fact that when a higher-dimensional being goes down a dimension, they be stronger and more godlike while the reverse happens for lower-dimensional beings. When they ascend, they suffer suppression until they raise their level of life ordingly."

    Dante absorbed this information and nced at where Lara was sent flying. He hesitated. "So it''s not worth it to fight her?"

    "No, it''s the biggest waste of your time until you can truly possess a higher-dimensional method of fighting." Levi answered honestly.

    "I see, so this is your source of information then?" Lara''s voice sounded right beside Dante, as a hand streaked out of the void and grabbed Levi by the throat.

    Dante was startled and immediately used his great physical speed to move at Lara, who smiled as she squeezed the fellow''s neck tightly. "Ah, ah, ah, don''t try to save him or I will extinguish his existence with Heavenly Annihtion White Fire."

    Dante stopped just as he was about to break Lara''s arm off her body to rescue Levi, his face changing as Lara already infused specks of white fire into Levi''s body, ready to remotely detonate at any time.

    He then stepped back and red at Lara coldly. "Let go of him and I promise to leave your dignity intact."

    Lara looked at Dante as if he was stupid. "You? What makes you think you have any right to negotiate or speak your mind here?"

    Dante looked Lara up and down slowly. "You may just be a clone, but you still have the consciousness of your main body, as well as its arrogance. I can suppress you easily in every way possible."

    "If you kill him, fine. I will spend the rest of my time, taking you and every clone I can find of you in every universe through the most vile and filthy ''lesser species'' for them to soil your body, spirit, and soul. So fine, do it." Dante stated with conviction, looking at Lara with his body tensed.

    Lara''s face changed to one of disgust, as the fate Dante mentioned was one she would not evendream of urring in her worst nightmare. Despite that, she smirked at Dante like he was a fool.

    "Is that so? Then..."

    She squeezed her hand and broke Levi''s neck before igniting him in me, turning him into ash within seconds. Suddenly, Lara''s own body ignited in me, burning into nothingness rapidly as she left one final message.

    "...what if I choose not to?"

    Dante roared as she appeared before Lara the moment she lit herself in mes and even pressed his hand into the fire to grab her, but her body was rapidlybusting. In fact, if he didn''t cover his own arm with his hellfire true qi, he would havebusted along with her.

    Feeling the grasp of nothing in his palms, Dante fell to his knees and roared to the heavens.

    "NOOOOOO!!"

    Lara woke up while shaking her head, feeling slightly dizzy. She noticed that her body was constrained with some strange chains that locked her up in a very humiliating way. Her usual military attire had been stripped off, leaving her in her underwear which was surprisingly made of woven leaves like she was some sort of Eve from the bible.

    Shocked, she gazed forward and saw Dante seated in the air with his legs crossed while arguing with the bird beast she literally just turned into nothingness. The two noticed her presence and stopped their argument to focus on her with different expressions.

    Dante nced at her coldly, with a hint of amusement while Levi was full of anger and hatred. Lara could not fathom what she was seeing, because what happened was that this clone should have returned to the main body through the fire authority.

    "Confused? It''s normal for you to be. Let me enlighten you piece by piece." Dante stated as he leaned forward calmly, smiling yfully the entire time.

 Chapter 298 The Goal Of Lara

    <h4>Chapter 298 The Goal Of Lara</h4>

    298 The Goal Of Lara

    "Firstly, I was aware of your existence the entire time. I didn''t think you''de to me so soon, and I also did not n to strike at you just yet, but you surprised me for sure," Dante began as he nced at Lara''s pristine pale skin that seemed just healthy enough to not be taken as a vampire.

    "Secondly, you are not my match. The entire time we fought, I was toying with you. You came and started talking big, and I was not in the mood to waste time, so you fell under my illusion from that very moment."

    "I mean, seriously. I do not need to summon Levi out to talk to him and have him do his work, and summoning him out during battle would be a foolish rookie mistake."

    Dante folded his legs as he nced at the slowlying-to-terms Lara. "Unfortunately for me, and Levi here, we can both see what happens within a person''s illusory world. Killing my Truth Beast? You''re quite capable, huh?"

    Lara remained silent as her expression became gloomy. "Who the hell are you, and how do you know me?"

    "I am the Quantum Lord, Dante. As for you, Lara Sanguis, I know you because you''re quite popr in another universe I''ve traveled to," Dante introduced himself with a dramatic bow.

    Lara sized up Dante. "Quantum Lord? What a stupid name. You lower lifeforms of the sub-universes are truly amusing."

    Dante shrugged off her contempt. "Whatever floats your boat. What I care about is what exactly you n to do bying down here with so many clones."

    Lara sneered. "My goals are beyond theprehension of a piece of trash like you."

    Dante shook his head and turned to the still furious Levi, who had seen his oue in the illusory world and was greatly miffed.

    "What is her true purpose?"

    Levi rubbed his neck gently as if he could feel the phantom pain of being grabbed and spoke coldly. "She ns to use the origins of all the universes to refine the seal ced on her main body and free herself."

    Lara''s pupils constricted. "How could you possibly know that? How could you know this and not alert my main consciousness?"

    Levi sneered at Lara in turn. "Kneel down and beg, then I might decide to tell you."

    This demand made Lara''s face change as she stared at the Truth Beast with disgust and hatred, as if the very suggestion he made was the epitome of rudeness and insubordination. Meanwhile, Levi simply red right back without a hint of fear.

    "Well, Lara Sanguis, rather than ask such foolish questions, what you should be asking is what I intend to do with you." Dante brought the focus back to the discussion as he crossed his legs.

    "And what do the actions of a random ant that thinks it has an advantage have to do with me?" She spoke arrogantly, not conceding defeat verbally.

    Dante smiled at her pointedly. ''There are many things I can do to you, or specifically to this incarnation of yours that would cause your main consciousness to be traumatized for millennia if your memories ever trace back to her."

    Lara''s breath caught and her lips became sealed, determined not to reply, but Dante could tell from her actions that this was something she feared more than death itself. She could be killed, but never humiliated!

    Even this current experience was pushing the boundaries of her tolerance, but she was forcefully coping with it by telling herself that it was just another illusion of some sort. There was simply no way some lower-level lifeform trash could actually apprehend her.

    "But I don''t want to do them, nor do I care to. Rather, I will keep you prisoner in this space while I travel to other universes and hunt down your clones, eventually foiling your jailbreak n." Dante announced to Lara directly.

    Lara shook and suddenly began struggling against her bindings for the first time as her eyes became red. "You piece of trash lesser being, how dare you! If you dare to interrupt my great ns, I will destroy you so thoroughly that the damage will be felt by everyone in your lineage from 1000 generations up and downwards!"

    Dante''s casual expression became cold as he disappeared from his seat and appeared before Lara. Before she could process anything, a heavy kickden with blood qi and life essence struck her face, specifically her right cheek.

    She would have been sent flying within the quantum space if Dante did not bind her tightly, but it didn''t stop her from facing the fate of spinning around on the spot like a screw being dug in.

    She didn''t die from it, but the pain and the concussion she suffered after were very real, causing Lara''s expression to change to one of madness as she attacked Dante once more, this time with her authority of space.

    In her mind, her authority should overpower what little tricks he had and allow her to break free from this ce, but when she tried to ess it, she felt like she was being blocked by an unstoppable wall.

    "Huh?"

    That was why Lara muttered in confusion, because she couldn''t fathom there being an existence within this lower-level space that could actually be on par with her, or in this case, her main body.

    The quantum space was created and managed by the Cosmic Tree, so its rules were enforced by it too. Her meager authority control in her clone was not even enough to fill the gaps of the Cosmic Tree''s teeth, so forget even activating it; she could barely even sense her authorities here.

    Dante casually walked over and gave her another kick, this one slightly lighter in force in order to wake her the hell up. Even as Lara''s head tilted to the side and she coughed blood, despite her awesome power, she still seemed dazed as if someone had told her the most shocking thing in the universe.

    She raised her head to nce at Dante as if she was looking at him for the first time, the shock and dismay evident on her pale white face.

    "How can this be... you don''t even have a mere Origin being supporting you, but an actual Eternal?"

    Dante frowned and turned to Levi. "What are Origin beings and what are Eternals?"

    Levi calcted silently and then sighed. "I cannot say even though I know because the Cosmic Tree feels it''s not yet time for you to know. Only when you take Quantum Entanglement to the S rank would you be qualified to know such a thing."

    Oh?

    Then this meant that this concerned a significant secret about the universe!

    Dante was not bothered about reaching the S rank because he could easily get there in time; it was not like it was difficult, especially with his current resources. To be honest, it was mostly just time-consuming.

    He nced at the shell-shocked Lara who was still mumbling to herself stupidly. It seemed as if nothing apart from the revtion that he was supported by an ''Eternal'' which should be the Cosmic Tree, could truly get to her.

    Her reaction made Dante all the more eager to uncover this secret and understand why it had such a powerful being in a stupor. So he recollected Levi and left the quantum space, leaving Lara bound and tied in one of its distant corners.

    As for him, he returned to the Ster Vanguard 11 and resumed his Quantum Clonefor it to handle business as usual in the Centralis Universe. As for him, he naturally teleported back into the Eternal Universe because it was time to migrate himself and his family to the First Gate.

    From the onset, Dante didn''t only n to go himself. He would take Beatrice and Antonia there too, for despite the danger, he had the strong confidence to protect them and also because they absolutely needed to go.

    Both mother and daughter needed to align their abilities and unlock their true potential, and Dante was here to help them with that in every way. The first step was to grant them the necessary powers and allow them to have an environment where they could both grow their abilities without dy.

    Now that Dante knew Lara''s insidious purpose for sending clones down, he was filled with dismay and a hint of worry. He might have stopped her clone here, but who knew how much progress she made in other universes that he had yet to see.

    The idea that he could suddenly be ''refined'' was troubling but he had protected his home universe, but it meant little. His universe of origin was now tied to the Eternal Universe as well as the Centralis Universe, so he had to defeat the Lara here too and foil her n.

    Otherwise if the Eternal Universe was refined away, putting aside whether the Cosmic Tree could save him, it would mean bye-bye to Beatrice, Portia, Augeus, his parents, his friends and especially the newly born Antonia.

    That was obviously uneptable.

 Chapter 299 Beatriceâ€™s Situation

    <h4>Chapter 299 Beatrice''s Situation</h4>

    Dante pondered his next steps and decided it was about time to return to the First Gate. Everything he needed to do within the local universe was mostly done, except some loose ends he had to tie up before then.

    The first one was sorting out Beatrice''s current state. His darling wife had been the epitome of strength and power when he first crossed over, representing a mountain that he could never cross.

    Just to qualify to have sex with her in his base form, Dante had worked tirelessly for months and relied on boosting from technology to be able to bridge the gap.

    However, things mostly changed when Portia, her mother, was brought back to life.

    You see... Levi had said it pretty clearly before. There is supposed to only be one daughter of heaven at a time, and because the universe will could not predict the power of technology, Portia was able to give birth to Beatrice, who inherited her special powers.

    However, Beatrice''s were broken because the rules were clear. There can only be one holder of a certain superpower alive at a time in the universe''s database. This was not a rule set by the universe will, but by the fabric holding all universes together.

    But Beatrice was an anomaly.

    Because of her semi-daughter of heaven state, she could partially bypass this rule, right?

    That was only half of it.

    When Beatrice was a child, she never manifested her powers.

    She only manifested the broken abilities AFTER Portia died.

    When a person dies, their hold and right to the superpower they have is wiped off. Even if they are resurrected, even using a superpower for resurrection, theye back without the superpower, as seen with Dante''s schoolmates.

    However, the Nirvana Fire of Phoenix was almighty and tyrannical. Not only did it recreate the body, but it snatched the soul from wherever souls go and even snatched back the superpower and any inherent abilities from wherever they were stored.

    Not only that, but it boosted SDI from 2 times to 10 times depending on the person, the ambient energy, and the circumstance.

    Otherwise, the whole ck Spire that had existed since time immemorial and was arrogant beyondpare would not personally message a mere Dante to sell more vials of phoenix fire.

    So yes, even if in the 20 years that Portia died, some lucky bloke had found either a Devour, Gluttony, or Regeneration fruit for her abilities, that person had now lost it since the Nirvana fire had snatched it back to Portia.

    That was how overpowered it was.

    But now, this hade to bite Beatrice in the ass since her little bypass that worked for her was now gone. So not only was she stuck at her current level with no way to proceed, but she was even having great difficulty staying alive.

    After all, at 20,000 in all fields, her energy consumption was monstrous. She had stated that she used a special energy capsule prepared for her to survive, but that capsule only worked because of her broken gluttony and Devour abilities.

    Just like the current Portia, her SDI was in the millions, so she had to condense the energy of supernovas into marble-sized capsules to swallow, her abilities breaking it down and slowly absorbing it for sustenance.

    Beatrice only had the strong digestive capability of someone with her stats, but she had also been pregnant, having to provide for a baby that was above the norm and required buckets of energy for gestation.

    If you ever wondered why Beatrice was almost always in bed being catered to by so many android midwives per second, this was the reason. After all, someone with her stats should be able to even fight freely despite being pregnant on paper, not be like a normal woman who was delicate during pregnancy.

    The truth was, Beatrice was technically even more fragile than a normal woman in this case.

    It was simply that the woman was tough, having received both military training and being the heiress to a top n in the entire universe; her willpower was like titanium... when she wasn''t enjoying being babied by her beloved husband or parents, that is.

    But as her husband, Dante was not going to let her continue to bear this problem. He had previously discussed it with Beatrice and gave her the option to select new superpowers from the list he had, but she didn''t like any of them.

    She was too familiar with the set she already had and idolized her mother too much to abandon the ''one thing that linked them together,'' she said.

    Dante had been forced to take a deep breath and count sheep to calm himself down when she said that because seriously, you are literally a carbon copy of your mother to the point where Augeus genes are suppressed to the minimum possible!!

    What do you mean by ''the one thing that linked you together''? ording to Levi''s revtions, 99.99% of the things that made up the two of you were linked, except your husbands!!

    Anyway, he was like any husband/boyfriend who asked his girl what they wanted to eat and they said they did not know. He was left agonized and wracking his brain as to how to make things work because unfortunately for him, many of the methods he could use for himself would not work on Beatrice.

    One way was to have Beatrice use the Nirvana Fire. Rebirth by phoenix mes did not necessarily require death and could be done while alive, but every being could only use phoenix mes 9 times during their existence.

    That was 9 times toe back from death if any mishap urred, so it could not be wasted so casually.

    Obviously, the simple solution was to tie Beatrice''s superpowers to the Centralis Universe since the Eternal Universe was upied, but that was not possible, at least on paper.

    Dante could not contact the will of the home universe to ask for this benefit, and he didn''t have any item that could achieve this effect. If there was anything that could do this, it would be the ck Spire, but that required Beatrice to not only register but acquire Spire Points.

    Dante tried to cheese his way out by bringing Beatrice to the Centralis Universe through his quantum entanglement ability. Apart from marveling at how low quality this universe waspared to her hometown, even taking Beatrice into the Zero Gate world did not activate her superpowers.

    Initially, Beatrice did not want to enter because she knew that Dante''s ns for the home universe involved preventing it from being registered on the First Gate until he could beef up its strength.

    So if she, with her abnormally high stats entered the portal, it would send her straight to the First Gate like what happened to Dante and ruin everything he built up. However, Dante assured her that he could prevent that and true to his promise, when the side quantum tunnel came to try and drag Beatrice away, Dante simply closed it off with a nce.

    Still, it was meaningless in the end since they were not able to achieve their goal.

    Even as Dante seemed frustrated, Beatrice simply patted his shoulder.

    "Don''t take it too seriously babe. I already have a lot of strength, enough to defend myself should anything go wrong."

    Beatrice then walked over to sit by Antonia''s crib and stuck a finger into it to tease her cute little darling. "Besides, I''m going to spendmost of my time raising Antonia. As for fighting and killing, I''ve been doing it since I was 7 years old, I''m pretty much tired of it."

    What could Dante say to that? Even though he suspected Beatrice was just saying this to reassure him, he did believe that some part of it was true. Beatrice was forced to mature early and seek power to protect her n, be its stabilizing force and seek revenge.

    Now that she had a husband, both her parents, as well as her own child, she was pretty much surrounded by love and family. She was clearly addicted to it and had no intention of going back to the life of struggling and fighting, her only entertainment being browsing the Etr in between missions to kill or capture.

    This was in contrast to Dante who was the opposite, having grown up sheltered by family and shown love throughout, now seeking to act on his ambitions through killing and conquering. It seemed that his connection with Beatrice was even more profound than he thought, being opposite sides of the same coin.

    In the end, he could only put it aside forter and make the preparations to travel. Since he would be moving, he had to make sure things were done properly because even if he coulde and go as he pleased, neither Portia nor Beatrice could.

    Especially in the sense of where exactly he would situate Beatrice. He was not arrogant enough to ce his wife and newborn daughter in a ce literally called the Wastnd of Death, a ce he himself barely survived in.

    As such, Dante would have to appear in the base area of the Eternal Universe, where he should have popped up when he was first transported if not for a strange anomaly that he still had not identified up until now.

 Chapter 300 Return To The First Gate

    <h4>Chapter 300 Return To The First Gate</h4>

    300 Return To The First Gate

    "Are you ready?" Dante asked Beatrice, who held Antonia in her arms, swaddled in cloth.

    Beatrice sucked in a deep breath and held Antonia closer. "Maybe. I haven''t heard good things about this first gate since you first went there, so I can only hope for the best."

    Dante patted her back lightly to reassure her and turned to Augeus, who was here to see them off. Connor and Lily wanted toe as well, along with Dante''s own parents, but he made them all stay behind because it wasn''t like they were parting forever.

    Dante especially would be returning often to the universe to gather resources and make certain moves. The reason Augeus had evene was to see Portia off, since she had stayed within the universe ever since Beatrice gave birth.

    After saying the goodbyes, the group entered the Zero Gate portal and were whisked away. Augeus watched them leave with a slightly worried look, but he could only sigh and hope for the best.

    Right now, the most he could do was make sure their backyard was not lit on fire. Even though he currently possessed a superpower of his own, that did not make him a fighter. Everyone had their skill and specializations, and his was politics.

    Meanwhile, Portia, Dante, and Beatrice appeared in arge, semi-open chamber that was full of defensive machinery and guardian androids possessing forbidden technology that was never revealedmercially within the universe.

    The moment they appeared, the entire area tensed as they were scanned. Before they could finish, Portia red at the scanning equipment and released a bit of her aura, causing it to go haywire.

    Even the guard androids were crippled and made to lie on the floor despite their best efforts, making their AIs full of confusion as they could notpute this kind of phenomenon.

    "Stand down." A strong female voice full of vicissitudes spoke, causing the resisting androids to lie t while the scanning equipment hurriedly shut itself down, thankful to be freed from this hellish job.

    From therge double door leading out of this chamber, Ao Zilong walked in with a softly smiling Ophelia Seers in tow. Despite it all, the two women did look somewhat alike, if only because Ophelia sported Asian-style phoenix eyes while Ao Zilong was fully Asian.

    Ao Zilong frowned. "Eternal Nightmare, can you not even give us some face? You do this every time. These are safety procedures we all agreed on way back then, even we have to go through them."

    Portia scoffed. "Hmph, I don''t remember agreeing to any such thing. It was you and your little self-appointed council who made that decision. As of now, I''m still deciding whether I recognize the existence of your council or not, much less whether to follow any of your bullshit directives."

    Ao Zilong''s face darkened. "Eternal Nightmare, you!!"

    Before Portia could respond, Ophelia stepped forward quickly and bowed. "Madam Portia, we greet you. Would you like a report of the various happenings in our territories while you were away?"

    Portia smiled mockingly at Ao Zilong. "You see, Dragon Witch, this is how you treat those stronger than you. This girl is more suited to be a leader than your old bag of bones."

    Portia ignored the fuming Ao Zilong and patted the speechless Ophelia on the shoulder. "Good job, sexy eyes, I''m looking forward to you bringing this shitass council forward."

    Meanwhile, Dante and Beatrice had been looking on with amusement. If there was one difference between Beatrice and her mother, it was that Portia was straightforward and blunt while Beatrice was yful and insidious.

    The group was led out of the chamber where arge g was present that seemed to represent something bigger than they could fathom and came to an air-conditioned room that was meant for private meetings.

    There, they encountered the round table meant for the Supreme Council to have their meetings, and it seemed to be staffed today. Everyone except Lara Sanguis was present, and they were silently waiting, as if knowing they woulde back today and nned to meet the group.

    Then again, neither Dante nor Beatrice had hidden the fact that they wereing here, nor did Portia. Anyone who paid attention to them and had inside information on many things would easily be able to guess their next course of action.

    "Please have a seat," Ophelia gently offered Dante''s group as they sat in three newly prepared seats for them.

    "Alright, spit it out. You bunch of conniving fellows must have a plot for bringing us here." Portia directly spoke after sitting down heavily and crossing her legs like a hooligan.

    This left many of the council members speechless, but they had already been beaten and battered by Portia over the course of these months while Dante was waiting for Beatrice toplete her gestation, so they already knew the best solution was to remain quiet.

    "No malicious intentions here, Madam Portia. We just want to check in with you and see how best we can cooperate as usual." Ophelia seemed to be the only one willing to talk, mostly because she was the only one Portia treated nicely.

    Portia raised an eyebrow. "Go on."

    "Now that you have returned, we can continue our frontal push for more territories in the same manner if you wish.

    You can freely do your thing and leave the cleaning up to us, where we do our best to stay out of your hair. How does that sound?" Ophelia offered with a humble smile.

    Portia nodded with satisfaction. "Good girl, that is exactly what I am looking for."

    The entire council seemed to breathe a sigh of relief that this was supported, but they were not out of the woods yet. As Ophelia was about to speak, she was cut in by Ao Zilong, who nced at Dante and Beatrice.

    "That is fine for Eternal Nightmare, but what about you two? Are you here toe and sightsee seeing as you have brought an infant along or are you here to actually contribute?"

    Portia nced over but did not say anything. Neither Dante nor Beatrice needed her to speak for them anymore, and they could handle this problem on their own. Dante, for one, nced at Ao Zilong casually and looked away, not even bothered to reply.

    Rather he nced at Kurtaghagt, who was trying to minimize his presence since Dante was here. "Heh, thank you very much for the data you provided mest time. With it, I have been able to raise my power to levels unseen. Apart from mother-inw, I doubt anyone can match the current me, and it''s all thanks to you."

    Kurtaghagt''s face changed greatly, filled with horror and regret as all eyesnded on him. He wondered what he had done to offend Dante this much that he would reveal this and pin it on him.

    "H-Haha... it was my pleasure to assist..." Kurtaghagt could only squeeze out in despair.

    The way his fellow council members, even the pure humans, looked at him suggested that there would be extensive talkingter to deal with his ''treachery''.

    As for Ao Zilong, her face became uglyat being ignored by what she considered an upstart whippersnapper who had to rely on his mother-inw to achieve anything of note. Before she could say anything, Beatriceughed softly.

    "My daughter here can easily defeat anyone on this council despite being an infant. The scope of her existence and talents are more than any of you can fathom, so if you can survive here, why can''t she?"

    The faces of the entire council became thunderous and full of suppressed anger. Was Beatrice reallyparing them to a pure human whelp who had not even passed a week in age? Such a weak and fragile little thing could be smashed to paste by them just by breathing slightly loudly.

    Seeing their anger, Beatrice chuckled. "Of course, her abilities have not fully activated yet. Come back in a month or two for your beatings and you will learn to speak properly."

    Suddenly, Beatrice''s eyes became half-lidded, and her voice dropped to a freezing point. "Or, you can follow me outside now, and I can teach you how to respect your betters."

    Like her mother, a wave of pressure emerged from Beatrice that caused the entire council to be pressed to the table face first, unable to move at all no matter what they did. This caused them all to have bloodshot eyes filled with humiliation and hatred towards Ao Zilong, who brought this about.

    Meanwhile, Ao Zilong closed her eyes in frustration and regret. All she wanted to do was get her lick back after being beaten up by the older one, so she wanted to use her age to talk down to the younger ones.

    Meanwhile, the other council members did not care about such things. If they had to bow their heads, they would bow and maintain their peace of mind. After all, when these fellows left to achieve their tasks, they could go back to being arrogant council members and bully their own subordinates to vent their anger.

    Why did this stupid Ao Zilong have toplicate things?!

 Chapter 301 Portiaâ€™s Reputation

    <h4>Chapter 301 Portia''s Reputation</h4>

    301 Portia''s Reputation

    Ao Zilong felt extremely aggrieved. There was some information about Beatrice in their database, but unlike Dante, Beatrice had never publicly revealed her SDI after being targeted in school when hers grew rapidly.

    So while they were aware that Beatrice was strong given the disys of power she had made, they never did take her seriously, at least not as much as they should have given Portia was back and was more... verbose.

    Beatrice recently seemed perfectly content to be in the background and let Dante or her mother shine and stand out, leading to people forgetting her pedigree and her fearsome title as the Lady of Genocides.

    My Brother in Christ, during an era of 10 or so years - an entire decade!! - many aliens couldn''t sleep well at night because of Beatrice, not knowing when their entire family or species would be removed from the gctic camp after randomly used of being rebel factions.

    The actual rebel factions were so badly beaten during her era that they literally stopped recruiting and basically went into hibernation for an extended period of time.

    Ao Zilong was a fool to think she was someone to be provoked, even if Portia wasn''t her mother. However, she saw Beatrice''s calm and motherly nature while holding a baby and thought she was a soft persimmon.

    Beatrice retracted her auras and released the group, smiling beautifully while nuzzling her baby. "However, I don''t want Antonia to be fighting all the time, and I''m only here to support my husband and my mother, so you don''t have to worry about me."

    Seeing the giggling Antonia who stretched her chubby little arms to touch Beatrice''s pristine fair skin, Dante smiled gently and even Portia was moved. The trio seemed less hostile and irritable all of a sudden thanks to Beatrice.

    The meeting soon came to an end, but Ophelia caught up with Dante as he was leaving. When she saw the lovely Beatrice looking so perfect and that beautiful baby, her eyes shed with a tinge Of jealousy.

    After all, she was a calm andposed young woman, driven for sess and trained from birth, but she also wished to have a suitablepanion to trust and spend her time with. However, her high capability meant that her standards were also high, so a partner around Dante''s current perceived level was the most suitable for her.

    But Ophelia was a dignified young woman and was not willing to be part of a harem, especially when she could easily build a harem of powerful males on her own. Not to mention, she did not want to cross Portia, and now after what they just went through, definitely not Beatrice, by making any moves.

    "Mister Dante! I didn''t get a chance to ask, but how should we handle your itinerary? Will you follow a simr n as Madam Portia, or do you have your own ns elsewhere?" She asked hurriedly.

    "For now, I will mostly spend my time familiarizing myself with our captured territories, and the political situation of the nearby territories as well. In the long run, I hope to fully understand the system and mechanics of the First Gate before making any serious moves," Dante replied after some thought.

    "No problem. I have assigned two personal aides to you and Madam Beatrice, to sort out all your requirements while here and set you up with anything you need," Ophelia stated as she pped her hands, and two young pure humans rushed over respectfully.

    Beatrice sized them up and nodded. "First things first, I need a quiet ce to take care of Antonia. Please lead us to somewhere rtively peaceful."

    Whether it was Ophelia or the two aides, their lips couldn''t help but twitch. This was the goddamn First Gate, where danger and bloodshed could erupt at any time, even in safe havens and captured territories.

    To find such a ce was rare and almost everyone wanted such a thing. Still, in light of Beatrice''s abilities, they had to amodate her no matter what, so the aides could only lead the trio towards a small estate ced a little bit away from the administration center where the territory g was located.

    This area contained a row of luxury estates that were built with less aesthetics and more functionality in mind, with a hefty amount of defensive facilities as well as guards patrolling day and night.

    The two aides had been worried that it would not be enough, but heaved sighs of relief when Beatrice nodded her head with satisfaction. As for Dante, he had no opinion on this matter, as he could teleport anywhere toy his head if he so wanted, and was more concerned about thefort of his family.

    Eventually, they were settled into the mansion within, Beatrice seating herself on therge bed in the master bedroom and getting ready to breastfeed Antonia. Dante simply sat down and curiously tried to ess the Etr from here, but there was no sess.

    To his surprise though, he detected hundreds, if not thousands of different avable quantumworks. Many of them were private, belonging to a specific universe within the battlefield, and he even saw the one belonging to the Eternal Universe, which was called the Gat.

    Dante ignored all the others and logged into the Gat. Since this was his first entry, he was first assessed before his identity was authenticated, then he could enter. Inside, Dante realized that the Gat was basically a more condensed version of the Etr, with many of the core facilities and webpages, butcking more than 99% of the content.

    There was an Etraverse alternative, a Bank of Eternity Alternative, and so much more. What Dante took interest in was the page called ''The Eternal Domain,'' which was the news site for the Gat.

    All the important happenings in the First Gate were documented here in categories. On the front page, pinned right at the top, was a headline that stated: ''Eternal Nightmare Portia and budding talent Dante have arrived in the First Gate.''

    Below were variousments from denizens of the Eternal Universe who were stationed in the First Gate. Dante scrolled through them with his eyes and saw that many were joyous about Portia''s return since she was a legend here.

    Most treated his arrival with a lukewarm nature. While they recognized his ability and potential, the First Gate was a meat grinder where every universe''s best talents were thrown to bring benefits to their home base.

    Here, only actions and victories decided your fame, not your possibilities. Other universes had brought out youngsters with seemingly more potential than Dante, but many of them now ate the dust.

    Dante saw this and smiled. The young man was not yet capable of being indifferent to all things, able to react emotionlessly to things that concerned him. He worked hard to acquire the power he had, and to have someone somewhere doubt him because they were ignorant did not feel good.

    However, he channeled that feeling into a positive inclination to perform. He was here to do his best, conquer and seek benefits for himself, his family, and the two universes he carried on his back.

    It was a good thing that in the process of seeding, he would be able to get these guys to see just what separated him from them. In fact, many of those who were here currently had been forced toe due to the agreement with Dante, so it was natural thatthey were a bit miffed.

    Dante came out of the Gat and checked out the other openworks. Thergest one was called the Battlefield Space, which was opened and managed by the current number 1 universe in the entire First Gate, with territories spanning over 40 million, the Holy Universe.

    The Holy Universe also had their own internal quantumwork, but they also hosted a public one that was simr to the Gat in that it had a news and forum section, but not much in the way of entertainment.

    After all, if there was one publicly acknowledged w of the First Gate, it was that Spire Points earned from the ck Spire could not be traded or even used to purchase things outside of the ck Spire.

    Obviously, this was the only valuable currency that each and every universe could im to be useful to them, and there was no alternative. The Holy Universe, banking on their sesses, tried to implement a digital currency for theirwork and services, but it failed badly.

    Dante entered the new section of the Battlefield Space and checked the headline here too. Surprisingly, it read: ''Nightmare of the Eternal Universe has returned to life with a vengeance! She has captured 458 territories in the span of 5 months, breaking all previous records!''

    Not only was Dante shocked, but those who read the news did as well. Majority of thements were either skeptical or inquiring as to who the Nightmare of the Eternal Universe was.

    The frequent answer was that she came from a Fourth-ss Universe in the First Gate, which made many even more doubtful.

 Chapter 302 The First Gateâ€™s Rankings

    <h4>Chapter 302 The First Gate''s Rankings</h4>

    302 The First Gate''s Rankings

    Naturally, this made Dante curious. What did they mean by fourth-ss universe? Was there some sort of grading for universes in the First Gate?

    Then Dante thought about it and felt that it should be obvious. Where there waspetition, there would be rankings, whether official or unofficial. Sentient beings loved to split entities into sses in order to better identify who is superior and who is inferior.

    However, he didn''t bother to search it up on the quantumworks in the First Gate, whether it was the Battlefield Space or the Gat. Rather, Dante did what anyone would do and summoned out his free encyclopedia, Levi.

    "Hmm? Oh hello, Daughter of Heaven 2 and Daughter of Heaven 3," Levi greeted Beatrice who was breastfeeding, and Antonia, who nced over at the giant bird with curiosity.

    Beatrice nced at Levi speechlessly. "My name is Beatrice, and her name is Antonia. Call me that again, and I will cook your talons, roast your wings, and grill your thighs."

    Levi''s casual expression hardened as he became serious. After all, as a Truth Beast, he could tell at this moment that Beatrice was not lying; she really would do it despite everything if he dared.

    As such, Levi tipped his head respectfully. "Greetings, Madam Beatrice, Baby Antonia."

    Beatrice nodded her head with satisfaction, while Antonia seemed amused, her little eyes narrowing with mirth.

    "Heh. What''s the grading of the universes in the First Gate, and how many territories exist in total?" Dante chuckled as he asked Levi what he wanted to know.

    "There are Nine Grades, from Ninth to First in ascending order. Universes are graded based on their number of territories and the estimated strength of their strongestbatant."

    "To qualify for the ninth grade, the universe in question must possess at least 10 territories. Eighth grade requires 100 territories, seventh grade being 1,000, and sixth grade 10,000.''

    "Fifth grade is 100,000, while fourth grade is 1,000,000. Third, second, and first grade require 10 million, 100 million, and 1 billion, respectively."

    Levi pped his wings and adjusted himself slightly. "However, this is the rule used only by the ck Spire. Unofficially, there are universes in categories that are higher than they should be because of the existence of their strongestbatant."

    "An example is the Holy Universe, praised as a first-grade universe and the number 1 publicly recognized universe, but they only have 40 million territories, not even qualifying for the second grade, much less the first grade."

    "Likewise, our Eternal Universe is pushed to the fourth grade from the eighth grade thanks to the monstrous power of the first Daughter of... Madam Portia."

    Dante became pensive. "Even with Portia''s power, we aren''t at the first grade?"

    Levi looked at Dante seriously. "As your partner, Dante, I must absolutely say this. Madam Portia is awesome because I can tell you her stats currently surpass a billion at base, coupled with her superpowers, she is seemingly nigh invincible."

    "But the waters of the First Gate are too deep to calcte things by numbers. Just as you exist right now with special power from the Cosmic Tree that allows you to bypass power levels and directly take down superior foes, so too do others exist like you."

    ''The Cosmic Tree is an extremely powerful Eternal, if not the strongest, but there are other Eternals out there investing a great amount of power into lower-dimensional beings."

    Levi nced at Beatrice, who was listening with a solemn look, and shook his head. "No offense, but even if Madam Portia is a daughter of heaven, she cannot face off against some of those entities. Raising or multiplying her stats would not solve that problem either."

    Dante was also grave. "...you mean rule orw-based powers?"

    Levi nodded. ''There are abilities that ignoremon sense and fairness in the grand scheme of things. Lara''s authorities are a fair example of them because in as much as she may seem beatable to you, she is insurmountable to more than 99.9% of beings in the multiverse, even in this First Gate."

    "Her authorities do not function on logic, that is why they are authorities. She does not channel, use, apply, or exert. Shemands. The only reason you can face her is because of the Cosmic Tree backing you, preventing her authorities from achieving their full effect."

    Levi lifted a talon off the ground and inspected it casually. "Simrly, there are those with powers like Brium or Dao that simply defymon sense. Against such fellows, even a powerhouse like Portia will be in trouble."

    The room was silent for a while after that.

    "As for the number of territories, there are around 1 trillion. Only about 150 million or thereabout are imed, and the rest, like your Wastnd of Death, are unimed or contested," Levi continued, feeling satisfied about having shut this tyrannical duo up.

    "Huh? So why the hell do universes fight each other when there is so much to im?" Dante asked the obvious question.

    Levi sighed. "It''s not so simple. There are three main reasons: Difficulty, Logistics, and Maintenance."

    "In terms of difficulty, it is not as simple as cing your hand on a ck Spire or Territory g and simply ''capturing'' it. You will be made to undergo a test by the imable item, which spawns in different difficulties."

    "To gain basic control and a basic Chaos Will payout, you need to pass the first level. All subsequent levels include multiple rewards like Spire Points, unique items or abilities, and even free superpowers."

    "However, even the basic level is a challenge to even Portia, much less the average denizen of the First Gate. More than 95% of the universes present in the First Gate are still ninth grade because they cannot even get 1() whole territories for themselves, minus the base one given for free."

    Levi rambled on. "In terms of Logistics, not everyone can teleportpetently like you. For the most part, they either have to warp or travel traditionally using frictional movement, and you experience it with the Wastnd of Death, but territories here in the First Gate are massive."

    ''Traveling at light speed with the fastest ship in the Eternal Universe would not be able to get one across all 474 territories the Eternal Universe owns in their lifetime."

    (AN: 458 territories captured by Portia in her second life + 15 territories captured by Portia in her first life + 1 free base territory = 474 total.)

    "Because of this difficult issue, most universes prefer to consolidate what they have and acquire more worthybatants to enter the First Gate and popte their territories rather than expand."

    "Finally, the issue of Maintenance is mostly in terms of defense. Due to the previous two reasons, it is easier and more cost-effective for another universe to seize your captured territory than to capture their own."

    "Capturing an unimed territory requires skill and cunning more than raw strength, but capturing a imed one is all about who is stronger."

    "Part of the reason why the Eternal Universe shot up four grades and even got intothe front page of the news for the entire First Gate was because of how insane it was for Madam Portia to capture more than 400 territories that were unimed on her own, in such a short time."

    Beatrice smiled and cut in. "So I guess stats do matter, because how else could mom achieve all this? Luck?"

    Levi''s expression became slightly ugly. "Hmph, well, luck yed a part as she is the original Daughter of Heaven of your universe, so it subtly guides her in all things."

    Levi then nced at Beatrice pointedly. "Just like you. That day, you know very well you had no reason to be near Etonia, but something just told you to go and port there for some reason."

    Beatrice''s expression changed significantly. She didn''t say anything and slept quietly feeding Antonia, who seemed to be a bottomless pit.

    Meanwhile, Dante was mostly lost in thought. "How do I stack up in terms of capability in the First Gate?"

    Levi was speechless and raised a wing to whack Dante. "You actually dare to ask? You have the ultimate cheat called the cosmic tree, and you dare topare?"

    Dante dodged and snickered. He might not know the exact abilities of those at the top, and he was cognizant of the fact that he was nowhere near invincible yet, but whether it was himself, Beatrice, Portia, or Levi, they all understood that he had the potential to reach the top.

    They were all confident not just because oftent potential, but because Dante was steady and wise enough not to rush it and end up in a fatal situation, dying prematurely.

    Dante continued to grill Levi for more information and only stopped when he was satisfied. In the end, he also released all of his summoned beasts to let them stretch their legs.

    Killian spawned and nced at Beatrice, his cruel expression changing to one of fear. Previously, he had thought that only Dante had the kind of stats to directly resist his anti-matter powers, but now there was another Beatrice.

    Not to mention, as a beast fond of killing and suffering, it could see a spiritual aura around Beatrice of hundreds of millions of species wailing in suffering as they were extinguished from existence.

 Chapter 303 Pent Up Desires

    <h4>Chapter 303 Pent Up Desires</h4>

    303 Pent Up Desires

    Beatrice herself could not see this aura, but she noticed that Killian was practically trembling at the sight of her. She sized the Anti-matter beast up and down, then narrowed her eyes, turning to Dante.

    "And what does this one do?"

    Dante nced at the frightened Killian with puzzlement. "He''s usually a tough guy, calls himself Killian like some serial killer. He''s a Divine Beast of Anti-matter, able to produce the substance continuously depending on his power."

    "Oh? Anti-matter? Well, what do you know, it just so happens that I do NOT like anti-matter." Beatrice spoke slowly as her eyes became full of killing intent towards Killian.

    After all, Anti-matter was the primary method used to kill her mother back then, not to mention that it became one of the few things that could harm her, which her enemies often tried to employ to limited sess.

    So naturally, she had no good feelings towards the substance, energy, or anything affiliated with it. In this case, a Divine Beast that made its whole shtick about the thing would naturally not grace her good books.

    What truly disappointed and chilled Killian was that he could see Dante ncing at him indifferently. If Beatrice gave the word, he would terminate the summoning contract and send Killian back into the quantum world to eke out his days in ignominy, knowing that a simple ''off switch could end his existence at any time.

    We always joked about how the world was a simtion, but it was truly existentially terrifying to think that you could be seated where you were at this very instant and in the next, everything thatposes you is simply lost forever, your thoughtsing to an end as your existence is wiped because someone pressed the shut down button.

    You wouldn''t even feel it. One moment you were aware and the next... void.

    Killian did not want to experience that fate. How could he only rush back into Dante''s soul space to hide? After all, he did not think begging or groveling would work; he was not a Truth Beast and did not know what Beatrice was like.

    However, one thing Killian did know was that if you were an eyesore to someone, the best way to reduce aggression was to get the fuck out of their sight. In this case, it worked as Beatrice lost interest in the fellow and turned to the other ones.

    "Oh? This must be the Faith one, right? How do you n to use her?" Beatrice asked as her eyes fell on Dorothy, the white dove.

    "First, I need to establish a reputation for myself. Faith cane in three ways in order of potency, which is fame or infamy, idolization, and worship," Dante began as he beckoned to Dorothy who pped her wings andnded in his open palm.

    "Fame is the most basic. Everyone knows your name and knows why they know your name, and the more they respect or hate you - or basically, the more you''re in their thoughts - you can collect some meager faith energy. Faith produced this way is the least troublesome but the slowest to umte."

    "Idolization is a step further. Everyone knows your name and why they knew your name, and they also wish to emte your actions or to achieve some feat of yours as well. The faith energy collected here is not small since idolization can be intense or light, but it is a bit troublesome because ites with expectations and emotional baggage."

    "Worship is the mostmon and the method everyone knows. It is where you possess a reputation that makes people directly look up to you as a superior being, cing their hopes and dreams into you as well as revering you from the bottom of their hearts. The faith produced is massive even with a small crowd, but its baggage is so great that it is like trying to eat slightly spoiled meat."

    Dante smiled inly as he tickled Dorothy. "To eat that, you would have to cook it deeply and use manyplex methods to purify it from germs, which take work, time, and effort. This is usually the main purpose of the Divine Fires that gods possess."

    Beatrice frowned. "Sounds troublesome. What''s the point?"

    "Well, Dorothy here doesnt convert the faith energy into divine energy like the gods do, leaving residual traces that infiltrate them. She collected the raw unfiltered faith energy for me to use indirectly," Dante exined.

    "And what can faith energy be used for?" Beatrice asked the important question.

    "Many things. Manifestation of Abilities, Protection, Miracle Creation, Psychic Abilities, Enhanced Healing, Warding Off Evil, Guidance and Divination, Conversion and Mental Control, Empowerment of Objects, Summoning Special Beings and even Interdimensional Travel!" Levi couldn''t help but butt in.

    "And the best part is that neither Dorothy nor I bear any consequences. Her ability makes her a container that does not convert the energy, and my connection as her summoner allows me to manifest faith-rted abilities using that energy without actually allowing it to enter my body or taint me," Dante added with a nod to Levi.

    "Hmm. Okay, I see her value. Besides, you want to use faith energy to research psion energy, right?" Beatrice finally finished feeding Antonia and took a tissue to wipe the baby''s milk-stained mouth.

    ''Yup, but I want to use the fame method to gather faith for now. I''m not willing to try idolization nor worship yet, though it would be easy to implement the former in the Eternal Universe and thetter in the Centralis Universe," Dante asserted before releasing Dorothy back to the stand.

    "Alright. If any of these fellows are good at helping babies sleep, they should follow me to Antonia''s cot or they should make like the wind and vanish." Beatrice joked as she rose to her feet and took Antonia to her cot.

    The beasts shared looks and felt helpless since none of them were capable. Maybe the Dream Beast could, but Dante did not select it. The rest were either offensive or defensive, and the support-based ones were very technical.

    ''You guys are free to roam the territory, but do not cause trouble unless trouble is caused upon you." Dante casually gave them free rein to move.

    They acknowledged hismand and moved out in different directions, not yet close to each other to move in groups. Only Levi followed Dorothy around like a simp, not realizing that the white dove was not interested at this time.

    Meanwhile, Beatrice was coaxing Antonia to sleep in her cot, but she didn''t realize that the room was now silent and empty, with not a single lifeform within a 100 meters of their location except the baby.

    Dante smiled weirdly and stood up from his seat, taking heavy and meaningful steps towards Beatrice who had her back turned to him. By the time she realized the nefarious presence behind her, it was toote as Dante''s slightly taller figure bore down on her.

    Beatrice froze and stood up right, her lips forming a thin line as sweat formed on her brow. "Dante? Is that you?"

    "Of course, it''s me. Isn''t it great, my darling wife? We''re finally alone, with no more distractions or voyeurs around to disturb us." Dante''s voice sounded a bit different, containing a hint of perverse enticement.

    Beatrice flushed at feeling his breath and growing body heat - literally, since his hellfire began to churn in his body - understanding what was about to happen, but not dreading it.

    After all, she too had abstained for over 10 months since she prioritized the safety of the child and did not dare take any risks.

    As someone who used to drain Dante dry every chance she got, no matter how horny or deprived Dante thought he was, it was only half of what Beatrice had felt all this time.

    However, because of Antonia, Beatrice could not find the time to exert her desires, not to mention that Dante was going to be very busy henceforth.

    Still, Beatrice had a trace of rationality even as purple-colored hearts formed in her eyes. Her lips tightened as she resisted the urge to drool.

    "B-But Antonia... needs to... sleep..."

    Dante smiled yfully and cast the 6th Rank Rejuvenating Tranquility spell, which was an upgrade from the calmness spell. It caused Antonia to fall asleep immediately, and she would enjoy the kind of rest only told of in legends.

    He then leaned into Beatrice and breathed out a bit of heat from his raging hellfire coursing through his veins, causing Beatrice''s knees to almost buckle.

    "Now, what''s your excuse? Every day you day to walk around looking so beautiful and sexy, you think I don''t have any evil nned?" Dante stated with a hint of me.

    He ced his hands around herwaist and gently caressed her soft and supple body. "No one is going to save you this time, you have fallen into the hands of the evil demon..."

    However, if Dante could see the kind of expression the unhinged and now worry-free Beatrice wore, he would know that she was not the one that would soon need saving.

 Chapter 304 The State Of Things

    <h4>Chapter 304 The State Of Things</h4>

    304 The State Of Things

    "SAVE ME!!"

    A weak and helpless scream came from the master bedroom of an isted mansion in the Eternal Universe''s residential area within the First Gate. Unfortunately for the one who released the cry, there was nobody nearby toe to his rescue.

    His fate was sealed.

    ...

    It was only around 8 hourster that Beatrice finally relented, not because she was satisfied, but because Dante had only a sliver of life left.

    The twoy on the bed, Beatrice panting and flushed as her skin glowed with redness and vitality. She looked absolutely stunning right now, able to make even the most asexual man feel some stirring in his heart.

    As for Dante, hey on the other side, his entire body looking like a withered corpse on the verge of being turned to ash. One could not even tell he was breathing, and his usually lively golden eyes were turbid as mudwater now.

    "Whew, that was tiring. We should definitely do this again, babe," Beatrice panted slightly as she began to stretch.

    Dante''s ''body'' quivered when he heard ''do it again''. In the end, Beatrice got up to wash up and went to take care of the still-sleeping Antonia, who had slept through the storm that urred here.

    Baffl Boom! Boom!

    Like tires reaching the peak of their intion, Dante''s body suddenly recovered as he filled up to his normal state, his body making explosive sounds as power returned to his form. His turbid eyes cleared up and were filled with consciousness and confusion.

    "Hmm, what happened... oh." Dante pushed himself up and wondered what went on before memories came flooding back.

    He then nced at Beatrice speechlessly. "I have avoided so many traps and plots to kill me only to almost fall at the hands of my wife!"

    Beatrice had a hint of shame on her face, but she still stubbornly replied: "Well, you''re fine now, aren''t you? Besides, this was probably just a one-time thing because we were both pent up for so long."

    Dante had a strong feeling that this would not be a one-time thing but a recurring problem. In the end, he decided to find a power system that could arbitrarily enhance his libido, otherwise, he really might be killed by her.

    His stats did not matter in this case, no matter how high he raised them. After all, the amount of energy and power he released from his body during climax was proportional to his total stat value, not based on the average human stat value.

    It basically meant that Dante''s sexual stamina at 200,000 in all fields was the same as when he was at 1 in all fields, the only difference was the quality of the sex itself. If he wanted to go longer, that either required external means like medication, discipline, and training like professional pornstars, or special means like what he was considering.

    Anyway, Dante put the thought aside and decided to put on his usual vice admiral''s uniform, which had undergone some changes in this time. It was less like a uniform now and more like a casual outfit.

    Dante had also toned down the yellow colors and added some more ck and red to the mix.

    Beatrice nced over and couldn''t help butugh to herself that Dante truly was a typical guy, not even caring much about his fashion when with his family and friends.

    Dante waited a bit for his summoned beasts to return before recalling them. They all seemed happier and full of life after having a bit of fun outside, except Levi, who had been used as a simp by Dorothy after realizing that he wasn''t going to go away.

    When Dante collected them, he nced at Beatrice askance, who was doing her hardest not to look at him by pretending to focus on Antonia. He rolled his eyes and teleported away, which made Beatrice heave a sigh of relief.

    She did have a guilty look on her face, but when she thought about the benefits... the look of guilt disappeared and was reced by evil.

    Meanwhile, Dante had chosen to appear in the administrative center of the Eternal Universe. He sat down on a nearby couch while waiting for his assigned aide to rush over from his mansion area to here.

    When the fellow came over, he was panting and seemed fatigued. After all, due to the reputation of Dante and Beatrice, he did not dare to sleep in case they needed him at any point in time.

    Dante saw this and frowned. He cast a 3rd Rank Restoration spell on the fellow, making him perk up as all his tiredness and fatigue disappeared, both mentally and physically. He now looked like someone who had been given a 5-star spa and massage treatment.

    "Sir Dante, what do you need?" he asked quickly, not wanting to waste time.

    "Don''t rush, calm down. I''m not going to bully you, and next time, if I summon you when you''re far away, please don''t run on your two feet. Use a transport or jet thrusters toe over," Dante replied with amusement.

    The young fellow flushed with embarrassment. He had practically booked it here like he was on steroids, which made him realize that in hindsight, he could have adopted much better methods and not made himself look like a hastyd in front of his employer of sorts.

    ''Yes..." That was all he could mutter in response to that.

    Dante chuckled. "Now, onto business. I want to know the exact process of taking down a territory in the First Gate, from the attack, the resolution, and then the aftermath. Naturally, in the way that the Eternal Universe handles it."

    "Oh. Okay. Well, normally we mark a territory down, whether it''s unimed or imed, we have different strategies for handling it. If it''s unimed, we usually take down the various monsters bit by bit until we reach the Spire or the g and then initiate the capture procedure with our most qualified personnel."

    "If it''s imed, then we engage in guerri warfare with the universe in question, both militarily and politically, since they might try to negotiate or sue us. Sometimes we might back down because of overarching reasons, but if we do proceed, it usually involves a battle of our strongest fighters to limit casualties on both sides."

    "If we do seed in iming a territory, we first set up a military base with androids and then slowly transport humans over. Right now, we are trying to popte the First Gate with organic humans instead of just fighters, so denizens of the universe are encouraged to have offspring here."

    The Aide spoke clearly and rtively stably, having knowledge about this ingrained deep into his mind due to his work. Dante listened and nodded his head thoughtfully.

    "And? What about my mother-inw? How do you handle the process with her?" Dante asked curiously.

    The Aide paused. "Er... she does whatever she wants, and we just clean up the aftermath."

    "I guessed as much, but how do you popte the territories she had captured then?"

    "Due to her rapid work, we have decided to use elerated growth for natural-born offspring and even resorted to cloning as well as creating homunculi," the Aide answered with a sigh.

    Dante frowned. To be pushed so far, it meant that rapid capturing was not necessarily a good thing, because any conqueror who obtained new territories needed time to stabilize andconsolidate.

    The problem was that elerated growth, cloning, and homunculi were not reliable long-term solutions. Any shortcut that existed was bound to be filled with problems, no matter how nice it looked on the outside, and these three methods were full of them.

    However, the Eternal Universe and the Supreme Council knew this, of course; they were not stupid. Otherwise, they wouldn''t have resorted to it now and would have been doing it since day 1.

    Dante thought about this and realized that it would be an issue for both the Centralis and Eternal universes unless he could find a stable solution for it. He also wanted to rapidly conquer and consolidate in order to earn Spire Points, but he didn''t want to be reckless about it.

    Looking at it now, his A Rank Custom Entanglement granted him one more spot for a power system, but he had not yet decided to fill it up because he was already saturated with powers at the moment.

    Hm, just as well, a new issue had cropped up. What Dante needed now was a power system or ability that would allow people to remotely gain exemry reproduction ability that could give birth to talented offspring that grew extremely fast until adulthood.

    He did have a few ideas for the exact process. The ambient Zero Energy in this world was useless to those without superpowers, and these offspring born may or may not have superpowers.

    So rather than waste it, why not allow them to rampantly absorb the ambient energy as a catalyst for their growth, allowing them to grow fast without any hidden dangers orpenalties?

 Chapter 305 Libido Seed

    <h4>Chapter 305 Libido Seed</h4>

    305 Libido Seed

    Once the idea came to mind, Dante could no longer suppress it. It seemed like a perfect solution to this problem, and he already had more than a few ideas in mind.

    "Good, thank you for letting me know this. In about a month''s time, I should be able to move out and start conquering territories. Though, you should note that I will focus on unimed territories," Dante stated as he stood up and nodded to thed.

    "Oh...! Thank you, sir, you''ll be helping us out greatly!" The Aide''s eyes lit up with surprise.

    He understood the difficulty of fighting for unimed territories. While the ambient monsters'' strength varied from territory to territory, the test one needed to undergo to im the g/spire was not easy to pass, per se.

    Even Portia hadrgely avoided unimed territories; most of the ones she had imed were territories of other, weaker universes around theirs. While this gave them more territory, it also made them offend many other parties deeply.

    It was fine if one or two, but Portia, with her strength, basically bulldozed through multiple universes, making them all hate the Eternal Universe with a passion. Not to mention, with the number 1 universe putting her on the front page, she was now the focus of all universes in the First Gate, all of them thinking about how to eliminate this future trouble and her underdog universe.

    Dante choosing to focus on unimed territories would still allow them to grow while not courting hate from others, also giving the upper echelon time to sort out the political disputes arising from Portia''s behavior.

    Dante left by teleporting back to his home in the First Gate and letting Beatrice know about his next step. Hearing that her mother had done such a thing, Beatrice was naturally in agreement and supportive of it, advising Dante to do the same.

    However, Dante shook his head and knew he could not follow the same path as Portia. He did not agree with her methods, and he was fundamentally a different kind of conqueror than Portia.

    Beatrice didn''t mind either way; she loved them both unconditionally. She then supported Dante in creating the quantum world for the power system that he aimed to create because regardless of technology, coding was time-consuming.

    The Eternal Universe had no advantages when it came to quantum coding. If it was in virtual reality that relied on digital code, a single A1 from an Etranstore Raspberry Pi board could easily create one the likes of which would astound the humans of 2030 in the Centralis Universe.

    But quantum coding was something they had not even fully explored. Each quantum world required hours of work by multiple AIs being supervised by human minds using the A1 chips. You might think it was easier than typing code into an engine or editor, but it was just as tiring.

    Because it was literally like building a house, brick by brick. Luckily for the humans, they were the foremen with the hard hats and the architect''s design in hand while the AIs were the workers who mixed the cement and ced the bricks.

    Naturally, the quality of work produced by the AIs was fixed most of the time as they were frighteningly precise, but higher-quality A1 produced higher-quality work. For example, the Raspberry Pi A1 could not hope to match the base A1 that Dante created in the home universe.

    The question was: how did average folks like that Uchiha_Rulez guy create their own hostable quantum servers for the Etraverse?

    Well, it was sort of like creating a website using WordPress versus making it from scratch. The Etraverse provides temtes and various help to the user when creating their worlds using their state-of-the-art AIs and technology, while Dante was doing all the heavy lifting alone.

    However, Dante had two advantages. The first was naturally Quantum Core, his EX Rank superpower that allowed him to modify the rules of quantum worlds as he pleased. The degree to which he could modify was extremelyrge at the EX Rank, and it hardly seemed to show its value because Dante did not want to modify school worlds or free worlds.

    Yet, when dealing with his own worlds from scratch, its role was indispensable. It was easier to use the superpower to modify rules and create them, so Dante could get the framework up really fast, faster than any other service or power in the Eternal Universe.

    Not only that, his superpower could modify the rules to do a lot of the heavy lifting for the Cosmic Tree when he replicated a quantum item and granted it purchase in the real world.

    Don''t underestimate the Cosmic Tree''s suffering in this regard; Dante had put it through an unspeakable amount of stress. Without getting too deep into it, one should simply picture replication like this.

    The Cosmic Tree was a world-renowned writer, and Dante was a client. When Dante brought low-quality items to be replicated, be they extremely fantastical or especially ipatible with the rules of reality like the Mutation Cores, it was like a 3-year-old child scribbling a single sentence of ''I wuv mummy and Daddy,'' and the writer in question being told to turn that into a 500,000-word novel that would be a New York Times Bestseller.

    Whenever Dante replicated a new quantum item, that was the kind of hell the Cosmic Tree had to go through. So Quantum Core lessening that burden was naturally very wee.

    The second advantage Dante had was that Lily, Beatrice''s cousin, had the superpower of Artificial Intelligence. After being begged by Beatrice, Dante eventually let her and Connor rank up their superpowers to SS level, which was the maximum Dante could do now.

    However, the benefit was worth it. Connor and Lily were gratefulˇŞand especially smartˇŞpeople, so they showed their gratitude immediately. Lily spent an entire week churning her newly upgraded superpower day and night to create an A1 that surpassed the limits of what the Eternal Universe could manage.

    This was the A1 Dante had brought into the First Gate with him, and he had created a special vessel for it using Nanite Resonance, forming a ring he wore on his right hand''s index finger.

    With it, he could synchronize with his A1 chip to perform immense tasks that other AIs would require multiple of them to do at once. It was also a major part of the reason why Dante was so confident in his current voyage into the First Gate.

    It was also why he dared to tell the aide to wait for a month. One should know, to create the quantum world where the Concoction of Absorption was made, it took them around 3 months or more to get it done.

    In the end, Dante managed to create the necessary quantum world with the help of Beatrice and his many tools. This world was a small-sized one once again because creating anything bigger would require far more time than he could provide.

    This time, Dante and Beatrice were smarter than before, having made it Earth during the primal era, which featured more nt life and fewer sentient beings because those required extremelyplex behavioral programming.

    Interestingly, Dante also chose to make the new power system a one-off one like the Eyes of Illusion and the Concoction of Absorption because, as you could imagine, creatingplex power systems also required far more work and time than even coding sentient beings!

    Frankly, the more Dante worked on his own quantum worlds, the more he respected Kurtaghagt and the Etraverse Corporation, and even more so the Eternal Academy and their famous worlds.

    God knew the amount of work they had put into creating all those expansive worlds with suchplex inner workings.

    In the end, the method Dante created was something he called a ''Libido Seed.'' It was a seed simr to those within watermelons that had to be ingested by a person. It would then break down and release its special substance that would change the physiology of the consumer, increasing their libido proportionally to their stats, removing all negative aspects of itˇŞlong gestation, birthplications, and pain, etc.ˇŞwhile enhancing the beneficial aspects.

    Likewise, the born offspring would undergo safe elerated growth until they reached adulthood by absorbing ambient energy, which was targeted at the ever-present Zero Energy.

    As for the character and mental state of the child who went from newly born to 18 years in the span of a month, that was easily fixed by having the child undergo aa-like growth, allowing imnt A1 chips to simte their growth.

    In other words, the child would be born, be injected with the nanites, sleep for a month, and outwardly go to being 18 years old, but during their I-month sleep, they experienced the full 18 years of life with their parents in the First Gate.

    Of course, this was not foolproof. Cultivated friendships could not be reced, and upon waking and finding the truth, such newly forged adults might undergo a crisis of self.

    However, this was already the best short-term solution Dante could find that surpassed using clones and the like.

 Chapter 306 Moving Out

    <h4>Chapter 306 Moving Out</h4>

    Dante naturally ingested the Libido Seed not just to officiate it, but also to use it himself. After all, he had customized a part of this seed''s actions specifically to solve his problem with Beatrice.

    After taking it Dante felt heart surge throughout his body and converge in his groin area, causing everywhere from his lower abdomen to the top of his scrotum to feel like it was on fire. This feelingsted quite long for him since his stats were so highparatively, so the work that needed to be done was intense.

    The entire time, Dante simplyy in bed with a scrunched-up face, looking like he was on the verge of tears. This was the first time Dante wished he didn''t have high stats, and he hated himself for carelessness. No matter how meticulous he was, he forgot to tweak the pain settings of the power system upon reception.

    This was primarily because he did not experience anything when he customized his first power system, the Concoction of Absorption, so he subconsciously thought there would be no problem here either. At least, Beatrice was kind enough to massage his groin area while he was suffering, significantly alleviating the difort. In the end, when it was done, Dante didn''t feel any real difference.

    It was only when he initiated intimacy with Beatrice that he saw the difference. He was amazed that he could prate her and engage in intercourse while feeling the exact same intense sensations, but he didn''t feel... out of control.

    In fact, he felt like when and how he ejacted was entirely up to him, and he immediately did so after a while. Beatrice''s reaction was also far stronger than before, making Dante raise an eyebrow and wonder what changed.

    However, she was currently in no state of mind to give a coherent answer, that was for sure. Surprisingly, Dante felt like he hadn''t just blown his load, being still rock hard and ready to go with no indication of sexual fatigue.

    Curious, he wondered how many rounds he could go and decided to continue, much to Beatrice''s delight. However, that delight soon turned to shock, worry, skepticism, and then fear as the hours began to pass and Dante wasn''t stopping.

    Beatrice had an extremely strong libido, which was why she could overdraw Dante on a normal, but everything had a limit and she had long gone past hers. Meanwhile, Dante felt like he was only just beginning, but had to cut it short because Beatrice had fainted at some point.

    Well, at this point, he could barely make out that it was Beatrice. After all, repeated ejactions had long filled her womb and even her canal, so he began to pull out and spray on her body.

    The result was that there was a humanoid shape lying spread eagle on the bed that was thoroughly covered in gooey white juice.

    "Hmm... I might have gone too far..." Dante hesitated as he felt guilty.

    However, he thought about all the times Beatrice had preyed on him and almost drained him dry, and then his guilt faded. He rather felt like shepletely deserved this and this was only the first part of his long revenge.

    Dante called for android maids toe and clean up the entire ce including Beatrice, leaving to go wash himself up as well. He then called out Levi while he was in the tub, and nced at the downcast Truth Beast.

    "Seriously, can''t you just check the truth and see if it will work out before investing so much?" Dante speechlessly asked.

    Levi sighed. The truth hurts. I thought I could do something to change it, but it was futile."

    "Don''t worry about it, there are far more birds in the sky for you to catch. Dorothy was out of the question from the beginning anyway: Danteforted the fellow insincerely.

    "Anyway, I want to know if the items I made can be safely ingested by any species? I''m referring to the Concoction of Absorption and the Libido Seed specifically." Dante changed the topic and inquired.

    Levi pped his face with his wings to clear his mind up and focus. He then shook his head at Dante slowly.

    "No. Whether it is an item or equipment that is replicated, the Cosmic Tree only has to officiate it into reality and what happens next is not its problem. However, those two items allow people to obtain power systems, despite the systems being flimsy and trash."

    Dante''s eyebrows twitched when he listened to Levi call his and Beatrice''s hard work trash, but the truth beast was speaking honestly at the moment, so he decided to let it go.

    "Power systems require more work to officiate by the Cosmic Tree and the universes in question are not willing to host the abilities, so the Cosmic Tree must host it."

    "While the Cosmic Tree is willing to host powers for you, it is not running a charity," Levi concluded and began pruning his feathers.

    Dante sighed and leaned back into the tub, he had a feeling that this might happen, and he even discussed it with Beatrice. However, knowing that his spections were true left him feeling a bit bitter since he had held out some hope.

    Did it mean that the Concoction of Absorption and the Libido Seed which were mostly designed for others and mass production had be useless? Not exactly.

    There may be powers and methods in the future from Quantum Entanglement that might allow him to make it essible. However, it was not possible in the short term so Dante would have to find another alternative.

    You''d probably be wondering, why not find a quantum world of advanced science that has a gene serum that unlocks this ability? Or a normal item that grants these abilities without it being a power system?

    My Brother In Christ, if things were so convenient in life, everyone would have a loving system as well as protagonist luck, with endless beauties on each arm.

    Unfortunately, life is not that convenient, so man must struggle where he can to make things works for him. In this case, one cannot achieve even half of the features that the Libido Seed possessed without making it a power system.

    Oh yes, a libido-enhancing item existed out there and Dante could get it. However, all it would do would be to enhance libido, not bless the offspring, make them grow fast without a cost, or absorb energy to facilitate all of that.

    While libido enhancement was naturally a profitable industry, Dante was not looking to make money, but to ed on his consolidation ability from conquests. It would seem that he would have to shut up and rely on the method that the Eternal Universe was using for now.

    "Well, it''s time to get to work. What territory do you think is best for me to start with?" Dante pped the side of the tub and pushed himself up and out, getting ready to dry down as he asked Levi.

    "It doesn''t matter. All territories present the same level of difficulty when unimed. The only varying difficulty is when more than one universe ispeting for it. Having multiple parties within increases the difficulty in real-time, so you have to ount for that." Levi responded and returned to Dante''s Soul Space to cry some more.

    Dante wore his usualbat suit and checked in on Beatrice before leaving. His wife was peacefully sleeping, curled up in the same manner as Antonia in her cot, which was quite amusing to see.

    Dante appeared in front of their aide this time, who was stationed near their estate at all times. The fellow was dozing off while the weather was so good and dreamy, enough that Dante was amused.

    He cast an energizing spell on the fellow, which made him perk right up. Upon seeing that it was Dante before him, he shot up to his feet and saluted clumsily.

    "Don''t worry about it. Prepare a transport for me and take me to the nearest unimed territory that borders our area." Dante requested by patting the fellow on the shoulder.

    He nodded and rushed to get it done. Unfortunately, movement between territories was terrible as there was no teleportation feature between gs/spires. Otherwise, how could universes possibly be challenged if they could just endlessly teleport warriors over to defend?

    Also, Dante could definitely get to his destination faster if he moved by himself or used spells, but he wasn''t in a hurry. Also, he wanted to use the time in transit to practice his Quantum Entanglement and raise it to the S rank.

    With all this ambient Zero Energy, he had all the tools needed to get it done and it was a matter of spending time sorting out the threads that linked him to the three to elevate the superpower anyway.

    "Sir, here is the spec sheet for our current craft." Thed quickly forwarded a digital spec sheet to Dante.

    [Pinnacle-ss Spacecraft: Speedster AlphaOverviewModel: Speedster Alphass: PinnacleRole: Rapid Interster TransportManufacturer: Supreme Council of the Eternal UniverseMaximum Crew: 10Maximum Passengers: 50Length: 60 metersWidth: 35 metersHeight: 15 metersWeight: 350 metric tons

    PerformanceMaximum Speed ary): 15,000 kilometers per hourMaximum Speed (Void): 0.8 Light Years per hourCruising Speed (Void): 0.5 Light Years per houreleration (Void): 0 to maximum speed in 20 minutesRange (Void): UnlimitedRange ary): Unlimited

    Power SourcePropulsion: Quad Impulse Drives (Mark IX)Auxiliary Power: Advanced Psion CellsEnergy Storage: Quantum Capacitors (Ultra-Compact)Emergency Backup: Fusion Reactor (ss V)...etc]

    There were more details but Dante glossed over them as they did not interest him. He only cared for the speed and power system, because those would decide how far and how fast it could go.

    Seeing the spec sheet, Dante asked the obvious question.

    "Why don''t ships use ambient Zero Energy as a power source?"

 Chapter 307 6 Months

    Chapter 307 6 Months

    The aide looked at Dante strangely but hid his expression so that he wouldn''t be seen as rude. However, Dante caught it. This made him raise his eyebrows with surprise and wonder what he said wrong, but thed did not keep him in suspense.

    "Well, the problem is that we don''t have the ability to investigate Zero Energy in the first ce. We can''t harness it at all, and many universes with even higher levels of technology than us are stuck in this quagmire."

    Dante was startled. "Wait, Zero Energy is hard to use, even for higher universes?"

    With a nod, the aide affirmed. This caused Dante to be pensive as he realized how brazen and crazy his idea to create a power system that allowed the use of Zero Energy was.

    And what was even crazier was the fact that it actually seeded!

    If not for the limitations of power systems in the universe, Dante could fully actualize his crazy idea and turn this believed fact into a thing of the past.

    This made Dante''s appreciation for the cosmic tree soar. Previously, he had felt a bit miffed by its unwillingness to actualize power systems on his behalf, but Dante realized he had be entitled.

    It was inescapable for a sentient being, especially one as young as Dante, to not have this w. It was not possible for any person to constantly receive freebies with no cost for a long period of time and not feel entitled to the freebiester.

    It waspletely within the rights of the cosmic tree to pull up its roots and walk away, no longer sponsoring Dante, and he would have no right toin. Dante could only sigh and correct his thinking before it was toote. He was grateful for the intervention and nodded towards the aide, pausing in thought before he left.

    "Right, what''s your name?"

    Thed stopped in surprise and pointed to himself. "Me? Sir, my name is Patrick. Everyone calls me Ricky."

    Dante nodded with amusement. "Alright, Ricky. You can go and manage our itinerary. I will spend most of my time in my cabin meditating during our travel."

    "Alright, sir, you can leave everything to me." Ricky said with shining eyes, seeming invigorated by being taken seriously by Dante.

    Meanwhile, Dante retreated to his cabin and dropped a quantum marker here. He then used a single thought to get his quantum clone to abandon its conquest in the Centralis Universe and consolidate his newly conquered territories, causing the military-industrialplex of his budding gctic empire to halt.

    The quantum clone obviously left that task to the AIs of his empire as well as his organic think tanks. He himself used quantum entanglement to appear in his estate, right beside a now-waking Beatrice.

    "Hmm..? Oh, it''s the clone? How nice of you, Dante, thank you so much." Beatrice said groggily but smiled beautifully.

    After all, she knew that with the issue of logistics and all, until Dante reached his location, he would be busy and unavable for long periods of time. Truthfully, Beatrice was not looking forward to raising Antonia alone for most of her child''s life, but it seemed Dante had already considered this problem.

    His clone was as good as his main body to Beatrice because it was two bodies, one mind. It was the same thing, only that the main body was stronger and couldst longer in bed to satisfy her now.

    Dante hugged Beatrice and caressed her messy hair, which was syed about since she had been sleeping. The two of them shared this intimate moment until they noticed Antonia standing at the edge of her cot, leaning on the side idly as she watched them with a silly smile that only babies could manage.

    This made the twough as they picked up the little one and brought her into their embrace. This small family was filled with a certain air of love and closeness that caused the heart to feel fuller and much softer.

    Meanwhile, the ''real'' Dante was seated cross-legged in his cabin, once again entering his soul space. The difference was that it had fundamentally changed from an empty void that only had a giant gate on one side to the same gate being the center of a lively cosmic-like yground.

    There were the two giant manifestations of his other two EX-rank superpowers on either side, more than half as small as the main gate for Quantum Entanglement but stillrger than the giant soul tether that floated in the void.

    The soul tether looked like a giant band of corded rope that linked multiple tforms together. On each of theserge tforms were Dante''s various summoned beasts, who were idly resting or growing their power.

    After all, while there was no 11-star rank, like any quantum power system Dante had taken, it could be infinitely continued at its peak level. So even though they were 10-star peak, they could still gain more and more on top.

    The same went for the summoned beasts, and the same went for Dante too. However, he did not pay any of this attention as he focused on the giant gate, or as usual, what was behind it.

    Coming round to take a look, one would see that the formerly messy and tangled cords were now around 50% cleared up, making it much neater here. Dante couldn''t help but take a moment to admire his work and pat himself on the back.

    However, he looked at the rest of the work that needed to be done and could not help but feel a hint of fatigue. How far away was Ex-Rank Quantum Entanglement?

    Probably years away, even if he dedicated all his time to it.

    Still, small drops of water make a mighty ocean.

    As such, he could only knuckle down and get to work.

    They say time flies when you''re having fun, but is it really considered fun to spend every waking moment working on a bunch of messed-up and jumbled wires? No, that definitely could not be called fun.

    Dante spent every day during this period feeling every second that passed by like it was an hour, something which would have driven him crazy for sure if not for the counterbnce which were the experiences of his quantum clone with his family.

    Around 6 months had passed, and Antonia was growing bigger each day, her intelligence also soaring rather rapidly. She could already fully walk on her own, had a head of short purple hair like her mother, and her teeth had grown out, allowing her to consume normal food.

    She had already been weaned in her second month of growth, and she was already fully potty-trained by the 4th month. She was able to speak short sentences and phrases,municating often with her dad and mom.

    All of these experiences made Dante and Beatrice full of joy and excitement. Every day was a new experience with the budding Antonia who shocked them with each step, her abilities surpassing even designer babies crafted by technology.

    At the tender age of 6 months, her SDI was already three times that of a fully grown adult, which was around the level of a well-trained pure human. She also asionally had explosions of power when stressed or excited, either manifesting hellfire or radiant light, her purple eyes sometimes shifting to golden as the eyes of illusion struggled to manifest.

    Luckily, with both Dante and Beatrice around, nothing bad happened. The only problem, if anything, was that Antonia was extremely gluttonous and voracious, having inherited some aspects of Portia and Beatrice''s superpowers, but as quantum abilities rather than superpowers.

    Dante''s quantum clone spent a lot of time hunting top beasts and monsters in various quantum worlds and then replicating them in reality for him and Beatrice to cook for Antonia. Dante knew how to cook thanks to the perfectionist Aileen, who would not allow her son to becking any life skill, and Beatrice had practiced for the day she would meet her fated one.

    Neither were adept in the art, only having basic skills which they hardly even used, so there was a lot of trial and error involved. Luckily for them, Antonia was a big eater who chugged down kilograms of food in a sitting to fuel her explosive growth, so it didn''t matter in the long run.

    However, it was far better to see her happy andughing while eating than squeezing her face and grimacing, reluctantly eating due to her hunger.

    In the end, 6 months had passed, and many breakthroughs had been made all around. Portia, who had easily reached her frontline already due to her explosive speed, had conquered even more territories even more crazily now.

    She knew that since Antonia was born now, the pressure on the Universe''s Will of the Eternal Universe would grow even stronger, so she had to secure enough territories to make up for their consumption.

 Chapter 308 First Battle

    <h4>Chapter 308 First Battle</h4>

    Meanwhile, Dante had realized that he had been tricked. In the end, after the six months or less of what he had predicted would take him to reach S Rank Quantum Entanglement, it turned out that he had onlypleted around 35% of it.

    In truth, it should have been obvious from the start. The gap between the A rank and the S rank was a huge divide for all superpowers. Dante knew this, but for some reason, he assumed that it should be different for him based on having higher stats and the Cosmic Tree.

    The reason why his prediction had been wrong was that he lightly tested it and felt that, using the same effort to sort cables that he did during the C-A rank, it should be six months for the S rank, which was true on paper.

    However, the problem manifested itself in the fact that the remaining cords were actively resisting him now. It required way more effort on average to move them than before, and the longer time Dante spent on it, the stronger the resistance became.

    This led to his current frustration as he opened his eyes, spreading his spirit sense out of the ship to realize that they had long slowed down,nding on a nearbynding pad.

    Ricky came to his door and gently knocked, informing

    Dante that they had arrived at their destination. Dante saw all this and sighed to release his irritation before pping his face and walking out normally.

    Ricky led Dante out of the ship through the steps and brought him into a small but functional base that surrounded a ck spire that poked into the sky. A simple scan with his spirit sense told Dante that apart from the base AIs and various androids/robots that managed the area, there was no other sentient presence here.

    "This is our Titan Wave base, named after the territory itself. Like most others, it''s currently remotely manned through A1, and we''ve left it this way because it''s surrounded by unimed territories on all sides, so we don''t have to worry about incursions," Ricky exined to Dante dutifully.

    He manifested a holographic map on amand table and showed Dante where they were on it. "All around us to the north, northeast, south, southwest, southeast, and east are unimed territories. Which one would you like to start with, sir?"

    Dante''s eyes roved the specific territories, and he received information from thework about the territories, at least what the Eternal Universe had scouted so far using technology.

    He perused the information and made a quick decision. "Let''s head east. I want to try a few experiments and see how things will work."

    "As for you, you should stay here and coordinate with me," Dante stated as he nced at Ricky meaningfully.

    Ricky was confused. "Are you sure, sir? I can provide some minimal help in battle as I have a supportive superpower for healing."

    Dante was amused. "Trust me,d."

    He patted Ricky''s shoulder a little forcefully and left using a portal he manifested, causing Ricky to still be baffled. However, the moment Dante left, one of the nearby androids turned to Ricky and seemed to shake its head.

    "He told you to stay here because he doesn''t want you to intrude on his privacy when he fights. Just do what he says and don''t cause yourself trouble," the male android exined and turned back to its task.

    Meanwhile, Ricky''s face became red as he realized that even an android could understand social cues and hidden meanings better than him, an aide! No wonder Dante had looked at him funny. If it wasn''t for the fact that Dante himself was chill, he would have been fired ten times over!

    While Ricky wasmenting hisck of ability, Dante had already arrived at the border after using a 9th Rank space spell. He avoided passing through subspace as he knew that subspace in the First Gate was popted with eldritch-tier horrors that could cause anyone trouble.

    Dante noted the gap between the two territories was literally marked with a translucent purple veil that came from the ground and rose up to the height of a small house.

    It stretched horizontally for as far as Dante could see on either side, until the border of the territory meandered, at least. Dante kicked into the ground and brought up a block of earth, which he held and threw forward lightly.

    To no surprise, it easily passed through the barrier without being slowed or stopped. Nothing urred on the other side, which was an empty grasnd that seemed to stretch on forever.

    Dante walked through the barrier the next second, feeling nothing except for the slight breeze that apanied his movement, and entered the new territory. However, unlike before, there was a great and noticeable change this time.

    Mostly in the fact that hundreds of lifeforms manifested in this area, all being thick and robust warhorses that glowed with a green light. They manifested all over the in and grazed naturally, like they had always been here, and Dante had failed to see them.

    However, Dante had naturally long sent his spirit sense over and sensed nothing, also he was certain that they had literally been spawned from nowhere right at this moment. This made him interested in the kind of phenomenon that could cause this, but he soon did not have that luxury as all the beasts suddenly paused their grazing and raised their heads at once to nce at Dante.

    This eerie act continued for a few seconds while Dante stood there silently, his calm smile bing grimmer and grimmer as the tension built, until it finally erupted the next second as all the horse-like creatures neighed loudly.

    Dante raised an eyebrow and realized that a fight was on hand. Immediately, he cast four 6th-rank spells at once, one of the Earth element, one of Fire, one of Wind, and one of Water.

    6th-Rank Spell: Superior Earth Golem Summon!

    6th-Rank Spell: Flowing Water Shield!

    6th-Rank Spell: Extreme Barkskin Armor!

    6th-Rank Spell: ming Fists!

    Suddenly, there was an Earth Golem about the size of a suburban house that rose from the ground and formed up in front of Dante. A shield made of water formed around its body like a ring, ebbing and flowing with its own intent. Vines emerged on the golem''s rough rocky skin and wove into a tapestry that made it almost transform into the visage ofa forest shambler. Finally, its rocky fists were coated with searing hot mes, almost melting the rock and making it viscous.

    With just four 6th-rank spells, Dante had created an elite fighter that knew not fear, could not be harmed by mental or soul attacks, had elite magical and physical defenses, and a very potent attack ability.

    Any 9th-rank mage could do this, but not nearly as powerfully as Dante. Each spell would need to be prepared beforehand and cast one by one, unlike Dante who just did it all on the fly simultaneously.

    Dante stood back and watched with interest as the neighing horses became extremely violent and charged at him. Immediately, his golem''s single red eye on its head shed with a bright light as it came to life and charged forward, meeting the attack of the muscr horse-like creature head-on.

    A fist collided with a head, causing a loud thumping sound to ur. The effect was that the golem was pushed back a few meters, but its target was sentflying with a cracked skull, the mestching onto its skin and beginning to wreak havoc.

    It thrashed about on the ground in its death throes, shrieking loudly. The other horses did not pause their charge, though, rather seeming to be stimted by the suffering of their peer as they split up to charge at both the golem and at Dante.

    "Oh?" Dante muttered as he casually dodged a high-speed charge from one of the horse creatures that would have trampled any normal being to meat paste.

    He casually reached out faster than any being here could follow and patted the back of this speeding creature, causing it to light up in ckish-red mes that consumed its entire body.

    It did not even have time to slow down or scream before its entire form was turned to ash, disappearing from this world forever. Dante casually stomped and created a ring of hellfire around his body that stretched on for about a kilometer in all directions.

    This had two effects. The first was that the immediate area around him suddenly became devoid of monsters as they were all turned into ash on contact, only releasing onest cry of shock before exiting the game called life.

    The second was that iing beasts that aimed to dismember him hit the me barrier and disintegrated on touch, causing the fire to flicker with glee for a split second as it feasted on lives and souls................................

    [Poster notes: You can thank Z (site admin) for the chapters, if he hadn''t been so nice to me in the past I wouldn''t have started posting these chapters. The release time of chapters will mostly stay a bit inconsistent as I don''t check when the chapters are uploaded, thanks - Gus]

 Chapter 309 Spire Challenge Difficulty

    <h4>Chapter 309 Spire Challenge Difficulty</h4>

    In the First Gate, iming territories did not just mean "capture the g." It was a situation where one had to face manifestations of monsters generated by the territory itself, fighting them off until one achieved victory.

    This part was usually rtively easy for various universes as there was no requirement to send only one person, like what Dante or Portia did. Most universes either sent over a group of qualified fighters or simply relied on technology to achieve their purposes.

    As Levi had stated, unimed territories before one activated the g/spire were the same. The type of monster created varied, but their average strength was basically the same throughout the First Gate.

    Though, one eerie fact that Levi did not mention was that somehow, and strangely enough, the standard of strength for these monsters was based on pure humans, not from the Eternal universes, but all universes as a whole.

    Dante spread out his ring of fire and allowed the beasts to crash into it mindlessly, turning into ash while he faced no consumption of energy or power whatsoever. Putting aside his ability to retrieve True Qi within the boundaries of his spirit sense, he had the Concoction of Absorption power system that made sure he always had enough energy proportional to his stats.

    With so much ambient Zero Energy, Dante was notcking for anything at all; he could do this all day. He nced at his golem and saw it still hard at work punching foes to bits while tanking hits itself.

    However, he was not too satisfied as he expected the thing to do all the fighting originally. In the end, Dante realized that he needed to give the golem a ''taunt'' ability, but he did not find any such spell for any element in his database.

    Of course, this was not really a problem per se. He could spend time doing what normal magi do and research carefully before creating a spell of his own. After all, the spells he himself knew did not fall from the sky but were researched by others.

    He could also have A1 do it, but it only did up to the 6th rank because spells beyond that level required spiritual power to even research and conceptualize, hence why 7th rank and above spells were of a different tier from the rest.

    You''d notice that Dante often used spells of the 6th Rank, and hardly the 7th or 8th. Not only were they far fewer, but they required more than just power and skill to cast, so Dante opted for the strongest ''easy'' spells, which were the 6th rank ones.

    Dante shook his head rapidly and realized he had been daydreaming while in a fight. However, what else could he do, as this was not much of a fight in the first ce?

    He noticed that the strain of monsters had thinned and began traversing the zone rapidly, letting his golem follow on foot by charging at max speed. Each step it took allowed it to elerate more and more until it became a bulldozing blur of power and size.

    If that thing collided with someone... even Dante with his current stats did not fancy the idea of being on the receiving end of that.

    Since he was also traveling at his maximum speed which was far faster than any aircraft, Dante soon zed his way towards the obviously distinguishable spire that pierced into the sky like a ck flute.

    Dante stopped before the familiar spire and sized it. It was much the same as the one at the Wastnd of Death, and he felt no noticeable difference. Dante nced behind himself to see that the monsters no longer spawned or chased after him, seeming to have lost their direction and returning to grazing.

    So it seemed that the first part was an endurance and speed test? Survive an endless wave of monsters while rushing to reach the ck spire? It seemed easy enough, but one also had to consider the sheer distance.

    If a universe had a person with a powerful concealment superpower or a teleportation superpower, they could skip this step for sure and advance directly to the second and more important test.

    Dante ced his hand on the ck spire andmunicated with it. It first verified his registration and gave him a familiar list of options, with ''capture'' being there as well. In the Wastnd of Death, he had seen it but hadn''t dared to try, which was a good thing because he might have died at his previous power level.

    This time, he dared. When he made the selection, he realized that he was given a list of difficulties to choose from, which came with various requirements and rewards depending on which one hepleted.

    Going through them slowly, Dante categorized them in his mind.

    [ck Spire Capture Battle Difficulty Ratings:

    Basic: 1 single enemy with the same body power as the challenger. No time limit. Completion generates 1 unit of Chaos Will per year.

    Intermediate: 1 single enemy with the same body and mind power as the challenger. No time limit. Completion generates 10 units of Chaos Will per year.

    Advanced: 1 single enemy with the same body, mind, and soul power as the challenger. No time limit. Completion generates 100 units of Chaos Will per year.

    Master: 1 single enemy with the same body, mind, soul, and unique power as the challenger. 1 month time limit. Completion generates 1000 units of Chaos Will per year.

    Grandmaster: 1 single enemy with the same body, mind, soul, unique, and superpower as the challenger. 1 day time limit. Completion generates 10,000 units of Chaos Will per year.

    Divine: 1 single enemy with the same body, mind, soul, unique, superpower, and higher dimensional power as the challenger. 1 hour time limit. Completion generates 100,000 units of Chaos Will per year.]

    Dante looked through and was confused by the terms, but the ck Spire provided an exnation generously. Body power refers to one''s SDI, of Strength, Agility, Constitution, Vitality, and Dexterity.

    So whether it was 10 points or 200,000, you would face such an equal enemy. Mind power referred to Intelligence stats and psychic power from those stats, with the same general rules as body power.

    This was why Portia avoided unimed territories and simply beat up imed ones, because her powery in her body and mind stats, so she gained literally no advantages here.

    The only reason she won the few unimed territories she took over was because of her Regeneration superpower that she had, but her doppleganger did not in the first two difficulties, of which she usually chose Intermediate.

    Here''s where it gets tricky. Soul power refers to the strength of the soul of the user, assuming they had soul-rted abilities. Don''t think this was redundant; remember that every universe had diverse alien species with unique biologies.

    Even the Eternal Universe had a few hundred with soul abilities, much less across the multiverse. Soul abilities were usually overpowered when used against those without them, so such fellows could simply nuke the souls of their targets if not curbed.

    But here''s the kicker, if the applicant does not have soul power, it doesn''t mean the doppleganger will not. This goes for the Advanced to Divine rankings; if the challenger did not have a unique power, a superpower, or a higher dimensional power, the doppleganger will.

    This was what presented the twofold difficulty of challenging unimed territories. You couldn''t cheese your way to higher difficulties and better rewards by picking a foe that doesn''t have any benefits that you don''t have.

    Unique power in itself meant derived powers that did not fall under superpowers but were esoteric or biological. Like the example features aliens, some had powers that may not be soul-based, but body-based.

    Like the giant race and their gigantification, if they used it in the first 2 difficulties, they could grow big and stomp their enemy to pieces, but in the Master difficulty, they would have to fight on equal terms with a simrly gigantified foe.

    Dante''s various sub-abilities counted here too, whether it was True Qi, Magus, knight system, Martial arts, eyes of illusion, etc. As for the final two categories, they were self-exnatory.

    Dante looked through the list and his face changed many times. He silently calcted where he had advantages and where he didn''t when he received feedback from the Cosmic Tree.

    At the A rank, their connection was so solid that the Cosmic Tree was short of manifesting a voice to directly speak to him. As it were, he no longer needed to be confused about what it was trying to say and implicitly understood its message.

    When Dante received its message, his eyes lit up and heughed wantonly. He should have long realized this fact given the history of the Cosmic Tree, but he had been awed by the spire''s words and neglected this point.

    What did the tree tell him? Obviously that this damned spire could not copy its presence or his superpower rted to it, Quantum Entanglement!

 Chapter 310 The Battle With A Doppleganger

    Chapter 310 The Battle With A Doppleganger

    However, this did not mean that Dante could act as he pleased here. He had simply gained an advantage that he could use, and how to use it smartly was the key here.

    For one, the Divine difficulty level was out of the questionpletely. To do that required higher dimensional power, and the issue had already been illustrated when he fought Lara''s Centralis Universe clone.

    Higher dimensional powers could only harm higher dimensional power/beings.

    As such, Dante''s eyes fell on the Grandmaster difficulty level. This one was arguably the best for him since he could freely use Quantum Entanglement and its abilities, but his doppleganger could not, only able to use Quantum Core and Nanite Resonance.

    Choosing lower difficulties was unnecessary, especially since choosing Grandmaster and Master would have the literal same effect, but the payout was vastly different.

    As such, Dante made the choice right away, and the area around him warped. He was taken away from where he stood and appeared in a white room that seemed to stretch for eternity. The visual cue Dante got was very simr to looking at the hyperbolic time chamber''s interior.

    However, he was quickly focused on the manifestation that appeared before him, which was that of his own form. It was a fleshless creature made up of a strange form of matter that looked like white y, but was partially translucent.

    The moment the being appeared, it locked onto Dante and began attacking without waiting for any sort of signal. Immediately, it rushed towards Dante and punched out, a ze of hellfire true qi surging from its fists.

    Dante carefully assessed the attack and punched out simrly with the same amount of hellfire true qi. It was important to verify for himself whether everything about his exact capabilities had been copied fully, or whether they were weakened or magnified.

    When both fists collided, the hellfire true qi surged around crazily,shing the body of the two fighters. Unfortunately, both were immune to all hellfire due to their mastery of the Internal Arts, so this was nothing but a show of power.

    However, it was enough for Dante to realize that it was pretty much as he thought, that the power of the doppleganger was perfectly equal to his. This made him frown as he disengaged and began casting a spell, which the doppleganger naturally mimicked.

    6th rank spell: Lightning Cannon!

    The two sts of lightning energy as thick as a bucket collided and released a small energy shockwave that could have fried any technology of a lower grade that had been nearby.

    Both Dante and his doppleganger''s eyes churned as they glowed brightly, both focused on the other. They stood in such a stalemate, burning great amounts of energy as they tried to suppress the other, but eventually both stopped, realizing how futile it was.

    Summoned beasts were released, namely Killian the Antimatter beast, cko the Oblivion beast, Weaver the Soul beast, and Dao the Counter beast. They had already seen the fight through Dante''s eyes from his soul space and knew what kind of foe they were fighting.

    Killian first manifested endless antimatter and waved his wings, shooting it towards the doppleganger casually. To no one''s surprise, a duplicate Killian appeared and also mimicked the move, causing the two attacks to be neutralized.

    Then, another cko, Weaver, and Dao also appeared and prevented the beasts from one-shotting the doppleganger using their special rule-based powers. Eventually, Dante called them back, but the doppleganger did not.

    After all, it was not forced to mirror-match Dante; it could freely use any of his methods to take him down and make him fail this challenge. However, seeing Dante retract all his power and smile at it with confidence made the doppleganger irritated.

    It even went the extra mile and twitched a finger, countless nanitesing from its clothes that were mimicked from Dante and covering its body, forming a futuristic-looking armor solidified and powered by EX Rank Nanite Resonance.

    Dante obeyed the rules of fighting and allowed his foe to transformpletely until they were satisfied. Unfortunately, the doppleganger disdained to speak, and did not monologue about how it was superior to Dante and it had achieved a level of power never seen before.

    Still, it definitely postured a bit before seeming ready to end this flimsy challenge and take Dante''s life once and for all. However, it only saw Dante raise a finger and draw a circle in the air that epassed the area around them.

    For some reason, the doppleganger felt like it should absolutely stop Dante from doing this no matter what, but it was toote. A surge of higher dimensional power erupted that caused everything within this area to be nihil.

    For the doppleganger, its nanite armor crumbled onto the ground and the beasts it summoned were forcibly dragged back into its cloned soul space. Its dantian was sealed with the true qi being out of reach, and it could not even ess its spiritual cores to perform parlor tricks, much less magic.

    Yes, at this moment, apart from its stats, it could not use any other special power or ability inherited from Dante. All of this was caused by one of Dante''s newest abilities that came after he reached the A Rank, Quantum Nullification Field!

    Within the area of his quantum marker, all superpowers and abilities were negatedpletely as long as they were not of the higher dimension. So regardless of the entity, they would be stripped of their power until they became reliant on only stats to fight.

    This would not work on beings like Lara due to their stature in the universe, but everyone else was fair game. Unfortunately, as overpowered as it was, it was still only circumstantial because beings like Portia existed, who had insane stats and support-based superpowers, so it was not the core of their offensive ability.

    So Dante did not dare to run up and down thinking he was invincible, but he also acknowledged his superiority over people like himself who had various offensive powers of a special nature, especially this doppleganger.

    When Dante first heard from the Cosmic Tree that Quantum Entanglement could not be copied, he was excited for this reason. If he still had B-Rank Quantum Entanglement, it would have been meaningless unless he wanted to drag the doppleganger to his quantum space to chat with Lara''s clone.

    In fact, the doppleganger never had a chance to turn things around because the hand sign Dante made was for aesthetic purposes; he only needed to think to ce a quantum marker down within the range of his spirit sense.

    He also only needed to think to activate the nullification field, so trying to ''interrupt'' him was fruitless unless you had a significant statistical advantage over him, making you so fast that you could move before he could even think.

    The doppleganger was obviously not built like that. He was not ''him''.

    Before it could even react, it was struck in the chest by a familiar st of electrical energy from the 6th Rank spell from earlier. Immediately, it was sent flying with a charred patch on its chest area, enough to cause it to roll on the ground and twitch in pain.

    Dante did not relent, casually repeating the st over and over again, striking the doppleganger while it was on the ground.He did not see the need to use any other methods but the most direct, which was to st it to death.

    After a minute or two of near-machine-gun-like attacks from Dante, the doppleganger was finally turned into dust and ash. Rather than be pleased, Dante felt a bit of seriousness as it meant that if the same thing happened to him and he was ever put into a situation where he could only use stats, he too could be killed in a minute or two if subjected to such high-intensity sts.

    In the end, he was pulled from this realm and returned to standing in front of the ck spire. He nced around and saw that the golem he summoned was still standing where it had been, ncing at him while waiting for his next order.

    This made Dante wonder if it had truly been a case of him being transported away or if everything had urred in some sort of mental ne. Luckily, there was an encyclopedia right with him that could answer.

    "Yes, you were taken away and then brought back," Levi answered with a roll of his eyes.

    As a dignified 10-star Divine Beast of Truth, how could he be asked such simplistic questions?

    Dante ignored the fellow and received the feedback from the ck Spire. It told him that the territory now belonged to the Eternal Universe and they received an immediate payout of 10,000 units of Chaos Will and will receive such every year as long as the territory is not captured by another universe.

    Also, for performing this feat, Dante was awarded with 1,000 Spire Points, which made his eyes light up.

 Chapter 311 Dantes Greed

    Chapter 311 Dante''s Greed

    Dante didn''t expect there to be such a boon; no one had told him of this! Was it information that was kept secret to limit those who could qualify for territory capturing, or did it require something else?

    "Levi?" Dante nced inward with a ming look.

    "Pssh, my divine domain works on demand, not proactively. You have to ask questions or be in a situation where the information is absolutely necessary before I can reveal anything," Levi rolled his eyes and exined.

    "Anyway, yeah, all levels of unimed captures reward Spire Points while iming already captured ten-itories from other universes does not. This is done to prevent universes from ganging up on each other and provide an incentive for genuine expansion, the real point of the Universe Battlefield," Levi continued to say.

    "Oh? And how is the payout calcted?" Dante asked with interest.

    "10% of the Chaos Will payout," Levi answeredzily.

    Huh... no wonder.

    Dante realized why he had never heard about it because it didn''t really matter. Most people in the First Gate who were even willing to risk it in capturing unimed territories would not care about a measly 10% payout.

    After all, many could not even pass the basic level unless they had offensive superpowers. The advanced level was literally a hard stop since many species did not have soul powers and would be insta-koed by such a thing.

    Dante himself was only safe because Weaver, the Soul Beast, defended his soul 24/7. If we were to look at it like that, the Basic level had a payout of 1 Chaos Will, which meantpleting it would award one 0.1 Spire Points.

    Completing the Intermediate level meant a payout of 10 Chaos Will, so 1 Spire Point for all the trouble. When Dante thought about the fact that even the Quantum Mutation Cores full of ws could be sold for that amount, he finally understood that the ck Spire was not as ck-hearted as he thought.

    Anyway, his eyes lit up. With this new method, he could farm Spire Points on the side as he imed territories, which was killing two birds with one stone. It should be known that themon method of acquiring spire points, apart from selling stuff to the spire, was to killbatants of other universes.

    Regardless of the power level, whether it was Portia-level power or Ricky-level power, it would award 1 point for the kill. So those looking to farm would naturally descend upon weaker universes and initiate a ughter to farm, which was part of the reason why the poption was such an issue despite many centuries passing.

    After all, one would grow them to a certain amount only for some crazy dude to initiate a genocide-level attack and then fly off. Most universes, even top ones, were helpless about this since they could not guarantee that every being born could obtain superpowers or the strength to defend itself.

    Not everyone could spit out a little monster like Antonia.

    Dante shook his head and left the spire. He contacted Ricky over the quantumwork and informed him of the sessful capture, which left the young man speechless.

    "Boss, you just left like an hour ago, and you already have a territory in hand? Most people worked over a long period of time to grind down their doppleganger relying on stamina since it had the same power as they did.

    If you could kill your own doppleganger in the span of a few minutes, then what about me?"

    Ricky couldn''t help but doubt himself and the safety of the universe as he initiated the aftermath protocols, sending a ship loaded with androids over, along with himself. However, before he could send them, he was stopped by Dante.

    "Just wait outside."

    That was all he said before going off, and Ricky was confused. However, heplied and went outside with the designated builderbots who were meant to handle the construction and building work.

    Imagine his shock when he saw Dante patiently waiting outside with his hands in his pockets. Ricky paused to look him up and down and couldn''t help but ping Dante''s A1 chip to make sure it was the right one.

    "Ha, it''s me, don''t worry. Come over here with the necessary things," Dante chuckled as he waved Ricky over.

    Dante nced at the ship and the various materials that needed to be taken over and stored them in his quantum space. He then ced a hand on Ricky''s shoulder and teleported to his quantum marker near the ck spire of the new territory.

    When they arrived, he released the ship and the various materials out and nodded to Ricky. The young man was stumped at how he was in the sparse savanna-like area one moment and now within a lush grasnd.

    "You can begin setting up here. I will be heading to the next spot to get it under our banner; Dante patted him on the back and left. Ricky was simply shocked for a long time before he snapped out of it. When he understood what Dante achieved, his face changed greatlv.

    "Oh my god, Sir Dante can teleport over such long distances? Then wouldn''t we be able to defend any territory?"

    Ricky initially wanted to report this because such news was huge and could change the entirendscape of the Eternal Universe within the First Gate, but he paused. He realized that if Dante had not said anything about this before, maybe he didnt want to show it.

    "Hm? Then why did he show it to me? Could it be because... he trusts me?" Ricky couldnt help but be stunned when he thought this.

    Suddenly, his heart was filled with pride. A powerful and seemingly untouchable person like Dante trusted him so much that she would actually share this secret with him!

    Ricky clenched his fists with a look of resolve. "I must take this secret to the grave with me! I cannot betray Sir Dante!"

    If Dante heard what Rocky was thinking, he would be speechless. After all, his ability was not a hidden fact but something the entire upper echelon knew. The difference was that given his power and backing, no one dared tomand him to use it to benefit the universe.

    As for him, he simply traversed the distance to the next checkpoint manually, not willing to waste time traveling by ship anymore. While there was no pressure on him to be fast since he was working alongside Portia, he wanted those Spire Points fast.

    Of course, Dante wanted more superpowers; you could never have enough of them. His power systems under Quantum Entanglement were limited to one for every Rank, so he could not always spam them.

    To that end, superpowers were a solid way to gain new and useful abilities quickly. Not to mention...

    Dante''s eyes narrowed as he moved.

    He had never forgotten about Levi''s revtions about Lara. She was a higher dimensional being, an Eternal, at the peak of that level. She controlled entire authorities, things that formed the core of the universe.

    When Dante heard that the whole ass creator of the universe had to beat her up and seal her, he realized just what kind of power such a being possessed and how far he was from reaching that kind of power himself.

    The tntth was... Dante wanted an authority for himself!

    That''s right, this young man of 22 years was so greedy that he wanted what only a number lower than 5 people in the entire universe had!

    However, Dante felt like he had seen a path to such power!

    It surprisingly wasn''t through Quantum Entanglement, but rather technology!

    Dante wanted to obtain the authority of technology! From what he understood, an authority was the pinnacle of the elemental/conceptw system, meaning that you are the tme lord of that element and there is no one above you.

    However, people in the various universes and beyond could use various superpowers and abilities rted to variousws. In that case, would it not be possible to slowly piece together a whole authority for oneself?

    And the best building blocks would obviously be superpowers!

    Dante wanted to gather ALL the superpowers rted to technology and then coalesce them into an authority of technology!

    To do that, he would need an insane amount of Spire Points, an amount that even selling a million vials of Nirvana Fire of A Phoenix could not achieve, not counting how suicidal that would be.

    So why not keep conquering unimed ten-itories and farming Spire Points without causing any trouble? One should know, to effect this n previously, Dante nned to grow his power and start ughtering other universes en masse.

    With an arguably ''safer'' and more stable method like this, he only needed to spend a lot of time and effort to achieve his goal. This was killing three birds with one stone for him!

    And so, it was not surprising that in the end, a whole year passed just like this.

 Chapter 312 A Year Later

    Chapter 312 A Year Later

    Dante was currently lying on a long couch that had a raised portion for the upper body, holding up a holographic tab which was ying some Tom and Jerry cartoons while Antoniafortablyy on his chest while giggling to the silly antics.

    In a year, the infant had grown to the size of a 5-year-old child and had intelligence surpassing one. She now wore a cute little frilly dress that was purple and ckish-red, her two favorite colors ording to her.

    Her hair had grown out and was tied into cute little twintails by her mother a few months ago. Her now golden eyes were bright and full of mischief as well as cunning, and even while watching the cartoon, her eyes darted around yfully.

    Dante noticed this and suddenly tickled her with his free hand. "Look at you, you begged me to watch cartoons and now you''re distracted."

    Antonia shifted and giggled trying to swat Dante''s hands away. "Ah, Daddy! Stop tickling me!"

    Dante was amused by her futile resistance but decided not to worry her too much. He had mostly taken a calm andx disposition to raising his daughter, mostly mimicking his own father.

    Suddenly, Beatrice entered the room wearing her usual conservative casual wear. When she saw father and daughter being so close and affectionate, she smiled helplessly.

    "The two of you are inseparable. You, Antonia, are you trying to take mummy''s husband away from her?" Beatrice joked as she came and sat on Dante''sp.

    Antonia crawled into Beatrice''s arms andy her little head on Beatrice''s huge breasts that were the little one''s favorite soft pillow.

    "Hehe, but he''s also my daddy too, mummy. How can I steal him from you?"

    "Look at you acting cute, trying to avoid the me. It''s working though." Beatrice teased Antonia with a gentle smile.

    Dante casually supported the two on hisp and hugged them closer, allowing the small family to share a moment of warmth and peace. Antonia especially enjoyed this feeling, as she hadrgely been brought up in love and safety.

    "Hm? Oh right, it''s time for your etiquette lessons from Grandma Aileen. Time to go." Dante was reminded by his A1 chip and made a move to take them away.

    Antonia frowned slightly but could only obey. Dante saw this and rubbed her head, understanding deeply how she felt. His mother had also been very strict with him during his youth and instilled the goals-oriented lifestyle into him from a young age, which was mostly why he grew to be ambitious and rtively capable.

    However, Aileen was even more serious about this thing with Antonia, iming that she was counterbncing thex raising method that Dante and Beatrice dished out due to their personalities and experiences.

    Dante and Beatrice had long discussed this and agreed. It was not always the best to raise a child in an open manner; some level ofguidance and discipline was needed or they would go haywire. Likewise, too much strictness would lead to the opposite effect and make them closed up or rebellious.

    The best was to find a median point for this, and Aileen as well as Augeus had taken on these tasks themselves. Aileen handled Antonia''s etiquette training, not to make her act like a princess but to establish a sense of self-esteem and social understanding in her.

    Meanwhile, Augeus handled her education personally, not bothering to send her to any school. Beatrice also did not attend any school before the Eternal Academy, and the Eternal Academy was even only to get the qualification to be an admiral.

    Dante used quantum entanglement to take the three back to the Eternal Universe, into his personal residential area on Etonia. Once there, he sent a ping to his mother that Antonia was here, which caused both her and his dad toe over.

    Aileen still looked the same as ever. Since her genes had been upgraded to the Eternal Universe standard, she had regressed into her youth and looked barely older than Beatrice or Dante themselves.

    The same went for David, who was as robust as he was in his youth and still slightly taller than Dante. Both parties met and greeted each other, with David gently patting Antonia''s head and asking her if she had been good.

    Upon receiving her affirmative answer, he seemed satisfied and checked in with Dante as well as Beatrice. Used to his father''s style, they smiled with amusement and responded positively, and that was it for David.

    Aileen also did the same, but in a much more intuitive and tactful manner that left people feeling cared for and appreciated. This was exactly the kind of skill she had mostly imparted to Dante and was currently imparting to Antonia.

    It could even be said that Antonia''s sly behavior and ability to evade trouble with words and actions were learned from Aileen, and it would only get worse from here.

    "Alright, mom, I leave her in your care." Dante said casually as he waved at Aileen, teleporting back to the First Gate with Beatrice.

    "Sure, leave her to me." Aileen smiled as she lifted Antonia into her arms and brought her to the living room where she usually held her lessons.

    When the husband and wife returned to the First Gate area, they naturally shared a look, and the room seemed to heat up a little. However, Beatrice had a hint of disdain in her eyes.

    "Get your main body here; this clone cannot handle my strength."

    Dante raised an eyebrow. "Your strength, huh? Good, good, it seems like I have to send you into aa again to remind you who wears the pants here."

    Beatrice''s neck as well as her face flushed, and she mped her legs tightly, greatly looking forward to what came next. The quantum clone then left the room, allowing Dante''s main body to arrive from the depths of the First Gate.

    In the matter of a few hours, Beatrice was rendered in the exact state she expected to be in when she made those bold ims, while Dante simply cleaned her up with the help of the android maids as well.

    After doing so, his quantum clone came back to stay with the sleeping Beatrice while his main body returned to the front lines. He appeared within an established bare area full of mechanized androids and the slightly older and more mature Ricky.

    When Ricky saw Dante appear, he knelt down subserviently and ced a hand on his chest.

    "Greetings, Lord Dante!"

    Dante casually waved a hand. "Rise."

    That''s right, at some point during their time together, he had turned Ricky into a hellfire demon, specifically into one of the Seven Deadly Sins!

    Surprisingly, Ricky had adapted into the form of Sloth!

    It was as ironic as Humphrey bing Gluttony because Ricky only ever seemed like a determined and hardworking youth, but that was only a front he put forth. He was actually clumsy, forgetful, and extremelyzy when not under pressure to do anything.

    His demonic form was that of a rtively smallish red-skinned demon like the others, but his was more decayed. The skin was lifeless, and the body was slightly withered, and just looking at him made one feel like their energy was being scattered to the wind.

    "Where are the others?" Dante asked as he sat in the main set of themand center of this base.

    Ricky had an android help him serve Dante some refreshments respectfully. "Lust is currently still in the Radiant Swamp area, having sessfully seduced and controlled the leader of the Union Universe''s vanguard. She can erupt at any time and take over around 3 to 4 of their territories at once."

    "Envy has also infiltrated the territory of the zing Universe and caused intense civil unrest by igniting the covetous emotions of all their upper echelon. The entire universe, both within the First Gate and without, is embroiled in an intense and cmitous civil war. If you want, he can abandon the plot and spare the universe the final oue, though the current damage is irreversible."

    "Gluttony has teamed up with the Gorgon to assist Madam Portia in her battles on the other side. Many upper universes have tried to assassinate her in recent months, and even Gluttony and the Gorgon are feeling great pressure. I... guess they could be recalled for other purposes, but it would also leave Madam Portia slightly more vulnerable since they have specifically sent those with soul powers and esoteric/rule-based powers to take her down."

    "Finally, Pride. Well, you know how he is; he arrogantly dered that he would do the work of all of usbined and set off to mimic you in iming only unimed territories by passing the test. Due to his special power, he is probably the only one who can kill his own doppelganger among us and had imed many tenitories at the Master Rank of difficulty."

    Ricky then scratched his head. "Well, as for me, I''ve been here trying to coordinate our three brigades, the Superpowereds, the Demons, andstly, the Martial Artists."

 Chapter 313 Progress So Far 1

    Chapter 313 Progress So Far 1

    "Don''t worry, allow the current Deadly Sins to remain at their current tasks. I don''t want to make my mother-inw feel neglected, so send another group to protect her. The best option would be the Superpowereds," Dante instructed thoughtfully.

    "Right away, Lord Dante." Ricky seemed happy and skipped off to attend to his job, leaving Dante amused.

    Soon, he became pensive as his mind was filled with thoughts. Over the past year, he had made so much progress in every field that just thinking about them individually and collectively caused him to feel a little overwhelmed.

    In terms of the Centralis Universe, Dante had now conquered all of known space, and his empire now spanned more than 70 systems and over 6000 gxies. Almost every known sentient being was under his rule, and Dante implemented the best growth protocol.

    He literally stuffed them with premium resources and abilities so that they would grow stronger and more capable with each generation. This was so that when it was time for them to eventually enter the First Gate, the Centralis Universe would be like that yer who yed side quests till level 70 now starting the main campaign.

    He had also established a small praise system for himself in the Centralis Universe. It wasn''t any formal religion or anything, nor were people forcibly brainwashed to praise his name every day, but he did make them very aware of the cost of their current benefits and who gave it to them.

    Those who didn''t care were allowed to not care while those who felt grateful usually praised his name either out loud or in their heads, which was enough. Interestingly, as a part of his Quantum Entanglement power, the faith energy was gathered into Dorothy regardless of her location.

    In terms of the Eternal Universe, the business and the auction had been running smoothly. They too were experiencing explosive growth, and Dante''s decree that those who purchased his goods must serve in the First Gate for a while had the interesting effect of leaving the universe barren.

    All the high-tier powers were forced to leave, so there was less suppression and war, causing the universe to enter a period of peace. This was naturally made known to be an effect Dante created, which generated a hero worship fad for him among the youth of all species.

    Especially when someone revealed that Dante had actually never bullied or looked down on Alien species since he appeared, the aliens suddenly felt closer to him. He did not discriminate in sellinghis top goods to them, so people understood that he was legit in this regard.

    This was another subtle source of faith energy, though much lower in quantity and quality.

    Also, the Eternal Universe and the Centralis Universe were proving to be at their capacity in terms of resources. In tnlth, regardless of how we saw it, both universes had existed for too short a time to be fully developed.

    ording to the quantum scanning technology, around 55% of the Eternal Universe''s total space was unexplored while 85% of the Centralis Universe was unexplored.

    They would need both time and manpower to explore then settle all those locations.

    Not even cloning or mass-producing babies would be enough toplete something like this. This was only something that time and steady poption growth and expansion could fix, spanning over thousands of years.

    However, it was just as well for Dante, as he was from modern earth and understood the importance of leaving something for the next generation to discover and excavate.

    Part of the problem of modern earth in the Centralis Universe before his reforms was that the entire had been mostly excavated and explored, causing evolutionary growth to stagnate and societal apathy to grow.

    Like seriously, from a macro perspective, it was definitely an absolute evolutionary failure if more than 10% of your species literally just wanted to die due to apathy.

    With so much space to be discovered and conquered over so many years, it would propel all species to grow faster so that they could upy more space and harvest more resources, gaining strength and prestige.

    Then, there was his progress in his army. From as earlier as over a year ago, Dante had established his private force as well as his public business. Since then, he had both been recruiting and training them precisely for use in the First Gate.

    As stated, he previously assumed he could only farm Spire Points from killing otherbatants, which was what his forces were meant to achieve. Obviously, after discovering the beauty of conquering unimed territories, that had changed drastically.

    He had almost dropped the entire thing back then, but Beatrice argued for him to keep it. She imed that their value came from being able to assist Dante in solving tasks he could not be present for, and what do you know, Beatrice was right.

    But then again, that was obvious. She had been an admiral for years and had received a little military training in the Eternal Academy while Dante was just a clever programmer who rose to power too quickly.

    It was often why Dante was willing to listen to her unanimously in fields like this because his wife had the qualifications and expertise. It was impossible for Dante to be a master of everything, as all things had ws.

    The force he created was split into three groups. The first was the Superpowereds, a group of people who had been carefully chosen and fed superpower fruits from quantum words belonging to the school or from the real Zero Gates.

    As part of an agreement with the Eternal Universe, he had only taken 5 fruitsst December and all 10 when he had fought with Lara in front of everybody the December before this one.

    For rity, it was currently June 3rd of 11000, 28 months since Dante had first arrived in the Eternal Universe on March 10998. Dante currently had a wide variety of fruits and superpowers avable that he could allocate based on the two universes. Not to mention that he had once let Aisha capture all the humans with superpowers on earth.

    He eventually brought them here and integrated them asmanders in the Superpowereds as opposed to the native humans of the Eternal Universe.

    Nepotism? Favoritism?

    It was impossible to avoid where human nature and power were concerned. Despite the issues previously, Dante far trusted humans from the Centralis Universe earth more than humans here.

    The Superpowered army numbered 150 on the dot, and Dante did not n to expand it any further. He had given them all Mutation Cores to take them to the C Rank - though he could take them to SS - and let them fight for their own Spire Points to upgrade their superpowers.

    He also allowed them to buy Mutation Cores to the SS rank which were much cheaper than using Spire Points, as part of an exercise to keep them loyal. This was really not an issue as they had watched Dante strip others of superpowers remotely, so they knew what could be given could be taken back.

    The Superpowereds mostly focused on assisting the normal Eternal Universe members in fighting for newly imed territories from other universes. They focused on the killing aspect and moved in a different direction from Portia, which caused the territories of the Eternal Universe to balloon.

    With the powerful Superpowereds with them, normalbatants from the Eternal Universe became emboldened and moved out en masse to fight alongside them, because it was free money!

    Currently, the strongest Superpowered was at the A rank and had more than half of the necessary contribution points to buy S Rank Mutation Cores from Dante.

    Then there was the Demon Army, who were under the general control of the Seven Deadly Sins. These were fellows with questionable backgrounds and unknown intentions who wanted to be a part of Dante''s force, so he naturally baptized them with his True Qi and turned them into loyal demons whose intentions were no longer impure.

    The Hellfire Demons were Dante''s currently strongest force and those he tntsted the most, so they were deployed on the frontlines for defense. Their monstrous strength and great regenerative ability made them fearsome warriors to try and breakthrough for other, stronger universes trying to deal with the rising Eternal Universe.

    Not to mention they had all of Dante''s special abilities from level 1 to level 10 of the Inferno Ascension Technique, minus the ability to raise their own cultivation endlessly. Their peaky in the quality of their conversion and howpatible they were with demonic power.

    Of course, the Seven Deadly Sins did not have this problem. They, and Slessor - the Gorgon - could freely raise their power upwards, but could not surpass Dante himself, nor could they ever betray him.

    Right now, the Demons were locked in a tough battle that even Dante felt a headache over. The rapid growth of himself and Portia for the Eternal Universe had left others feeling frightened, so they sent proxies to ''incite'' the nearby universes to them to start a territory war.

    This included the Shining Universe, the biggest enemy of the Eternal universe and the ones who assassinated Portia back then.

 Chapter 314 Progress So Far 2

    <h4>Chapter 314 Progress So Far 2</h4>

    With regards to the Revenant universe that caused Portia''s death, both Dante and Portia pretended like they did not exist for now. They allowed them to grind down Dante''s troops and provide them with field training, but neither of the two who could likely wipe out the entire universe made a move.

    After all, they had other things to focus on right now, and they wanted to deal with those fellows slowly and methodically, carving out their flesh inch by inch while they screamed in agony. When that time came, the Revenant Universe would pray for a quick death.

    As for Dante''s Martial Artist Army, it was something inspired by Beatrice again. After settling down with Antonia in the First Gate, Dante finally managed to pressure Beatrice to ept the Heavenly Scroll of Infinite Paths, which would awaken hertent Internal and External Arts abilities in reality.

    Beatrice took the Divine Empress Fist for her External Art since her preferred weapon was her hands and the underlying element was that of the holy one. It was just as potent and powerful as the Raging Blood Halberd Technique Dante had, which could easily lead her to the Martial God realm.

    And in fact, with no distractions over the course of the year unlike Dante, who had to jump about here and there back then, coupled with her high stats, Beatrice had already reached peak Martial God and had even surpassed Dante''s blood qi umtion a little.

    After all, she diligently cultivated that single power system every day when she was alone, while Dante had stopped cultivating it altogether and only relied on stats to raise it.

    What was more impressive was her Internal Art, the Luminous Ascension Technique! It was the holy element counterpart of his Inferno Ascension Technique, and while there were other radiant element arts Beatrice could have chosen, she intentionally chose this one to match her husband!

    [Luminous Ascension Technique - Stages for the Technique

    Level 1 - Radiant Initiation: This is the initial stage that allows one to embark on the path of Inner Radiance. The practitioner ignites the spark of their spiritual essence, forging a connection to radiant energy. The resulting Inner Light takes root within the dantian and emits a gentle, luminescent glow. This grants the user the ability to wield basic radiance for various applications.

    Level 2 - Celestial Illumination: The user''s mastery deepens, and their connection to Radiant Energy strengthens. They invoke the brilliance of celestial radiance, allowing their consciousness to transcend their physical form and manifest a spiritual aura. The strength of this aura is directly linked to the user''s mental fortitude.

    Level 3 - Virtuous Radiance: With each step forward, the practitioner fans the mes of virtue and nobility, enabling them to influence the thoughts and emotions of others briefly, depending on the purity of their intentions. Strikes infused with virtuous radiance deal profound spiritual harm, bypassing physical defenses with ease.

    Level 4 - Compassionate Luminescence: The radiant mes of Compassion empower the user to absorb and purify the life force, spiritual essence, and mental energy of selected targets, transforming it with the purest radiance to create nourishment for themselves. They can also share this converted and purified essence with others, granting various beneficial effects.

    Level 5 - Enlightened Resonance: Upon reaching this level, the practitioner can harness the harmonious flow of enlightenment, creating additional dantians to amodate more Inner Energy. Their Inner Energy capacity surges significantly, doubling or more, based on their constitution and the number of activated sub- dantians.

    Level 6 - Serene ze of Tranquility: The user taps into the tranquil fires of Serenity, channeling their inner calm and peacefulness into raw power. Strikes imbued with serenely radiant energy be nearly unstoppable. The practitioner can momentarily enter a state of profound serenity, rendering them impervious to pain and bestowing rapid regeneration and a direct power boost, at least doubling their strength, depending on their inner tranquility.

    Level 7 - Sanctified Illumination: At this stage, the practitioner gains the ability to manipte their sacred radiance in ways that defy conventional martial arts. The sanctified essence of radiance, upon contact with an opponent, purifies their mind and spirit, transforming them into Lesser Angels under the user''s control.

    Level 8 - Resplendent Tempest: Drawing from the peacefulness of Inner Radiance, the user creates a tempest of radiant energy, enveloping their dantian and greatly amplifying the purity and potency of Inner Energy. This radiant tempest allows for passive cultivation and facilitates the efficient use of Inner Energy forrge- scale, low-cost area-of-effect attacks.

    Level 9 - Luminous Mirage Mastery: The user, at this level, bes a master of weaving illusions with radiant energy, crafting deceptive mirages that bewilder and misguide adversaries. This expertise in deception allows them to generate radiant duplicates capable of autonomous action, serving various purposes.

    Level 10 - Ascendant Luminary Awakening: The zenith of the Luminous Ascension Technique merges the radiance of all preceding levels into a transcendent ze. The practitioner bes a vessel of pure luminosity, radiating an aura that envelops the surroundings. In this state, Inner Energy condenses and transforms into Radiant True Qi, an exceptional and unparalleled energyparable to the Spiritual Energy of Immortal Realms.]

    In a year, Beatrice had already reached the 10th level and created her Radiant True Qi. Because she mostly focused on raising Antonia and had lost her drive for battle, she did not create any Lesser Angels of her own nor did she fight much on the frontline, but she asionally sparred with Dante''s quantum clone since they had the same stats.

    However, it was difficult for her to keep up even though her Blood Qi was superior to his and her True Qi was slightly more refined because even if Dante did not use magic, he could not suppress his Life Essence as a knight nor his Concoction of Absorption, which gave him near limitless energy to fight.

    Because of this, Dante''s words in trying to convince her to take on new superpowers or fix her current ones made her waver. In as much as Beatrice was tired of battle, she also did not want Dante to surpass her too much until she became a typical flower vase heroine in the shows she watched.

    Back then, when she was alone, she always insulted those heroines as useless since she was in her violent phase of life and did not love anyone. Now that she was here, she understood how these heroines felt, but she also knew she could not take the same path as them in the end.

    While she pondered this, an event urred 2 months ago that shook the Eternal universe. After their wanton conquering, Portia had increased her captured ten-itories to 1,098 in total while Dante had taken down over 3,998 territories.

    Coupled with those from before, they had over 5000 territories now, and while many of the early ones only gave 1 Chaos Will Unit due to the basic capture, all of Dante''s nearly 4,000 territories were at the Grandmaster rank, paying out 10,000 Chaos Will!

    The exact number of territories and their difficulties were:

    3998 territories = 39,980,000 Chaos Will per year.

    1063 territories = 1063 Chaos Will per year.

    50 territories = 500 Chaos Will per year.

    Usually, most universes earned Chaos Will in 1 point or 10 points per year, even the top ones. So having nearly 40 million territories like the number 1 Holy Universe meant around 40 to 50 million Chaos Will per year, giving their universe great benefits over time.

    However, through Dante''s work over this time, the Eternal Universe practically earned the same Chaos Will as the Holy Universe!

    Please remember, before Portia was brought back, they only had 15 territories total, all giving only 1 Chaos Will unit! Even then, as Levi said, the Eternal Universe''s will was able to manage operations and even have some savings on the side.

    It was only when Portia came back and exploded in power, increasing the costs, and Antonia, who wasing to add new heavy bills due to her exceptional talent, that the Eternal Universe had to overspend to maintain them.

    A person who received a yearly sry of $15 and was able to get everything they wanted and even save some now received around $40 million without any intion or change in objective value of the currency.

    What do you think would happen to them?

    There was an explosion in the Eternal Universe two months ago on the 1st of January of 11000. From the center of the universe to the very edges, a wave of strange power erupted that struck every being and every within the universe, causing them to undergo great changes.

    The changes were not immediate, but various medical records said that each and every species saw a steady increase in SDI values, and newborns during this time had an increased 30% chance to be born with a random special ability, while there was a 5% chance to awaken a superpower across all species!

    This was across the entire known universe, consisting of a zillion and more beings!

 Chapter 315 Progress so Far - End

    Chapter 315 Progress so Far - End

    Likewise, with the Martial Artist army, they were also given a chance to use the Heavenly Scroll of Infinite Paths to unlock suitable external and internal arts. Most of them did not have the kind of transcendent talent that Dante or Beatrice did, so they ended up with mostly Mortal (1 level) and Earth (3 levels) grade Internal Arts.

    Their external arts were pretty good and could be cultivated to the Martial God realm, but without huge stats to boost them up like Dante or Beatrice, they had to move slowly through the levels using resources and talent.

    Luckily, with the Enhanced Energy Elixir, their progress was far faster than even the most talented disciples within the True Martial World. This was what gave them the confidence to be deployed to defend the various territories and act like an internal police force to keep order between the various powerhouses who were forced toe here based on the agreement with Dante.

    This was a perfect arrangement for them since they were stationed in one ce without much fighting and mostly internal conflicts that required great strength to resolve, allowing them to spend most of their time cultivating diligently.

    Taking everything into ount, this year had been one of extensive progress, Dante thought to himself as he sat in themand seat and pondered what to do next. He had stopped going out to capture new territories a while ago because his current Spire Point count had surpassed the 4 million mark.

    With this amount, he could buy targeted superpowers 400 times, but Dante knew that this was a drop in the bucketpared to the extensive list of technology-rted superpowers he had seen back then.

    Now, rather than buying them all in order toplete a puzzle, because doing so would require nearly hundreds of years of continuous capturing by Dante, he was rather aiming to buy extremely versatile powers and piece together the authority - or a part of it - bit by bit.

    Dante had a slightly impatient expression on his face as he called out Levi and asked him the same question he had asked many times this year.

    "How do I gain an authority or higher-dimensional power?"

    Levi was speechless and sighed tiredly. "I have told you countless times, to get the former you must be granted it. You cannot get an authority from scratch or hard work; they are all held by the creator and shared with other beings. Lara only has hers because she was the first-ever being created and holds a special ce in the creator''s heart."

    "As for higher-dimensional powers, they are obtained by reaching the higher-dimensional form of life. It''s literally a simple equation. As you are currently, there is no way for you to reach such a stage even with all the resources in the world because of your affiliation with the Cosmic Tree."

    Dante did not react much to this, as he had heard Levi''s revtion more often than not, but he needed to see if there was any change after thest time. While he always believed in Levi''s abilities, Dante also believed in himself as well as Beatrice''s judgment the most, so from the first day Levi gave his answer, Dante began seeking new ways forward based on the initial idea.

    As such, after hearing this from Levi, he sighed and took the Truth Beast within his quantum space to a certain corner where a certain being was kept in captivity like a zoo animal. It was naturally Lara''s clone from the Centralis Universe.

    This clone sat within a caged area, with quite luxurious decorations provided by Dante. She spent most of her time drinking some form of beverage that was like tea while muttering to herself like a madwoman, but her visage was always prim and she never seemed to be wonky.

    When she sensed Dante appear, she put down her cup and stopped muttering as she nced at him coldly.

    "What do you want, mongrel scum?"

    Dante sat himself right outside her cage in his interrogation chair and crossed his legs like a gentleman, ncing at Lara within the cage with interest. He had already noticed this long ago, but whenever he appeared, Lara would re at him with absolute hatred for as long as he stayed there unless he engaged her.

    As such, he didn''t y this game with her. Rather, he tried something new.

    "Tell me about the creator and the usurper who stole them from you."

    Lara''s reaction was as intense as he expected, her pupils constricted to needle points as if she could see past Dante to a face she hated more than anything in the entire universe.

    "You dont deserve to... urghh... He was just like you, just like you!! A filthy lesser lifeform, how dare he steal her from me? How dare he?!" she immediately went crazy as she began screaming and wing at her head.

    Dante turned to Levi. "Help her out, bud. IRt''s refresh her memory." Levi nodded with enjoyment, knowing that revealing this story would call back Lara''s trauma, which was something he craved ever since she saw his fate under her hands in Dante''s illusion-built world.

    "''He'' has a name. Luka Sanguis, the young man who changed the scale and future of our universe forever." Levi started slowly, but it was enough to ignite a barrel of explosives.

    Energy exploded from Lara''s clone wantonly that swept through the quantum space, various elements that were not supposed to be present in this semi-dead space surging out, being created from nothing due to Lara''s authorities.

    "LURA!!! LUKA SANGUIISSS!!" She went absolutely mad and began virtually thrashing about, as if this name was like salt to a snail or a fish taken out of water.

    Anyone who saw her like this would be worried and concerned because such behavior was not normal, but Dante and Levi simply looked on coldly, the former thoughtful and thetter with schadenfreude.

    "Myra Orbis, our universe''s grand creator, was a child goddess created by the Supreme Origin and the ''father'' of all the gods, Deus.As she was infantile at the time, she sought to create something in her image."

    "Since Deus, whom she perceived to be her father, had white hair and she also naturally possessed white hair, she created you in the visage of what she expected to look like when she was older."

    Levi revealed a secret that caused Lara to stop and tremble with his next words. Oln other words, she was trying to create a mother figure, or an elder sister who could guide her and be her trusted family."

    She stopped her mad bout and nced at Levi with a hint of horror. "How? You are merely some inferior lifeform created by this cretin...! Even if you are all affiliated with a high level Eternal, this is a core secret only four beings could possibly..."

    Suddenly, it was as if Lara was struck in the face by a hammer. She became breathless and dizzy as her eyes widened. In this moment, she seemed to look at Dante and see past him, past his existence to the being behind him that granted him power.

    She seemed to be able to see the majestic cosmic tree that would leave any being breathless, but rather than that, Lara saw through the grandeur to the exact being behind this.

    "It''s you! It''s always been you, no wonder!! No wonder!!" She practically screamed as she stood up and pointed at Dante.

    "Hahaha! I understand! I understand now!! You are doing it again! It is you again, that''s how this cretin''s pet knows!" Lara kept repeating the same ''its you thing over and over whileughing madly, as if her discovery had solved all her questions.

    That caused Dante to nce at Levi, but even the Truth Beast was not entirely sure what was going on. As such, Dante could only focus on his soul space and nced at the Cosmic Tree that was ever present and ever majestic in the background.

    There was silence from the tree in response to Lara''s ranting, but Dante knew it could probably see and hear everything he did. Sensing Dante''s questioning intentions, there seemed to be an androgynous sigh that sounded in his mind.

    "Reach the S Rank in Quantum Entanglement and we can talk." He received this direct feedback from the tree, causing his expression to be slightly serious.

    Dante had long reached the peak of the A Rank, but he had never crossed to the S Rank because he had feared the kind of reaction from his breakthrough, not to mention he was currently obsessed with gaining an authority.

    To Dante, the quickest way to be able to deal with higher- dimensional beings and the like was to have an authority, which was true. However, Levi''s words over this period of time had fueled his stubborn side, and he worked even harder toward this goal.

    That was why he had even been pushed toe and seek advice from Lara, trying to upset her so that she could subtly reveal if there were any other ways to acquire authorities or how to meet the so- called creator to see if he could get one for himself.

    After all, if one could grant such power to a being like Lara, how was he - Dante - any worse?

 Chapter 316 S Rank Quantum Entanglement

    <h4>Chapter 316 S Rank Quantum Entanglement</h4>

    Dante nced at the deranged Lara Sanguis and felt extreme pity. It was clear that this was an emotionally and mentally damaged being who had already been dealt with by someone else, and could only eke away an ignoble existence as she tried to recover her power.

    Dante recollected Levi and left the quantum space with a pensive expression. He decided to take up the Cosmic Tree on its offer to reach S Rank for them to be able to speak directly, so Dante found a reinforced room and sat down to begin practicing.

    He was already on the cusp, so there was no suspense with his breakthrough. The shockwave that erupted caused the entire base to be ripped to shreds, but Dante had already warned the A1 managing the base of what would happen, so many things had been evacuated before the event.

    However, this time was no joke. A giant tornado-like funnel formed above Dante''s body, and one could literally see the ever-present and usually transparent Zero Energy being gathered into the tornado.

    What was surprising was that Zero Energy, having finally been given form, was actually bluish-green in color!

    How strange, it felt like this should mean something significant...

    However, Dante did not have the mind to focus on that. As he reached the S Rank, he instantly understood the significance of this level from other levels, especially for Quantum Entanglement.

    The gate expanded wantonly, covering the entirely of his soul space and even swallowed all the other aspects of his soul into its depths. Whether it was the other superpowers or Levi and co, they were all sucked in without being able to resist.

    Dante was shocked, but he didn''t stop it or interfere, only carefully watching. He knew the gap between himself and the existence of the Cosmic Tree, and logic dictated that it was not very useful for it to ''possess'' him or anything of the sort at this point.

    It was just like how Dante had no ns of possessing Aisha, Slessor, or Lucian and co because why would he need such a weak vessel for himself?

    This time, Dante was right. After the various elements that existed in his soul space were sucked into the Quantum Entanglement gateway, he noticed that it no longer disyed the two universes but a small space where all of them coexisted together.

    Curious, Dante walked through the gateway himself and entered the isted space. Unlike his soul space, which was like a starry sky, this one was a pure ck void with ambient lighting that made everything within easily visible.

    What surprised Dante was that he could sense a strange energy within this isted space. It was fundamentally different from Zero Energy or the like, and was more simr to the energy within his quantum space, but far purer and cleaner.

    Dante casually nced around and made sure everything was secure before leaving this isted space and returning to his now- freed up soul space, which surprisingly felt sturdier and more resilient now.

    Dante turned around to nce at the tree behind the gate which was glowing resplendently, beginning to terraform the area around it. However, Dante received a message from the tree that it was preparing something so he could focus on his upgrades for now.

    [S Rank Upgrade Paths for Quantum Entanglement]

    1. Quantum Aberration Field: The user can create an aberration field that distorts reality within their marked zones, rendering conventional physics meaningless. Time flows erratically, distances be rtive, and thews of causality bend to the user''s favor.

    2. Quantum Multiverse Gateway: This transcendent upgrade empowers the user to create quantum markers that lead to different parallel universes. They can traverse between these universes at will, essing unique resources, knowledge, and possibilities across the multiverse.

    3. Quantum Annihtion Pulse: Users gain the ability to create quantum markers with the power to annihte matter and energy on a subatomic level upon contact. This unleashes cataclysmic energy releases capable of obliterating entire celestial bodies or rendering objects as well as beings into pure energy.

    4. Quantum Chrono-Sync: With this supreme upgrade, the user can synchronize with quantum markers across different points in time. They gain the power to observe, influence, or even change events in the past and future, reshaping the course of true history itself.

    5. Quantum Omnipotence: This pinnacle ability transcends the limitations of mere control. It grants the user the power to manipte fundamental aspects of the universe, such as gravity, time, and entropy, within a quantum-marked zone. They can reshape the veryws of physics to suit their desires.

    6. Quantum Warp: Users can either create superrge gateways or designate any amount of beings within the range of their senses to be transported safely using the quantum tunnels going in between universes or into quantum worlds.

    7. Quantum Perception: The user attains the ability to passively perceive the entire quantumwork across the universe they are in. They can detect any disturbance, anomaly, or change within thiswork, granting them untraceable insight into everything within.

    8. Quantum Pathfinder: The user can now release and attachquantum markers onto individuals, which be lodged in the universe will of their native universes once they return there. This grants you ess to these universes for all your abilities.

    9. Quantum Booster: With this transcendent ability, users can grant every ally within 100 kilometers of a quantum marker with a x2 boost to all stats, powers, and even their superpowers. This multiplier can increase, but each linear increase reduces the range by five times the amount.

    10. Quantum Creator: The user reaches the peak of quantum maniption, gaining the power to recreate items and special entities that they have replicated/encountered within their marked zones. These things can only exist within the range of the quantum marker but possess the full breadth of their utility or power.

    [S Rank New Sub-Abilities for Quantum Entanglement]

    1. Quantum Ascendant Bond: The user can forge an unbreakable bond between themselves and another being, allowing for seamless synchronization of powers, knowledge, and emotions. This bond transcends time and space, connecting their destinies on a cosmic level.

    2. Quantum Eternity: This ultimate sub-ability allows the user to exist outside the constraints of time and space. They be timeless entities, able to traverse the quantum fabric of the universe effortlessly and witness the birth and death of gxies without aging.

    3. Quantum Universe: This allows the user to create an entire separate quantum universe that can grow into its own existence that possesses both the benefits and abilities of a quantum universe as well as real universes without the detriments of either.

    4. Quantum Singrity Mastery: The user can now create artificial quantum singrities of immense magnitude. These singrities can bend the very fabric of the universe, causing localized disruptions in thews of reality, creating unpredictable effects such as time dtion, spatial distortion, and even the emergence of alternate realities.

    5. Quantum Blessing: This sub-ability allows the user to bestow certain beings with a portion of their power, allowing them to manifest unique power systems and abilities. Note, this sub-ability requires great strength from the user as they will solely host their targets.

    6. Quantum Ascension: The user can bestow semi-quantum bodies to up to 10 targets in reality, as well as allowing the same number of quantum beings to exist within reality in perpetuity. These boons can be withdrawn and given by the user at any time.

    7. Quantum Servants: The user can now turn various real or quantum beings into quantum servants, able to use some aspects of the quantum entanglement superpower dependent on their quality of life and the strength of the user.

    8. Quantum Cosmic Absorption: With this transcendent upgrade, users can absorb and harness quantum energy from stars, gxies, and cosmic phenomena. They be living conduits of cosmic power, with the ability to distribute this energy freely.

    9. Quantum Restoration: The user can reverse all forms of damage, restoring damaged persons, entities,ws, concepts, and even entire gxies to their pristine state, mending the fabric of the universe itself.

    10. Quantum Universal Arbiter: This ultimate ability grants the user the role of a quantum arbiter, overseeing the bnce of the universe against quantum worlds and intervening in cosmic conflicts on a grand scale, ensuring harmony and order in the cosmos.]

    And here Dante thought he would not be able to be surprised again after the A Rank options given. Last time, he had chosen Quantum Nullification Field and Quantum Revival, both abilities had great utility for him in the situations he expected to encounter henceforth.

    Ha, but the current slew of options, if Dante wasn''t more interested in authorities and the secret behind the Cosmic Tree that drew Lara into a tirade as if something deep was involved, he would be drooling right now.

    Still, it would be a big fat lie to pretend as if he wasn''t deeply shaken and moved by some of the choices presented to him, especially those within the new sub-abilities section.

 Chapter 317 First Choice

    Chapter 317 First Choice

    Dante calmly looked through the abilities and weighed their merits one by one.

    Quantum Aberration Field was definitely powerful. It was basically just creating a semi-controble chaos domain where everything within warped randomly, but would mostly favor him. Obviously as the caster of the ability, Dante would remain unchanged, but anyone else was susceptible to change.

    Dante did not need nor like this ability, too vague and uncontroble.

    Quantum Multiverse Gateway was quite an impressive and attractive ability. It would allow Dante to teleport to quantum markers in parallel universes, and the great thing about parallel universes was the repetitiveness and the diversion.

    There was definitely a universe out there where Dante was still on Earth trying his shitty mobile app destined to fail, now 30 years old and married to Valeria, having never met Beatrice.

    There was also another parallel universe where Dante was captured in that alleyway and probably rescuedter by Beatrice because he hadn''t been quick enough to teleport back when they grabbed at him.

    Even more recently, there might be a parallel universe where Dante fought Lara and lost, being controlled by her unless the cosmic tree came forth to beat her back.

    The possibilities were endless.

    However, this was not what was important about this ability, but rather the fact that duplicate resources would exist. Each of these parallel universes would have their own Zero Gates, with their own fruits that may or may not be the same as this one, along with other great resources.

    Dante marked this ability down as useful.

    Quantum Annihtion Pulse was straightforward; it was one of the few attacking methods that were offered in every upgrade of quantum entanglement, and just like each time before, Dante was not interested, even if it sounded cool.

    His current power was enough to deal with anything, and should there be any problem, he could just enter the Apocalypse World and raise his stats again. Realistically, nothing except for the fact  that he didn''t want to leave Beatrice behind was stopping him. Besides, what he needed were higher-dimensional attacking methods, and this did not offer that ability.

    Quantum Chrono-Sync was interesting on the level of Quantum Multiverse Gateway, in that it also offered ways for Dante to im and reim resources endlessly. He could sync quantum markers across any point in time, going back to his very first two quantum markers, one in his apartment on Earth and the one in the alleyway of Avalon City.

    He couldpletely influence the events surrounding himself and even change the current timeline. Times where he was forced to take a loss like when he was first pushed into the First Gate or the time the teachers attacked him after breaking through to the E rank could be modified.

    It was definitely a good ability for a schemer who deserved perfection, but Dante was not that guy. He was extremely satisfied with the current state of things and had not a single regret at all.

    Still, he pinned this ability to the side for further consideration.

    Quantum Omnipotence also sounded good. Within the range of a quantum marker, he could control everything as if he were a god. He could rewritews and change the truth of the universe within that range, but it was wed.

    Firstly, it could not affect higher-dimensional beings, and secondly, the effects only worked within that zone. So if he brought Antonia there and changed thews within that range to make her a higher- dimensional being, even if it worked, it would revert the moment she left that spot.

    Dante temporarily hung it to the side, though he truly doubted he would take this.

    Now Quantum Warp was something that made his eyes light up. It was an upgrade based on his basic Quantum Entanglement ability to teleport and even built on the back of the recently acquired Quantum Transportation that allowed him to cart about more than one person through universes safely.

    With Quantum Warp, he could now open superrge gateways which could allow ship fleets to pass through universes and custom worlds, as well as take anyone within the range of his senses in. Since his spirit sense was now 2000 kilometers wide, it could easily cover millions of beings if they arranged themselves orderly.

    He could take his entire family and army with him wherever he went, allowing them to deploy on the enemy instantly, as long as he had a quantum marker there, of course.

    Dante definitely favored this one.

    Quantum Perception was another good one. With this, Dante would be able to be the ruler of all quantumworks within the range of a universe, and this included the First Gate. All the secrets and movements of the various universes and their denizens would be open to him, kind of like the NSA in modern Earth.

    However, this had limited use for him given that Levi could do the same, though he needed to be prompted. Dante did not really see the need to waste a whole upgrade slot on this when there were other far better choices.

    Quantum Pathfinder was an insidious ability that Dante craved day and night in his dreams. He longed to gain ess to other universes, but not in the sense that he could just travel to them but in the sense that he could giarize their ''official stamp'' for his various replicated goods.

    As for normally entering other universes, pfft, there were many ways to do that. If spies could be nted in the Eternal Universe, it would only require a slight price to pay, and Dante specifically didn''t even need to pay that.

    He just had to either use the eyes of Illusion to turn a member of another universe into his pawn who would sneak him in or into a hellfire demon that would do the same. Either way, he had many options that could virtually cost him nothing but time and a little effort.

    But none of these would grant him what the ability did, and it was extremely high on his wanted list. Dante directly pinned it to the top.

    Quantum Booster was a great support skill for battle scenarios, allowing Dante to buff all those within the range of his marker by a minimum of two times up to a maximum of 6 times. There was a mathematical limit due to the range involved, but Dante didn''t care much about that.

    This ability was not very useful because not only could Bernard achieve this effect as a War Beast, but Dante''s own Knight Life Essence had the effect of boosting troops under his banner, increasing their stats and especially their defenses, coordination as well as regeneration.

    Just because he hardly used Bernard or the Knight method did not mean they were redundant. It simply was not time to use them as they had not been pushed far enough to justify it.

    This one could be discarded.

    Quantum Creator was the final base ability upgrade and it easilypeted for the best amount of Dante''s new choices. This one allowed him to recreate anything he had ever seen or interacted with as long as he was within the range of his quantum marker.

    It had the same limitation as Quantum Omnipotence in the sense that anything created only existed within the range of the marker, and once taken out, it would cease to function.

    However, that was not the allure of it. Dante could entirely recreate special items that he had difficulty replicating in the quantum worlds, like the seven dragon balls for Porunga and be able to summon the dragon AND make a wish as long as he stayed within the range.

    As a nice bonus, the wish would not disappear, only the dragon balls. Otherwise, this ability would bepletely useless if the effects of recreated items could not be carried out at least.

    Dante also considered this one greatly.

    His eyes scanned the list of 10 base ability upgrades and hesitated for a short while as he slowly eliminated the ones he had pinned until he came down to the only real choice he could make.

    Wee to the family, Quantum Pathfinder!

    This particr ability will be integral to his ability to farm Spire Points henceforth, not to mention to increase the size of his Superpowereds army. Heck, he could even expand his conquest since the Centralis Universe had pretty much fallen to him long ago and was in the consolidation, recovery, and rapid development phase that came after such conquests.

    With that in mind, Dante requested the Seven Deadly Sins to initiate their various methods and deal with their current objectives before returning to him. Not only was it time to expand the army, but it was time to deploy into various universes and start taking them down as soon as possible.

    Dante was satisfied with this new ability, though he would have to select which universes to take down and ce the marker first. However, that was not a problem for him as long as he had the option to do so in the first ce.

 Chapter 318 Second Choice

    Chapter 318 Second Choice

    Dante''s eyes fell on the group of new sub-abilities, and his breathing couldn''t help but be rough. It had already been a recurring trend that the new sub-abilities became even crazier and more unhinged with each upgrade, but this was ridiculous!

    The first one, Quantum Ascendant Bond, was perfect for him and Beatrice. He could immediately share everything about him, his powers, his superpower, and even his great fortune with her, turning her from a semi-daughter of heaven to a transcendental being with a traceless fate.

    Just for this... just for this particr fact, Dante was strongly considering this ability over many others. His feelings towards Beatrice grew every moment he spent with her to the point that he never wanted to part with such a perfect woman.

    Being able to grow with her until their natural fates petered off was extremely attractive to the current Dante.

    Quantum Eternity was awesome but infringed on the one aspect that Dante disliked the most, which was eternal life. He was still not even 30 years old, and with his current stats, his lifespan would be counted in epochs of the universe.

    This already troubled him greatly, and he nned to deal with it as it came, but eternal life did not appeal to him. As for being free of the constraints of time and space, he already sort of had those abilities, and he had not yet reached the point where they would be crucial, so this ability was not useful in any way.

    In the end, Dante shook his head and decided to put this ability out of his list of final choices.

    Quantum Universe was a breath of fresh air that upgraded on everything that the previous Quantum World power had once offered but upped the ante to an unimaginable degree. A whole separate universe that had the malleable rules of a quantum world as well as the ''official stamp'' of a real universe as well as the ability to let all the rules within exist in the real world without any intermediaries.

    The whole reason why Dante could not give the Concoction of Absorption to Beatrice or Portia, or the Libido Seed to the denizens of both universes under his control was that no one would ''register'' and ''sponsor'' those abilities.

    The Cosmic Tree said, "Forget that, it only cared about Dante and those directly affiliated with Dante, like the summoned beasts. However, all others were not in its purview, and even though the source items for the power systems were replicated, the two universes that Dante had ''stamps'' for had never supported power systems directly from replication, only registered them.

    So Dante needed a sponsor, and the Quantum Universe could solve that problem, and that was the least of its uses as well as its possibilities.

    Quantum Singrity Mastery, just like Quantum Eternity, fell into the category of abilities that Dante did not need nor consider in the least. He did not need any attacking capabilities, especially when there were sulent options like Quantum Ascendant Bond and Quantum Universe.

    Really, if he wanted more attacking power, he could just find a new power system to y with; there were millions of them out there. This was not even considering the fact that he already had Balcko, the Oblivion Beast who could create event horizons on demand.

    It was precisely to avoid having to make such redundant choices that Dante chose Balcko back then.

    Quantum Blessing was like a more versatile version of Quantum Ascendant Bond where instead of sharing everything within a person intensely, it allowed him to give portions to a wide number of beings.

    There was no limit to the number of people he could sponsor, but the limit was that he would be the one sponsoring them, not the Cosmic Tree. Even the tree, through the choice list, warned him that this requires a lot of power, and Dante assumed that this meant stats?

    This made sense since Dante wanted to create armies, but with 200,000, if he said he wanted to create 9th rank mages with 2,000 Intelligence, which was the base for that rank, he could only theoretically create a hundred.

    If it wasn''t for the fact that he had the Eyes of Illusion to rewrite allegiances and his Hellfire Demon technique that could achieve this effect without him having to bear the cost, he might consider it.

    Nevertheless, he did not see the need to grant others his specific powers apart from hellfire demons, which was ironically why the hellfire demon army was the smallest of the group. After all, he much rather focus on Beatrice than random people.

    Quantum Ascension was an upped version of the former Quantum Bestowment that Dante once craved, which allowed him to bestow individuals with the ability to resist quantum poisoning and adopt certain power systems.

    However, this S-rank version directly gave semi-quantum bodies, the exact physique his daughter had, which made her so special. He could only give this to up to 10 targets since they would be sponsored by the Cosmic Tree, and the higher-dimensional entity wanted to limit the number of leeches for good reasons.

    Dante alternatively could grant some out of those ten slots to quantum beings, allowing them to ascend out of quantum worlds ande to reality along with their native powers. It was entirely possible to go and convince Goku, Vegeta, Whis, or Beerus toe here and assist him in some way if he brought them to reality, and they would retain all that nonsensical power.

    For that alone, it had great utility and was marked by Dante for further consideration.

    Quantum Servants was an alternative to Quantum Blessing that allowed him to turn any real or quantum being into a quantum servant that was loyal only to him. That being would retain all their native powers as well as their abilities and could use some of Dante''s quantum entanglement abilities, but the burden would now fall onto the servant.

    How much they could use depended on their own power and ability, which could be quite useful or useless depending on the beings chosen. What limited this ability was the fact that he could not force anyone to be a quantum servant but rather had to genuinely make them ept the change.

    Dante was not a master of talk-no-jutsu, so he discarded this ability. Even if he could use the eyes of illusion to rewrite a person into wanting to take the blessing, the eyes only worked on those weaker than him in the first ce.

    How could someone weaker than him bear the crazy power of quantum entanglement?

    Quantum Cosmic Absorption was another useless ability. It allowed Dante to do what he wanted to do greatly a while back, which was to absorb energy from all quantum sources and use it for what he wanted, even freely distribute it to others.

    Well, he now had the Concoction of Absorption, so energy was not a problem anymore. Even if he wanted this ability to give it to others, Gluttonous Inferno could also do this, only that because hellfire was evil in alignment, it would not exactly bode well for the receiver if they were not of the same alignment.

    Then again, Beatrice''s counterpart ability to Gluttonous Inferno, Compassionate Luminescence, had no such qualms and could be given to others while even attacking blessings and benefits onto them.

    So no, this one was out.

    Quantum Restoration was one that Dante definitely pinned as useful and very necessary. The ability to heal everything short of death was extremely broken and nonsensical. He could even repair damagedws, universes, and the like, so there would be nothing like ''hurr durr, this realm underwent some BIG war in the past and now everything is shattered!'' because he could literally cast his special domain expansion skill: fix this bullshit!

    The utility of this skill, paired with Quantum Revival he took from the previous upgrade, was limitless. He and those on his side would be like unkible cockroaches, able to wear any foe down until they begged for mercy.

    Dante definitely, definitely favored this one greatly.

    Finally, there was Quantum Universal Arbiter... which was the most useless of them all. Dante did not need to be a judge of the universe because he was not some savior who looked to bring righteousness everywhere he went.

    He was just an ambitious young man who did not know the immensity of the heavens and earth, greedily wanting things no one else even dared to covet and using his set of powers that could cause great trouble to... cause great trouble.

    How did someone like this sound like he would make a good arbiter?

    Be honest cosmic tree, you ran out of ideas huh?

    Not surprising though, when it offered something like Quantum Eternity, which basically made him a Celestial God, basically what every cultivator in existence hoped to be.

    And this was just the S Rank upgrade.

    There was SS, SSS, and EX to go.

    ...whew, just thinking about it made one feel worry for the safety of the grand universe!

 Chapter 319 Etz Chaim

    Chapter 319 Etz Chaim

    Dante looked at all his choices and made a decision.

    Only a child would choose one; an adult would take them all!!

    ...

    Cough, cough...

    Only a child would take one; an adult would take them all!

    ...

    Tsk, the Cosmic Tree refused even to pay him mind. Sure, he was being a bit greedy, but it could at least muster the energy to tell him ''NO'' to his face, right?

    Dante looked through his top choices seriously and hesitated. Then he looked through again and hesitated some more. In the end, he couldn''t make a decision and decided to put it aside for after his meeting with the cosmic tree.

    Maybe what it would revealter might give him some key information that might help him narrow down what would be most useful to him in his future battles. With that in mind, Dante naturally nced at the cosmic tree which seemed to be in theter stages of... whatever it was doing.

    After a short period that felt timeless, the Cosmic Tree exploded with green and white light that spread throughout his soul space, causing Dante to be wowed and temporarily blinded.

    When his vision returned, he saw that the glowing purple cosmic tree that seemed like it was rooted in space had greatly changed. It hade much closer, close enough that it now covered him and the Quantum Entanglement gate in its territory.

    What left Dante shocked was that the area around him for about 10 kilometers had turned into a lovely meadond. The grass was healthy and lush, with a slight breeze that was cool, causing them to ruffle slightly.

    There was the presence of casual sun rays that were not scorching hot, rather being warm and soothing, dispelling the darkness of one''s heart. In the center was a towering oak tree, with long branches and thick leaves, creating a canopy of vitality.

    Beneath the tree, attached to one of its branches, was a cheap swing made of rope and a small wooden nk for a child to swing from. The entire atmosphere gave off a timeless homely feel, like a tree that had seen the passage of time for eons.

    Dante was rendered silent by this sight because he could never have pictured the majestic-looking tree, which looked like it had been the centerpiece of creation and supported all the universes on its leaves, would look so... gentle.

    The trunk of the tree shook as a body separated from it, formed from wood. Once separated, it began to take human features, bearing a tall and slightly muscr form, a handsome visage with golden eyes and spiky brown hair with bangs.

    "Huh?" Dante muttered, now being made to look at a copy of himself.

    "Are you myself from another timeline? Or the higher-dimensional version of myself?" Dante asked with interest.

    The avatar, which had just begun to get used to its existence, froze and nced at Dante with iprehension then amusement.

    "No, nothing of the sort. I just like to meet people using the same form as themselves to make them feel morefortable. I''ve done this many times before this." The avatar spoke in Dante''s voice with a slight chuckle.

    Dante nodded, not feeling ashamed. It was just an assumption, and it would be incredibly weird if he had been right anyway. The moment he had seen the true form of the tree, he understood that it and he did not have any fate whatsoever, so it made him all the more curious as to why he was chosen.

    "Right, so greetings Dante Alighieri of the Centralis Universe. My name is Etz Chaim, but you can call me Etz. My identity is a bit of a hard pill for you to swallow because it''s far higher than you could possibly imagine." The avatar began by introducing itself with a smile.

    "To be blunt, I am the manifestation of the connection between Luka Sanguis and Myra Orbis. I am what linked them together and put them on the same path in the so-called higher-dimensional world, eventually leading to them falling in love and Myra sharing half of her power and authority with him."

    Dante was impressed. "So a matchmaker?"

    The avatar of Etz Chaim looked speechless. ''That would be SEVERELY understating my value... but something like that."

    The avatar quickly coughed and got back to it. "Anyway!! The important thing here is Lara. If you want to know more about Luka''s story, you can ask him about it one day."

    "Lara is the first being created by Myra using her own efforts. As such, she upied a ce in Myra''s heart that was hard to shake. Likewise, Myra upies a ce in Lara''s heart that is extremely high, but that began to warp from adoration to obsession when Myra began creating more beings."

    "It was manageable at first when Myra only created the Forest Fairies who would serve under herself and Lara. Because they worked to create them together, Lara''s obsession did not fester much."

    The avatar sighed deeply. "The real problem came when humanity was created. Much like Ca of the first universe, Myra became very enraptured by you chaotic beings and found your growth, achievements, and beliefs interesting, much more diverse and variedpared to everything else."

    "To an obsessed person, there is no greater sin you canmit than to steal the attention and affection of the one they are obsessed with. It is a crime worse than the killing of one''s parents, and Lara made that fact known."

    Dante nodded with understanding. He only recently dealt with Aisha, whose growing obsession was bing dangerous. Who knew what she could have done or tried to do, especially to Beatrice or Antonia, if Dante hadn''t made her a hellfire demon?

    "Lara became twisted and morally evil. She began to use her enormous and unmatched power granted by Myra to torment all lower species. Even though Myra was enraptured by humans, there existed many other races in the same world, living in different dimensions of space that barely intersected."

    "After all, Myra, unlike Ca, was not skilled at creation, especially of systems and frameworks, but she was very good at creating life and souls. So she only created a small void in the higher- dimensional space where Earth floats within and just kept spamming new life forms until there had to be alternate dimensions created to house them."

    Dante was speechless. He felt his respect and the grand image of what should be his creator go down the drain. Such careless actions would surely have consequences, right? And why was there no one to advise her?

    The avatar nced at Dante pointedly. "If space copsed and all the beings are swallowed into the vortex and crushed, who would benefit?"

    Dante pped his forehead as he realized it right before the avatar spoke. Of course, it would be Lara''s doing; she probably egged the young and ignorant Myra on, knowing the kind of consequences that would ur and looking forward to it.

    "Unfortunately for Lara, her control over Myra waned as time passed. Being young, Myra was curious, and Lara''s continual rebukes and reproaches that she could not go near humans or the human world soon fell onto deaf ears."

    "Eventually, the young goddess snuck over and got into a bit of trouble but was rescued by the young Luka. They then spent time together in a meadond at the outskirts of town where Luka''s family lived, much like where we are now."

    The avatar forked a thumb over to itself with a smile. "This foundational rtionship between them gave birth to me, the transcendent connection between their existences, and I was nurtured rapidly by the two. The moment I bloomed, Myra freely shared her divine power with Luka, but the human child at the time could not bear such power, so I was the entity that housed and sealed it for him."

    "Of course, nothing good canst forever. Lara eventually discovered Myra''s trick and found her. In a fit of fury, she ughtered Luka''s parents and then altered his memories for him to forget about his time with Myra before casting him back into the human world."

    "Myra was then taken back and heavily reeducated by Lara, but it was Lara''s first and final mistake that. She created a seed of doubt and resentment in young Myra''s heart, lowering her importance and image while she had gained the enmity of Luka."

    The avatar paused for a bit as if it was lost in memories. "And that''s about it for the background of the conflict between Luka and Lara. If you want to know the full story, that wille when you''re ready. Now, let''s skip to the relevant part affecting you and the situation now."

    "Sure, go ahead. The way I see it, Luka was the original protagonist of the universe, right?" Dante joked with a smile, folding his arms.

    The avatar chuckled simrly. "That is an understatement again. His fate is unmatched and cannot be replicated; likewise, even if I divulged all my power to you, we cannot reach the height he currently stands."

    "Oh?" Dante muttered, not being bothered. He wasn''t in the habit of measuring himself against others, and he did not much care anyway. He just wanted to know how Lara would be a threat to him, if so, and how he was chosen from an uncountable number of beings.

    "So fast forward, and Luka grew up with foster parents and met friends, allies, and the like. Myra decided to also age herself naturally until she was 19 to meet with Luka and rekindle their rtionship. Lara found out, became the big bad, and Myra was finally convinced by Luka that she was a gue. Full of hate, Lara attacked; she and Luka had a final battle that was epic, where she was beaten by the power of love and friendship." The avatar continued, its tone rushing through the details carelessly as if bored by this part.

    "Luka then sealed her true body in me because I am the only other being at her level of power below himself and Myra." The avatar forked a finger over to its trunk, and Dante could see the naked body of Lara locked within by bark and vines, her eyes closed and her expression locked into one of hatred.

    The avatar became pensively silent. "I usually keep her asleep because when awake, she goes crazy and barks insults until her voice bes hoarse and blood leaks from her eyes. Even Luka has given up on fixing her mental state."

    Dante was also overwhelmed, sweat forming on his brow. The sheer hatred radiating off this being was so intense; it almost formed a miasma in his eyes. Dante did not see, but his spiritual manifestation of his hellfire, the demonic face that usually hovered around him, yelped like a wounded puppy and rushed back into his body.

    The avatar waved a hand and covered up Lara''s true body.

    "So, we have a problem. After Luka ascended to godhood and fully took his powers back from me, he helped Myra create the myriad universes and multiverse, which is the space you exist in. You call it a lower dimension because it''s true, it does exist on a lower ne than the original Earth."

    "Luka left the universes to be created and destroyed in an automated manner, putting the task in my hands. Unfortunately for me, my power and Lara''s are equal, so she wrested some authority from me and split her consciousness down into various organic clones that were born in each universe, and will be born in each universe."

    The avatar''s expression became serious as it nced at Dante grimly. "That isn''t the main problem. The main issue is that using her authority, Lara designed and created the Zero and First Gates, intending to use this strange mechanism to free herself somehow. We simply cannot allow that to happen at all costs!"

 Chapter 320 Laras Goal

    Chapter 320 Lara''s Goal

    For the first time since Etz Chaim began speaking, Dante''s expression changed greatly. Previously, everything had been an uninteresting backstory about everything and how things reached this stage, so he did not have much of a reaction.

    However, the revtion that it was Lara who created the Zero Gate as well as the First Gate changed everything. These two locations and phenomena were integral to all his ns and also formed the current core of the entire framework of all the universes in existence.

    For what reason would Lara design such a thing?

    "The purpose of the Zero and First Gate is to weaken my power bit by bit until she can break free." The avatar of Etz Chaim seemed to see Dante''s question and answered him right away.

    "I see. I always felt like something was off when I found out Lara was sealed by Luka and that she had split clones of herself down to the multiverse. The more I interacted with her and found out her true nature, the more I understood that she was someone for whom every second spent in lower space was like swimming in feces. Dante began analyzing things pensively.

    "Someone who can endure such a thing has to have a goal that they were pursuing at all costs that could make them ignore such suffering and difort. Immediately, I knew she was seeking methods to break free, but I was not sure exactly how she nned to do so."

    Dante smiled bitterly and rubbed his forehead. "My first thought was that she was nning to refine all the lower universes and use the collective energy to break her shackles. My second thought was that she wanted her clones to gather power on their own and be stronger, then return to the main body to boost her up enough to break her prison."

    The avatar nodded with appreciation. "Those are very well-thought- out assumptions and would be likely if Lara was not an insane despot. You have already realized it even as you speak, but the two options you suspected are not even close to what she wants."

    Dante sighed. "Yes. To her, we are the epitome of filth, no better than gue-bearing rats. She would never let energy from our collective multiverse touch her because who would bathe in mucky water or drink it?"

    "Likewise, her clones have been taintedpletely since they were made to be born in the various universes naturally, so she obviously discarded them from the moment they were sent down. This is exactly why they cannot connect to each other or connect to the main body, as Lara doesn''t want their filth to reach her."

    The more Dante spoke and analyzed Lara, the more he realized the problem she presented. This was a bizarre creature with peak power, peak arrogance, and peak insanity. She was truly one of a kind, and Dante began to understand a part of the difficulty Luka faced when confronting her.

    "All correct. You are beginning to understand how she thinks, and honestly, much faster than Luka did back then. It is only by understanding her that you can beat her, so I will tell you her purpose in creating the Zero and First Gates." The avatar said with a hint of approval towards Dante.

    Dante nodded and listened attentively, also wanting to know the exact reason despite formting his own guesses and theories just now.

    "All things have a bnced development. When Luka created the lower universes, he established a basic cycle of life and death for all things. Universes would be born from chaos energy roaming the void and would grow through time, spawning various life forms within its boundaries."

    "These life forms contribute chaos will in minute amounts to the universe, which causes it to expand slowly. This expansion creates space for more life forms to be generated along with the resources to sustain those life forms, leading to more chaos will being sent to the universe for expansion, and so on."

    "This formed a cycle during the lifespan of universes, which came to an end when they reached a limit in expansion that could not be broken through. Resources then be finite, and the universe starts to contract rather quicklypared to its expansion, leading to the apocalypse of all races."

    The avatar sighed. This is the natural cycle. Luka did not create any other method for universes to acquire chaos will nor a ne for them to fight each other for control of territories."

    Dante nodded. "Even worse, all of this new chaos will has toe from somewhere, right?"

    The avatar nodded with satisfaction. "Correct. Technically, we are supposed to dual host it, but right after wresting some of my authority from me and creating the system, Lara threw most of it back. As such, I bear a huge majority of the cost for maintaining all the Zero Gates as well as the First Gate."

    "Why not just destroy them and reset everything back to its original state?" Dante asked the obvious question.

    "Oh, how nice that would be. Unfortunately, Lara is very insidious. When creating these things, she directly linked them to the core of the multiversal entity. It is no longer a separate aspect but a core feature, so removing it would be no different from removing a crucial organ from your body. You can imagine the consequences."

    Dante couldn''t help but nce at Lara''s sealed body, or at least where it should be in the tree. He couldnt help but feel that for a madwoman, she was incredibly meticulous and careful in her actions.

    "So what''s the objective? To weaken you enough so that she can break free?" Dante inquired further.

    "Exactly. As you yourself analyzed, she disdained relying on others to achieve her goal, so in her mind, if she''s going to break free, it would be using her own power." The avatar replied.

    Dante was skeptical. "Ha? But isn''t that still relying on us filthy lower-dimensional beings?"

    The avatar shook its head. "From our point of view, yes, though somewhat indirect. From her point of view, she is not relying, but using, which is more true actually. The system she created is more lucrative to you lower-dimensional beings than any of us. She doesn''t need to beg you to use it; you fellows descended upon it like locusts and raised it on the highest pedestal."

    "It is not asking for help but throwing a bone to a dog knowing that the dog cannot resist chasing it. After all, even if I revealed all this with evidence to the entire multiverse, none of you would hesitate to still use the two entities, no?"

    Dante was speechless. Clearly, Lara had a firm grasp on the minds of sentient beings as well as how to manipte them. This was an borate trap that one would willingly walk into, and the killer part was that technically, this did not affect lower-dimensional beings.

    The one suffering and paying the price would be Etz Chaim, a higher-dimensional being, not them. Much like how the poor and less fortunate felt when the rich encountered trouble that caused them losses, the prevailing thought would be: ''well, they are rich, so they probably wouldn''t feel it anyway.''

    "So what is the solution? How do we prevent this from happening Dante asked Etz Chaim. Since it hade here to talk to him and had even chosen him to sponsor wholeheartedly, it must have some n or two.

    "I considered many avenues. One was to simply hand the authority to Lara so she bears the cost of her own actions, but..." the avatar paused there.

    Dante didn''t even need to think to understand the problem. "Lara doesnt have the same scruples as you. The moment she feels the drain, she will happily destroy the things she created and everything else along with it without hesitation."

    "Precisely. So in the end, my best bet was to find someone else to nurture to bear the cost while I focus all my efforts on suppressing her day and night." The avatar continued before ncing at Dante deeply.

    Dante was startled. "Me? You want me, a lower-dimensional being, to bear the cost of all the universes and their ever-expanding power?"

    "Well, yes and no. When you do be ready to handle the authority I give you, you will not be a mere lower-dimensional being, but something - hopefully - on par with myself and Lara. At that point, handling this should not be much of a problem, and Luka did leave resources to help manage the universes, which I mostly rely on to keep the bnce." The avatar quickly stated as if worried Dante would chicken out.

    "Sure, I''m in." Dante responded with a smile.

    "l know this might be a lot to take in suddenly, but...huh?" The avatar began to try and reassure Dante before actually processing his words and being left dumbfounded.

    "You... agree?"

    Dante chuckled. "Of course I do. What do you think live been fighting for ever since I became an adult? It''s for power, recognition, and sess. Recently, I''ve been in a slump because that damned bird told me I can never be higher dimensional, so my thought was that I could bypass that and achieve that kind of power by gaining an authority."

    "Now I''m being told that I will be sponsored to reach such a height and then be given an authority on top? I would be foolish to say no."

    "Uhh, but the cost?" The avatar was still befuddled and couldn''t help but ask this dumb question.

    "What good thing in this world is free? Even your sponsorship, which I thought was free,es with a condition, so it''s just another price to pay on the road to sess." Dante said honestly.

    The avatar was silent for a spell as it transformed from Dante''s visage to that of a young girl with a mixture of ck and white hair that reached her waist. Her skin tone was bright yet flushed, full of vitality and energy.

    Her eyes shone with a pale green luster, and her features were nothing short of spectacr, though she did look far younger than even Dante and Beatrice currently. At best, she looked 16 years old, which made Dante wonder why such an aged being would present such a youthful front.

    "Okay, you now qualify to see my true form, something I''ve only shown Luka like twice." Etz Chaim spoke in a lovely and cute voice that was matched with her bright smile.

    Dante sized her up and down. She was floating in the air, her long hair billowing around her ankles while her body was covered by a dress of tightly woven leaves - leaving nothing visible - which was definitely the peak of conservative dressing.

    Rather than any awe or amazement, the only thing he had in mind was, ''Who does this pipsqueak think she is?''

    Obviously, he didn''t say that.

    "So how do I reach the standard you set for me?" Dante asked as he folded his arms, his tone bing more casual.

    Etz Chaim didn''t notice this, thinking that Dante was now more trusting of her since she had showed her true form. She couldn''t help but feel smug within, since Luka acted the same way when she stopped using his own form to talk to him and appeared as her true self.

    Truly, she was a paragon of social interaction!

    "It''s simple. Take Quantum Entanglement to the EX Rank and capture all of Lara''s clones across the multiverse." She replied with a smile.

    "Yes, very simple..." Dante muttered speechlessly.

    "Is there any time limit?" Dante asked with a serious expression.

    "Hmm... maybe a few million years? Right now, most of my energy is spent dealing with Lara, handling the various universes is more of a slow drain than a major one." Etz Chaim thought carefully before answering, not seeing Dante''s forehead creasing.

    "If it''s so far away, why make it sound so rushed earlier?" Dante asked with gritted teeth.

    "Huh? Far away? Is it really? I feel like it coulde at any time." Etz Chaim seemed surprised.

    Dante became deted. Okay, he was an idiot for getting angry at a being whose sense of time was different from his. She had existed for so long and was part of the highest echelon of beings in their entire universe, how could she possibly count every single year like humans did?

 Chapter 321 Beatrices Decision

    Chapter 321 Beatrice''s Decision

    "Anyway, I will focus on dealing with Lara for now, but dont forget to do your part, okay?" Etz Chaim prodded Dante verbally with a genial smile.

    Dante sized her up and down before asking. "Well, I''ll need more help. Why don''t you let me select two abilities from the list from now on?"

    Etz Chaim''s expression froze, and she red at Dante. "Hmph, you think it''s easy granting those abilities? Hosting your single superpower consumes more energy than the entire First Gate!"

    "Really? Then thank you for your sponsorship so far. I will try my best to achieve our mutual goal and see it through to the end." Dante nced at her silently for a second then spoke with a smile.

    Somehow, Etz Chaim felt that he was insincere. However, the timeless entity felt that it was just being sensitive because Dante''s words were clear-cut and positive. As such, she nodded with a happy smile.

    "Alright, that''s that. Thanks to you reaching the S rank, I have finally somewhat descended into your soul space with my true body, which is why you can see me like this now. So you can keep in touch if anything goes wrong."

    Etz Chaim seemed to be about to leave, but Dante quickly stopped her.

    "You never did say why you chose me to be the vanguard for this endeavor." Dante pointed out.

    Etz Chaim paused and ced a finger on her lip thoughtfully. "Oh, right. The answer to that is quite simple, really."

    She then shrugged and revealed the truth. "It''s because you somehow managed to charm an authentic forest fairy, something that''s never been done in history."

    Dante blinked in surprise and confusion. "Excuse me?"

    "Yeah. You obviously weren''t my first choice when I noticed this problem hundreds of years ago. My first choice was to tell Luka, but he waved his hand and told me to handle it because he had to deal with Origo and Deus," Etz Chaim continued nonchntly.

    "So then I naturally contacted Myra''s army of forest fairies, the second most powerful beings in higher-dimensional space. Because of the difficulty of descending to lower spaces, they had to reincarnate themselves into native lifeforms in random universes, like Lara did."

    "Many failed and died in their new lives, returning to higher- dimensional space. Those that managed to stay ended up with different problems like lost memories, lost power or multiple personalities, etc."

    Etz Chaim then looked at Dante strangely. "Imagine my surprise when I was looking through the avable ones and I saw one being pressed down into the bed and being manhandled while enjoying it. I immediately knew that the one who could achieve this was not simple."

    It was like thunder struck in Dante''s mind.

    "Valeria?!"

    Etz Chaim nodded. "That''s right, Commander Valeria. Knowing it was her, I was even more convinced that you were special because Valeria is a Lara loyalist. As a forest fairy, she despised lower lifeforms much like Lara and took pleasure in tormenting them, though not like Lara."

    Etz Chaim nced at Dante askance once more. "For a lower lifeform to put her in such a shameful position, even if she had lost her memories, it is no different from you actually creating your own authority. You achieved that with no powers, which is why I am confident in you and have willingly invested so much without bothering you much."

    Dante was well and truly speechless this time. So he became a ''chosen one'', a protagonist of sorts, because of his charisma? Because of the ''bad bitch'' he pulled?!

    "Oh? This is interesting. Hehe." Etz Chaim unfocused for a bit and then regained awareness, her expression bing yful.

    Dante felt the aura of trouble brewing. ''What is it?"

    "Hehe, Commander Valeria is Commander Valeria after all. She never lost her power even when she reincarnated; she simply lost her memory." Etz Chaim revealed.

    "Huh?!" Dante was shocked.

    If Valeria had superpowers, she would never need the financial help of a mere him to study like she said. They only linked up because of that reason, though it became irrelevant towards the end.

    ...so why?

    "And even better...hehe... hahahah!" Etz Chaim couldn''t stop fromughing.

    Dante felt terrible. "What is it now?"

    "Welllll... You see, I have some shocking news for you." Etz Chaim teased with an arrogant smirk.

    Dante did not deign to respond and simply red at the floating pipsqueak, considering whether to capture her and give her a good spanking. Etz Chaim seemed to sense Dante''s malice and shivered slightly.

    "Cough, well, guess what? Valeria recovered her memories the day you took her virginity." Etz Chaim quickly revealed.

    The second round of thunder exploded in Dante''s mind. The being who was said to hate lower-dimensional species recovered herself in the midst of intercourse with a lower-dimensional species.

    Not to mention she possessed all of her power already. She could have just vaporized him on the spot in a fit of rage, and there was nothing anyone could have done.

    ...but instead she kepting back for more, the frequency growing each week, Dante remembered. In fact, just the day before he had activated Quantum Entanglement, he had met up with her.

    Dante was naturally confused. "Why?"

    Etz Chaim regained her yfulness. "Find her and ask her yourself."

    "Well no. You cannot find her even if you tried with your current power. Rather, wait for her to find you." Etz Chaim corrected herself.

    While Dante was still baffled, Etz Chaim waved goodbye and receded into the trunk of the tree. Dante continued standing there, lost in thought for a few seconds before shaking his head and leaving his soul space.

    He still wasn''t sure what sub-ability to choose and had received too much information which he needed to share with Beatrice. As such, he left the now ruined area that was reduced to rubble due to his breakthrough and appeared in his mansion where Beatrice was currently cultivating diligently.

    Beatrice immediately halted her practice and walked out to meet Dante who was seated on the couch, with his legs up, leaning backfortably. With a beautiful smile that only she could give, Beatrice sat on Dante''sp and leaned onto his upper body.

    "How are you? You seem stressed?" Beatrice immediately identified what was wrong with her husband and gently stroked his hair.

    Dante felt heartened and held Beatrice closely. He didn''t even need to regale her verbally; he simply linked their minds together using a psionic link and shared his recent experiences.

    After digesting everything, Beatrice rubbed his chin. "Hmm, quite troublesome indeed."

    Dante was left speechless. "Why are you rubbing my chin instead of your own?"

    "Because I am thinking for you." Beatrice replied cheekily.

    Danteughed and shook his head. "You''re really the best, you know that?"

    "Hard not to know when I have the greatest man in the multiverse as my husband," Beatrice responded and gave up thinking because she trusted Dante''s thoughts more.

    "l think... Beatrice, are you willing to ascend to the higher dimension with me?" Dante asked with a bit of hesitation and then firmed his voice up.

    Beatrice nced at him with amusement. "Why does it feel like you''re now finally proposing to me for marriage?"

    "As for that, well... I know what you''re asking, and the answer is... yes." Beatrice spent a moment to think about the consequences of her choice and made the one she wanted deep down.

    Dante and Beatrice shared a look and smiled at each other. The prospect of being together forever was something they looked forward to and was the main reason Dante even agreed to Etz Chaim''s request.

    As long as he had Beatrice with him, Dante felt like there would be no problem living for that long. Obviously, the task to take over the management of the lower universes was not one that had a term limit but would likely exist in perpetuity, which meant that he would exist in perpetuity.

    For someone who previously disliked the idea of living for long periods of time, this was obviously a big leap for him to make, and he was not sure he could do it alone despite sounding confident before Etz Chaim.

    Dante casually entered his soul space and chose the sub-ability of Quantum Ascendant Bond. Although Quantum Restoration and Quantum Universe spoke to him, he had a feeling he would be choosing this one the moment he saw its effects.

    Upon iming the ability, Dante activated it and chose the target to be Beatrice. Immediately, he felt a well of power gush out of his body and connect to Beatrice''s very soul, allowing the two of them to connect with each other side by side.

    With regards to Etz Chaim, the threads - which now revealed themselves to be roots - that connected her to the quantum entanglement gate split in half and traveled over to Beatrice''s soul space and established a cloned quantum gate there as well.

    This new gate immediately sucked in the things in Beatrice''s soul space, which were three shattered and deformed manifestations of the superpowers she inherited from Portia.

    -------------------------

    [Poster notes: Just a PSA that I will be stop posting priv chapters after this month as I no longer enjoy this novel / dislike the direction the author is taking the novel in, you guys will have to wait until non-priv chapters catch up with the chapters, sorry and thanks - Gus]

 Chapter 322 The New Plan

    Chapter 322 The New n

    "The Devour superpower was represented by a giant mouth with extremely sharp teeth that seemed ready to dig in at any time. The Gluttony superpower, however, was represented by a giant stomach-looking appendage that expanded and contracted rapidly. As for the Regeneration superpower, it was represented by a bunch of human arms and legs that floated together casually.

    Beatrice stood within her soul space, something which she had never been able to do before as she did not have a true superpower, and nced at all the changes with a calm face. She had shared a lot of experience with Dante and knew that this was the current manifestation of quantum entanglement.

    When the change finished, she could feel the sheer power flow through her as she gained all of Dante''s abilities in quantum entanglement, including his current list of power systems. Apart from hellfire and the raging blood technique, she also gained the same primal ape knight breathing life essence and the 10 spiritual cores of a 9th rank multi-elemental Magus (based on her own stats, not Dante''s) the eyes of illusion, the summoned beast system, the Concoction of Absorption, and the Libido Seed.

    Beatrice was shocked by the sheer amount of power Dante wielded on a normal basis and wondered why he was so conservative in his actions. If she or her mother had this kind of power, they would have long rampaged throughout the entire universe.

    But it had to do with the difference between Dante and Beatrice, as well as her mother. Dante was the type of person who, if ying a strategy-building game, would prefer to build up his base in terms of infrastructure, defense, and economies before building the barracks and attacking.

    As for Beatrice and Portia, they were the type of people who would use the base''s first resources to build troops and a hero and begin clearing the map around them. The base''s development would be solely to drain the ambient resources while spawning endless troops consecutively.

    After the power-sharing wasplete, Beatrice opened her eyes, still seated on Dante''sp within their mansion. However, both she and Dante felt the bond that connected them, which had transcended physical flesh and had be something more... ethereal.

    They shared a look and smiled. The two suddenly disappeared from their room in the mansion, appearing within the forward base Dante had previously been at before he had reached the S Rank in Quantum Entanglement.

    "Woah, so that''s how it feels?" Beatrice muttered, as she had been the one to initiate the teleportation while bringing Dante along.

    "Huh, so that''s how it feels to be a passenger," Dante alsomented with surprise.

    "So? What do we do now?" Dante turned to Beatrice and asked, since the woman definitely had some radical ideas given her methods.

    Dante wasn''t disappointed as Beatrice smiled and cracked her knuckles. "You have to capture all the Laras in the various millions of universes, which, with your current power, is not hard but exceedingly time-consuming. Apart from that, you have to reach the EX Rank of Quantum Entanglement, which is also simr in this regard."

    "Given the time frame you have, it''s not crucial to rush towards a conclusion so quickly. Rather, it''s more important to increase your power to the limit of what a mortal body can bear and try to increase the versatility of your abilities so that the transition to an authority holder is less troubled."

    "Hence, I suggest that we pay a visit to the important quantum worlds you may or may not have been to before, like the Apocalypse World to increase your stats, the Anime World to make some wishes, and the Immortal Cultivation world to adopt a new and potent power system," Beatrice concluded with a nod.

    Dante thought about it and felt such a n was different from what he would have done, but was also actionable. Still, he shared his thoughts.

    "Personally, I would rather call back my various deployed forces, and update them with some details of what they need to do. I would then use Quantum Pathfinder en masse on various captured beings of various universes then send subordinates into those universes to take them over and suss out Lara."

    "Once they do that, I will descend into the universes personally with you to capture that Lara. Apart from that, my forces have been kept small because I want to maintain strict control over them and their growth, but the new circumstance calls for a massive expansion."

    "l cant yet raise quantum beings into reality as soldiers easily, so we''ll have to recruit from the Eternal and Centralis universes. Likely, there are more than enough lifeforms in both universes to cover the entire multiverse."

    Beatrice chuckled. "Nice, we can work on both as we go. Now that there are two of us with simr abilities, things will move far faster for you. I will also try to establish an army of radiant angels to assist your hellfire demons in all things."

    Dante had already informed his troops to return previously, and they were making their way back which would take time. In the end, the duo returned to the Eternal Universe and put out a mass recruitment message that stirred up the universe into a storm.

    "What?! The Strongest Being, Dante, is recruiting anyone and everyone into his force? Why did something happen in the First gate that warrants more troops?!"

    "Holy shit, look at the benefits of joining! Man, I really want to get into the Superpowereds and be a transcendent being!"

    "Nah, the Martial Artists are where it''s at! The ability to grow and nurture my own unique power that perfectly suits me rather than some random superpower is far better!"

    "You guys are dumb. Martial Arts require talent and the superpowers require avable fruits of useful powers. Rather than that, I''d definitely prefer to be a hellfire demon who has the chance to be a deadly sin because their status in the entire army is the highest!"

    "Haha, the page asked me if I wanted to apply. No shit I''m applying, man do you think everyone has the chance to rise out of their rut and make something of themselves?!"

    Conversations were raging online and in person as all the newsworks reported about it, the powerhouses discussed the repercussions while behind closed doors, and the Etr was abuzz with activity.

    As for the offending party who caused all this trouble, they had long disappeared from the universe and headed to the Centralis side to ce the same advert out. Since Dante had never actually recruited from here since he considered this to be his ''secret base'', the reaction was even stronger.

    "Oh my! Quantum Lord Dante is actually choosing among us to join his various armies? Which one do I even choose?"

    ''Who cares what you do choose, just apply! I applied for all three like five times! I hope my Lord Dante will ept an inferior being like me!"

    "Hngh! If I get to join Lord Dante''s army, I can be close to him! It will be like a dreame true!"

    "Whoever stands in Lord Dante''s way is my sworn enemy! I will apply and fight to the death for him!"

    "Hear, hear! Let''s all apply and give our lord the best means to deal with his enemies!"

    The Centralis Universe was Dante''s strongest source of faith energy, and it was obvious why. Due to his actions of conquering and then developing greatly, even the rebellious at heart had long epted him.

    Within the Centralis universe, the name of Dante was treated and said with respect and worship, the people cing him on pedestals and even building statues of him on manys.

    Some had even gone to the crazy length of ''carving an entire dead using a multiple of ships into a statue of Dante that was ced at the center of their quadrant, for all beings to pay homage to.

    The AIs that efficiently managed the universe tacitly allowed this, as in their bluntly logical calction, religious zeal towards Dante would be better for indoctrination and control of the masses.

    In the meantime, the duo left the Centralis Universe and entered the Anime World. They did not descend with avatars and entered with their real bodies, appearing in West City where Dante previously left a quantum marker.

    Seeing two human ''yers'' appear, no one else was surprised, thinking that they had just logged in. Dante and Beatrice then checked the various details of the world to see if any events were being held and where.

    "Oh nice, we''re in luck. There''s another Dragon Ball event, this one being about assisting Chei in saving Broly from Gogeta Blue. She uses the Dragon Balls during this event, and there are two spare wishes apart from thepulsory one to save Broly. What do you think?" Beatrice flicked through the various details with a skillful hand as she had spent a lot of time ying in this world.

    "Oh? Sounds interesting, register us for it," Dante responded with a nod.

    As Beatrice and Dante registered for the event, they departed towards the teleporter that led to the event-specific area immediately, hand in hand.

    -------------------------

    [Poster

    notes: Just a PSA that I will be stop posting priv chapters after this

    month as I no longer enjoy this novel / dislike the direction the author

    is taking the novel in, you guys will have to wait until non-priv

    chapters catch up with the chapters, sorry and thanks - Gus]

 Chapter 323 A New Wish

    Chapter 323 A New Wish

    "[Hello yer Dante Alighieri! Wee to the Dragon Ball Movies Weekly Event!

    Background: Every week, a new event based on the story of one of the 248 Dragon Ball movies isunched for all Dragon Ball yers to partake in! Delve into the experience of one of these legendary blockbusters from the big screen and leave your mark in Dragon Ball history!

    Details: The movie of the week is Dragon Ball Super: Broly. This particr movie is set after the events of the Dragon Ball Super series. The plot revolves around the initial discovery of Broly (currently known as Broly version 2), a Saiyan with incredible potential and untamed power, who was banished to a deste as a baby due to his uncontroble strength. Yearster, Broly and his father Paragus are found by two Frieza Force soldiers, and they are brought back to civilization. Frieza, the viinous ruler of the Universe, sees Broly as a formidable asset and decides to pit him against Goku and Vegeta. A climactic battle ensues on Earth, with the trio of Saiyans pushing their limits to confront the relentless and savage power of Broly.

    Mission: Assist Chei in securing the Dragon Balls from Frieza''s spaceship and make the wish to save Broly.]

    Dante and Beatrice appeared in the frozen regions of Earth, where the climactic battle between Broly and Gogeta Blue was ongoing. The moment they appeared, they saw over 300,000 yers also here, fighting each other or fighting against the main duo.

    After all, this was an immersive event where one could affect the oue of events freely depending on their power. Dante even saw many veteran yers casually utilizing mastered Ultra Instinct to push back Gogeta, while other yers were also suppressing Broly slightly.

    The chaos was great and frankly quite annoying. Unlike a couple of years ago when Dante could only feel suppressed by the power of these people, he now had no fear. They may far surpass him in stats due to the nature of the world they were in, but he far surpassed them in the absoluteness and superiority of his power.

    "Shall we go and secure the Dragon Balls ahead of time, or should we partake in the fight?" Dante asked Beatrice with a smile.

    Beatrice nced at the tumultuous fights in the sky and on the ground and scoffed. "I like fighting, but not against posers. Most of these guys never learned the martial arts courses from Master Roshi and the like, just relying on their brute forces and powerful energy attacks. I never enjoyed fighting such noobs even as a yer before, much less now."

    Dante nodded and opened a 6th Rank portal that led right into the heart of Frieza.s spaceship, which was casually parked on the ice. One could see that all around Frieza''s spaceship were crazy fights between yers and between Frieza Force soldiers, as other yers also had the clever idea of seizing the Dragon Balls before the moment within the plot reached that stage.

    Even within the spaceship itself, one could see yers fighting in therge halls and circr passageways. The Frieza Force soldiers could barely hold them back as it was, and the yers were ever nearing the main chamber where the Dragon Balls were held.

    Meanwhile, Dante and Beatrice directly stepped into the main chamber and nced at the glowing golden balls that seemed to contain unspeakable power. Dante casually picked them up and ced them within his quantum space.

    "Hmm, why not replicate them so we don''t have toe back?" Beatrice suggested after thinking for a bit.

    Dante shook his head. Will bite us in the ass. The kind of power needed to fuel this damned thing is not a joke. It''s not worth it to bring it to reality."

    Ha... Dante was currently like any of us, an adult who was now ''paying the bills''. Previously, Etz Chaim was paying all his fills'' silently, so he didn''t understand the value of things as well as the repercussions, but now that he had been given a full rundown, he was starting to be more careful with his ''money''.

    Beatrice realized this and chuckled teasingly, making Dante feel awkward. He coughed and opened a portal to the fight outside, intending to wait for the poignant moment rather than do it now and have to fight all the various yers around.

    Once outside, they waited patiently even as the ice around them shook and cracked from the blows, as mountain ranges blew up from stray energy sts, and even as the icy region turned intova due to the tumultuous battle.

    Even though the yers interfered, it was for both sides, so in the end, apart from some slight changes, everything developed naturally. The pro-Gogeta yers held off the pro-Broly yers while the two faced off, and Gogeta finally performed his finishing move ''Meteor Explosion'' on Broly.

    Finally, Chei was rushing through the ship looking for the Dragon Balls, being assisted by yers as they held off the Frieza forces. After all, regardless of Pro-Broly or Pro-Gogeta, the aim of the event was to save Broly, so they had to help her at this point.

    When they reached the main chamber and saw that they were gone, everyone was first shocked, with Chei almost falling into despair. However, they saw the still open portal and Dante as well as Beatrice on the other side who smiled and forked a finger over the group.

    Dante ced the Dragon Balls on the ground from his quantum space, causing all eyes to follow them. Chei cheered and rushed through the portal quickly, first trying to grab the balls and then realizing she didn''t know how to use them.

    Luckily, Beatrice was there to help her as she made the chant to Shenron for him to make the wish. When the dragon appeared in his usual shy way, he focused on Beatrice first since she was the one to summon him.

    Beatrice nodded to Chei who hastily made her pleading wish to Shenron, which was granted as Broly was whisked away, saved from being hit with the ultimate Kamehameha wave, much to Gogeta''s surprise.

    Dante casually opened a portal that led to Chei''s ship allowing the green alien to rush through with her ally and escape. Meanwhile, Shenron was still waiting for the other two wishes, and the eyes of yers around became red as this was the moment of truth.

    A battle was about to break out, and it would be a very bloody one. Many who had been resting and recovering energy during this ''cutscene'' bit were now exploding into their various transformations and raising their energy to the max.

    "Will you do the honors?" Beatrice asked Dante casually.

    "Meh, I''ve done this hundreds of times over thest year. It''s going to be nice to flex it on actual beings this time, even if they are overpowered game avatars." Dante replied with a chuckle.

    He watched the various yers who could wait no longer and began charging at them crazily with their full power, moving so fast that they were leaving afterimages. In the end, he simply raised a hand and drew a circle in the air before snapping his fingers.

    Immediately, a pulse spread out from his location that covered arge distance. All the iing yers felt this pulse, and it felt like they were lions that had been turned into cats.

    Right away, they lost control of their energy and plummeted to the ground, crashing into the ice roughly, some even digging trenches due to how fast they were moving. Many could barely get up due to the sudden terror of losingplete ess to their ki energy which was arge source of their power.

    However, they were not totally crippled. Even though they lost ess to their energy, their bodies were still tempered by their various training regimes, items, and equipment they had on. In fact, there were obviously those who opted for the Gohan type ystyle that focused more on technical skills and closebat fighting rather than the Vegeta style of relying on transformations and ki st spamming.

    They charged at Dante and Beatrice with their full force, intending to take them down. The duo casually smiled and activated their custom Bionics and Psionics to the maximum, gaining a 100x boost from the get-go.

    Dante shot up to 200 million while Beatrice went up to 20 million. The two sudden increases in power caused space itself to quake, especially from the amount of energy they drained since they needed to maintain this power level.

    With the Concoction of Absorption, no matter what power they reached, they would always have enough energy to supply them, which was why Dante customized this one personally. As such, neither of the two had to worry about energy nor hold back at all.

    Beatrice did not use any weapons and relied on her fists, which was her ssic fighting style, using the techniques from the Divine Empress Fist that allowed her to cote her blood qi into giant red fists that smashed down along with her human-sized fists.

    Everyone she hit was sent flying, some directly bursting into blood mist and their body parts scattering across theva mixed with ice. Many yers tried to gang up on her to take her down once they recognized her threat, but she was easily able to weave through them as if she had her own Ultra Instinct transformation, which was not far off.

    With her own Spirit Sense from her Luminous Ascension technique''s second stage, she could easily see all the actions and choices of everyone besieging her. If you, without spirit sense, managed to score a hit on a person with one without having a significant speed advantage, it would be a miracle of the highest order.

    While Beatrice was handling these fools, some decided to be smart and charge at Dante who stood before Shenron, ready to make the next two wishes. After all, Dante couldn''t afford to be distracted when making the wishes, nor could they allow him to seed in the first ce.

    Dante nced at them askance and simply cast an 8th Rank Spatial Domain spell. This greatly stretched the space between them, making it such that the simple 100 or so meters it would take to reach Dante had turned into the distance one would need to travel betweens.

    So one could see a funny scene of yers rushing at Dante who seemed to have stooped in ce despite their legs furiously moving forward and their voices echoing with battle cries as well as threats and insults.

    Done with the cretins, Dante faced Shenron casually and addressed the now impatient dragon that was gearing to leave.

    "Shenron, for the second wish, I want you to fix all the superpowers within my wife, Beatrice." Dante requested while gesturing to Beatrice who was still fighting.

    Shenron spent a moment in silence until his eyes shed with a red color. In a deep voice, the dragon spoke: "Your wish has been granted."

    Beatrice suddenly paused through her fight as her face changed greatly. She could feel a strange energy pervade her body that angled toward her soul space and touched the three manifestations of her superpowers.

    This energy, prior to the Quantum Ascendant Bond, would have caused her to obtain severe quantum poisoning, but now worked on her much like it did for Dante, causing her broken superpowers to be fixed.

    Feeling the power she had lost returning to her, and bing even stronger than she ever felt before, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel extremely emotional. These superpowers tied her to her mother, and she did not want to lose them, not to mention they had been her biggest reliance all her life till now.

    yers struck her body during her period of time paused, but all the damage they managed to do to her was immediately regenerated as if she was reverting time around her form.

    When Beatrice came to, she immediately killed all of the offending yers before turning to Dante to see what his wish was because even she did not know what he wanted.

    Dante looked up to Shenron and smiled. Then he spoke his wish."

 Chapter 324 The Legendary Super Saiyan

    <h4>Chapter 324 The Legendary Super Saiyan</h4>

    "l wish to obtain the physique of the Legendary Super Saiyan!"

    Dante''s wish came out and shocked Beatrice so much that she almost paused on the spot. She had wondered what Dante would wish for all this while, but never in her mind did she think he would go down this road.

    Shenron also seemed surprised as the dragon recoiled a little, but in the end, its eyes still glowed slightly for a split second, indicating that it had sessfully performed its magic.

    "Your wish has been granted. Farewell!!" The giant dragon said before condensing into a golden light that split into seven Dragon Balls that shot towards the far reaches of the Earth, waiting to be found again next year.

    This caused the various yers'' faces to change greatly as they realized that the part of the event they came for was over, so many ''ragequit'' and left the event premises using the system menu.

    This made it such that Beatrice was fighting crazily one second and in the next, many of her opponents disappeared and left her punching the air. The rest who were unreconciled and filled with rage did not leave so early but wanted to ruin her day in some way, so they continued to attack.

    In fact, there was one who even dared to gather all his strength outside of the quantum nullification field''s area and rush in, attempting to use a self-explosion skill simr to the final explosion.

    Beatrice simply nced at him as if he was stupid and locked him in a spatial cage using magic. As such, the most interesting visual effect urred in the sky where the yer in question burst into a color of splendid lights and energies that only spread within a small radius.

    Seeing this, the remaining yers were cowed and left quickly,pletely freeing Beatrice up. She nced over at Dante and saw that he was standing in ce with his eyes closed, his power seeming to change somehow.

    Even Gogeta and Whis came over to inspect Dante with serious expressions, their eyes showing shock. Beatrice frowned and appeared beside Dante, ring at the two fearlessly, ready to scuffle with them if necessary should they interrupt Dante in any way.

    The two saw Beatrice''s fierce demeanor and chuckled. Gogeta saw the same aura from Chi-Chi and Bulma in Beatrice, so he backed off wisely. As for Whis, he was one of the least confrontational fellows in the entire universe, so he simplyughed and yed along by stepping back.

    Eventually, Dante opened his eyes and released a breath of reddish energy. He nced at Beatrice, who seemed worried and nodded with a smile, indicating that everything was alright, but this was also not the ce to talk.

    Dante nced at Gogeta and Whis, then at Frieza, who was furiously searching for Chei, and nodded to everyone before quitting the event. Beatrice followed along as they returned to their home on Etonia within the Eternal Universe, specifically their private bedroom.

    Dante sat down while Beatrice sat opposite him, scanning him up and down for any anomalies. There was a short spell of silence between them before Beatrice speechlessly asked the prudent question.

    "Well? Aren''t you going to say something?"

    Dante chuckled. "Heh, couldnt wait, could you? I honestly did not n to make this wish when we first got there. I only knew that I was going to repair your superpowers so we can each have something special of our own, not to mention I know how much they mean to you."

    "But then I remembered aint you and Portia made that I don''t really take much from these quantum worlds that I personally like or crave. Even the previous time we came, rather than wish for a limit-broken human body, I could have wished for even the most basic Saiyan body and achieved the same effect."

    "I didn''t back then because I was worried about the consequences of changing my race socially and physically, but I realized that it didn''t matter now for many reasons. One was the fact that the Eternal Universe would not care if I am a pure human or an alien anymore, nor would the Centralis Universe have ever cared."

    "Also, given the end game portrait that Etz Chaim has painted for us, it really does not matter what race I bring to the table when it''s time to obtain the authority. As the one who rules over all universes, it wouldn''t really matter if I was Saiyan or human; what would matter would be the depth of my power."

    Dante shrugged in the end. "And the power generation of a Saiyan is far better for that than a human, especially a Legendary Super Saiyan since they apparently have infinitely growing ki?"

    Beatrice was silent for a while. "What about Antonia? Or any child we have in the future? Will they be pure human or half Saiyan?"

    Dante smiled cunningly. "That''s the important thing, Beatrice. I never wished for my race to change. Technically, for all intents and purposes, I am still a pure human."

    Dante stood up and showed his backside to Beatrice. "What I wished for was the physique of a I?|gendary Super Saiyan, not the race. So I have the characteristics of one without changing my race, which is why I do not have a Saiyan tail."

    Beatrice stared at Dante''s shapely - to her - backside and couldn''t help but lick her lips with a strange light in her eyes. Dante immediately shivered and sat down quickly before he awakened a beast that he could not control.

    "Well, alright then. What do you feel? How has your power changed?" Beatrice epted his exnation and nced at him.

    "Good question, why don''t we test it out? Follow me." Dante said as he teleported them to the outskirts of the sector where some deads floated in the void of space.

    "In truth, nothing much has changed. My stats and sub-powers stay the same because they do not have much to do with my physique and are linked to my superpower really. However, there are some subtle changes with my life essence, blood qi, and especially, my internal energy. There is also a significant change to the Concoction of Absorption within me." Dante began to exin as he raised his palm to his chest and spawned a ball of ckish-red hellfire true qi that had flecks of green within.

    "I have only just gained the physique and have not awakened it. Yet, it has already begun reinforcing various powers. The traditional energy of the Legendary Super Saiyan is green, unlike the basic yellow color, so the green spots in my hellfire true qi are from this."

    Dante then threw down the small ball of hellfire true qi onto the, and after a split second of silence, it immediately exploded into smaller space debris in a sh of brilliant light. Beatrice''s eyes narrowed when she felt the energy fluctuations and began to understand what Dante was trying to say.

    "You''ve probably already felt it, but the destructive output of my true qi has increased multiplicatively. I have long surpassed theary level and reached the sr system level, but my casual true qi cannot destroy an entire on its own, not in this quantity." Dante pointed out finally.

    "Hmm..." Beatrice pondered.

    "l mean, it seems good from a power scaling point of view, but how does it help you against your current problems? Lara, or rather, her clones are higher dimensional, and even the previous you could have easily captured them with your strength. The First Gate replicates all your methods in the unimed ten-itories challenges, even with the power boost; your doppleganger there would also emte all your abilities. As for reaching EX Rank Quantum Entanglement, I don''t think this helps either." Beatrice cruelly pointed out the facts without holding back.

    Dante''s smug smile froze.

    Beatrice nced at Dante askance and folded her arms. "Don''t get me wrong, this physique is extremely useful in many ways and also could have great payoffs when you eventually have to support the universe with your own power, but I feel like at that point, you''d also have countless other options to choose from which could also achieve that effect."

    "... you''re just jealous that you can''t be a Super Saiyan, aren''t you?" Dante muttered under his breath.

    Beatrice''s face became red. "That has nothing to do with it! I am relying on FACTS and LOGIC right now, not my personal grievances!"

    As a Dragon Ball nerd, how could Beatrice not possibly want to transform into every young boy''s - and unsurprisingly given the era of the Eternal Universe - young girl''s dream form, the golden-haired warrior of legend?

    Howe Dante got to do it but she couldn''t? Naturally, Beatrice was feeling mean, hence her brutal revtions and her prodding, but at the end of it all, it was just a twinge of envy that caused it.

    Dante found it cute.

    He moved to Beatrice and tickled her waist gently. "Haha, my beautiful Radiant Angel Queen, isn''t it forbidden for you to feel the one of the Seven Deadly Sins? Shouldnt you only have the Seven Virtues in your heart?"

    His teasing made her harrumph and look away, but in the end, she leaned into his embrace.

 Chapter 325 Silkara

    Chapter 325 Silkara

    In the end, Dante managed to cate the jealous Beatrice and convinced her that they could get her a matching physique too when the time was right. As it were, the two descended right into the Apocalypse World to continue with their agenda.

    Naturally, Dante chose the familiarir of the Spider Queen from back then, wondering how it had developed after around a year or more of free time plus the resources he gave it. Due to Beatrice by his side, he did not immediately enter the cavern but chose to appear a bit away from the webbed-up forest that usually formed the spider queen''s domain.

    What surprised both Dante and Beatrice was that, with a casual scan of their spirit sense, they could detect that even the outside of the forest was choked with spiderlings at the F rank and even Spider Warriors at the E rank guiding them.

    The duo casually walked through the forest while in subspace, meaning that the spiders could see them but not touch them. What was strange though, was that the spiders did not seem to bear any hostility towards the two.

    They did react strongly at first but seemed to receive amand from somewhere and then continued about their business casually. Dante and Beatrice decided to travel faster and teleported directly through the forest into the cavern, which had been totally renovated.

    Not only was it now illuminated by lights, there was even electricity and various modern gadgets within. Along with that were many human decorations and effects, which were shockingly being used by humanoid spiders!

    The Rank D Spider Lords that were previously sleek spiders simr to ck widows were now on their two legs. They were only humanoid in shape, retaining spider features that would make them horrific to any human in terms of aesthetics, but this change alone was quite significant.

    They stopped what they were doing and bowed in a gentlemanly manner towards the duo as they traversed downwards, leaving Dante and Beatrice amused and interested. The further down they went, the less cavern there was and the more it resembled an underground castle.

    Tapestries, curtains, and even chandeliers. The extent of the decoration showed that there was not only a sense of aesthetics among the current spider n, but a sense of ss too.

    Spiders of different grades appeared as they went downward. The previous C Rank Spider Champions who were queen''s guard were now normal spiders that were slightly more humane than those above, with fewer spider features and a smattering of human features.

    They also paid respects to the duo, up until they reached the next area with B-rank spiders, then what they assumed to be A-Rank spiders. Surprisingly, Dante and Beatrice even saw S, SS, and SSS Rank spiders that were extremely powerful and were practically fully humanoid with very few spider traits.

    They even spoke to them in passing, greeting them with respect with titles like ''Supreme Benefactor'' and especially for Dante, ''the Lord of Fire and Void''. This naturally made Beatrice nce at Dante askance, who could only shrug.

    After all, when he ughtered them in the past to grow, he had only used his early hellfire as well as weaker space spells to deal with them, so it likely left a strong memory for them.

    Eventually, they reached what should be the final zone and entered a rtivelyrge, ornate bedroom. It was styled in a pink and sultry style, with silk woven around that was thin as gauze. Even the bed itself was barely translucent, disying a sexy feminine figure lying on itzily.

    Dante and Beatrice saw this and shared a look. They seemed to understand what was going on here, and they couldn''t help but feel amused.

    "Well, all of this was set up for you, ''Lord of Fire and Void''. Aren''t you going to partake in the festivities?" Beatrice teased with a yful smile.

    "No thanks. I can''t get it up anyway, so there''s no point even if I wanted to." Dante stated the truth bluntly.

    Dante snapped his fingers and entered real space with Beatrice, releasing pressure from his body to suppress everything. "There''s no need for this; it''s impossible for there to be any sexual rtions between us, Spider Queen."

    The body within the silk coverings trembled greatly and slinked out, revealing a thinly dressed woman of exciting beauty, with a tall body, glowing green eyes, and pitch-ck hair that reached her waist.

    Now revealed, she was even more magnificentpared to before, with huge ''torpedo tits'' that surpassed both Portia and Beatrice as well as extremely thick hips that would probably be the result of surgery if the duo didn''t know the Spider Queen''s race.

    After all, while she might be in humanoid form, the Spider Queen was the Spider Queen, her ability being that of gic multiplication. To achieve that, she naturally needed the facilities to bear the army that she needed, as they did not pop out of thin air.

    "Greetings benefactor and madam." The Spider Queen curtsied gently, inadvertently disying some things that would easily make a few hundred thousand dors on the right sites.

    "Oh? You know I am the madam but you still dare to seduce my partner?" Beatrice folded her arms and asked with a dangerous smirk.

    Immediately, the Spider Queen felt a hint of fear and killing intent, but seeing the rtively calm Dante, she decided to be honest. "l did not mean to challenge you, but as the benefactor is a male of extremely great power, is it not normal for him to have multiple attractive females to bear his seed?"

    Beatrice rolled her eyes. "l am just as strong as him, so does that mean that I should also have a harem of beautiful men at my feet? Don''t worry, I get the instinctual reason, but you are no longer a mere Spider Queen; you are more like a Spider Goddess."

    Beatrice sized the Spider Queen up and down. "As one, you should exercise self-esteem and raise your standards. Even if you find the most supreme male in existence, you have to be able to make sure that his loyalty remains to you without using force or cheap tactics."

    The Spider Queen was stunned by this and became pensive. "Spider Goddess... raise standards..."

    Her eyes brightened as she raised her head and nodded towards Beatrice. "Thank you, madam... no, benefactor. I will remember these words."

    Beatrice smiled casually. "Sure, sure, it would just be a waste for you to be someone else''s harem wife number 4 or something."

    Beatrice put the matter out of her mind, allowing Dante to cough and attract the attention over to himself with a smile. "We came here not to fight nor copte, but to assess your progress. I see that my resources have given you a strong foundation to advance rather quickly, which is good."

    "Rather than your body, in return for my investment, I would like your loyalty. In a year or two, earliest by a few months, I will return here toe and take you away to a wider world." Dante stated his intentions inly.

    "No problem, I will be at your service benefactor. Call on me anytime you need." The Spider Queen responded without hesitation.

    Dante and Beatrice smiled with satisfaction and left the cavern with a single teleport. The Spider Queen was not surprised by their abilities at this point and could not help but nce at the bed with a disappointed expression.

    She had hoped to acquire the seed of Dante and give birth to the ultimate Spider God as their son. Still, she thought about Dante''smand and smiled, knowing that she would soon be able to achieve much more than this.

    She especially thought of Beatrice''s advice and realized that she was being limited by her own gics and instinctual conceptions. She was now a higher form of beingpared to a mere Spider Queen having evolved this much.

    She might not be able to match Dante or Beatrice, but she was already at the peak of the EX Rank in this world, a power that very few could even dare to think of challenging. To call herself the Spider Goddess would not be arrogance nor would it be an exaggeration.

    "Spider Goddess... I am the Spider Goddess!" The Spider Queen, now Spider Goddess, told herself repeatedly until she firmly epted it.

    "Dante and Beatrice... they have names, but I only have a title. That''s not good. I should also have a name, but what should I even call myself?" She muttered to herself when she realized this problem.

    She nced around and at her own body trying to think of something when her eyes fell on the silks covering her bed. Immediately, a sh shot through her mind, and she muttered something in a near daze.

    "Silkara..."

    She snapped out of it and immediately felt excitement. "Silkara... that''s right, my name will be Silkara from henceforth!" "Silkara, The Spider Goddess!"

 Chapter 326 Clearing The Monster Hierarchy From Top To Bottom

    Chapter 326 Clearing The Monster Hierarchy From Top To Bottom

    Dante and Beatrice did not know that they had inspired the Spider Queen to be something greater than she was ever meant to be. They had long left her dungeon area and appeared in the area of an EX Rank monster based on the information Dante purchased all those months ago.

    When they arrived, they found that they were in a volcanic area, which made Beatrice frown while Dante immediately feltfortable due to his affinity with the fire element. The beast that lived here was said to be a volcanic me wyvern that was the top of the food chain, even among the EX Ranked beasts of this world.

    Dante was about to provoke it when Beatrice tugged on his jacket with a skeptical look. "Hey there mister, it''s good to be enthusiastic and all, but aren''t you forgetting something?"

    ''What?" Dante asked with obvious confusion.

    Beatrice folded her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Now I understand you''re a rich man in terms of those Spire Points and you can have any superpower you want, but you currently do NOT have the superpower of Absorption built into you by default."

    "Oh, that? It''s not a problem." Dante had a moment of realization as to what Beatrice was talking about and suddenly chuckled.

    "Uh huh? It''s not?" Beatrice asked while sizing Dante up and down to see if he was normal.

    "Of course, babe. This world belongs to Lara, and while I previously did not dare to mess with her because of her power and backing, we both know that I am tasked with her suppression and downfall." Dante began to exin as he essed his power.

    Lights seemed to sh in his eyes as various rules and regtions that controlled this quantum world appeared before him. Beatrice was able to see them because Dante shared his POV telepathically.

    "So before, I would have to log in with my avatar, create a session, and then descend, which was long and arduous. Now though, we can simplye here and change the rules of the world forcibly to suit us, Lara be damned." Dante concluded as he activated his ''ount'' on his real body, as well as Beatrice''s when she was still in school.

    Beatrice was speechless. "All those tough words yet you chose the least intrusive and confrontational method."

    Dante blushed. "Well, I can''t help it. I''m naturally attuned to taking the path of least resistance within a tolerable range after all."

    "Right, right. Don''t worry, you''re still a tough bad boy to me because you''ve technically hacked the school server. That''s incredibly ballsy." Beatrice snickered as she checked her old ount to refresh herself on what her given superpower had been back then.

    [yer Name: Beatrice Portinari

    yer Race: Human

    HP: 2 million/2 million

    Strength: 20,000

    Agility: 20,000

    Dexterity: 20,000

    Intelligence: 20,000

    Constitution: 20,000

    Vitality: 20,000

    Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)

    Superpowers: Pyrogenesis.J

    [Superpower Name: Pyrogenesis

    Superpower Rank: F

    Superpower Description: Allows the user to generate fire within a limited range freely, manipting it with practiced ease.]

    "Oh right. I remember I was a hotcake because of this back then, since it was the top 20 best superpowers one could get in this server." Beatrice felt the memoriesing back and had a look of nostalgia.

    "Yeah, but it''s kinda useless given you can freely use 1st to 9th rank fire magic." Dante pointed out bluntly.

    "Eh, when we came here, I didn''t expect to get it back anyway. Besides, it will be interesting to generate fire from my superpower and then convert it into a fire spell. Maybe I might be the one to discover the path to natural 10th rank spells." Beatrice boasted smugly.

    "Oh, that''s a nice idea, but it isn''t that simple." Dante disagreed and was about to lecture her on the intricacies of spells and spiritual power when Beatrice hurriedly interrupted him and pulled him into the volcano.

    "Let''s fight dear, you have stats to umte!" She said quickly, pointing a finger down and casting the 6th rank water spell, Cascading Waterfall.

    A huge wave of water emerged behind Dante and Beatrice that passed over their heads and crashed down into the active volcano that was full of boiling magma. The ensuing reaction was exactly as you would expect, with the magma rapidly cooling and being turned into volcanic rock.

    The surge of water vapor that was boiling hot rushed upwards, but Dante waved a hand and casually condensed the clouds of vapor into a ball of dark grey mist the size of a watermelon. He then nced downwards to see the still boiling parts of the magma surging rapidly as a huge entity was roiling within.

    The duo watched coldly as a giant wyvern the size of a small building flew out of the magma with a shriek that could tear the eardrums of a normal person. The air literally shook with soundwaves, causing quite the visual effect.

    "Shut up!" Dante shouted irritably as he fired the condensed ball of vapor down into the wyvern''s open maw with his full strength, causing the orb to explode its full quantity.

    Immediately, the wyvern was silenced as it began choking on the mist, its eyes bing bloodshot from the pain andck of air that urred due to the blockage of its windpipe. Even while airborne, it thrashed and ended up crashing into the side of the volcano''s walls, scratching its throat while coughing out vapor in huge clouds.

    Unfortunately for it, despite its rtively terrible situation, Dante and Beatrice had no sympathy norpassion on their faces. Dante literally casted the 6th Rank Lightning Cannon spell while Beatrice used the 6th rank Spatial Cut spell.

    So the Volcanic me Wyvern was first electrocuted terribly, a portion of its abdomen being sted open as if shot by a railgun cannon, then its head was neatly cut off its body by a de that it could not see nor feel, but was sharper than any metal in existence.

    Its death was swift and brutal. It was unable to neither beg for its life nor make an epic battle, because the current Dante and Beatrice far surpassed its highest limit of imagination. It was to the point that even if they held back, they would likely still be unable to stop from killing the wyvern in one hit.

    Dante collected the corpse for absorption purposester, and the duo left the area. An overlord of the entire world, one of the only existing 10 EX ranked monsters, had perished here.

    One should know, back when Dante got the wish to raise his genes and came here to go from 2500 SDI average to 200,000 SDI, he only hunted up to S rank beasts back then. Now here he was, hunting EX ranked beasts whose stats ranged from 4000 to 7000.

    These were beings that no yer dared to think of challenging, and even the natives of this world had given up, adopting the strategy of ''if I don''t see you, then you''re not there''.

    Naturally, taking them down would have some long-term effects for both students who were descending and the natives of this quantum world, but they would not ur just yet.

    Well, at least, they wouldn''t have urred just yet if it wasn''t for the fact that the duo of Dante and Beatrice had not appeared at the location of another EX rank beast.

    This time, they stood in the clouds above the wastnd, a ce that almost no one in this current era could reach. The discovery of this EX rank beast had been done by descending students with special superpowers; otherwise, no one would have ever found it.

    This one was the heavenly birdman beast, a half bird, half-man creature with extremely ugly features that wielded a spear of golden color. It also had some golden te armor on its body, and its feathers were the same as that of a chicken in terms of color and style, while its head was shaped like a goose.

    The moment Dante and Beatrice appeared, it detected them and came rushing out with a cawing shriek. Beatrice spread her legs as she entered the horse stance and simply pulled her right fist back.

    Without using blood qi and only relying on the force of her fist, she punched forward and created a giant cannon of air pressure that struck the foe right in the gut. The heavenly birdman tried to use its ability to block, which was the manifestation of an angelic-like shield.

    However, this barrier was easily shattered by the sheer pressure of the air cannon, causing the slightly weakened attack to strike the gut of the heavenly birdman that was covered in armor. The armor was cracked and drilled through immediately, its abdomen now sporting a giant see-through hole that leaked golden colored blood.

    Due to the residual force, the birdman was sent flying back and crashed through many objects before it came to a halt, its body limp and twitching as its life slowly leaked out of its body. It weakly gripped the hole in its abdomen with a look of disbelief and iprehension, struggling to raise its head to glimpse at its killer properly.

    However, it could not even manage this as its head slumped down permanently, never to rise up again. Beatrice breathed out lightly and exited the horse stance, allowing Dante to quickly collect the corpse and take them away from this cloudy area as it was beginning to dpose.

    Since the being that created and maintained this area was dead, it was natural that this special miniature habitat/biome would cease to exist, if not in time, then immediately.

    "So that''s two out of ten in less than 5 minutes." Beatrice noted as they left the area towards their next destination.

    Dante shrugged. "Can''t be helped, we''re just too strong. Well, it''s clear if we''re going to push my limits stats-wise, we''ll need to expand our pool of captured monsters. Let''s clear everything down to the A Rank since yers can realistically only handle up to the B rank."

    Beatrice chuckled. "How cruel. Those poor monsters have rights, don''t you know? How could you treat them as nutrients for your growth?"

    Dante sighed dramatically. "Haah, my beautiful Bea, it''s difficult. I know that all things deserve a chance to maim and ughter, so my maiming and ughtering is wrong! However, I''m forced to by life, it''s not like I ampletely taking the initiative here!"

    If the spirits of the wyvern and the birdman were here, they would cough out blood and roar to the sky in impotent rage. After barging into their domains and taking their lives without even giving them a chance to fight back, you dare to be sarcastic and satirical?

    Like this, for almost an entire day, the Apocalypse World was turned upside down. I-lundreds of thousands of monsters were ughtered and captured into the quantum space, causing the administrative A1 of the world to wail endlessly at the consumed resources.

    After all, quantum worlds, though virtual in nature, still relied on certain resources to work. Once taken away, they could naturally be regenerated and grown back, but it would require effort and time, causing the ''performance'' of the entire server to lower itself.

    Dante and Beatrice did not know this, but Lara was currently gritting her teeth and clenching her fists as the Central A1 reported to her tearfully about their wanton actions, expecting her to do something.

    However, what could she do? Putting aside the fact that she did not dare to fight either Beatrice or Dante, there was also the fact that she built the world using the resources of Etz Chaim, not her main body!

    This was something that the current Dante knew that the previous Dante did not. Previously, Dante thought it was a random higher- dimensional being sponsoring Lara, which was what he sensed with his EX Quantum Core ability, but with what we knew now, that was obviously impossible.

 Chapter 327 The Flaw In The Plan

    <h4>Chapter 327 The w In The n</h4>

    "Alright, here''s our catch for today," Dante stated as he emptied his quantum space into a barren grasnd full of decaying grass.

    Immediately, a loud quake erupted, and a huge Mount Everest worth of monster corpses appeared before them, blocking the horizon and startling all living beings within hundreds of kilometers in all directions.

    Beatrice whistled in appreciation. "You know, when we were brutally beating them to death, I didn''t really think there were that many." Dante rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Neither did I, to be honest. I still don''t know how big my quantum space is exactly, but given the power of the one hosting it, I''d say it could fit an entire universe within."

    Dante then nced at her with a perverted expression. "Which equates to about half of your ass in terms of total size."

    Beatrice blushed but didnt know how to refute. She couldn''t be bothered to anyway since Dante liked it as it was anyway.

    "Hmm, you won''t be smiling much when you be a deity in terms of stats, probably surpassing my mom after absorbing all these corpses. Get to it!" Beatrice could only prod Dante like this when she saw him ncing at her backside and reaching a hand out.

    "You can''t run forever. We have to, lest the effect of the Libido Seed on you, and see how long we can sh for." Dante harrumphed and turned away.

    Beatrice rolled her eyes. "It''s precisely because I know that our battle will be legendary that I don''t dare to start until we''ve fulfilled all our short-term objectives and secured Antonia."

    "True enough." Dante responded casually as he took out Mutation Cores of the quantum variety and increased his Absorption from the F rank right up to the EX rank.

    This meant that he gained a total of 5120% of each stat of the target. The moment he ced his hands on the mountain of corpses, Dante took a deep breath and fortified his mind and soul with his various powers and abilities.

    "Begin!" he muttered as he activated the quantum superpower, and immediately, an explosion of power no weaker than that of a nuclear bomb erupted.

    The moment Dante began, Beatrice could immediately tell something was wrong and entered subspace using spatial magic, but she was still sted away - while within subspace!! - as the very fabric of space itself seemed to crack.

    The entire quantum world shook like it was about to copse, causing all natives and students to wail in fear. Even Lara, who was coldly monitoring, was greatly shocked and was not able to disconnect herself in time, suffering the majority of the blow.

    Immediately, her clone used all its power to save itself and burned every bit of reserve energy. However, the clone in the Eternal Universe was still sted out of her room, coughing blood and innards the entirety of the way.

    The headmistress''s body crashed onto the ground, covered in blood, and her eyes were unfocused. She tried to push herself up but could not muster the strength, fainting within the school ground and causing a medium-sized panic as various paramedic androids came to cart her away for treatment.

    However, due to her presence in ''blocking the feedback, the remnant was notrge enough to disturb the main body of Lara nor Etz Chaim, who were at the top of the food chain. Etz simply manifested from the trunk in Dante''s soul with a curious look.

    "Eh? What''s going on?" She eximed in shock, seeing the tumultuous situation.

    Etz then saw the situation with the Apocalypse World and diverted some power to stabilize it, causing the quaking quantum world to quieten down and the various beings within to feel like they had been saved.

    She then nced at Dante as she floated within his soul space, shaking her head withment. "Ah, it''s my fault for not exining well. Besides, I didn''t think he would try something as excessive as this given his personality."

    Etz then nced at the still shocked Beatrice who had stabilized herself and was rushing over to check on Dante. ''Well, it must be because of outside influence he would do such a thing. Might as well inform them right away so that this doesnt happen again."

    Even as Etz muttered to herself, she nced at Dante, who was glowing with the energy that was surging into him, and hesitated. "No, let''s not stop it. This would serve as a lesson so that he wouldn''t rush things again, not to mention that it also had a slight chance of helping."

    In the end, Etz simply folded her arms and floated there until Dante stopped his absorption, his body going limp as he fell to his knees. Beatrice rushed over but was forced to step back when she touched his body and he was surging with heat that could surpass even the surface of the sun.

    Dante coughed and sucked in a deep breath before pushing himself to his feet, his body naked due to the fact that his attire could not bear the sheer power of the previous event. In fact, if his various Bionics, Psionics, and A1 chip had not been renewed and reinforced by the Ex Rank Nanite Resonance, they would also have been fried within Dante.

    However, if you asked the current Dante how he felt, he would boldly tell you that it was all worth it! Even without checking the numbers, he could feel the difference from an atomic level, that he had sublimated into something more!

    He did not bother to check his SDI because his A1 chip could no longer calcte numbers of such levels. Suffice to say, the current Dante, if he was to give himself a rough estimate of where he stood, even a billion in all stats would be a joke.

    However, the next moment, Dante''s face changed greatly as a giant storm appeared around him, energies of all kinds being funneled from the corners of this quantum world towards himself with his Concoction of Absorption in order to sustain his existence.

    This energy was no longer limited to one type and was extremely voracious. Quantum energy, elemental energy, conceptual energy,w energy, and even life energy from all living beings in this world were dragged towards him.

    Even Beatrice, who stood beside him with a worried expression, rapidly began to age as her life force was drained to sustain his existence. Before Dante could respond, he found himself and Beatrice suddenly carted away from the Apocalypse World and right into the Wastnd of Death, the first territory that Dante had evernded in within the First Gate.

    Immediately, the storm deescted, as the ambient Zero Energy was more than enough to sustain him, only causing minor winds around him. Beatrice, who had been dying so fast she couldn''t even realize it, suddenly noticed her terrible state but her body''s Concoction of Absorption also worked to restore her back to her peak state.

    The two simply stood there in stupefaction, not understanding what was happening and what was going on when they were suddenly pulled into Dante''s soul space. There, both Dante and Beatrice saw Etz Chaim, who was ncing at them with exasperation.

    "I''m not going to chastise you. From your point of view, what you did was correct, given that youck certain information, so I will first share that information with you and let youprehend the mess you''ve made for yourself," Etz Chaim began, making Dante and Beatrice go silent with focus.

    "Firstly, IWe told you the kind of being that Lara and I are, Eternals. However, I have not told you the grade of species below Eternals, and that is usually not important, since your path was to be different, but here''s the hierarchy."

    "Firstly, there are the Mortals. These are basically people like you before I chose you, beings without powers or average civilians. This rings true whether you are in higher dimensional or lower dimensional space, though it has to be noted that the average civilian in the higher dimensional earth is about as strong as you when you had 2,000 in all stats if they descend down here."

    "Secondly, the Awakened. Previously, your lower-dimensional space could only support mortals before Lara shared a portion of my power down in creating both the Zero and First Gates, allowing for the birth of superpowered individuals. This category of being has a chance to absorb the power you call Zero Energy and advance their affiliated superpower until one of the Origin or Eternal lifeforms in higher-dimensional space sees fit to ''sponsor them,'' as you say."

    "Thirdly, the Master tier. These are those who have raised their superpower to the EX Rank. Upon reaching this level, one would reach the bottleneck of advancement in the lower universe and once sponsored by an Origin or Eternal, that being could take them to higher dimensional space and allow them to evolve into a Grandmaster."

    "Fourthly, there''s obviously the Grandmaster. This person is no different from what you would call the peak of mortal power. They have condensed their superpower from a universal concept into their own personalw and power system. Having transformed into a higher dimensional being, or really, a pseudo-higher dimensional being, they can exist both in higher dimensional and lower dimensional space. They usually be the workers andckeys of the Origin or Eternal beings that sponsored them to do things in lower dimensional space."

    Etz Chaim paused here for a bit. "At best, you are something like a Grandmaster due to your quantum body and the various powers I have equipped you with. The Grandmaster is the peak of mortaldom and can never ascend higher than that, assuming they started from the mortal stage like the two of you."

    Etz Chaim folded her hands behind her back. "At least, that''s usually the case. The next stage is a huge divider between all beings and denotes entities that you would think of as Gods, all-powerful, eversting, able to create and manipte entire worlds at will and generate resources for all things freely. This is an Origin God."

    "An Origin God is not something I can easily put to words, but thanks to Lord Draco, Lady Eva, and Lady Shuangtian, a proper exnation hase for how Origin Gods achieve their power and exist."

    "An Origin God is split into two things, their Origin Power and their Origin Energy. Origin power is a transcendent power that they possess, far beyond mere superpowers and being around slightly higher than universalws. Meanwhile, Origin Energy is a special and unique energy to every Origin God that involves the power of existence and creation."

    "Do you understand?" Etz Chaim finished and folded her arms.

    Dante and Beatrice were speechless. Understand what? This information was surely great and helped rify many things, but it did not highlight anything about their current situation, at least not on the surface.

    "Let me guess, It''s the fact that Ick Origin Energy?" Dante surmised given how Etz Chaim had been speaking.

    "Exactly. What separates an Origin Being from a Grandmaster is not only the nature of their power, but their energy. From grandmaster right down to a mortal, you require energy from external sources to sustain yourself. Origin beings though, produce their own energy that can be used to sustain others, and even entire universes from absolutely nothing." Etz Chaim causally unleashed a bombshell that caused Dante and Beatrice''s minds to explode.

    "Impossible! Energy from nothing But how?" Beatrice eximed. Etz Chaim nced at her askance. "Your science can deduce everything up to the grandmaster level, but from Origin beings going forth, it enters the realm of divinity in a sense. No amount ofmon logic can deduce it."

    Etz then focused on Dante who was pensive. "Your idea to raise your power using stats is good on paper, but you are not an Origin being nor an Eternal who stands above Origin beings. You don''t produce your own energy, you rely on energy from external sources to sustain yourself. Trying to increase your power without a source of energy, and more importantly, without a source of control, was reckless."

 Chapter 328 The Crazy Attempt

    <h4>Chapter 328 The Crazy Attempt</h4>

    "Source of control?" Dante picked up on this term immediately. "Correct. You don''t really think as Origin and Eternal beings walk around with billions in stats, do you? I dare say the current you could easily send me, Lara, or Luka flying if you hit us if we''re talking about raw power."

    Etz Chaim, despite admitting this, did not seem fazed. "However, you wouldn''t even be able to kill us with your maximum power, and all it would take us is a snap of our fingers to atomize you into nothing, all your amazing stats be damned."

    "This is because of our control over our power, not the power itself. In my eyes, the current you is like a bloated 10 feet tall human whose face cannot even be seen under all his rolls of meat. Yeah, such a person can cause great damage and is virtually unstoppable by other humans, but he is clumsy in his movement and hurts himself more than others, consumes enough food to bankrupt arge farm, and at the end of it all, a simple rocketuncher can end his life."

    Etz Chaim folded her arms. "So what was the point?"

    Dante and Beatrice went silent and shared a look. Dante turned to Etz Chaim with a serious look. Thank you for this information; it has especially highlighted the problem with my thinking and the way forward."

    Etz Chaim nodded with satisfaction. "It''s great that I chose you; you''re extremely teachable. As for your current dilemma, you will have to stay in the First Gate for now while I find ways to help offset your issue."

    Dante suddenly smiled. "No need for that. Now that you''ve described the way to move forward, I perfectly understand how to solve this problem."

    "Eh?" Etz Chaim had a big question mark above her head. Dante suddenly exploded with power, his body in reality condensing itself wildly. Within his soul space, the quantum gate spat out all his superpowers and various powers into the void before closing itself wearily.

    Dante''s soul projection then waved a hand and casually shattered everything. His ball of Hellfire True Qi, his Life Essence core in his heart, his 10 Spiritual Cores, his Blood Qi, his Eyes of Illusion, the Concoction of Absorption, his Soul Tether, and the Libido Seed.

    The fragments of each were gathered by Dante into a giant sun-like orb that began topress itself greatly, causing its mass and density to somehow increase. Dante''s face became serious as hepressed andpressed further, trying to make the giant sphere more solid with each attempt.

    Beatrice watched on with a strange smile as she moved behind Dante subtly while Etz Chaim''s jaws hadically dropped to the ground, her eyes bulging out of their sockets.

    In the end, Dante managed topress the sphere to its limit, but he could not seem to get the .spark'' that would light the furnace and keep it burning. His expression became difficult as he continually tried to galvanize the new core, but it simply did not get enough momentum.

    While Dante struggled, Etz seemed to wake up and was seriously shocked. "What a crazy human... to try and create an Origin Core and generate Origin Source Energy... he almost seeded too, but hecks the powers to achieve it."

    Etz sighed withment. "Unfortunately, I can''t help right now because only he can galvanize his origin core, lest his existence still be tied to me even after ascending, which would be counterproductive to our n." She then hesitated. "But am I really going to let him fail like this? Aftering so far and trying so hard?"

    While Etz continued to carefully weigh the consequences, Beatrice suddenly struck! She used the full force of her power and sted Dante in the chest from the back, piercing through his heart and leaving a gaping hole in his body.

    After all, by shattering all his sources of power minus quantum entanglement, Dante was as naked as a newborn power-wise.

    Etz Chaim''s face changed greatly. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

    Beatrice coldly folded her arms behind her back and focused on the shocked Dante who was gasping for life. "No need to shout at me; he needs this."

    ''How could anyone possibly need their own soulmate to pierce through their heart!'' Etz Chaim wanted to ask, but her words were caught in her throat as if someone muscr had a death grip on her neck.

    Because in the next moment, Dante roared as a green light exploded from his body, the energy within so raw and powerful that even Etz Chaim felt fear. Her pupils constricted greatly, and she even had to take steps back, along with Beatrice who was also slightly stunned.

    In the real world, the Wastnd of Death, where Dante stood idly with a nk expression ever since Etz Chaim had called him in, was going through great turmoil. First, the area was disturbed because of Dante''s Concoction of Absorption swallowing energy wantonly and creating slightly violent winds, but now...

    Now things had reached the peak.

    When Dante shattered all his powers and began to condense his origin core, the energy suction had stopped, and the world seemed to be at peace, though Dante''s presence greatly weakened.

    However, the moment Beatrice pierced through him, his body in reality exploded with a green pir of light that reached up to the peak of the heavens. It spread out further and further, covering the entire Wastnd of Death and even spreading further.

    All beings that encountered the beam were frozen in ce, trembling in fear from the sheer violent energy. If they unfortunately got swallowed up by the raging energy, it did not even absorb them or anything like that, but rather directly turned them into ash and dust.

    Meanwhile, within Dante''s soul space, the explosion of green energy was not as violent because the origin core was like a child with a milkshake, greedily swallowing everything within while its size and solidity began to grow piece by piece.

    The more energy that was infused, the more it grew, and it even began to show signs of igniting itself. This shocked Etz Chaim who could not, for the life of herself, figure out what the hell just happened.

    "W-What''s going on...?" Etz muttered weakly.

    "It''s simple. Just before we came to the Apocalypse World, Dante made a wish to the eternal dragon to grant him the physique of a legendary super saiyan, a fictional concept created by a human that promises great power," Beatrice began exining casually, not fazed by the intensity of the situation.

    "But what does that have to do with this?" Etz Chaim cried out, not understanding how this linked up.

    "Unlike regr saiyans, the legendary one has a special ability to raise their energy to match whoever they are facing or as the situation requires. The only weakness is that this takes time so if the enemy surges in power so greatly that you cannot catch up in a short while, you''d lose."

    Beatrice cocked her head towards Dante using her chin. "The reason I struck him is to activate the physique and the super saiyan transformation by putting him in a dire situation. We neither have the time for him to try the current 31 methods for such a being to

    transform as in the official media, so we had to resort to this." Etz seemed partially enlightened. "So he''s raising his energy to match the origin core? Is that even possible?"

    "We should hope so. Given what you told us, his stats are useless, so he''s currently burning them as fuel for the physique to raise its ki. After all, while it says that one can raise their ki endlessly, there is no such thing as infinity. For everything except this Origin stuff, there is a source, and the sourcees from the body," Beatrice exined.

    "How can you be sure that this will work? What even gave you this idea?!" Etz Chaim was speechless. She was the one who called them here to exin things, so why was she being exined to like she was the ignorant one?

    "We already had a framework in mind when we did everything. Dante was not entirely clueless about the energy requirement for high stats, so he nned to activate the Legendary SS physique to provide it internally, but your exnation made that n sound like he would be mimicking an Origin being without one," Beatrice revealed with a chuckle.

    "Oh..." was all Etz Chaim could say to that.

    So they actually had a n and knew the consequences? Etz Chaim couldn''t help but feel a bit red under her ears from shame, having immediately dragged them here to lecture them like ignorant clowns when they actually had a workable solution.

    "Don''t sweat it; we aren''t so narrow-minded that we''d be angry at someone who has our best interests at heart," Beatrice patted Etz Chaim on the back lightly with a soft chuckle.

    Then her expression became serious as Dante roared again, and a shockwave exploded even within his soul space. "Besides, this is the moment of truth. The power of the stats he gained and the physique is almost done; let''s see if it''s enough to galvanize that thing."

 Chapter 329 Origin Core

    <h4>Chapter 329 Origin Core</h4>

    Dante''s roar was apanied by a loud shattering sound as a green light emerged from his eyes and mouth, surging out of his body and forming the silhouette of a spiky-haired great ape that was pounding its chest.

    The moment it left his body, Dante seemed extremely exhausted and hollowed out, but he still managed to guide it into the sun-sized orange ball of light. Once it entered, the miniature sun pulsed greatly and rhythmically, like a beating heart.

    Dante, Beatrice, and Etz Chaim watched silently and breathlessly as the heart pulsed once, twice, three times and continued to do so for what felt like an eternity. Its tempo increased with each pulse, bing stronger and stronger with each run until a huge sh of light urred, and the sun-sized sphere released a shockwave of orange light that passed through everything.

    After this, an urge of orange energy leaked out from the sphere and pervaded the entire soul space, passing through the various soul projections and making them feel a certain warmth. Even within Etz Chaim''s bark, the suppressed Lara''s eyelids twitched when she felt that, but she did not wake up in the end.

    As the warmth pervaded the space, Etz Chaim finally came to her senses and spoke softly. "You actually did it... just by hearing about it for the first time, you actually condensed an Origin Core and created Origin Source Energy for yourself..."

    Etz Chaim currently looked like a person who had just watched a pig fly without wings while humming a casual tune. The sheer disbelief and shock told that if she herself had not witnessed it, she would rather die than believe it.

    Heck, she had personally witnessed it and still doubted it, wondering if Lara had somehow affected her mind to force illusions upon her. However, Lara was not stupid enough to create such a fake and unbelievable illusion, so it had to be reality.

    Dante sighed with relief and shook his head in reality, ncing at Beatrice beside him who had been dragged along here by Etz Chaim with a smile. "Thanks for the boost, babe, I couldn''t have done it without you."

    Beatrice smiled beautifully. "No problem, I''m going to umte some superpowers and raise my stats very high before replicating what you did to get my own Origin Core."

    Etz Chaim was almost floored by this. "Hey, hey, hey! Do you think this is a joke?! Condensing an Origin Core is the most difficult part of bing an Origin God because one needs to focus all their energy into a single point and create a form of energy genesis!"

    Dante and Beatrice nced at the red-faced Etz Chaim who looked like she wanted to bite someone and grinned. "But I just did it, right?"

    "I..."

    What could Etz even say to that?

    After all, Dante had just done so right before everyone''s eyes, and he did so without using her help nor a lick of the energy she provided him. He didn''t even use Quantum Entanglement, but all the other thing he had gained on the side, with that legendary super- something ying the biggest role.

    Even though she technically hosted them, they were not organically part of the superpower and were their own thing, especially the higher he raised his stats and produced his own energy.

    It was like the rtionship betweenndowner and the house owner. Etz only provided Dante with thend for free, but Dante built and maintained the house all by himself. Now that he had broken down the house and rbined it to build a mansion without harming or drawing upon thend itself, it was nothing short of impressive.

    However, there was one problem, and it was the fact that...

    "You do realize that while you now have an Origin Core and possess naturally produced Origin Energy, you have lost all your offensive abilities? Apart from Quantum Entanglement and all its own inherent abilities, you have nothing else." Etz pointed out bluntly.

    Dante nodded. "I knew that from the start. The moment you mentioned the source of control, I realized that I could never be a proper Origin being or Eternal on my own because I had too many sets of powers that were too varied and of different types."

    "Rather than that, I need to focus on one field and make it my sole power, gaining control over it." Dante stated as he clenched his fists. Etz Chaim was silent as she nced at Dante as if she was meeting him for the first time again, then nced at Beatrice.

    "Unfortunately, the same goes for her. Apart from her own base superpowers, the quantum entanglement abilities you shared with her and those martial arts stuff, she has lost the other powers as well."

    "Not a problem, they were always Dante''s power, not mine. I''ll gather up superpowers from the ck Spire and then shatter them all to form an Origin Core after securing a huge amount of energy by bing a legendary super saiyan or something better too!" Beatrice said with confidence as she mmed her fists together.

    Etz Chaim then nced to the side. "And... what about them? I preserved their existence here since you might want to sort them out."

    Dante and Beatrice turned to nce at the confused Summoned Beasts who had lost their connection to Dante, and so were returned to quantum existences that could not stay in the real universe lest they be ruined.

    Not to mention the source of power they enjoyed from Etz Chaim that allowed them to act with greater power than they theoretically had, like Levi who could read secrets of higher-dimensional beings or Dorothy who could collect faith energy across universes with ease for Dante.

    Dante smiled. "Of course, they are with me. Now that I have my own source of energy, I don''t need to leech off you anymore. As long as they wish to stay with me, we can contract more intimately." "Naturally, I have no n of leaving just yet, boss." Levi answered quickly.

    "I still haven''t had the chance to lead your armies to battle!" Barnard spoke in a deep voice.

    "You may not need faith energy anymore given you now have Origin Energy... but I would still like to stay, if possible...?" Dorothy inquired in her usual elegant manner.

    "We would also like to stay, master. We believe the current you could make the most use of our abilities, especially for your hellfire demons who might need to resynchronize with you." Synkoi pointed out smartly.

    "I think... I would like to return. I have little use to you now and Anti-matter has nothing on the table against Origin Energy." Killian stated sadly, but resolutely.

    "Hmm, me too. In terms of destroying enemies with ck holes, you have technology that can do the same. In terms of storing items for your own personal use, you already have the quantum space. What is the purpose of my existence?" cko stated in its heavy tone.

    "Well, I don''t know if I will be useful, but I really don''t want to leave..." Weaver said in a pitiful voice, the faceless cloud beast seemingly wanting to cry.

    "I feel the same..." Brium also stated in a simr tone, its chiming full of despair.

    "Hmm... the dao is endless, and all things are but dust and ash in the end. No banquet canst forever, and it seems my journey in this upper realm hase to an end. I would like to depart while we still have fond memories of each other." Dao made a fist salute respectfully.

    "Haahh, I wanted to be as big as the universe, but I could not fulfill that dream. I will have to settle for being as big as a world instead." Biggie sighed and stated withment.

    Dante was stunned when he listened to their words and then shook his head. "I dont n on sending you back down to a mere quantum world, but after spending more than a year together. Besides, you have all bonded to this extent, how can I just separate you?"

    "However, some of your points are valid. Given the paths I want to take, some of you are no longer useful to me or will soon not be useful. However, just because you are not useful to me currently does not mean that you have no use at all."

    Dante nced at some of them. "I will personally retain Levi, Bernard, Dorothy, Synkoi, and Weaver. Killian and cko, you will go to my daughter and be her summoned beasts, your job to protect her and provide her with your special powers. Dao, Biggie, and Brium, you will go to Beatrice and support her in all things."

    "My beloved wife loves to use her fists to fight, meaning that you, Dao, who can allow her to counter all manner of powers with her fist, as well as you, Biggie, you can allow her to increase her size and thereby her raw power, are very useful to her. Brium, you are just as crucial because you will be necessary to help Beatrice keep her stats in a bnced state as the Bnce Beast." Dante borated to each of them seriously.

    All the summoned beasts listened attentively and were satisfied with their allocations. Even though for the other five, it was a bit disappointing that they could not stay with Dante, it was no different staying with the two people he was closest to in the entire universe, his wife and daughter.

    "Huh, that''s nice Dante, but only you have Origin Energy. Even if Beatrice is gonna get itter, which energy is she going to use to sustain them currently?" Etz Chaim asked the obvious question.

    Dante blinked in surprise. "You, of course. Beatrice still has my quantum entanglement, so these beasts fall under that, meaning your sponsorship is required. As for the two going to my daughter, she doesn''t need to worry yet because I will temporarily sponsor the energy they need."

    Etz Chaim was speechless and felt like hitting Dante at that moment. What did he mean that she would sponsor Beatrice, and why did Dante make her sound stupid for even asking like it would be anything different?

    Dante then turned to the Beasts and directly released a portion of his soul power to contract the five he chose. He noticed that with his stats reduced, he found such things much harder to do, but recontracting Weaver made things much easier.

    As for the other three, Beatrice still had a lot of work to do in order to power them, so Dante took out a Concoction of Absorption and gave it to her. Beatrice still needed external energy for now to sustain herself and her newly contracted summoned beasts.

    Once everything was settled, Dante nodded to Etz Chaim who was by far fed up with everything and returned to the tree in a huff. She had seen too much today and needed time to digest it all, while Dante and Beatrice also had other things to see to.

    The duo refocused on reality, noticing that the Wastnd of Death was still as silent as always despite the events that had urred here just now. In actual fact, it was likely that it would be silent for a long time since Dante''s energy release had cleared many lifeforms within many territories around this one.

    The two shared a look and felt reinvigorated to pursue their goals. Dante by making a huge breakthrough and Beatrice by seeing the path fonvard to even surpass her mother, her longtime idol.

    "First things first, let''s go get Antonia. She should be itching to get away from your mom by now." Beatrice giggled as she thought of her cute daughter.

    Dante''s lips twitched when he remembered the look Antonia always gave him when she had to suffer his mother''s teachings. At the time, he didnt like it much either, but he had benefited greatly from it, so there was no way he would prevent his daughter from learning.

 Chapter 330 Family

    <h4>Chapter 330 Family</h4>

    330 Family

    "Well, on that topic, I would have to digress here in the sense that..." A woman with mixed-breed characteristics of a human and some sort of bird-like species spoke in a pleasing and slightly fawning tone.

    Nodding her head while listening was Aileen, who wore a business smile that was pleasant but distant. She wore a ck business suit for women that was slightly fitting, allowing her now rejuvenated body to disy her femininity, which caught David hook, line, and sinker when they were younger.

    Seated beside Aileen was a neatly dressed Antonia who was also pretending to listen with a simr fake smile but was secretly ying around on the Etr. She wore a frilly purple and red dress with a lovely pink bow tie to round up her plentiful hair that was bing as lush as her mother''s.

    She was currently watching the video of her dad fighting Lara in that tumultuous battle that shook the universe back then. When she saw Dante dominate everyone, she was full of excitement and worship.

    The way he was so calm yet firm was just like the Dante Antonia was used to, never rushing her nor exerting force, but always letting her know that he cannot be disrespected through his expressions and the softness of his words.

    When Lara suppressed Dante and seemed to belittle him before calmly leaving, Antonia was filled with fury and rage. She wanted to run up and scratch that mean woman in the face for talking to her dad like that!

    However, when Dante suddenly dragged Lara down from her high horse and put her face first into the dirt, there was no one more excited than Antonia in the entire universe. She cheered so hard that she realized that she had jumped to her feet in joy in reality, causing the room to go silent and everyone to stare at her.

    Seeing all the adults in the meeting room look at her, Antonia was not shy, but she did realize her mistake. She nced at Aileen guiltily, knowing that she had disgraced her someone like this, but Aileen''s eyes were filled with indulgence as she stroked Antonia''s hair gently.

    "Hehe, you were watching videos of your dad again, weren''t you?" Aileen teased with a chuckle.

    Antonia blushed and felt exasperated. "Geez grandma, how can you always know what I am thinking and doing?"

    "You''re as predictable and readable as your dad in that regard. You can continue watching the videos but use full immersion mode. You don''t need to pay attention to the meeting anymore, we''re almost done anyway." Aileen snickered and responded.

    Antonia sat back down and did as Aileen said without making a fuss, something that startled the adults here. While they were puzzled as to why an eminent person like Aileen would bring a child to literal diplomatic meetings that affected the entire universe, it was the specific child that she brought that shut them up from even having negative thoughts.

    After all, this was Antonia Alighieri, the daughter of the number 1 man in the universe as well as the strongest woman in the universe. It wouldn''t be too far-fetched to say that within the entire Eternal Universe, Antonia was a princess!

    Even if she ran about breaking things and making noise like most toddlers her age did, they would have to bear with it, much less that she was such a well-behaved little miss. She really did live up to her heritage, all the various beings in the room couldnt help but feel.

    Aileen saw this and her eyes narrowed slightly. This was the exact effect she wanted to achieve, making those who came through this ce recognize Antonia as well as her extraordinariness.

    One thing Aileen knew was that her son and her daughter-inw were practically the owners of this universe, its undisputed monarchs who could decide the fate of anything and everything with a word.

    However, neither of them cared little about the micro-management of the universe and left everything as it was in order to pursue higher goals. This left a vacuum in power of sorts that she temporarily filled, but Aileen wanted to enjoy her extended life and rejuvenated youth with David, not babysit an entire universe.

    Quantum AIs helping her or not, this was the kind of herculean task that caused her to bepletely tired every day. David had told her to drop it many times, but she was a perfectionist at heart who had the skills necessary to do this, so she couldn''t help herself.

    David himself offered to help, but Aileen rejected because he did not know the first thing about politics. He was a master architect and was currently undergoing intensive study of the Eternal Universe architecture and the architecture of various races to enhance his craft; he did not have time to y house with her.

    That was why Aileen chose to tutor Antonia like this, because as the daughter of Dante and Beatrice, she was heir to the universe. While her parents fulfilled their goals, she would be able to take the reins of the various things they owned and bring prosperity to the family''s ''backyard''.

    What Aileen was basically doing was undergoing a slow process of session for Antonia to take over the authorities and powers that her parents possessed. Knowing how this worked, Aileen understood that the first step of session was recognition.

    Many sessions were ruined or made difficult simply because neither the people nor those in power recognized the iing ruler. This was both in the sense of respect and identity.

    It was bad enough if the people did not respect you as a liege when undergoing session, but even worse when they did not even know who you were or what you looked like beforeing into power.

    Let them see Antonia frequently at such meetings, and when she grew up, taking charge of these things would be a breeze for her. The session process would be so smooth that people would not even realize the change when it happened.

    This was Aileen''s goal.

    "Thank you foring here today and sorting this issue out. I will speak to the Councilor of Pot Prime about this issue and see what resolutions we cane up with." Aileen stood up and shook the hand of the dignitary opposite her, who responded with some simr light words before exiting with his entourage.

    After making sure that they were gone, Aileen sighed and slumped into her seat tiredly. Antonia stopped what she was doing after being alerted by her A1 chip that her grandma was done with her meeting in time to see Aileen''s reaction.

    "Aww, grandma. If you''re so tired, why do you put up with this? Just mention Dad or Mom''s name, and these guys won''t make a peep!" Antoniaforted Aileen confidently.

    Seeing her granddaughter so concerned about her, Aileen couldn''t help but smile. "Don''t worry about grandma, I won''t continue doing this for long. Besides, you should be excited because your dad and mom should being to pick you up soon."

    Antonia''s eyes shone with excitement as she immediately jumped to her feet. Then what are we waiting for? Let''s go, go, go!"

    Chuckling at how energetic Antonia had suddenly be, Aileen got up and dusted herself before leading Antonia towards the main bedroom of the Alighieri family estate on Etonia.

    Just as they reached the door, it opened to reveal Dante and Beatrice, who were dressed as usual, their faces wearing smiles. When Antonia saw them, she squealed with delight and ran up to them.

    "Mom, dad!" She cried with joy as Beatrice and Dante squatted down to pick her up and bring her into their mutual embrace.

    Aileen folded her arms and smiled while watching this, remembering the days oh so many years ago when a tiny Dante would run into her and David''s arms in much the same manner. Now, the son she had raised, her darling boy, had a family of his own.

    Aileen could not even begin to exin the surge of emotions going through her heart right now. In the end, she could only say: "My granddaughter has been pining for you two the entire time. Make sure to spend more time with her if you can."

    Dante smiled. "Don''t worry mom, we n to keep her by our side for a while toe."

    "Oh? That''s good. I''ll return to your father then and make sure he''s not up to some trouble." Aileen said as she waved goodbye and began to leave.

    However, before she could go, she heard a sweet little cry. ''Wait, grandma!"

    Aileen stopped and turned around with confusion, only to see that Antonia had somehow rushed over to her. The littless gestured to Aileen to squat down, which she did.

    "Thank you for taking care of me grandma. You''re the best!" Antonia stated as she sweetly pecked Aileen on the cheek.

    Right then and there, Aileen felt like everything she had done her entire life was worth it. There was no better moment than this.

    1

 Chapter 331 Re-Sync 1

    Chapter 331 Re-Sync 1

    "So, how was your time with grandma, dear?" Beatrice asked Antonia as she carried the toddler in her arms, letting her rest her little head on her chest.

    "Mmm, it was fun being with grandma, but the other stuff was boring. There were interesting guys, though, and one of them felt a little different," Antonia said what had been bothering her this whole time freely as shey on Beatrice''s expansive mounds of flesh.

    "Oh? What was different about that guy?" Dante asked with a raised eyebrow.

    "Hmm, he felt like you, Dad, in the moments when you use your ckish red fire," Antonia revealedzily, bing sleepy now that she was in her parents'' care.

    Dante and Beatrice paused and shared a look. A person who had hellfire? Either they were like Dante, a person who could incidentally use hellfire through a unique power system, or they were actually a demon.

    The former was rare, especially in a universe like this, so it could only be thetter.

    "Do Demons exist in our multiverse?" Dante called out to Levi and asked him.

    "Naturally. The tme demon race are a higher dimensional species that wreak havoc in the background of higher dimensional earth. In fact, Luka spent most of his youth being a demon hunter due to thetent power Myra gave him," Levi casually revealed after smoothing out his feathers.

    "Oh? Then what about the one my daughter just met?" Beatrice questioned with a nce at the proud Truth Beast.

    Levi flinched at Beatrice''s intense stare and spoke quickly. "That guy? He''s simply in possession of the superpower of Demonic Transformation, but he has secretly been recruited by a low-level demon in higher dimensional space as his ''sponsor'' to do things for him in lower-dimensional space."

    "Huh? Recruited? Then what was his purpose here?" Dante frowned as he felt something was off.

    "Well, it''s naturally to scout you out. You are quite notorious in higher dimensional space now because you defeated a clone of Lara. The various sponsored contractees ryed this information to their higher-ups, and it spread through higher dimensional space rapidly."

    "After all, even if it''s just one of her clones, you defeated an authority holder. It''s not just any authority holder, but the mighty Lara Sanguis who was only stopped by Luka. Everyone has their eye on the current you."

    Levi''s revtion caused Dante and Beatrice''s brows to furrow. The current Dante was only semi-higher dimensional, having acquired the energy source but did not have his own origin power system. While he had nothing to fear from higher dimensional beings should they descend, that did not count for their family members.

    After all, in as much as it seemed like everyone hated Lara and had been traumatized by her, there were also those like the original Valeria who were loyalists to her and believed in her cause.

    Such fellows could not do anything to Luka without being bitch- pped to the shadow realm, but they could certainlye and annoy Dante. This was not ideal at all, especially for Augeus, David, Peter, and especially Aileen, who could have been harmed in that time.

    Antonia would be fine with the Eyes of Illusion thaty dormant in her body, ready to activate when she achieved control over her power or if she was in a dangerous situation. Not to mention that both Dante and Beatrice''s quantum clones would be with her permanently from now on.

    "You can go back for now. We''ll talk more on thister."

    Seeing that the sleeping Antonia was slightly disturbed, Dante sent Levi back and patted the toddler''s back, reassuring her back into slumber. After this, Dante and Beatrice returned to the First Gate where they separated their quantum clones and left Antonia with them.

    Then, they moved to the frontlines area and began to gather the various troops belonging to Dante one by one. As expected, the Superpowered and the Martial Artists were not affected by Dante''s ''upgrade'', but the Hellfire demons had been panicking as they had been losing control of the hellfire qi in their bodies all this time.

    When they met Dante, they were shocked as they did not feel the overwhelming suppression and authority they were used to passively feeling, making them realize something was wrong.

    Still, the obedience towards him was rooted in their minds and souls, so they settled down and waited for everyone to arrive before listening to what their master had to say. This made Dante nod subtly as his influence was not gone, just strongly diluted.

    After all, if he wanted to, he could easily re-cultivate all those quantum power systems again. The reason he didnt was because it would just make getting his origin power much harder.

    When thest person arrived, which was Aisha since she had been the farthest and deepest behind enemy lines due to her power, Dante sat down on hismand chair with Beatrice seated right beside him.

    He looked down upon his small army of troops and smiled. "I have some good news and some even better news. Which one would you like to hear first?"

    The group did not think they would be given a choice and stared nkly at each other. In the end, it was the rtively brave Deadly Sin demons who were closer to Dante that dared to answer.

    "The better one!" Aisha called out, to which Slessor and Humphrey agreed.

    Lucian shrugged and Harold scratched his head then nodded. As for Ricky, he simply smiled bitterly and shook his head, not knowing how to answer.

    Dante chuckled. "Fine, the better news is that I have ascended into a higher dimensional being partway, bing semi-higher dimensional."

    Immediately, the entire ce became dead silent as the brains of everyone here pretty much short-circuited. Even if you gave them all the AIs in the entire multiverse to calcte all possible options, they would never have expected Dante to say this.

    A higher dimensional being was something everyone who knew about the First Gate craved to be but did not even have a clue as to the path of how. Some said that when you reached the Ex rank in your superpower, you would discover the path forward, but it was only a rumor.

    And now, their boss, who was a greatly powerful and talented man, had achieved this?

    If it wasn''t for the fact that they had seen the breadth of Dante''s power and even experienced his power when he blessed them in various ways, they would have doubted him immediately.

    "What about... the good news?" Ricky managed to untie his tongue and ask.

    The crowd suddenly snapped into focus as they realized that this was not the end of it, and Dante did say there was another piece of news that may not be as explosive as before but was certainly beneficial.

    "Well, in rtion to my ascension, I have a chance to sponsor you all with some of my power. This power is only in the form of energy, though, so don''t expect to be all-powerful in just one go," Dante informed them with a casual smile.

    Despite saying this, a question mark appeared above each of their heads. They did not understand what Dante meant nor how this would change anything in the grand scheme of things. Like Dante and Beatrice themselves just about an hour ago, they did not know anything about Origin or Eternal rank nor the intricacies within.

    Seeing their confusion, Dante shook his head. "You don''t need to worry about it for now; in time, you will understand the magnitude of todays events. Due to the fact that I recently ascended and still need time to consolidate, I will only be sponsoring the hellfire demons at this time. When I be stronger, I will then ept you all under my care."

    "Hellfire demons, step forward!" Dantemanded loudly, and they all took a step forward as one, their expressions full of obedience.

    Dante swept his eyes over their formation and continued. "One by one, starting from the newest hellfire demon to the oldest,e and kneel before me."

    They stepped forward in the required order, and the moment the first hellfire demon knelt before Dante, he stretched his hand out and released a small mark formed with his Origin Energy that entered the soul space of the hellfire demon in question.

    For the hellfire demon, he instantly felt his connection to Dante being renewed and bing even stronger than ever. More than that, he felt a small wave of energy enter his body that caused his hellfire qi to surge in delight, bing almost infinite in supply.

    This greatly shocked the fellow as such a tiny wave of energy was enough to fuel his hellfire true qi for his entire lifetime and more! Even if he exploded his entire dantian multiple times, he would still struggle to empty out his reserves, which was a thrilling yet frightening concept.

    Meanwhile, for everyone else in the room, that brief period where Dante released his mark caused their entire beings to churn, from their souls to their minds, their spirits and their bodies. Whatever it was that Dante released, they craved it so deeply their eyes became bloodshot with desire.

    [Poster notes: These 2 were the left over chapters from the previous month I was toozy to post, I apologize but I won''t be renewing my priv for this novel next month. With love Gus ??ˇč ]

 Chapter 332 Re-Sync 2

    <h4>Chapter 332 Re-Sync 2</h4>

    ?"Oh?" Dante noted their reactions, and so did Beatrice. Both of them were indisputably new to the concept of Origin Energy and its various effects, so to learn that it had a strong pull on all non-origin life forms was interesting.

    What was interesting was that Beatrice did not react the same to it, but that might be because she was also sponsored by Etz Chaim through the Quantum Ascendant Bond, so her Eternal sponsor''s energy suppressed thetent desire for Origin Energy.

    Dante finished branding the first being and then proceeded to brand the others. It truly shocked him how little of a deduction they had on his Origin Energy. If we could say that he could produce 100 units of Origin Energy, or 100%, in every second, then they took less than 0.001% of that energy ONCE.

    Based on his calction, they would be able to go their entire lifetime with the energy they provided unless a very rare situation urred. Dante began to wonder how he managed to even condense this energy that was of such high quality and superiority that when converted down, it was so powerful.

    However, even Etz Chaim was baffled by it, so he would have to discover the reason himself.

    It was only Slessor, the Gorgon, and the other 5 Deadly Sins who took significantly more, but also just once. However, Dante could tell that they might need more investments of energy throughout their lifetime if they exerted themselves strongly.

    "Now, Synkoi, do your thing," Dante stated as he summoned his special Synchronization Beast.

    "Yes, master," The two koi fish spoke, spinning around in a circle rapidly as a strange line formed between all the hellfire demons and Dante. Immediately, the hellfire demons felt the former connection return, though it was now inconsequentialpared to the feeling of bonding through sponsorship by Dante.

    Dante too felt his hellfire abilities return, but it was no longer his own power system but a temporary thing maintained by the Synchronization Beast. If Synkoi ever stopped spinning, the connection would sever itselfpletely.

    Since Synkoi was powered by his own Origin Energy, the hellfire produced in Dante''s body was much more potent than before, but it was limited in the sense that it could not grow, only be replenished.

    Synkoi itself did not consume much Origin Energy per second to maintain this connection. Satisfied, Dante put Synkoi back in his soul space where it could rx and stop spinning but still maintain the connection, and then focused on the subordinates gathered here.

    "That is it for this matter. Now, we are onto the reason why I summoned you all back immediately," Dante addressed the entire group, who became solemn and attentive to his next words.

    "As my main force, you are qualified to know some things. There is a w in the creation of the Zero Gates and the First Gate, these two phenomena created by a powerful higher dimensional being with the purpose of causing the destruction of all universes in time."

    "This is a threat to our existence and shall not be tolerated. The higher dimensional being in question is sealed in higher dimensional space by the creator of our entire reality, but they are plotting in his absence to use us as fodder for her escape."

    "As such, they have ced clones of themselves within every universe, subtly steering its purpose into the usage and exploitation of these two harmful phenomena to expedite the process."

    Dante smiled when he saw the sweat forming on everyone''s brow from the magnitude of the revtion. "You know this person; all of you have met her clone in one way or another, and have even heard of her in the news."

    Immediately, everyone showed puzzled and confused expressions as they could not pinpoint who Dante was talking about right away. Beatrice rolled her eyes and folded her arms with exasperation.

    "Who else in our universe is a ''she'', is always in the news, and is the main proponent of the Zero Gate''s exploration?"

    The others were still confused, but the former students of the Eternal Academy''s faces changed. "Wait, Headmistress Lara?!"

    "Huh?"

    It was like thunder exploded in the minds of those who hadn''t caught on till now. Lara Sanguis, the strongest being in the universe up until the establishment of their current boss, Dante, was the culprit?

    And there were millions of her across the various universes?!

    Due to long-time conditioning, fear surged into the hearts of everyone as they trembled greatly. It wasn''t even that Lara was a higher dimensional being; they had subtly forgotten that part.

    It was the fact that Lara was a power and a threat on the level of Dante himself in their eyes, and now so many of her could converge at any time to take down the entire multiverse?

    Surprisingly, Dante was not annoyed by their reaction, and neither was Beatrice. "Good. It''s good that you are terrified; that is yourmon sense telling you what kind of foe you are going up against and how you match up against them."

    "Remember that terror. Your task is not to fight any of the Lara clones, as even with my sponsorship, none of you are qualified to even lift one of their shoes. Your job is to descend into each and every universe and conquer it under my banner, spreading my influence multiverse-wide," Dante ryed calmly.

    The fellows here breathed a subtle sigh of relief, but Humphrey frowned slightly. "Lord Dante, what about if we encounter that universe''s Lara while conquering? What should we do in response?"

    "Don''t worry about her. Even if she descends upon you, I will also descend as well as capture her. Just make sure not to be ambushed or one-shotted, because resurrecting you will be tough when she uses her authorities to destroy your existence," Dante replied nonchntly, but the army was left speechless.

    "Erm, Lord Dante, I don''t think we have nearly enough numbers to cover the various universesˇ­" Slessor pointed out another issue she noticed.

    Dante smiled and nodded. "That is another issue that I''ve summoned you here for. I will be expanding recruitment of the various armies by a great scale. All of you who were part of the original force shall be leaders in the new army, with near thousands of troops under your banner. Are you ready for this task?"

    The hearts of everyone here thumped, even the deadly sins. From the way Dante described it, they were about to wield power that they could not even have fathomed in their wildest dreams.

    "You won''t be deployed immediately. To recruit and convert the troops needed to bolster our forces, it will take time, more than a year at least. For now, each and everyone of you are to return to base in the Eternal Universe and prepare to undergo special training," Dante doused their imminent desire with a smile.

    After dismissing them, he turned to Beatrice and smiled. "Us too. It''s time to head into the Immortal World and begin our path of power."

    "I''ve personally been looking forward to it ever since you formed your Origin Core. If I refine enough immortal energy from that quantum world, I can substitute the Legendary Super Saiyan physique to use as a catalyst and form my own Origin Core," Beatrice stated her n as a glint shone in her eye.

    "Oh? That''s actually pretty smart. As expected of my Beatrice, your IQ is only surpassed by the size of your booty," Dante teased her as he pulled on her jacket yfully.

    "Hmph, do you expect me to be shy? Yes, I have a big butt, and my husband loves it, so I love it! What''s it to you?" Beatrice snorted and got up, shaking her waist in a tantalizing motion with a provocative smile.

    Of course, poor Dante could not stand such temptation. Even with the Libido Seed gone, he still had full confidence that he could subdue Beatrice using his Origin Energy to supplement his body.

    As such, he rose to his feet and took off his own jacket calmly, wearing a tight-fitting t-shirt that highlighted his extremely muscr yetpact body that had been forged by all his battles and tribtions.

    When Dante first came to the Eternal Universe, he was about 6 feet in height, but he had grown by two inches since then, bing 6''2". He easily towered over most men and women nowadays, but the only one who could go bar for bar with him was Beatrice, who was still 6 feet, and Portia, who was almost 6''3".

    In fact, even Augeus was 6''1", and David, Dante''s dad, was 6 feet. Only Aileen was 5 feet, being 5''10".

    Dante took down his pants, tossing them into themand chair lightly along with his jacket, revealing his elite boxers that were made of high-tech nanobots that were previously personally customized using Nanite Resonance.

    Being the number 1 being of two universes, you didn''t expect Dante to wear boxers with holes in them, did you? Not to mention, neither he nor Beatrice excreted anymore since they absorbed energy directly using the Concoction of Absorption, meaning there was no wastage nor waste products to expel.

    Seeing Dante strip, Beatrice immediately felt excitement surge throughout her body, which presented itself as a rosy hue on her cheeks and around her erogenous zones. Her clothes were still the very conservative type, but as she also began slowly removing them one by one, her voluptuous body that could make incubi drool was revealed.

    Eventually, she was only left with a rather loose ck t-shirt and her underwear, which was also customized by Dante personally, made of simr nanites using his former superpower. Dante could only look at her and ce his arms akimbo, his young master standing at the ready.

    His special underwear naturally made way for the organ, allowing it to stand firm without obstruction while receding into Dante''s skin, ready toe out and cover him in seconds should he need them to.

    On the other side, Beatrice also stood with arms akimbo, her hard nipples on disy as her gravity-defying breasts bounced eagerly, awaiting the touch of desire. Her legs visibly quivered, a glint of reflected light shining on her thighs as a small line of wetness emerged from her crotch and went all the way down.

    The two had a small smile ying on each other''s lips, enjoying the feeling of posturing in front of each other, but neither willing to make the first move easily. As for external disturbance, Beatrice had already cordoned off this area in its own unique space so even if someone entered, they would be in a different dimension from them.

    "Why are you stopping? You were boasting about your enormous backside, so continue," Dante challenged Beatrice after folding his arms with a teasing smile.

    "Oh? You''re right. I''m going to turn around, bend over, and stand right here. Let''s see what you can even do," Beatrice retorted as she did as she said, leaning into the chair and arching her back upwards.

    At this moment, Dante understood clearly that he had lost. The sight of the pristine round melons that jiggled at the slightest movement due to how soft they were, coupled with the sight of the ever-beckoning slit that was glistening with juices, had him fold immediately.

    To resist this, one needed the will of iron and a soul of steel, both of which Dante did not have. As such, he immediately appeared before this magnificent sight and knelt down. He ced both of his thick palms on both of the peaches before him, intending to grasp it but not having enough hands to do so.

    This saddened and excited Dante, a confusing mixture most men would understand. He didn''t rush into heading towards the main course right away but nned to savor this time with his wife as they hardly had energy for forey due to the Libido Seed previously.

    Now that he was back to normal, Dante wanted to experience Beatrice like never before.

 Chapter 333 The Immortal World

    Chapter 333 The Immortal World

    ??A few hourster, all that was left of themand center were broken screens, shattered machinery, and plentiful body fluids. On one side, Dantey amidst a console ofputers that had been shattered, panting tiredly while orange energy flickered haphazardly around his body.

    On the other side, Beatrice alsoy in a heap, her breathingbored as her lower body leaked a copious amount of white fluids. She was seated above a group of broken chairs, looking tired but still energeticpared to the defeated Dante.

    It was clear who won.

    After resting for a bit, the two cleaned up and wore their clothes once more, Dante with a sullen expression while Beatrice was beaming. However, in consideration of Dante''s pride, she did not say anything to provoke him.

    Beatrice closed the alternate dimension and brought them back to real space where everything was normal, with various androids going up and down while working. They only nced at the duo who appeared for a split second before looking away and resuming their duties.

    As for them, they left the First Gate and headed towards the Eternal Universe. Before they entered the Immortal World though, Beatrice pointed out something that had been slightly bothering her all this while.

    "So now that you''ve retracted all your forces in the First Gate, how will we manage things?" Beatrice asked slowly.

    Dante nced at her. "I know your feelings for your home universe are strong, and I won''t downy them. However, I think they should bergely fine with your mother there, not to mention our quantum clones will provide her support while taking care of Antonia."

    "Hmm, anyway. It''s a good thing because they will be forced to adapt without relying on us for one, and secondly, they have be too reliant on our handwork and have profited freely along the way. That''s not good for long-term development." Beatrice admitted and put the matter out of her mind.

    "Hmm, why don''t you transform some of our most recent picks from the recruitment into Radiant Angels and deploy them to fill the void my troops left behind?" Dante suggested gently.

    Beatrice rubbed Dante''s back and smiled. "Thanks for the concern, Dante, but it''s not important. I don''t want to contract angels currently because I will likely abandon this power when I try to be an origin being like you."

    The duo then wasted no time as Dante essed his school ount that was now in the second year since he had passed the first year with flying colors. A lot more resources and sses were open to him, along with many worlds he had never seen before.

    However, none of them caught his interest much like the Immortal World did.

    [World Name: The Immortal World

    World Owner: Eternal Academy

    World Creator: Eternal Academy

    World Size: Maximum

    World Type: Shared

    World Genre: Xianxia

    Bionics Allowed: No

    Psionics Allowed: No

    Superpowers Allowed: Yes

    Requirements: Student ID

    Duration: Unlimited

    Description: This is a world that has been styled in an ancient Chinese setting. Within this world, the very air surges with a special energy that can allow all beings to cultivate toward immortality and employ feats of might never seen before. Beware though, this world is full of danger far surpassing that of any other!

    Objectives: Reach the highest realm of cultivation.

    Limitations: All Bionics and Psionics are not allowed because they are not needed. Superpowers are also banned, but AI chips can be used to connect to the real world andmunicate.

    Provisions: You will be able to choose your starting point, which will influence the speed of your growth as well as your final score. The higher your starting point, the lower the difficulty multiplier for the payout.]

    Dante raised an eyebrow. "Massive, huh? The most I ever made was a small world, and even that took so much time and effort that I feel tired remembering it."

    "Yeah, I also gained a new appreciation for the school and its intricately crafted worlds. The school has many ws and problems, but its innovation with its quantum worlds is something else." Beatrice admitted as she shook her head.

    Dante logged into this world and chose a starting point that was pretty good. He chose to be the husband of Beatrice in the world who came from a destroyed immortal family of an ancient era and was itsst heir.

    Satisfied, Dante descended into the world using his game avatar first. When he appeared, he was at the mountain gate of an ethereal sect that had floating mountain peaks covered with mist and grandeur.

    Before anything could happen, he descended with his main body and ced a quantum marker down. Immediately, Beatrice appeared beside him as she teleported to the quantum marker using her true body.

    Dante logged out of his avatar and left his main body down. He did not want the school to be able to monitor his current realm of abilities, especially since he lost the Quantum Core superpower and could not twist the quantumws to his favor.

    "Who goes there?! State your names!"

    Suddenly, a young male voice sounded out from above them, prompting the duo to look up and see a handsome young man of obviously Asian descent flying towards them while riding on a sword.

    "Dante Alighieri, heir to the Alighieri Immortal Family. This is my wife, Beatrice," Dante promptly introduced themselves with a smile.

    "Huh? an immortal family?" The young man''s face changed greatly as he immediately lowered his altitude to be on par with them and adopted a respectful expression.

    He made a gesture that Dante and Beatrice knew to be a martial salute from their time in the True Martial World. "Greetings fellow daoists, my name is Ken Kei, and I am an Inner Disciple tasked with guarding the sect gate."

    After introducing himself, he sized the two up and was shocked by the sense of danger he felt from both Dante and Beatrice despite his own high cultivation. As such, even his next questions were a little bit more kind than he would have originally preferred.

    "May I ask what the two of you are doing at the gate of the Pure Heaven Sect?" he asked carefully.

    "We are here to cultivate the dao of immortality and would like to join the esteemed sect," Dante responded with a smile.

    "Oh? Please wait a moment." The young man quickly took out a small talisman and then ced it against his forehead before tossing it backwards. The talisman then flew at a mountain peak at the center of the sect that towered above all the others.

    Soon, a small meteor streaked towards them that was made of a golden color which was different from the red color of the one Ken Kei originally sent out. When Ken Kei especially saw the color of the talisman, his face changed once again as he hastily received it carefully and ced it against his forehead.

    When he opened his eyes, they were full of surprise and wonderment. He turned to the patiently waiting duo and bowed towards them respectfully before inviting them in.

    "Thank you for waiting, sir and madam. Please follow me to the Ancestral Hall to meet the Sect Master," Ken Kei said, beckoning to the duo.

    Dante and Beatrice followed along, flying steadily behind Ken Kei. Beatrice used spatial magic while Dante simply manipted the world with his endless Origin Energy. He didn''t use his hellfire true qi because he didn''t want to disgust these fellows.

    Soon, they arrived at the peak of the highest mountain which was surrounded by many aesthetic phenomena that truly enhanced the visual and spiritual appeal. Dante saw qilins ying with dragons and even little phoenixes and rocs flying about.

    Here, there was arge building that was about the size of arge pce outside that was glowing with potent energy. Upon arriving here, Ken Kei became extremely humble and didn''t dare to fly anymore,nding on the ground and walking with Dante and Beatrice also adopting such a behavior in order not to cause conflict.

    At the door of the hall, a surprisingly well-organized flow of people dressed in brocade robes or fan-like robes were entering and exiting, all of them bearing different powers, colors, and visages, but one thing they all shared was Ken Kei''s look of subdued respect.

    This naturally made Dante and Beatrice stand out like sore thumbs since they wore casual smiles and seemed free. It wasn''t intentional but rather because the duo could not muster the energy to pretend when they could raze this entire quantum world to ash.

    This behavior naturally caused the others to nce at them with skepticism and wonder. Who were these two where being personally led in by an inner disciple, not to mention their dismissive demeanors as if they were walking in the back garden?

    Pffft, who did they think they were? Did they truly believe that they were two immortals descended upon the lower world?

 Chapter 334 Pure Heaven Sect

    Chapter 334 Pure Heaven Sect

    ??Ken Kei himself felt that his two charges were being a bit impolite but did not dare to chastise them for the weight of their identities. However, he manifested his dissatisfaction by walking briskly forward, trying to force Dante and Beatrice into his pace, but to his annoyance, they didn''t speed up at all.

    So rather, he now looked like the fool for rushing ahead of his quarry, something that Beatrice was cruel enough to point out.

    "Ken Kei, right? You have to be more observant of your surroundings when given the task to escort others. You don''t want to bring shame to the Pure Heaven Sect, now do you?" Beatrice spoke loudly with narrowed eyes.

    Ken Kei''s face paled slightly and became extremely terrible. It was just a small trick he yed that wouldn''t have hurt anyone, why did this woman have to be so vicious? She could have said these words anywhere and it wouldn''t matter, but not within the ancestral hall where the Sect Master and the Ancient Elders stayed!

    In the end, he could only obediently lead forward and not dare to have any killing intent or hatred in his heart, not because he feared Dante or Beatrice, but because the powerful presences who stayed here would be able to detect it.

    Soon the duo was brought to a room that wasrge and grand, easily big enough to fit a family of western dragonsfortably. The majority of its space was upied by statues with ques, detailing the aplishments of all sect masters before the current one.

    Passing through the golden carpeted main walkway, one would thene to a central audience chamber where a throne on a raised dais existed to the front, and to the right and left werebeled seats meant for what should be sect elders.

    The audience chamber was naturally in use since the sect master has to hear issues concerning the sect and its territories day in and day out. It was not the kind of situation where one could carelessly say ''if they were fated, they wouldn''t have copsed'' because this involved the sect''s interests.

    Despite being number 1 in the world, they faced severepetition from all sides, not to mention various hostilities with evil and demonic factions. If they dared to bezy and yful for a second, the entire sect would disappear into the annals of time.

    The current person who was having his matter heard was suddenly patted on the shoulder by a deacon of security and told to move to the side. Even though the person was confused, theyplied immediately.

    Ken Kei then led Dante and Beatrice up, through the line and cutting through everyone regardless of status or position. This caused many faces to be filled with curiosity and wonderment, not knowing why these two could break the rules so tantly and not incur punishment.

    Dante and Beatrice stood on the dais with confident smiles, the aura they radiated making everyone feel intense pressure. Their faces changed greatly as many had to rush out of the audience chamber in order to feel normal again.

    Even the main person on the seat, the sect master, was casually ncing at them one second and his pupils greatly constricted the next as he felt their auras. He couldn''t believe that he, the current number 1 in the world who had suppressed his peers who stood at the top with him, would feel a sense of fatal danger from two different people at once.

    What almost drove him crazy was the fact that he could tell that the duo did not have any cultivation, and in fact, had never cultivated before in their lives! So, how could they have power enough to threaten him who stood at the peak of the world?!

    The Sect Master nced at the elders who sat on either side of him and was chilled to find out that they wore simr and even worse expressions than him in the face of this aura, meaning that it wasn''t his own misconception.

    This caused him to be more tactful in his words addressing the duo, but nowhere near subservient or weak.

    "Greetings from afar. I heard from the Gate Guarding Disciple that you two are from the Ancient Immortal Family, the Alighieri n?"

    "Huh?" The entire room of spectators gasped with shock. They never dreamed that Dante and Beatrice would actually be from an immortal family and the unhappiness and disdain in their hearts evaporated quickly as they epted the events that just urred.

    "That''s right, esteemed Sect Master. My name is Dante Alighieri and this is my wife, Beatrice Alighieri. We havee down to experience the world and hope to study the path of cultivation in the hands of the number one sect in the world." Dante responded after cupping his fists in salute.

    Even though he didn''t bow to the sect master as most should, none on the dais were miffed and even those watching did not feel it was wrong.

    "It would be our pleasure to host such esteemed persons in our sect. Would you like to be given the position of Guest Elders?" The Sect Master''s eyes lit up as he asked gently.

    What the heck, these two powerhouses wereing to join their sect? For free? Was it Christmas day already or what?

    Even the elders were stunned and then burst into smiles. The sect, despite seeming arrogant and strong, was teetering on the edge of oblivion each day as their enemies got stronger even as they themselves got stronger.

    With the prospectivebat power of these two, their fate would be stabilized significantly if they could even cause those at the top to feel threatened. Not to mention they were now beginning their journey of cultivation, so who knew how strong they could be in the end?

    "Guest elders sound fine. We don''t n to leech and not return the favor, so you can call on us when the sect needs it and we''ll be there." Dante promised with a smile.

    In fact, Dante couldn''t have said a more perfect set of words to the sect master and the elders currently. They wore expressions of extreme satisfaction and immediately entered a good mood.

    "Elder Ling shall handle your registration and affairs." The sect master stated as he nced at an aged elder who had his white hair tied in a topknot.

    Elder Ling looked pleased to be given the task and stood up, flying toward Dante and Beatrice with a beaming smile on his face. He didn''t even spare a nce for Ken Kei or the other various cultivators who came to seek an audience here.

    "Please follow me." He gestured to the two, who nodded and turned to leave the Ancestral Hall with Elder Ling.

    The Sect Master and the other elders watched them leave with smiles until they disappeared. After that, their faces became casual once more and their auras pressed down on the venue, the Security Deacon waving the fellow who had been interrupted previously forward.

    "State your business quickly."

    An Elder prompted with a clear expression of irritation on his face.

    The supplicant was left speechless at the stark difference in treatment from before and now. It really seemed that in life, if one did not have the right background and power, their treatment would be entirely different.

    As for Dante and Beatrice, Elder Ling took them to the administrative hall where they were expeditiously registered and given tinum-colored tokens representing their status as Guest Elders.

    They were also given exotic robes with plenty of magical functions on them, but Dante and Beatrice refused. Their current attires were their favorites and they had no intentions of switching out.

    Elder Ling looked like he wanted to say something but kept quiet in the end. After this, the duo were taken to the Scripture Library where plenty of techniques were made avable to them.

    Naturally, Dante and Beatrice took advantage of this chance to learn the staple technique of the sect, which was called the Pure Heaven Scripture. Since they were starting out, they were given the Mortal and Earth chapters, which covered from Qi Condensation to Ascension.

    They would receive the heaven chapter once they either reached the requisite level or made sufficient contributions to the sect. Speaking of that, their tokens recorded their contribution points, the famous internal currency of these sectarian governments.

    After that segment, the duo were taken to their residence which was situated on a mountain peak with its own spirit vein near the central one. The courtyard they were given was expansive and filled with elegance, something that could onlye out of a scenic painting.

    "Is everything to your liking, Elder Dante and Elder Beatrice?" Elder Ling asked with a smile.

    "More than fine, we are thankful for the kind treatment of the Pure Heaven Sect." Dante nodded and cupped his fists respectfully.

    "Haha, don''t worry about it. Your resources will be sent over by servant disciples who will take care of your needs for various matters. Is this okay?" Elder Lingughed as he informed them.

    "Huh? How generous of the sect, we will certainly receive what we are given with gratitude." Dante asserted once again.

    Elder Ling cupped his fists and nodded. "Then let me not take up your time anymore. If you need me or anyone else, please send your assigned servant disciple to seek me out."

    Dante and Beatrice watched the fellow leave before entering their courtyard and beginning to settle down. Now with the various distractions and processes handled, it was time to cultivate.

 Chapter 335 The Path Forward 1

    Chapter 335 The Path Forward 1

    ??Dante and Beatrice had different targets for cultivation in the first ce. For Beatrice, her goal was to use the energy gathering of the cultivation system to store enough energy to catalyze her Origin Core when the time was right.

    She intended to cultivate right from the start of Qi Condensation and dutifully got through all the stages and converted her spirit energy into Immortal qi at the peak of the world''s realm before using it and the multitude of energy here to do what needed to be done.

    As for Dante, he already produced energy internally that surpassed the purest immortal qi in existence. He would be dirtying himself to absorb more and condense it the way cultivators do, so he was not focused on that aspect.

    He was more focused on the power aspect, the energy utilization by cultivators, and especially the dao system of controllingws and concepts at higher realms. If he could incorporate it well and find an epassing Dao to coalesce into his origin power system, he would be truly set.

    So the difference in the way they cultivated was set from the start. For Beatrice, she first went through the details of the cultivation technique and easily understood its essence for the absorption part.

    Cultivators usually needed a spiritual organ called the spirit root to be able to even sense and interact with the energy that pervaded the air; otherwise, there would be a lot more cultivators in existence and not the select fewpared to the number of non-cultivators.

    However, Beatrice did not need a spirit root with the current stats she had. Using psychic energy from her high stats, she could already sense and control spirit energy, dragging it over to her.

    This was one method.

    Another was to use her Luminous Ascension Technique to interact with spirit energy using her spirit sense from level 2 or her Compassionate Luminescence at level 4, which allowed her to absorb energy and convert it.

    This would be slightly faster and more optimal than using raw psychic ability.

    Of course, all of this was not necessary since she had the power system of the Concoction of Absorption. The rules of the Concoction of Absorption were simple, based on her physical stats and energy requirement, all the necessary energy she needed would be pulled from all and any source for as far a range as possible.

    It was a passive ability that was quite tyrannical if you thought about it, as it really took Dante and Beatrice a long time as well as a lot of hard work to customize it.

    Now, its effect for Beatrice was noticeable since the moment she began the Qi Condensation chapter and was absorbing spirit energy to fill her dantian, a powerful torrent of energy was formed above her that created a vortex.

    Even Dante had to open his eyes and stop his contemtion to look at the situation with a grim expression as he was ready to resolve the situation should anything go wrong.

    As for Beatrice, the energy vortex above her head grew bigger and bigger until it formed a literal cyclone above their mansion that could cause a hurricane alert on earth, and a level 1 one at that.

    Of course, this caused a phenomenon that many could see from miles away. A mountain with a tornado above it, how could the entire sect and slightly beyond not see this? Even if they could not see the visual effect, they could certainly feel the effect of the spirit energy that was always around them being dragged away and leaving nothing behind.

    Many faces changed greatly as everything within the sect seemed to grind to a halt. The array masters on their mountain peak stopped studying and debating, talisman masters stopped drawing, alchemists'' cauldrons blew up as their energy supplement was taken away, and battle cultivators stopped their training due to the feeling of losing their support.

    Just as all eyes converged on the personal peak allocated to Dante and Beatrice, the energy vortex suddenly swelled in size as Beatrice got more familiar with the energy absorption method andprehended new ways to better absorb the energy in tandem with the Concoction of Absorption.

    This led to the vortex going to the size of a level 2 hurricane alert, now spreading past their mountain and enveloping the foot of some others. This energy vortex did not have a strong physical pull on people, and for the cultivators of this sect, it was practically negligible, but one could not help but flee at the sight of such a thing.

    It was simply basic instinct to fear storms.

    The elders of the sect and the sect master had shocked expressions as they quickly left their various resting and cultivation areas to hover in the air over the sect, ncing at the energy vortex that was beginning to even pull energy from outside the sect into its fold.

    "Elder Ling, what''s going on?" The Sect Master turned to the gray-bearded Elder Ling who had just left this mountain peak not but a few minutes ago.

    Elder Ling was naturally speechless. "I do not know. I simply took them through the various processes and then left them to cultivate on their own."

    "Huh? So this phenomenon is just from cultivating? But if I remember correctly, neither have started cultivation and should be at the Qi Condensation stageˇ­" another elder spoke slowly until his voice trailed off.

    After all, the impact of his assumption was too great, enough so that everyone here felt their skins crawl. It was possible to create an energy storm like this at their levels with a casual wave of their hand, and that was fine.

    However, these two were only beginning their cultivation and could do this? Then what about when they ascended higher, would they swallow the entire world?

    As for within the mansion, Beatrice had already zed through Qi Condensation and was currently soaring through Foundation Establishment. The first three realms of cultivation were basic energy absorption realms where you absorb,press, and repeat that cycle as you purified and purified your energy better.

    The energy absorption was not the problem for Beatrice but thepression was. These techniques were designed for people starting out in cultivation, meaning that their stats grew with each cultivation level they climbed as they went from weak to strong.

    If the ''machine'' that a normal cultivator were to use at this stage was like a normal pressure machine, then Beatrice was using an entire continent!

    Theoretically, this should make things easier for her, but no. Rather the difficulty was cranked up to an insane level as she had to regte the force used; otherwise, forgetpressing, she might end up smashing her entire dantian into paste!

    It was only when she entered the peak of the Golden Core realm and was ready to form the Nascent Soul that the energy vortex began to calm down as the energy requirements died down at this stage and focused more onprehension as well as the soul.

    Seeing that Beatrice was settled, Dante then rxed his guard and began to focus on his own cultivation process. Currently, he had read through the earlier bits and realized that his Origin Core had the effects of a Golden Core and an Essence Soul in one.

    A Golden Core''s main feature was its ability to cultivate on its own through autonomous absorption, which was a far weaker version of the Origin Core''s autonomous energy production feature.

    Likewise, an Essence Soul contained the memories, thoughts, and especially the spiritual essence of a cultivator. Dante''s Origin Core possessed that too as even if his body was blown up, he could reform himself with his Origin Core.

    In that same vein, no one could steal or copy his Origin Core because every bit of energy contained his essence so those who used it would be soon taken over and possessed by him. This was why when he bestowed energy to others, he had to physically detach his essence from it; otherwise, those fellows would just be ''poisoned'' by it.

    He had no interest in being a parody of Agent Smith.

    So Dante skipped Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Soul Formation, and went straight to Dao Integration, the sixth realm out of nine in the mortal stages.

    The Dao Integration Realm required a cultivator to build a Dao Bridge between themselves and the world, effectively connecting the Essence Soul and Dantian to the world and obtaining the ability to manipte the world around them.

    Here, the cultivator would take the first step into understandingws. All the stages before were basically preparatory, to cultivate enough pure energy to power the world''s forces and then to cultivate one''s soul to be able to control the world''s forces.

    For Dante, this was the first step in deciding his Origin Power as he sought not to control a mere world, but the entire universeˇ­ no, the entire multiverse. Utilizing the process in which the Dao bridge is constructed, he might be able to carve his path toward that end and form something unique.

 Chapter 336 The Path Forward 2

    Chapter 336 The Path Forward 2

    ??The Dao Bridge involved using both one''s energy and soul to connect with the world. In truth, given what he currently knew about everything, it seemed like among the various power systems, these cultivators had discovered the closest path to ascension.

    Dante didn''t doubt that in some universe, cultivation was real. It was entirely possible to rely on external energy - maybe not always spirit energy - to methodically evolve oneself into an origin being.

    In fact, the very immortals that cultivation spoke of seemed like Origin Beings. From the description and details of the highest realm of the mortal stages, which was the Ascension realm, this involved converting one''s spirit energy umted from the start into the higher grade Immortal energy which was unmatched.

    But Dante was digressing. For him, energy did not matter;ws did. As such, he closed his eyes and entered his soul space. The scene was the same as always, a starry sky in the middle of nowhere without the backdrop ofs nor nebs.

    However, just before he was about to begin his work, he paused and tilted his head. For the first time since he entered his soul space, Dante finally asked himself the pressing question.

    Why exactly did his soul space take on the visage of a starry sky? A starry sky implied that there were - obviously - stars in the far distance of space, so what were those dots that should be stars be representing?

    "Levi." Dante was not the type of person to crack his skull open and think down rabbit holes when he could simply ask and receive the answer.

    The giant hawk-like creature flew over from around the Origin Core where he and the others usually basked, enjoying the feeling of such pure and homely energy.

    "What''s up? Got any questions that need resolving?" Levi asked as he floated before Dante casually.

    "Of course, bruv. What exactly are those star-like entities at the edge of my soul space?" Dante greeted and pointed into the distance.

    Levi turned to look and seemed to finally have noticed this phenomenon for the first time. He tilted his head and then closed his eyes to focus.

    Immediately, Dante felt his origin core pulse strongly as an intense feeling of drainage worked on him. His core''s brightness significantly reduced in that moment, but about 10%.

    Dante''s face changed significantly, as he nced at Levi with shock. Jesus, it took that much energy for the Truth Beast to use his abilities to peer into greater truths? Then how much had Etz Chaim been paying when he asked Levi about Lara as well as First Gate secrets?

    "Oh, now this is interesting." Levi muttered as he opened his eyes.

    "I''ve got some interesting facts for you this time, Dante. It turns out that the average space is supposed to be a nk void of darkness with nothing within, and this is true for all lower-dimensional lifeforms regardless of race or origin."

    "However, you and the various species of technologically advanced universes all have this kind of special soul space due to the fact that you have witnessed the originw of space intimately." Levi stopped here to let Dante digest the information.

    "Huh? Witnessed the Origin Law of space intimately? Not just me but all technologically advanced universes?" Dante began to ponder what this could be while Levi continued to preen himself casually.

    He had spent enough time around Dante to know how capable he was and also how much information he liked to be fed at a time. He would only supply the final answer if Dante couldn''t reach it himself.

    "Oh! The Test of the Universe!" Dante''s eyes lit up as he dug out an old memory.

    Levi''s eye lit up as he nodded. "That''s right. The phenomenon where upon entering warp space, one will see a colorful kaleidoscopic void and be entranced. To break out, one only needs slight external stimuli but without that, the person would be fully assimted into space rather quickly."

    "Entering warp space allows one to interact with thews of space intimately and in the safest possible manner. All beings that survive this event gain a slight imprint of thew of space in their soul spaces, allowing them to enter warp space any time in the future without falling into that same trance."

    Dante nodded. "That is pretty interesting, thanks."

    "Anytime." Levi waved a wing and returned to the origin core to continue basking in the sweet origin energy.

    Meanwhile, Dante pondered the information he received. If he had the imprint of the originw of space, it naturally meant that if he were to try andprehend the origin power of space, he would reap twice the results for half the effort.

    However, was the power of space what he wanted?

    This was a question Dante had to ask himself. With the abilities of quantum entanglement, not to mention this imprint on his soul space as well as his previous magical prowess with the space element, it did seem somewhat fitting for him to walk down such a path.

    But when he thought of his own personal ambitions, he could only abandon the thought. Dante already had in mind the kind of dao he was going for, and it definitely was not the space element.

    In the end, he came to a corner of his soul space and sat cross-

    legged in the void. His entire focus came down to how he was going to establish this divine bridge, and he reviewed the method as stated in the cultivation technique.

    First, Dante took a huge amount of energy from his Origin Core, nearly 50% of it at once, and let it flow around his soul projection. Moving this much energy at once made his summoned beasts rmed as they stoppedzing about and rushed over to see if there was any trouble.

    Even the usually reticent Etz Chaim manifested in Dante''s soul space, ncing at his soul projection with a curious look.

    "Huh? What is this fellow doing now?" She muttered to herself as she watched with wide eyes, not wanting to miss any mind- boggling things this mortal might do.

    Dante paid no mind to anything around him and focused on his task. The wave of origin energy snaked around him, almost forming a virtual dragon of energy. Using the might of his soul, he coiled the energy round and round his soul projection before unleashing it forward like a whip.

    BANG!

    Immediately, the point in ''space'' where his energy struck began to crack like a windowpane that had been punched. Both the summoned beasts and Etz were stunned by this because even if you gave them a thousand brains, they could never have calcted that this was what Dante would do.

    A strange kaleidoscopic light glowed behind the cracks Dante had formed, revealing a scene that was indistinguishable on the other side. Meanwhile, Dante himself was sweating and panting both in real life and within his soul space because you could be sure as hell that such an operation hurt.

    He did not follow the full path of cultivation and skipped stages, so he did not have the refined ability of a Nascent Soul turned Essence Soul, meaning his soul was far weaker than that of a cultivator at the same stage.

    Why he dared to do this was obviously the presence of Weaver, his Soul Beast. Dante immediately beckoned the fellow over and patted the cloud-like substance gently before giving his orders.

    "Protect the core of my soul with all your might, use as much energy as necessary." Dante instructed, to which Weaver naturally obeyed. The would-beast expanded to cover the entire space, including the origin core, the summoned beasts, and the quantum gate.

    Etz naturally refused the protection of the Soul Beast as she was confident in her power and was dying to see what the purpose of this was.

    Dante continued his work. He took another bout of energy just asrge from the Origin Core, causing it to reduce for a second before it produced its next batch of energy. Using this long dragon of energy, Dante whipped the same spot as before which was at the edge of his soul.

    The cracks then expanded and were on the brink of shattering, which caused Dante to take another break to recover from the pain. It was already warned in the technique that many of the different breakthrough stages would cause significant pain to the mind and body, so cultivators needed to have strong wills.

    Dante felt the change on the horizon, and this time, the energy he took from his origin core was not temporary, but a permanent link. He took around 1/4th of his total origin energy to form a huge energy dragon that was constantly growing in size as it was fed with energy for each ''production cycle'' the origin core underwent.

    Using this ever-growing wave of energy, a glint shone in Dante''s eye as he whipped towards the cracks for the final time, using all of his strength in this one.

 Chapter 337 The Path Forward - End

    Chapter 337 The Path Forward - End

    ??CRACK!

    A loud shattering sound urred when Dante struck the crack, and the barrier that blocked his soul from connecting to the outside shattered. Immediately, a huge wave of colors poured into his soul space from the outside, causing the void-like soul space to be lively.

    Before the entire area could be inundated with it, the energy whip that Dante used solidified in front of the crack, forming its own unique barrier in the form of a gate. This gate then adapted into a long golden bridge that started from his origin core and went straight to the crack.

    The moment this urred, all the colors converged back towards the gate and were expelled from his soul space, now being mostly controble and tamepared to before.

    Etz Chaim watched the entire debacle with a dumbfounded expression. She had never heard of anyone destroying their own soul barrier which protected the soul from the harmful forces of the outside world willingly.

    Not only that, Dante had somehow managed to bridge the hole he created and allow these outside forces into his soul in a controlled manner. Etz Chaim might not understand cultivation nor its rules, but she understood that this method could grant a person the ability to slowly gain control of external originws the more they allowed these outside forces to imprint on the soul in a controlled manner.

    Dante himself sighed with relief at his sess and knew that the majority of it had to be attributed to the superior energy of his origin core, which was not only plentiful but also very tyrannical. The normal spirit energy a cultivator possessed could not destroy the barrier as quickly nor could it suppress the iing outside forces so easily.

    With this, Dante had taken his first step into activating his Origin power. Now all that was left was to spend time integrating the correct origin power in the outside world into his soul space and then activating the next stage of simr cultivation, which was the Immortal King realm where one established their dao.

    None of the mortal stages did that; the Dao Integration just paved the way for a cultivator to safely imprint externalws to make things easier, then they went right back to energy gathering and energy conversion from Void Refining that came after Dao Integration up until the Golden Immortal realm, which was golden core but for immortal energy.

    Obviously, the rest of the stuff Dante needed to do no longer involved the quantum world, so he was technically done with the Immortal World. As such, he nced at the spectating Etz Chaim lightly and then left his soul space.

    On the outside, Dante saw that Beatrice had progressed rapidly while he was doing his own thing. She had already reached the Dao Integration realm after creating her Nascent Soul and Essence Soul, which only took seconds since her powerful Intelligence SDI and soul made it a process of refinement and condensation rather than generation.

    Now, she was also breaking the boundaries of her soul space to allow for an external connection to the outside world, but it was nowhere near as easy as Dante''s process. After all, while her spirit energy was superior to others, her soul was also too strong, forcing her to strike one point with all her various powers repeatedly.

    So from the outside, Dante could see Beatrice''s terrible grimace and sweat-matted forehead due to the pain she was experiencing. His heart ached as he hated seeing his wife in pain, but he knew that interfering with this process would make things even worse.

    Beatrice would take some time to reach the highest realm, and she would need to stay in the Immortal World for a while. Dante, though, was now free of his obligations and decided to work on Quantum Entanglement.

    After all, this was one of his main charges, more important than his personal quest for power since once he maxed out his power, he would be able to receive an actual authority.

    Dante re-entered his soul space and came to the giant quantum gate. Standing before it, he couldn''t help but recall where he started from and then ponder on where he was going.

    He was now at the S rank of Quantum Entanglement and had the SS, SSS, and EX Ranks left to achieve his goal. It would not be an easy task, but he did have some advantages currently.

    Dante came behind the gate as usual to see the remaining 45% of tangled threads still there. Enough had been untangled to allow Etz Chaim to feed him too much power and connect them so strongly that she could descend safely into lower space, so he wondered what would happen if everything was untangled.

    Luckily, he no longer needed to rely on Zero Energy alone to untangle the threads since he now possessed his own source of Origin Energy. Dante pulled from his core and began doing his work, noting that the job was much easier and much faster when he was using his own Origin Energy than when he used external zero energy.

    Based on this fact alone, Dante surmised that it should take somewhere between one to three years to raise Quantum Entanglement to the EX Rank, a frighteningly short period for the kind of power it promised him.

    As it were, the SS Rank itself was only 3 months away. In fact, the only reason why it might take 3 years was Dante stopping the progress to deal with external things. If he dedicated his entire time to developing this, it would only take a year at best, hence the timeframe.

    The residence of Dante and Beatrice within the Pure Heaven Sect descended into a strange silence as they focused on their own matters thoroughly without paying attention to anything else nor disturbing each other''s hard work.

    Like this, 3 months passed.

    .........ˇ­..

    "Whew, finally done up to 75%." Dante muttered to himself as the quantum gate shuddered and released a shockwave as a huge amount of energy flowed into it from Etz Chaim, waking the avatar up from her usual semi-slumber.

    "Heng? Wuz going on?" She muttered sleepily until she noticed that a lot of her energy was going to Dante, then she shook her grogginess away and focused.

    "Oh, you''ve made another breakthrough. Good, that''s very good. In no time, you should be able to reach EX and receive my blessing to be a true Eternal." Etz Chaim nodded with satisfaction.

    "Still, you have to also acquire all of Lara''s clones so that I can forcibly rejoin them to her body, or you won''t be able to get the authority over the universes. She stole a part from me and divvied it up in her clones so I can''t easily take it back." Etz Chaim reminded with a pointed look.

    "Sure, that makes sense, I get what you mean. I have already begun recruiting forces who will descend into other universes and lure her out to be seized by me." Dante reassured Etz with a smile.

    Etz seemed to not care as she waved her hand casually. "Meh, you and Luka are smart guys, always having ns and clever tricks. Anyway, here''s a list of abilities I can add to your quantum entanglement. Choose the one you like."

    "Right, before that, I''ve always meant to ask. Once I reach EX rank will Quantum Entanglement stay or will it transform into the authority?" Dante hastily asked the avatar before she disappeared.

    "Huh? Of course, the superpower is the foundation of the authority. I only supply you energy to use the abilities sincethe current you cannot even power it, even with origin energy. The abilities themselves are straight from pieces of the authority that I have broken down into individual abilities and have been giving you." Etz Chaim answeredzily.

    "So essentially, from the list I''ve been given at every rank, I will obtain the ones I didn''t and do not choose when I gain the full authority?" Dante further pressed as his eyes lit up.

    "Of course, that and more. I don''t really care much about this authority but I can tell you there''s a lot to it. It''s far morepound andplex than any natural authority that Lara or Myra might have had and Luka spent an untold amount of time crafting it." Etz responded and left this time, clearly not willing to answer anymore.

    This was fine with Dante as his major concern was answered. Now that he knew what exact benefit came from raising the superpower, he would focus on it in tandem with his pursuit of personal power, but after this upgrade, he really needed to start work on the clones of Lara.

    Anyway, all of that was forter. Now that he had put in the work for 3 consistent months without eating, sleeping, or even breaking his focus, it was naturally time to reap the rewards, and Dante was looking forward to what would be offered him at the SS rankpared to all the ranks before.

 Chapter 338 SS Rank Quantum Entanglement

    <h4>Chapter 338 SS Rank Quantum Entanglement</h4>

    ?[SS Rank Upgrade Paths for Quantum Entanglement]

    1. Quantum Elimination: The user can remotely trigger any quantum marker, causing all targets, be they living or non-living, within the range of a gxy to be unterally sucked into a quantum tunnel that leads into the void between universes, guaranteeing instant death regardless of their power.

    2. Quantum Omni-Clone: This upgrade grants the user the ability to transcend the limitations of individual existence, merging with the quantum fabric of the universe itself. They be able to create an infinite amount of quantum clones that possess 50% of their full power within any universe.

    3. Quantum Barrier: This upgrade permits the user to wrap themselves and everyone within the range of an entire of their quantum marker in a protective cloak of quantum energy. This barrier grants full invincibility, making them impervious to attacks or harm for up to 1 hour within the zone.

    4. Quantum Freeze: This particr upgrade allows the user to ce a quantum marker on a target or object, forcefully tethering it to a specific point in space. This effectively immobilizes the target, preventing it from moving in any way, freezing them in time and space. The user can also remotely retract or release the anchor at will after it is ced from any distance across the multiverse.

    5. Quantum Dimension: The user can now establish a permanent connection between any quantum markers ced in different dimensions, allowing for seamless travel between these realms. The user can also now sense quantum markers of these alternate realities and ess them.

    6. Quantum Omnipresence: The user can extend their consciousness to all quantum markers ced across the multiverse simultaneously, granting them an omniscient perspective over the universe.

    [SS Rank New Sub-Abilities for Quantum Entanglement]

    1. Quantum Universal Genesis: The user can create entire universes from scratch, filling them with basic life, simple energy, and cosmic phenomena ording to a range of options for design. This universe can grow and be part of the myriad existences of its kind in the lower dimensional multiverse.

    2. Quantum Creation: The user can create a duplicate of any item they have encountered before, regardless of whether quantum or real. The item will be of the most superior quality it can possibly be, as well as fullypliant with reality''sws and their functions usable by all beings.

    3. Quantum Apotheosis: This transcendent ability elevates targets from quantum worlds to the status of quantum deities, transcending mortal limitations and ascending to the highest echelons of existence below the Origin God. They be beings of pure quantum energy, able to exist in reality and manifest their abilities to a lesser extent.

    4. Quantum Time Sight: The user can generate alternate quantum timelines based on current scenarios and assess them, gaining a full record of possible future events up to a decade in length.

    5. Quantum Implementation: This upgrade ability allows the user to turn any portion of a quantum realm into a portion of reality and any portion of reality into a portion of a quantum realm. It can be specific, general, or random, and the effectsst for as long as the user wishes.

    6. Quantum Erasure: This ability allows the user to erase quantum markers or any instance of quantum entanglementpletely, eradicating their traces and impact on reality as well as quantum worlds.

    Dante''s brows furrowed as he nced at the disappearing Etz Chaim. "Hey, where''s the rest? There are supposed to be ten of them, right?"

    "Meh, what''s the point? You can only contain one ability each time, and cutting them up requires a lot of effort to make sure that they can function entirely on their own," Etz Chaiminedzily.

    "Besides, why are youining? Just cross two more ranks and you''ll get the whole thing," she muttered while giving him a pointed look.

    Dante found that this made sense and he could not easily refute, which made him want to p his forehead. In the end, he focused on his choices and decided that since he would get everything soon enough, he would need to prioritize what he needed right now.

    After a quick scan, he chose Quantum Omni-Clone and Quantum Creation. The former ability was chosen so that he could much more efficiently hunt down Lara''s clone and thetter was chosen so that he could generate anything he needed at any time.

    After making his choices, the changes were implemented onto him, and he knew how to use these two new abilities as well as their possible limitations. Satisfied with everything so far, Dante left his soul space and nced at Beatrice.

    Unsurprisingly, the beauty was ying with Antonia, nuzzling the toddler with her nose and making the little one giggle happily. Dante couldn''t help but smile and pat his thighs as he pushed himself to his feet, an act which attracted the attention of the other two.

    "Yay, daddy''s done with his boring meditation!" Antonia threw her hands up in joy and exasperation, making Beatrice chuckle.

    Dante himself couldn''t help butugh and pat her head gently. "Well, my darling Antonia, you will also have to start meditating like this when you''re older if you want to be strong like Dad and Mom."

    Antonia folded her arms. "Really? I went with mommy for the test and those old codgers were all eximing and pulling their beards, saying I am a talent not seen in ten thousand years."

    Dante was surprised and nced at Beatrice, who could only smile bitterly. "She heard about it and pestered me to go, but who knew she would break all their testing devices and cause the dormant spirit of their founding ancestor to wake up and state that she was the foundation of heaven and earth?"

    "Oh right, she is like your mom, a daughter of heaven. Since this quantum world is a subset of the Eternal Universe, she must be like a manifestation of an upper world''s dao to these fellows, no wonder they were so excited," Dante mused while tapping his lip.

    "Anyway, it doesn''t matter. She''s too young to practice Internal arts or cultivation anyway, and by the time she''s of age to do so, we''ll already be in charge of the entire multiverse, so she can freely pursue whatever power she wants," Dante stated with a shrug.

    Beatrice gave him a nonplussed look. "Please don''t be like my mom or your father, Dante. Let''s n our daughter''s future properly."

    Dante ced his arms akimbo and smiled teasingly. "Well, it seems Sigmund Freud wins again. I really did marry a woman just like my own mother!"

    "Huh? Mommy and grandma?" Antonia, who had beenying snugly in Beatrice''s arms, was now startled.

    She then nced at Beatrice and mentallypared her to Aileen, then shook her head. "No way Daddy, Mommy and Grandma aren''t the same!"

    "Oh, why do you say so? How are they different?" Dante became interested as he asked his daughter.

    Beatrice also looked at Antonia with a curious nce, wondering what her daughter thought of her currently.

    "Wellˇ­ mommy is so gentle and softˇ­ and she always smells good. Grandma is pretty strict but is so kind when there''s no one around," Antonia seemed to rack her little brain to describe how she felt.

    "Yeah, your mom does smell nice. Infact, you''ve been hogging my spot all this while so I haven''t gotten a chance to enjoy it myself!" Dante eximed as he suddenly realized the evil plot of his daughter.

    Antonia''s face changed and she clutched Beatrice''s torso tightly and dug her face in. "No way, I want to stay with mommy! Daddy, you can have her when I''m asleep!"

    "How greedy! Antonia, don''t you care about your poor father anymore?! In fact, Iˇ­" Dante began to yfully berate the little girl who kept refuting with a red face, making Beatrice speechless.

    "The two of youˇ­"

    Looking at the two of them who began to wrestle as Dante poked his finger on Antonia''s forehead and Antonia who bit his finger while refusing to let go, Beatrice''s heart could not help but feel warm.

    She thought of the months and years she spent in the treacherous Eternal Academy during her five years there as a teen and her subsequent posting into the Inferno Battleship right after graduation with no break in between.

    Those days filled with darkness and frigid cold where all she did was kill, fight and then live in the solitude of space with only the Etr to be herpanion contrasted her bright and warm memories of the current moment as well as the past 3 years which had been filled with adventures,ughter, and love.

    Suddenly, Antonia stopped fighting when she felt a droplet of water hit her head. She touched her head and then looked up, bing rmed when she saw that Beatrice was crying.

    "Oh no, mommy I''m sorry! If you want to spend time with daddy, I won''t disturb you!" Antonia hurriedly said as she gently wiped Beatrice''s eyes.

    "No! No, it''s fine my love. Mommy isn''t sad, but is very happy right now," Beatrice replied as she hugged Antonia tighter.

    Antonia patted Beatrice back lightly and nced at her father with a helpless look, as if saying ''is she really fine?'' which left Dante amused. He pulled the two into his embrace and spoke gently but firmly to them.

    "No matter what, we''ll always be here for each other, and I will make sure that nothing in the entire universe will harm you two."

 Chapter 339 First Origin Level Battle

    <h4>Chapter 339 First Origin Level Battle</h4>

    ?Lara Sanguis was seated in her semi-throne within her office, tapping the table lightly. Her face was pulled into a deep scowl as she thought of the events that had urred in these past few years, which had set her back by a great amount.

    And also, the person who was at the forefront of these events.

    "Dante..." Lara muttered that name with a seething hatred only inferior to her despise for Luka.

    She clenched her fists tightly, her entire body''s blood rushing through her veins as her anger peaked at the thought of the fellow. In the end, she could only release her grip and sigh helplessly, knowing that the current her was no longer capable of dealing with him.

    Unlike Dante, who had probably been growing in strength since theirst fight, she could not grow at all as a clone. Her power was given, now developed nor worked for, so she would disy the same amount of strength no matter how many years passed.

    This was a source of distress for her, but she understood it was a failsafe from the main body. She knew herself best after all, and even though Lara was dedicated to the mission of the main body, who knew how the various stimuli of the various universes might affect her clones?

    One should know that they were born and raised like normal beings in order to ''gain citizenships'' of the various universes, meaning they had parents, childhood, and all that. They weren''t like Dante who sprung up in an alleyway and proceeded to rise to domination.

    "Maybe I should contact the others?" Lara hesitated as she asked herself.

    The main body gave them strictmands not to link up or interfere with each other, something which they abided by, but the main body also gave them permissions to connect if a threat that was big enough to end their ns appeared.

    However, the question was, could Dante even be considered such a threat? Sure, he was strong and powerful for a lower dimensional being, but he was currently contributing to her overall n by participating in the First Gate conflicts.

    So technically, he was a pawn in her chessboard. Sure she didn''t like him, but that was more a trivial issuepared to the grand sess of the n. Besides, Dante was doing pretty well in the First Gate, which was a good thing right?

    Lara was still contemting her various issues as well as how to deal with things when the Central AI of the school let out an rm into her AI chip. Lara herself was only barely able to even fire a few thoughts of rm through her synapses before she was sent flying with a light push, crashing through her office andnding on the floor of the administration area.

    The slightly busy admin area which usually had students and workers of the school bustling about to perform various tasks suddenly froze as everyone gazed iprehensibly as the esteemed headmistress who had been nted face first into the floor, causing it to crack.

    On top of her, with his knee pressed on her back, his right hand grasping her scalp and his expression one of neutrality, was Dante, a well-known second-year student who was also the nominal ruler of the universe.

    Everyone was aware that there was some conflict between Lara and Dante but most assumed it was just a casual power grab between two people who stood at the peak as to who got to actually sit on the metaphorical throne.

    However, seeing this scene and acknowledging the fact that Dante had literally struck the headmistress directly in public like this with no provocation made people understand that there was far more to this than politics.

    This was Lara''s second time having her face nted by Dante and one time was already enough to haunt her. This second was definitely beyond what she could tolerate as Lara carelessly exploded with power, unleashing the full power of her authorities upon the area around her.

    A surge of elemental chaos emerged from her body and swept the area, destroying the entire administration building and causing the entire ne that the Eternal Academy was situated on to quake.

    Lara pushed herself up from the ground and the power raged around her, her eyes bloodshot beyond belief as her lips curled into a terrifying frown of hatred. Meanwhile, Dante casually stood opposite her, covered in a golden-orange barrier that blocked out all the power from Lara''s outburst as he nced at her coldly.

    Lara''s pupils narrowed as she sized Dante up. "So what, you think because you have be half of an Origin being, you can now challenge me? You have no idea the true power of the various universes nor who is their ruler!"

    "Spare me the monologue. I am aware of everything and after I capture you, you will understand just how futile your n was from the start," Dante replied as he waved his hand and manifested a multicolored halberd from nothing.

    Immediately, Lara''s expression changed greatly as she took a solid step back. "Origin Laws! You can manifest Origin Laws! But how?!"

    Dante did not give her an answer as he charged forward and struck out with the halberd, causing the air itself to sizzle with a strange power as it cut towards the clone. Lara immediately manifested a whip made of fire andshed out, colliding with the iing blow.

    The whip was made out of pure white me, and Dante immediately identified it as the unique Heavenly Annihtion me that could only be used by one who had pinnacle authority over the fire element.

    It easily deflected his attack and even caused him to stagger a little, something that baffled Dante thoroughly. However, Lara wore a smile as she flexed the whip casually, her eyes narrowing coldly.

    "I don''t know how you gained an origin state of being nor how you managed to gain some rudimentary control over the most basic Originws, but it means nothing in the face of true authority, even watered down like this!" She dered in an arrogant manner.

    "Oh? I don''t believe you. Your authority had to make way for me before, and my power was far weaker then," Dante shook his head and disagreed casually.

    Laraughed, a shrill thing full of malice and hatred. "That''s true. I don''t know how, but the powers you used before contained fragments of an authority and were far more condensed than what I had, so you could somewhat suppress me."

    Lara flourished her majestic elemental whip casually, causing a line to form in the ground that went straight to the ne''s next level underground. "However, a mere Origin power like yours cannot hope to match me even without an authority. Your Origin energy is thin and weak, while your control over Originws is clumsy at best and downright sad to watch at worst."

    Dante raised an eyebrow as he understood what Lara was trying to say. In other words, he was an entry-level powerhouse among Origin Gods because they all had infinite energy production cores like him but would have retained all their powers and improved them.

    So not only did typical origin beings have an origin power system, they also had their own powers. In actual fact, nothing really said that Origin Gods necessarily had to use Originws for their Origin powers, it was just one option out of many.

    However, due to how Dante ascended, he had none of his powers left on him as they had all been washed away. Meanwhile, the Originws he was using to fight were strong in power but mediocre in control because this was literally his first time using them inbat.

    With all of thesebined, Dante was at adisadvantage while facing Lara for now. However, this did not deter him, as he understood that this was the best time to practice how to control his origin power in case he met other such beings in the future.

    If he could quickly raise his skill in controlling Originws up before sumbing to Lara''s prowess, he could achieve a significant power boost. As such, Dante did not utter a word after that but rather charged forward with his weapon outstretched, this time imbuing some of his battle experience into his movements.

    Lara was not flustered by this as she was not a weakling that sat in a big chair every day and barked orders at everyone but had killed her way to the top from studenthood till here. Not to mention that as the Commander of the Forest Fairies, she was nominally the strongest being below Myra in the entire multiverse.

    She easily repelled Dante''s attack with a flick of her wrist, causing her elegant ming whip to twist and curl in the air, striking at Dante multiple times like a group of snakes trying to bite a target.

    Dante remained calm even as he struggled to maintain the conformity of the originw halberd he created and swung it rapidly to meet the attacksing from all sides that contained slightly superior power.

 Chapter 340 Origin Power

    Chapter 340 Origin Power

    ??"Ha, to think you came here with the assumption that you, a lowly lesser lifeform, could possibly deal with one like myself," Laraughed with endless glee and joy at the feeling of watching Dante struggle to defend against her attacks.

    Her expression was twisted and full of malice, her eyes shining with bloodlust and hatred as she seemed to see the figure of Dante ovep with that of Luka, the one she hated most in this world.

    "How dare you! How dare you suppress me! How dare you be stronger than me!" She roared crazily, increasing the amount of power in her attacks, wanting not only to inflict critical injuries upon Dante but to capture him so that she could spend every day torturing him.

    Dante kept blocking as best as he could, but his originw halberd shattered, forcing him to use quantum entanglement to teleport to a quantum marker he ced slightly behind. He panted and burned more energy to connect his origin bridge within his soul to the gateway, allowing more of the multicolored power in.

    Even as he casually and skillfully grasped the colors, some of them slipped from his grasp and stained the background of his soul space, leaving a bit of their influence on him. This was not a bad thing but rather the opposite, the exact point and goal of the Dao Integration Realm.

    By staining your soul space, you made it easier and easier to not only sense thews of heaven and earth but to control them and evenprehend one of them to be your mainw when you became an Immortal King.

    Dante was significantly far aheadpared to the typical cultivator though; he had near-perfect control of Originws and could even pick and choose which of them he liked. He only let the originws he was considering on making his main origin power in the future stain him, something which a normal cultivator at this stage couldn''t hope to achieve.

    Dante carefully reformed the originw halberd, but one could notice that there were fewerws within, making it more solid and controlled. Lara was too deep into her madness-influenced rage to notice, though, and attacked Dante immediately after rushing into melee range.

    Again, a simr suppression began, but Dante was noticeably doing better than before due to his weapon being more refined and his mind adapting to Lara''s attack patterns. Still, it was only a matter of time before his new weapon shattered once more, leaving him defenseless for a brief moment in which Lara hastily capitalized.

    "You''re not getting away this time!" She bellowed as she unleashed her authority over the space element to bind the entire area, making it impossible to even move an inch, much less teleport.

    Filled with excitement once again, she struck down on Dante with her full power in what she expected to be the final blow but was left stunned to see Dante easily teleport out of range once again as he rested a little.

    "ˇ­how?" Lara seemed to wake up from her madness a little as she said speechlessly.

    "You''re just a clone; you couldn''t possiblyprehend what''s happening here," Dante replied in a mocking tone that set off the already agitated Lara.

    She began to see red and quickly forget about the strangeness of Dante''s abilities as well as the obvious signs that anyone else would have noticed by now. Instead, she turned her whip into a giant avatar that was formed around her body.

    It formed a sort of astral form that had her silhouette and her rough features but was made up of the white-colored Heavenly Annihtion me. Its size was huge, covering almost the entirety of what used to be the administration building space and enabling those on the school to see it from afar.

    But at this point in the battle, many eyes had naturally converged on the fight through various technological means, and manyworks were broadcasting the battle live.

    Currently, thergest broadcastwork in the Eternal Universe, the Etr News Network, had its Virtual Reality Live Broadcast room filled to the brim. Hundreds of trillions of consciousnesses were ced in the area of the battlefield of Dante and Lara, spectating the fight with different expressions and thoughts.

    [Maximum_Todd: "What exactly is going on here? I''ve been watching for like 3 minutes, but I can''t understand what they''re saying or why they''re saying it."]

    [DoneCanIdaho: "It''s not about what they''re saying, but what they''re doing. These two are fighting again, but why? Is it politically motivated or are they finally settling the score as to who is the strongest?"]

    [GeeKandi: "That isn''t even the issue in my opinion. If they are really settling the score, Dante is very disappointing right now. Last time he absolutely dominated her but it seems like he''s struggling now. Did he be weaker or what?"]

    [Kalijinn: "I noticed that too. I once jokingly told my friend that these upper echelons are all ying a big game of chess and are actually in cahoots. Who knows, it was Dante''s turn to dominate ording to the decision of those shadow rulers and now they want Lara back in charge."]

    [TroisAcornes: "What is that theory, dude? Are you literally one of those crazy guys who think everything is a shadow out to get you? Ha, if that was the case, then my theory is that Lara is nning to destroy the entire universe and Dante is the heavenly hero chosen to save it."]

    [Potential_Error: "@TroisAcornes LMAAOOO. Fuck that guy up, I fucking hate retards like him."]

    [Krasnyred5: "Kek, they say that reality is sometimes more bizarre than fiction. Who knows, that theory might just be true."]

    [Dragon_Reborn: "Theories don''t matter. What matters is who is gonna win this and how it will affect the rest of us. Lara seemed not bad to me previously but in the three years that Dante had been the dominant force, things have gotten so much better. I don''t want that to change!"]

    [MuyGigante: "Like, I have been listening to you guys argue about all sorts of stuff whilementing that you''re on the wrong track. We literally have to root for Dante because whatever else he is, he is the best thing to happen to us right now."]

    [Woke_Alien: "Hey guys, just joined the stream. What''s happening?"]

    "Die!" Lara screeched as she made a move to smash down with a fist, causing her giant avatar to do the same towards Dante.

    Immediately the viewers on the live stream looked up with faces of shock, fear, and endless regret as if they were the ones about to be destroyed. Somehow, they could tell that even if they were here in digital form, if that white fire touched them, they would truly be destroyed.

    Dante was calm, though, as he nced back at the spectators who were invisible to the naked eye and every form of traditional perception but could not hide from thew of the universe.

    "I was actually waiting to narrow down my range ofws and increase my control a bit, but now is fine too," he muttered to himself.

    Dante reached his hand out to them, and a greyish-blue energy seeped over from them that coalesced slowly around Dante''s body, forming a simr avatar to the one Lara had but much smaller.

    Lara practically almost fellover with mockingughter. "After all of this, that is the best you can do? Even when copying my techniques, you cannot exert even 10% of my strength!"

    However, herughter was forcibly choked in her throat when she saw the avatar that formed around Dante shift its form. It went from something mimicking her ability to a condensed suit that shrunk to fit Dante''s body, covering him from head to toe.

    However, that alone was not enough to cause Lara shock. It was also the fact that Dante, in this different form, suddenly raised his hand which shifted into a giant cannon, firing arge grayish-blueser beam that pierced through her oing attack and dispersing arge part of her avatar.

    Lara recoiled from the attack and tried to reform the part of her avatar that was destroyed but found that there was a lingering energy of the same color as the beam that was preventing this. Immediately, she understood what had just happened was the worst-case scenario.

    "You!! You''ve somehow mastered the ability to use only one Origin Law in your attacks at 100% capacity! But how? How could you do it so quickly?!" Lara''s pupils constricted rapidly.

    Dante flexed his body and condensed his armor further, giving it some mechanical outlines but it was still mostly ethereal and intangible.

    "Like I said, a mere clone like you has no clue of what''s going on. I could have defeated you in one hit from the moment I arrived, but I decided to use you as a grindstone to help me hone my control over Origin Laws."

    Dante then pointed his arm cannon at Lara coldly. "But now your utility has expired, so let''s wrap this up."

 Chapter 341 Danteâ€™s Law

    <h4>Chapter 341 Dante''s Law</h4>

    ?"No! I DON''T ACCEPT THIS!" Lara roared, but there was nothing she could do at this point.

    Dante walked over and struck her in the gut with his full strength backed by the power of his new originw suit. This naturally caused Lara to gasp in agony as she spat out everything contained within her stomach, which wasn''t much but just gastric juice and saliva.

    Dante grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and teleported away, disappearing from the view of the masses. The overall fight was short and intense, but it was one that would never be forgotten by the denizens of this universe for years toe.

    Many fell to their asses in the virtual reality space, especially those with stronger souls and perception who felt the threat of death more than the normal people with unremarkable abilities.

    They were fully aware that whatever the reason for the fight, they had almost been casualties of war if not for Dante protecting them. That fact was all they needed to understand the morality of Lara and Dante regardless of the reasons behind their fight.

    As for Dante, he returned to the estate on Etonia and threw Lara into his quantum space. He then dispersed the amazing suit of armor he coalesced, revealing the normal him whose brow was matted with sweat and was crazily rubbing his temples.

    "Ow, ow, owˇ­" he kept muttering under his breath, wincing from the mere act of thinking.

    Outwardly, he might be acting like there was nothing much wrong but a simple headache, but within his soul space, the entire realm was quaking roughly. The various colors were now raging about crazily, causing cracks to form at multiple ces.

    The core of his soul was protected by Weaver the Soul Beast as usual, and Dante fed him a continuous flow of origin energy to maintain the defense. Meanwhile, Etz Chaim was woken up again by themotion and was ncing at the result of Dante''s actions speechlessly.

    "Why can''t I sleep for just one year without something happening?!" Etz Chaim muttered with exasperation.

    As for Dante, he nced at the troublesome colors and then slowly began to expel them from his soul space using the main gate, forcibly removing their affinity and influence on him permanently.

    This caused Etz Chaim to be curious as she floated over to Dante''s soul projection and watched him work for a bit before asking the question that was on her mind.

    "Hey, what''s the point of this? I don''t know much about that cultivation rubbish you were on, but it seemed like it was on the right track mostly. Why are you undoing everything?"

    Dante smiled. "I was only borrowing its theories to find my own path, like you said, the cultivation method is limited in many ways even though it''s closest to the truth. Right now, I''ve mostly achieved my goal, so it''s time to clean house."

    "Huh? What goal?" Etz Chaim was still confused.

    "The point of that realm was to connect to the outside world and let the influence ofws pervade one''s soul space and leave its influence to build affinity. Cultivators at that realm can''t actually controlws the way I do because their energy source is still inferior until they be Golden Immortals with perfected Golden Immortal Energy, which is a type of inferior Origin Energy subset."

    "Then when a cultivator tries to break through to the Immortal King realm, they must now try to select one of the manyws that have stained their soul space over this period of time to be their main, so they power it with their energy and have it slowly expel the others out. This is usually very dangerous and painful for them, simr to what I am going through, and many fail here despite having great talents."

    Dante gestured to the colors that were being ''deported'' from his soul space in a single file along the bridge with slumped shoulders as if all hope was lost. "But I took a different path from the start. I only wanted to familiarize myself with controlling Origin Laws so I let them in, but I''ve already picked the Origin Law I want to coalesce into my Origin Power, so it''s time for them to go."

    "Uhˇ­ huh." Etz Chaim clearly did not understand much, but she was left speechless at the sight of entire originws being forcibly ''escorted'' out of Dante''s soul like bad children.

    "Right, so which Origin Law have you chosen?" Etz Chaim asked as she folded her arms with interest.

    Dante rubbed his chin as he manifested the greyish-blue originw he had used to defeat Lara, which was now filling his soul space. "At first, I didn''t think thisw existed due to my narrow mindset towards its concept, but I was surprised to find it actually did exist. Before that, I was still considering things like Time, Space, Life, Death, et cetera."

    Dante then turned the originw into a strong of words that read ''Technology''. "However, after discovering the Origin Law of Technology, how could I not take it for myself?"

    "Oh? You and this technology stuff. If I remember correctly, you call yourself the God of Technology, right?" Etz Chaim said with amusement.

    "Damn straight, and the Quantum Lord too. Before, it was just a title I hoped to fill the boots of one day, but now, it can really be reality. The Quantum Lord too will be achieved when I reach EX rank of Quantum Entanglement." Dante replied with a nod, no shame or shyness on his face or in his words.

    Etz Chaim was rendered silent by that.

    "Well, I hope you achieve all your goals and it certainly looks like you will. I''m really d that out of all the options I had, I lucked out to choose you." Etz Chaim said with a heartfelt tone.

    "Likewise, Etz. I am d that out of all the higher-dimensional beings I could possibly be affiliated with, it''s a kind and benevolent one like you." Dante reciprocated sincerely with a smile.

    The two smiled at each other, before Dante continued his task at hand. The other Origin Laws were soonpletely expelled from his soul space while he allowed the Origin Law of Technology to pervade his soul spacepletely and singrly.

    Although he shrunk Weaver''s area of protection, only covering the core of his consciousness and now exposing the Quantum Entanglement gate as well as the Origin Core, he was still careful. Only when the amount of thew of technology saturated his soul space did Dante close the gate towards the outside.

    "Alright, herees the moment of truth." He muttered to himself and then controlled therge amount of the untamed and mist-likew of technology in its entirety.

    With a sudden closure of his palm, the entirety of this mist-

    like mass congealed into one tiny spot, causing the entire soul space to quake once more.

    Dante could not seek help from anyone as his forehead in reality began to be filled with sweat and even his soul projection handling the world was extremely shaky. However, even using Origin Energy was not helpful because the process of gaining an Origin Power was not reliant on it.

    As Etz Chaim said, an Origin God required two things, an Origin Power and an Origin Source Energy, which was basically an Origin Core. One could acquire one before the other and be half an Origin God, like the current Dante.

    So it didn''t matter which one you got first, both could be achieved without the other. In fact, many beings that miraculously ascended usually condensed an Origin Power before the Origin Core since that was actually slightly harder, which was why Etz Chaim was so shocked previously.

    Currently, the method for Dante to achieve this was to turn the universe-level Origin Law of Technology into his personal power, his own Origin Power. This meant that he couldn''t be borrowing thew from outside through a hole in his soul space all the time, but like his Origin Core, he had to produce it automatically internally.

    Origin Gods produced everything internally and from seemingly nothing, not relying on other external sources. This was why the gap between them and nearest power level in any power system was so great.

    There were many ways to get an origin power, but Dante was using a rtively safe and sensible method of taking an Origin Law, cutting it off from the source and then condensing it into a single point in the smallest unit that would start to propagate and replicate itself endlessly.

    This usually had medium-low returns for a new Origin God and many would likely aspire for more difficult methods like rawprehension or even seizing, but Dante technically did not even need to do all of this.

    If he reached EX Quantum Entanglement, he would directly be an Eternal with a literal authority that surpassed the power of many Eternals in existence, going from nothing to one of the top 3 in the entire multiverse.

    All of this was just his own personal ambition to seek power that was personal to him. After all, authority that was given could also be taken away, but any Origin Power he condensed would be his permanently.

 Chapter 342 Nebula Level

    <h4>Chapter 342 Neb Level</h4>

    ?Dante also did not have any delusions of grandeur; he wasn''t seeking to create the most stable foundation and use the only heavenly immortal technique with a 0.1% sess rate that only cosmic luck that could officiate.

    He was perfectly happy using this method because it only changed the starting line. There was a sub-rank system for Origin Gods which served the purpose of showing their progress and strength, but even if one had the weakest Origin Core and Origin Power, they could still grow it to the strongest level in time and with hard work.

    So taking the high route only saved time and made one stronger than their peers in exchange for incalcble risks. Dante was in no rush as Etz Chaim gave him a time frame of millions of years, something which seemed like an eternity to the current him.

    Dante continued to press and squeeze, using his Origin Core''s energy to rx his strain and expended power. While he couldn''t directly use the Origin Energy to generate the Origin Power, he could use it in a cheating method like this to keep himself going, which was a benefit of condensing one half first before the other.

    Those who condensed Origin Power before their Origin Core could also use their Origin Power to help them in a simr but different way. The difficulty reallyy in achieving the first half; the second half andter were just a matter of time.

    Soon, Dante felt like he hadpressed the mist-like Law of Technology into a single point. Now it was so tiny that if it wasn''t in his soul space, he would struggle to detect it. It was also struggling against his control, much like how you can crush a ball of paper to a certain limit but after that, you couldn''t mash it any further.

    However, Dante had gone past that limit and the little point of Origin Law that was condensed was trembling like a gatling gun, looking like it would copse into dust. This was actually very important, for the truly worrisome part came here.

    "Explode!" Dantemanded as he ignited the originw with his soul power and then let go.

    The goal was to create a big bang sort of event where the minusculepressed originw would be ignited and explode outwards, multiplicating itself and bing a newer, purer form of power that could be merged with Dante''s soul.

    The explosion urred alright, a huge bang that shook the entire soul space as waves of grayish blue gas that was far more condensed than before spread out rapidly, almost covering the entirety of his soul space.

    Unlike before, Dante made no move to protect his core and rather let the originw concentrated there, coalescing into a shining neb that expanded towards the size of his Origin Core and then linked itself to it, growing further.

    Dante closed his eyes and regted the flow of Origin Energy, allowing his newly born Origin Power to suck as much as it needed to establish itself and consolidate before rxing the control.

    Now, it would only pull from his Origin Core when he wanted it to, or when he was unleashing his power. Depending on the extent of the power he was unleashing, the required quantity of energy would be consumed, which was the true fighting style of an Origin God.

    At this moment, Dante was a newly born Origin God!

    He did not feel any differentpared to before minus the sense of closeness to thew of technology, his minding up with various theories and conjectures that whizzed past by the second.

    Etz Chaim flew over with a smile. "Congrats, you''re now an Origin God, though only at the Neb level. Keeping working hard and you might reach the universe-level in time, but definitely not before you reach EX in Quantum Entanglement."

    Dante rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, I will focus on Quantum Entanglement now. Also, can you enlighten me as to the various sub-stages of the Origin God realm?"

    "Oh that. Well, there are like 6 of them. The first is the half Origin level where you either achieve your Origin Source Energy or Origin Power first. The second is theary level, where you have both acquired and in their most basic form."

    Etz Chaim nced at Dante with a look of remembrance. "Oh right, before I forget. You have to note that your Origin Core cannot be actively cultivated into a stronger form, only our Origin Power. When you Origin Power ascends, it will forcibly upgrade your Origin Core along with it to produce higher quantities of energy."

    "So the reason for the sub-stages is most to track the growth of the Origin Power more than the Origin Core. Hence, theary level means that your Origin Power has condensed into the shape of a within your soul space, which is the floor level requirement for an Origin God."

    "After that is the Star level, which means your Origin Power has expanded to the size of a star. More than a hundred times bigger than it was before and barely able to contain itself anymore."

    "Then poof! It erupts and spreads out throughout the soul space to form the neb level, where your Origin Power has broken out of its former spherical shape to form a wonderful neb."

    "Once again, it''s a process of umtion until your neb bes asrge as a gxy. Then you have reached the penultimate stage, the gxy level. At this point, your power is pretty much at its peak, and it''s really hard to achieve the final level."

    "Which is the universe stage I was talking about before. At this point, you are pretty much inches away from bing an Eternal, but you need to turn your Origin Core into an Eternal Forge and your Origin Power into an Eternal Talent."

    Etz Chaim then shrugged. "And that''s it. You''ve already jumped two levels because your Origin Core is so strong and the Origin Power you chose was extremelypatible with you, so it''s even possible for you to be an Eternal on your own with this technology stuff."

    Dante nodded. "Thanks for the information as always Etz, you''re the best."

    Etz Chaim folded her arms and nodded with a satisfied expression. "That''s right, and don''t you forget it!"

    Dante shook his head and left his soul space. He first noticed that he had received a lot of pings to his AI chip from various powers in the universe asking about his bout with Lara.

    Thinking about it, he decided to reveal arge part of the truth. Lara was a clone from a higher dimensional being that existed in every universe, aiming to use the First Gate to perpetuate the destruction of all universes by consuming the energy that sustains our birth and death cycle.

    When Dante sent this information out, everyone was speechless. Out of respect for him, they didn''t want to call him crazy but it was clear that no one was buying it. Seeing this from their various tactful responses, Dante smiled with amusement.

    In the end, he told them to announce to the world that there would be a livestream of Lara''s intentions. While the newsworks were busily promoting this with excitement, Dante moved himself to his courtyard and sat beside the poolfortably.

    After a while, he started the livestream which was instantly filled up with hundreds of trillions of people in seconds. The one question that had been burning the entire universe since the fight was why the two fought.

    In as much as people liked Dante, there were also many that didn''t. There were also some whowere hardcore fans of Lara because of her her cold and domineering behavior as well as her beauty.

    "Wee everyone. Normally its impossible to enter my estate to take a look, but today is a special asion since we''ll be having not one, but two special guests!" Dante greeted everyone casually whileying downfortably.

    Seeing him like this, many were left speechless. Why did this feel less like an official broadcast from the powers that be and rather some young master''s stream, about flexing his wealth and power over this poverty-stricken viewers?

    "Right, let me invite our special guests. Without further ado, I want you to meet Lara andˇ­ Lara!" Dante said dramatically with a wave of his hand, releasing both clones he had captured in front of him.

    One was the Lara from the Centralis Universe who had been captured more than a year ago and the other was the headmistress Lara who had been captured just a few minutes ago.

    Both appeared while seated around a small table, that had elegant chairs as well as fine settings. Both were drinking tea from custom-made cups and eating scrumptious pastries that would leave the mouth watering.

    They were shocked to be suddenly called out but did not make any move to escape, not because they were happy with confinement, but because in this brief moment, the Centralis universe Lara had already briefed the Eternal universe Lara on everything.

    Knowing Etz Chaim''s involvement and the grand n, the clone knew escaping was useless.

 Chapter 343 Laras Livestream

    Chapter 343 Lara''s Livestream

    ??As such, they had both decided to settle down and n ways to counterattack against Dante''s onught and the ''evil'' plot of Etz Chaim, but they did not expect to be released into the world once again.

    So, everyone showed expressions of surprise, but it wasn''t just this that stunned viewers. You see, Dante was a very generous host, and he really gave Lara''s clones anything they wanted in captivity because, in as much as they were enemies, he actually pitied her.

    Dante had no real enmity against her like Luka did, so he was far more amodating in this regard. So, while the Eternal Universe clone could be ignored since she just came, the Centralis Universe clone had been around for a while.

    Not only did Dante give her a full mansion in the quantum space, but he also gave her furniture,forts, and luxuries in there. Although the world was stale since it was technically dead space, Lara had no problem existing in there due to her power.

    This was why she came out looking like she was not imprisoned, but rather a guest at an important dignitary''s estate. However, once again, this was not what caused the entire spectating universe to almost lose their minds.

    It was because at some point, Lara had gotten used to her captivity and decided to request Dante to grant her a special set of clothes and attires that mimicked what her creator, Myra, wore.

    Myra was the Goddess of Life, and her nature was gentle and benevolent mostly, but also very lively and yful. This also reflected in her clothes as her typical attire was a lovely sundress that highlighted her white hair and lush skin.

    Currently, Lara''s Centralis universe clone was wearing this very white and green sundress along with a wide-brimmeddy''s hat. Apanied with the scene of her at a tea table with her pristine legs crossed, the entire universe couldn''t help but gawk.

    Especially since in typical fashion, she wore a deep frown on her face as her blood-red eyes scanned the area with a disdain for all things. Her beautiful features, slender body, and elegant attire along with her cold and callous outlook made the brains of many onlookers fry.

    Dante was left speechless because he knew that to some people right now, it didn''t matter what he said about Lara, they would be willing to live and die for her. He couldn''t help but facepalm inwardly as the chat soon exploded as many recovered from their daze, proiming their love.

    [Amberskin: OH. MY. GODDESS!!]

    [Twisting Earth: How is this possible? How can a human be so... perfect?]

    Wrangler: I have always found the human physique to be disgusting, but why does this appeal to me so much?]

    "What do you want, cretin? Can''t you see I''m busy?" Centralis Universe Lara said coldly, ring at Dante fiercely.

    As for the Eternal Universe version, she was barely keeping herself from jumping up and striking Dante, knowing that the end result would just be another beatdown and humiliation.

    Dante adjusted himself on his seat and sighed. "Well, I have a problem I need you to solve. The denizens of the universe saw my fight with the other clone of yours and want to know what our beef is."

    "Ha? Why do you think I would care about helping you solve your problem, cretin?" The sundress-wearing clone said unhelpfully, taking a sip of her tea.

    "You! You think this is a game! When our main body finds out, we will destroy you!" The former headmistress clone couldn''t take it anymore and pped the table while standing up and pointing at Dante with a shaky finger.

    Dante waved a hand casually. "Yeah, but that''s if your main body finds out. We all know she sees you all as discarded rags that are too filthy to be recollected and washed."

    Unexpectedly, neither of the two Laras seemed bothered by this. The sundress-wearing one, who was the calmer of the two, even smirked.

    "That''s right, to her, we are, and we ept this. Why don''t you also ept that you are the dog of that flimsy tree?" She stated viciously.

    "Am I? Maybe I am, I do owe everything to her currently. Besides, you shouldn''t be insulting Etz; she IS half Myra after all." Dante pointed out in counter with a casual smile.

    This finally caused both Laras to falter, as it was clear their obsession with Myra was still strong, and the idea of insulting her made them feel extremely ufortable. Dante did not pursue this victory though.

    "Meh, forget about it. The entire universe is currently watching a livestream of us chat, probably confused as hell as to what we mean. Would you care to enlighten them?" Dante teased with a smirk.

    "Enlighten them? How do you enlighten lower lifeforms? Their intelligence is not up to par." The sundress-wearing Lara was not as experienced with politics as the ex-headmistress and showed her specism right away.

    Once again, to Dante''s surprise, the ex-headmistress did not backtrack.

    "That is correct. The denizens of this universe are smarter than others, but only because I have been the guiding hand." She stated dismissively.

    "Oh? You dare say this to your adoring fans? More than half of them are roaring to be your pets and ythings after seeing you wearing Myra''s garb, even the aliens." Dante said as he nced at the sundress-wearing Lara specifically.

    "Huh? Oh right, I haven''t switched it off yet." The sundress-

    wearing Lara muttered as she ced her teacup down.

    "I was wondering about that. I usually keep mine off because I''m always exposed to the public sight and it would be troublesome to deal with the aftermath of it." The ex-

    headmistress nced at her counterpart and said speechlessly.

    Dante suddenly drew their attention by pping loudly. "Ladies, let''s not speak cryptically here. What exactly is it that you''ve ''switched off''?"

    Surprisingly - again - it was the ex-headmistress who replied as she spoke with a cold grunt. "Hmph, figures that a plebeian like you wouldn''t know, having just be half-Origin. We are the perfect beings the first ever created in our reality. Our scale and standard of life are so far higher than yours that it cannot even be measured."

    "How does a mere grass snake react to the sight and presence of a dragon? How does a mere chicken react to the sight of a phoenix? It is the act of reverence and adoration that a lesser species of the same general branch would feel when encountering something higher up." Sundress Lara continued boredly.

    "And you can just turn this effect off? Thisˇ­ attraction?" Dante asked with iprehension.

    "Why can''t we? Part of the reason we are superior to you lower-dimensional lifeforms is because we can control every aspect of our being consciously, unlike you who only have minuscule control over yourselves." The ex-headmistress replied with disdain.

    "Uhˇ­huh. Right and why I am not, or why was I not, affected by this charm effect?" Dante further pressed with skepticism.

    Sundress Lararolled her eyes at Dante as if he was stupid. "This is why a cretin will always be a cretin. You obviously have the influence of that damnedˇ­ of that tree, so how can you be affected by something so casual?"

    "Makes sense, I guess. Also, you''re forgetting to frown and re at me with hatred, or is that just a front you put up because you''re alone and misunderstood?" Dante poked at them verbally with a smile.

    Immediately, the two - whose expression had begun to rx and be more natural - locked up and became cold. To think they had let their guard down and had actuallyˇ­ actually been enjoying having a conversation with this bastard!

    Despite seeing the effect of his words, Dante was not bothered. Rather, he continued to poke deeper and deeper.

    "Lara Sanguis. Actually, the Sanguis is not your name; it''s Luka''s family name from his foster family. You never called yourself Sanguis till he defeated and locked you up, why is that?"

    Dante folded his arms behind his head. "Is it because despite your big words about hating him, you feel a tinge of guilt at your irrational mistreatment towards him and wish to have something of his as your own?"

    Both Laras smacked the table with absolutely livid looks, the Heavenly Annihtion me manifesting around their bodies like an aura and scorching the area with its heat. Even those who were bbergasted by the ongoing on the livestream were almost incinerated if not for Dante releasing his Origin Power of Technology to cover them.

    "How dare you! That name is nothing special and has nothing to do with that evil bastard!" the ex-headmistress roared with anger.

    "The only reason we use it is because Myra uses it in ce of her name given by Lord Deus!" The sundress-wearing Lara revealed through gritted teeth.

    However, Dante seemed nonplussed. "Ah right, Myra Myra Myra. What''s up with your obsession with her anyway?"

 Chapter 344 Beatrices Attempt

    Chapter 344 Beatrice''s Attempt

    ??"After all, it''s kinda weird. She created you and should be revered naturally, but you take it too far. Also, can''t you see that Myra doesn''t much like your devotion?" Dante pointed out casually, ending the livestream before Lara wiped out the souls of half the universe or more.

    "Ha, what would you know? You''ve never had the grace to meet Myra or even know what she looks like." The ex-headmistress retorted with a sneer.

    Dante shrugged. "I don''t need to have met her for that; the fact that she was perfectly happy to let Luka do whatever he wanted to you is proof enough."

    Critical hit! -999999 damage!

    For the first time, both Laras were speechless with ugly expressions on their faces. If it was during Luka''s time, they would have refuted this, saying it was impossible, which was exactly what she did when Luka confronted her, but after so long she would be a fool to pretend.

    "Thatˇ­ it is because of that damned bastard Lukaˇ­ he stole her from me, corrupted her!" Sundress Lara could only squeeze through her teeth eventually.

    Danteughed. "It''s funny because I know at one point, you might have truly believed that. Now though, you''re just in denial, and that''s kinda sad."

    "Hmph, how dare you! You know nothing about me!" Sundress Lara shouted with a cold look.

    "Meh, maybe. That''s why we''re here, aren''t we? I figure that if I learn more about you, I can understand why Luka didn''t outright kill you for your transgressions but sealed you."

    Dante smiled pointedly at Lara. "I have just be an origin being and I can already tell that the story that he couldn''t end you is bullshit. All it would take is a snap of his fingers and you''re gone, but you have something that makes him unwilling to kill you and you know it."

    Lara froze and then looked away. Dante could not even continue from here because this was not the kind of response he expected from this woman at all. Why did it look like she felt a bit ofˇ­ shame?

    "Enough of this, I no longer wish to talk to you, cretin!" Sundress Lara stated coldly as she ignored Dante altogether and began sipping her tea once more. The former headmistress only nced at him with arge frown and sat down once more, ignoring Dante as well.

    "Ah well, it seems time is up for today. I''ll call you guys again when I can assemble a small council of you. Till then, have fun talking to each other I guess." Dante responded with a wave of his hand, sending the troublesome duo back into his quantum space.

    He sighed and shook his head. "Utterly troublesome. Anyway, let''s check on Beatrice and see what''s going on."

    Dante returned to the Immortal World where Beatrice was spending time with Antonia as usual. He nced at Beatrice seriously and asked her. "Are you ready?"

    Beatrice put Antonia into Dante''s arms and nodded with a confident smile. "There''s nothing in this world that can stop me."

    Antonia had question marks above her head as she had no idea what her parents were talking about, but she was smart enough not to disturb them. Shey on Dante''s shoulder and watched as the two left their home and ascended into the sky.

    "Are you sure you want to do it here?" Dante asked with a raised eyebrow.

    "While there are many better ces, it really doesn''t matter thanks to the Concoction of Absorption anyway." Beatrice exined as she stood right above the cloudyer of the world, causing the fresh moonlight to cascade down around them beautifully.

    Antonia was enraptured by the sight, but she had not seen anything yet. The current Beatrice had already reached the peak of cultivation at the Immortal Emperor realm. While she was exceedingly powerful for a grandmaster, she still was not on the level of an Origin God, not even a half one.

    As such, after biding her time and storing as much energy as she could, it was time to finally ignite her Origin Core. Her process was slightly different from Dante''s since he used many different quantum power systems plus some boons to coalesce a basic Origin Core, but Beatrice had learned from his experience and came prepared.

    Dante smiled and nodded to Beatrice, who closed her eyes and entered her soul space. Immediately, she did the same as Dante, crushing the entirety of her various powers minus the link to Dante''s Quantum Entanglement, which she could not even if she wanted to.

    The recently restored superpowers of Gluttony, Devour, and Regeneration were shattered and pulled to the center, along with her martial arts and internal true qi which was dazzling as the sun.

    Following that was a wave of immortal qi that quickly became the binding agent for these powers and dragged them into a spot to form a sphere that was dark golden in color. It was only when Beatrice funneled the huge volume of immortal qi in her body into the budding core that it changed color to bright golden like Dante.

    It took every bit of immortal qi she had painstakingly saved up ever since she reached the peak of cultivation in the first month to cause the Origin Core to enter the second stage, which was where it began to pulse weakly.

    Beatrice knew that this was the critical moment, so she immediately opened up her soul space to the world using the bridge she formed using cultivation. Her Concoction of Absorption was activated using every drop of her stats, even those that were boosted using her still functioning Bionics and Psionics.

    The entire world began to quake and shake violently as all energy from as far as millions of miles away, from as far as the very corner of the world, rushed over like a bullet towards Beatrice''s location.

    Because she was airborne, the energy rose into the sky and rushed through the air, forming gigantic dragons that were the size of smalls.

    Every living being paid witness to this fact, their faces changing to horror as they could instinctively sense that something malicious was going on. Even the world will of the Immortal World woke up and began to wail in fear as all of its power was rapidly drained, turning it from a young child-like silhouette into that of a baby, and then degrading further into that of a seed.

    The elders and sect master of the Pure Heaven Sect quickly rose into the sky, followed by some of their ancient patriarchs and matriarchs who were in seclusion to try and discover a realm above Immortal Emperor as well as preserve their lives.

    Their faces were full of shock and fear, ncing at Beatrice who was practically invisible now beneath all the energy that was rushing into her, making her turn into a small sun of spiritual energy.

    Seeing Dante holding Antonia by the side with a smile, their focus immediately fell on him.

    "Guest Elder Dante, what is going on?!" The Sect Master stepped forward and asked with a hint of rebuke.

    Dante noticed them and then remembered that they existed. However, he could not allow them to mess with Beatrice at this time, no matter how minuscule their influence would be.

    "She is ascending to the realm beyond Immortal Emperor." Dante answered simply, telling them what they wanted to hear and making it soundless dangerous than it actually was for everyone.

    Dante''s words caused thunder to explode in the minds of all of them regardless of their age. Many had long reached the peak of Immortal Emperor or were at least very near there and were distraught by theck of a path forward.

    Now that this had been said, their first instinct was to disbelieve it, but then look at the phenomenon Beatrice was causing. Even if all of them here fused into one powerful being, they wouldn''t be able to do one-tenth of what Beatrice was doing now, so how could they not believe it?

    "Settle down. If she seeds we will naturally share the method with the sect that raised us. However, if she fails, not only will the way forward be permanently lost, but there will be great damage to the world." Dante added to make these fellows behave.

    They all froze in the air with pondering expressions, wondering if it was worth it to continue like this when Elder Ling stepped forward with a smile. "Ever since the first day I escorted you around the sect, I knew you two would achieve the impossible. I believe we can assist somewhat, but the main problem is not us."

    Elder Ling forked a crooked finger to the distance, where thousands of sonic booms were urring. "The real issue is that the other powerhouses of the world will not stand for us having something that breaks the bnce of power and will definitely strike at Guest Elder Beatrice."

 Chapter 345 Suppressing the Cultivation World

    Chapter 345 Suppressing the Cultivation World

    ??Dante, along with everyone who was part of the Pure Heaven Sect, tilted their heads towards the direction that Elder Ling had indicated. Thus, they were also able to see and sense the various cultivators who rushed over from all over the world.

    Dante''s expression became cold as he immediately isted Beatrice''s presence so that their clearly malicious auras would not affect her. Meanwhile, he casually watched as more and more arrived on the spot.

    The seventh level of cultivation was called Void Refining, and at that stage, cultivators would begin interacting with the element of space. Subsequent realms did not focus on it as much, but their abilities with space would only get better, allowing them to teleportation or even travel through sub-space, much like space mages.

    That was how they could quickly arrive here. When they arrived, they let off their domineering pressures that caused everyone from the Pure Heaven Sect to tense up and release theirs to counter.

    As the number one sect since time immemorial, they did not disappoint, causing the various array of ''visitors'' to suffer a small loss that made their expressions be slightly bad. However, despite this, they did not leave nor did they make any action or motion to leave.

    Rather, they backed away and waited for more of them to arrive from different ces, something which caused the members of the Pure Heaven Sect to feel worry about. However, they were left speechless when they saw Dante was busy tickling his daughter rather than paying attention to what was going on.

    Was he confident, or was he stupid?

    It seemed like they would be forced to find out soon, as the members of the Kunlun Sect arrived, the strongest sect in the Immortal World. With them here, those on the periphery seemed to have gained their backing, and their expressions became more unfriendly and ferocious.

    "Daoist Chen, what is going on? The entire world is in turmoil and on the verge of copse, and we find the reason to be hovering above your sect. Could you be the cause of this?" A female cultivator in elegant robes stepped forward to ask with a cold look on her face.

    Daoist Chen - who was the Sect Master apparently - stepped forth and met the woman''s gaze head-on with a cold one of his own. "My sect is undertaking some exercises with our elders, what business is it of yours? Quickly scram from our territory before we fire up the sect array and eliminate you all!"

    Many other cultivators here for the show felt a chill in their hearts and retreated quickly. The Pure Heaven Sect was still standing strong not just because of its impressive roster but because of that damned sect array which could even stop Immortal Emperors from causing trouble.

    However, the other factions with heritages were only slightly worried. They didn''t believe the Pure Heaven Sect would really dare start a war with them and now that they were all here, they couldn''t go back without gaining some benefits.

    "Hmph, it''s not about what you fellows want. Clearly, something demonic and nefarious is going on here and without an answer, we will be forced to take preventive measures for the sake of the world!"

    This time, a man with a feminine posture and grace wearing loose robes while wielding a fan spoke with a shrill and cruel voice, stepping forward fearlessly.

    Daoist Chen and the elegant female cultivator both wore slightly wary expressions when this fellow stepped forth, for he was the leader of the demonic path sects and third overall in the sect power hierarchy.

    The main problem was that this fellow was extremely emotional and prone to violence for the slightest reason, often using dirty tricks and despicable methods toe out on top. Such a person was a pain to deal with, and even the elegantdy cultivator who led the Kunlun Sect did not like him being an ''ally''.

    Daoist Chen was about to speak when Dante finally noticed themotion here and frowned. "Enough. All of you go back to where you came from or die by my hand."

    Everyone had noticed Dante who stood near to Beatrice''s position, but as they couldn''t see nor sense Beatrice due to the energy vortex around her. As such, they assumed him to be some guardian of sorts, a lower-ranked elder, or a special disciple given his physical age.

    Hearing him speak now, they couldn''t help but assess him again and wonder where he got the guts to behave like this. Many couldn''t help but strike their chins inwardly and wonder what his power was like and whether it would be wise to be the first to stand out.

    Luckily, they already had someone here who was willing to do that for them.

    "Impudent little rat, how dare you speak when your betters are in discussion?" The shrill voice of the leader of the demon path sect sounded out.

    "Hm?" Dante looked over and noticed the fellow, bing speechless when he saw the pasty and pale skin tone, red lipstick on his lips, and a deep Adam''s apple.

    "What are your pronouns? Do you go by he/him, she/her, or I''ma/dumbass?" Dante mocked.

    The various cultivators were naturally clueless as to what he meant, but Antonia understood. As such, she burst out into a giggle, making everyone understand that Dante fired an insult back.

    Many people smiled and wanted to see how the irritable fellow would react, and without any surprise, he was red to his ears with fury. He forcibly closed his fan and red at Dante first then Antonia after.

    "Hehe, little brat, you think it''s funny? Wait until I finish that dog you call your father, then I will have a great time raising you to be my pet, meant to serve the needs of all the pigs in my sty!" he stated cruelly, causing everyone''s faces to change to disgust and alienation.

    Antonia red at the man fearlessly and stuck out her tongue, but Dante was done ying nice. He did not attack up until now because he was not the type to kill over the slightest disagreement, but daring to threaten a man''s daughter in front of him was worthy of death.

    Dante casually released a little bit of thew of technology, manifesting a row of biochemical soldiers who were powered by his Origin Energy. The moment they activated, everyone here felt intense suppression beyond anything they could believe, many of those below the Immortal King realm forced to the ground, unable to even maintain flight.

    The others who could still stay airborne were speechless and pale-faced. Even the terrifying will of heaven during their mighty tribtions did not make them feel so suppressed and helpless, especially since many were at the highest realm.

    The feminine man was the most terrified, his legs shaking with fear as every cell in his body screamed for him to run.

    However, where was he supposed to run to? He could barely even remain airborne, much less escape, and he knew that death would visit him today. He couldn''t even open his mouth to beg as it took all his concentration not to be sent flying to the ground.

    "Since you''re all here, I will tell you what I told them, but I won''t hide the truth from you. I and my family are not from this world bute from a higher world right above this one." Dante revealed a bombshell that caused the minds of all cultivators here to quake.

    In as much as they had been searching for a higher realm of power, they also had various theories and texts - due to students of course - that there was a higher world where the power limit was higher than theirs and the universe was vast.

    Some even theorized that for them to see the possibility of going higher, they needed to ascend to this world, but the process was hard and almost impossible. Many students who got far enough were either captured or bribed by the powerhouses of the world to reveal the location of the universe, but how could they possibly know?

    Hearing from Dante that he was from a higher world, and given the power he disyed just now, they believed him for sure. So the next thought on their minds was how to acquire this power or how to rise, but they didn''t have the ability to ask.

    "Don''t have any ideas, it is impossible to rise out of this world without the sponsorship of someone like me or my wife. The power I have now is obtained from the lowest level of the world above the one I came from, so it''s two worlds above yours."

    Dante smiled as he nced towards Beatrice who was finishing up, the energy vortex thinning around her.

    "Currently, she is using your world''s energy to ascend as well. When she is done, I will grant your world a boon, so wait by the side quietly. I will deal with the other guy when she is done as well." Dante stated with a finality that no one could rebuke.

 Chapter 346 Beatrices Origin Core

    Chapter 346 Beatrice''s Origin Core

    ??Beatrice was at the final stages of her attempt. She had now burned all her stats to infuse with the energy that was sucked over from the entirety of the quantum world, entering the now strongly pulsing Origin Core that was only an inch away from sess.

    At the final moment, she thrust her Concoction of Absorption ability right into the heart of the Origin Core, and it made its final pulse as it expanded rapidly and spread a shockwave of orange light throughout her soul space.

    She basked in this warm light as it filled her entire existence, making her not want for energy in any aspect ever again. Like Dante, Beatrice had sessfully condensed an Origin Core and was now a half-Origin God!

    When she opened her eyes to take in the world around her, she saw that the world was much bleaker and destepared to before, and everything not within a hundred miles of her current location looked like it was about to wither and die.

    However, herck of control made it such that an orange pulse escaped her body, passing through the entire world. Immediately, all things that looked like they were about to die regained their life, bing far more lush than ever before.

    The will of the Immortal World which had been reduced to a withered and cracked seed suddenly sprouted and became a formless baby, before rapidly growing into a teenager then a young adult.

    It was far more condensed and solidpared to before, but still had androgynous features as well as a faceless visage. After all, it represented the will of all living things in the world and even the itself, so it did not have a specific identity.

    Still, due to its growth beyond what it had been before - which was a mere baby - it fed back to the entire quantum world as hundreds of resources of all grades suddenly sprouted up in ces while all lifeforms subtly experienced an upgrade in their state of life, able to obtain spirit roots - and of a higher quality than usual - much easier when born.

    The benefits the world had gained were incalcble and could only be seen in the future. All of this was achieved by one careless pulse of energy from the newly ascended Beatrice with the most basic Origin Core.

    Beatrice regained control of herself and nced to see Dante and Antoniaing over.

    "Wow mummy, you were so cool! All the lights and winds were rushing around you, and your body was glowing, and you were like a beacon in the dark, andˇ­" Antonia began to gush her amazement, which made Beatrice smile and tickle her gently.

    "How did I do?" Beatrice then asked Dante with a glowing face.

    "Well, your spectacle was much greater than mine, and you even made up for the stuff you took away." Dante said with a smirk.

    "Yeah, I''m kinda surprised about that. When I made this n, I fully thought I would suck this entire world into nothingness and still have an energy deficit, but everything worked out in the end." Beatrice admitted as she ced her arms akimbo and looked around with surprise.

    It was then that she noticed the ''spectators''. Immediately, she understood why they hade here and her eyes shed with maliciousness. Beatrice was the pr opposite of Dante who was not willing to kill easily in that she would kill if you even looked at her wrong.

    Dante simply closed Antonia''s eyes as everyone not part of the Pure Heaven Sect suddenly felt a chill in their hearts, knowing that something terrible was about to happen. Many tried to break into space to flee and escape, but it was futile as Beatrice simply summoned out Biggie the Infinity Beast.

    "Big! I want all things in the world to be big!" Biggie roared with glee as Beatrice raised a palm and smashed down, the size of her hand growing rapidly until it epassed all her targets, also infused with origin energy.

    There was no chance for them to survive such an attack as all of them were turned into meat paste as the ground was caved in, forming a giant crater that would forever mark thisndscape.

    Dante released Antonia''s eyes, and she bit his hand angrily for not allowing her to see what happened. Dante ignored his daughter''s tantrum and held the neck of the leader of the third-grade sect in his other hand, having whisked him out of Beatrice''s crosshairs.

    "Hm? Why is he important?" Beatrice asked with confusion as she had no idea why Dante saved this guy, but the way he was holding him clearly indicated otherwise.

    Immediately, Antonia took on a teary voice as she released Dante''s hand and flew into to Beatrice''s embrace. "Mummy, that mean guy threatened to hurt me and daddy, saying that he would make me his ve for serving others when I grow up!"

    Beatrice''s cold expression became even frostier as a purple aura unfurled around her body, her eyes glowing with literal killing intent. Her long hair floated in the air and her entire body stole the attention of all creatures in the area.

    Even Antonia couldn''t help but gasp with amazement and awe, but Dante as well as the feminine demonic cultivator only felt like they had been thrust into an ice cer at this moment.

    Dante''s face changed greatly as he tossed the guy away and breathed a sigh of relief when he no longer felt the weight of his wife''s killing intent being locked onto him as a coteral of his proximity to her target.

    "No, please spare me!" The man screamed as she tried to run, knowing in his heart that it was futile but still grasping onto a thin thread of hope.

    Suddenly, chains of Origin Energy emerged from Beatrice''s body and gripped the arms as well as the legs of her target, dragging him to hover right in front of her. His pale and frightened face was in deep contrast to the one he wore in arrogance and cruelty when he threatened Dante and Antonia.

    "P-Pleaseˇ­ I-I didn''t meanˇ­ ARRRGHHHH!" He immediately tried to beg, but his words were cut off by the agony of Beatrice thrusting her hand right into his skull.

    Despite this, her hands which were coated in Origin Energy did not touch any of his flesh or bone, directly piercing into his soul space and gripping his Golden Immortal Soul that he had condensed during the Golden Immortal Realm.

    Beatrice dragged the glowing soul out and tossed his now lifeless and rapidly decaying body to the side like trash. Before it even hit the ground, it slowly turned into ash and disappeared with the wind.

    The soul which bore the exact features of the feminine cultivator struggled in Beatrice''s grip, but a band of rising energypressed it rapidly until it became the size of a small ball.

    Beatrice then put it away much to the fearful looks from the remnants of the Pure Heaven Sect who had watched everything happen from top to bottom but did not dare speak due to the fact that they were witnessing history being made.

    However, the one who was the most frightful was Antonia, who had witnessed everything firsthand fright from Beatrice''s embrace, from the moment Beatrice ced her hand into the fellow''s body down to the moment his soul waspressed into a ball.

    The young toddler had not witnessed such raw violence before, and she was definitely pale as a sheet with fear, especially since the one meting out the violence was her own mother.

    Dante sighed.

    Initially, he had raised a hand to stop Beatrice, but decided against it. Both he and Beatrice had been troubled when Antonia stated that her impression of Beatrice was purely that of gentleness, for that was only one aspect of her.

    Antonia would have toe face to face with her mother''s darker side and learn to ept it, so Dante felt that now was a good time as any. Still, he could understand the shock that Antonia was probably in right now and appeared beside Beatrice, flicking her on the temple and taking Antonia away.

    "Stop scaring our daughter. She isn''t used to this kind of stuff," Dante rebuked Beatrice because even though it was good for Antonia to see this, Beatrice could have used a less brutal method.

    Beatrice winced and then nced guiltily at the trembling Antonia. "Sorry, my love, mommy got angry because that evil man dared to threaten you. I didn''t mean to scare you."

    Antonia rxed and breathed out. She then forced a smile that was a bit too mature for her age. "D-Don''t worry, mommy, I-I am not scared!"

    Both Dante and Beatrice sighed internally and knew that the little one would need time to recuperate from this. As such, they nced at the Pure Heaven Sect members and nodded towards them.

    "For housing us, here is your reward," Dante proimed as he generated a small orb of condensed Origin Energy.

    "Use that as the core of a formation for any of your mountains, and it can provide endless immortal qi for cultivation for up to 10,000 years," he said as he casually revealed its ability, causing the cultivators here to feel a heartquake.

 Chapter 347 Recruitment

    Chapter 347 Recruitment

    ??The cultivators were naturally shocked to receive such an item, but they could feel the intense longing in every cell of their body toward the core that Dante created when he tossed it over to Daoist Chen.

    They had the illusion that if they could consume and refine this core, they might actually be able to break through to the next level and to the world Dante spoke about!

    Of course, this was an illusion. Dante might have cut off his presence in the origin energy so that they wouldn''t be his puppets after refining its energy, but it was still near impossible to rely on the origin energy of another to break through.

    Otherwise, all Origin Gods had to do to create allies would be to spam this method, and the realm would not be so rare and unobtainable. As for what they actually did with the core, Dante did not much care.

    With Beatrice having taken out most of the world''s top cultivators apart from the Pure Heaven Sect, the bnce of power around the entire Immortal World was about to change greatly. If the Pure Heaven Sect were smart, the aftermath should be of great benefit to them.

    Dante and Beatrice promptly left without any further goodbyes, because their sense of attachment was really low. Rather, now that Beatrice had achieved this all-important benchmark, it was time for many changes to ur.

    The first thing they did when they returned to the Eternal Universe was for Dante and Beatrice to simultaneously descend in both universes, the former with their true body and thetter with a quantum clone from Dante''stest ability.

    Both of them immediately entered their rtivemand center in both universes, the Eternal Universe''s being the corporation that Dante formed on Etonia while the Centralis Universe''s was his huge space station that hovered outside the Zero Gate.

    From there, they checked the effect of the recruitment notice they had issued about 4 months ago.

    The good news was that they had recruited a lot of people.

    The bad news was that they had really recruited a LOT of people.

    More than half of the able-bodied beings in the Eternal Universe who qualified for the recruitment applied, while the Centralis Universe saw a mind-boggling 980% recruitment rate!

    This meant that should Dante adopt all these forces, he would have an army of zillions of beings under hismand, but more than that, the universes themselves would be barren for a while.

    This naturally left him and Beatrice speechless.

    "Hmmm, it''s about time we introduce both the Concoction of Absorption and the Libido Seed to the masses. Don''t you think?" Beatrice suggested with a frown.

    "Maybe, but it''s going to be up to us to provide an anchor for the entire power system. With so many beings able to use it, the drain on us might be too heavy, or it might not really make a difference," Dante pointed out carefully.

    Beatrice greatly hesitated. "We aren''t peak Origin Gods, much less Eternals, so the risk is too great. However, we also need the effects of these two power systems if we want to expand faster andplete the objective of capturing all the Lara clones in the multiverse."

    The Concoction of Absorption would make the army able to subsist on external energy and grow faster, while the Libido Seed would ensure a steady flow of troops from natural births who got stronger with each generation without leaving the universe barren poption-wise from over conscription.

    "It does have a great use, I agree. We can dumb the power down and take away many of its features because the prototype versions we used were meant to be as overpowered as possible for our benefit," Dante pointed out after some thought.

    Beatrice''s eyes lit up. "In fact, we can take it a step further. We can have the two synergize with each other because some part of the libido seed''s power was to allow new offspring to grow faster by absorbing external energy. Rather than rely on the seed''s power, it can rely on the concoction''s power to achieve this."

    Dante nodded. "That is one way about it. Let''s first announce the change to the various cadets before we move on with anything."

    Beatrice was left speechless. "After so long, the first thing we''re going to tell these guys is to wait for us to make a powerful universe-level viagra so they can procreate and leave offspring behind to rece them?"

    Dante scratched his head with a wry smile. "I mean, when you word anything so directly, it would sound weird, but we have no choice, babe. We need every one of them we can get, but we need them in a way that won''t harm our foundation either."

    In the end, Dante made the announcement, which had the natural effect of making everyone pause. Not only was the government mandated intercourse, but there were actually rewards for it based on how many offspring they could spit out of a certain quality within the next 6 months.

    Of course, they had to wait for the Libido Seed and Concoction of Absorption first, which would have to be modded by Dante to be more ''ptable''. This was easy for him as he now had the entire Origin Law of Technology as his Origin Power, so he did not need any of Kurtaghagt''s special code, quantum servers nor did he need Lily''s Super AI to help him.

    He just essed the quantum worlds and casually used his origin power to make the changes, just like how one would open a word document and remove some words to make the writing more legible.

    It didn''t even take a few minutes to make all the changes to both, and this was only the beginning of what Dante could do with his current power. However, there was no need for more because he was not inclined to pay the bills too much.

    Soon, the mass-produced power systems were delivered to the various denizens of both universes who qualified to receive them, and they immediately initiated them into themselves.

    This caused Dante and Beatrice to have to keep their main bodies in real space, calcting the drain on their Origin Cores with each person who adopted the power systems for themselves.

    They were pleasantly surprised to realize that it was not as bad as they had thought it would be. Currently, for supporting zillions of beings across both universes, it came to a total drain of about 5% of their total output per second for Beatrice and 2.5% per second for Dante, who was higher leveled.

    Though, it would get worse as the offspring in question came in, but that was forter. As it were, they had to wait six months before they could convert and deploy the troops, so Dante used this time to work on Quantum Entanglement again.

    Once again, his breakthrough was made easier by the fact that he had gained an Origin Power as well as stronger Origin Energy. Not only was his energy more abundant and stronger, but he could actively use his Origin Power to do most of thebor he did for himself, allowing him to no longer have to be ''in seclusion'' whenever he practiced.

    As such, he could also spend his time using his Origin Power to prepare to convert his troops into capable warriors upon descent into the other universes. After all, there was no way Dante could train them all to be typical warriors because that would take an untold amount of time as well as a crazy amount of logistics.

    On the other side, Beatrice was not only getting usedto the possession of Origin Energy, but she was also prepping herself and taking the same steps that Dante did in creating his Origin power.

    However, unlike Dante who was not sure initially, Beatrice knew exactly what origin power she wanted. She had already constructed a dao bridge during her various cultivation realm breakthroughs and her soul space was already tainted byws, but only those of the quantum world.

    Using her Origin Energy, she easily expelled them all like they were filth and began assimting actual Origin Laws of the real universe. In this case, she targeted the Origin Law she desired the most, which was the Law of Physical Strength!

    That''s right, after much soul searching and contemtion, Beatrice had decided that the best path for her was to stay with what she was skilled at, which was hand-to-handbat. She had previously made do by relying on her enormous stats to beat up anyone who dared stand in her way.

    Now that she had burned all her stats and her superpowers to get her Origin Core, she felt insecure and weakpared to before, and this was the only way to alleviate that.

    Seeing the brownish-white light of the Origin Law she desired filling her soul space, the woman couldn''t help but grin and excitedly think of how the enemies she and her husband possessed would feel when crushed under her tyrannical thumb!

 Chapter 348 SSS Rank Quantum Entalgement

    <h4>Chapter 348 SSS Rank Quantum Entalgement</h4>

    ?6 months passed rather quickly this time.

    Beatrice spent most of her time working on her Origin Power, not confidently rushing into it like Dante but thoroughly allowing it to merge with her soul space. Beatrice felt confident that she could use the path ofprehension rather than the path of condensation that Dante used.

    She also spent less time with Antonia in order to let the young one recuperate from her experience earlier in the year, as well ase to terms with her mother''s other side. While it pained her to do this, Beatrice understood that sometimes, giving space for understanding and restoration was necessary.

    Dante, though, was the opposite. He spent almost all his time with Antonia so that the youngss would not feel left out, allowing her to design many of the tools and equipment he would be handing out to the army who were gathering from all around the universe in both domains.

    Many times Antonia asked where her mother was as she was too young to spend so much time away from Beatrice, but Dante told her that Beatrice was still sad about what she did and was not ready to meet her.

    This also made Antonia sad, but Dante often caught her having nightmares about the event. He could not count how many times he had used his origin energy to soothe Antonia''s mind and body of her fears when asleep, allowing her to be rxed.

    Incidentally, this also helped elerate her recovery processpared to before. It took a very short amount of time for her to be sleeping peacefully like nothing happened, dreaming about whatever it was toddlers dreamed about.

    Maybe ice cream?

    What was more pressing was that Dante managed toplete the world it took to reach the SS Rank of Quantum Entanglement. In terms of the threads behind the gate, he had cleared up to 99% of them, leaving the central and thickest thread tangled which connected directly to Etz Chaim''s roots.

    However, his current strength was not enough to even begin entangling that thread. Origin Energy and Origin Power did help a great amount, but he would need a lot of strength to get it done all at once, so that was forter.

    Right now, he was pondering what to choose from the options that Etz Chaim gave him.

    [SSS Rank Upgrade Paths for Quantum Entanglement]

    1. Quantum Reality: The user can alter the reality of the universe within a star-sized range of their quantum marker.

    2. Quantum Control: The user is now able to take control of entire quantum worlds by cing a quantum marker within its core.

    3. Quantum Seize: The user can now take control of an entity by cing a quantum marker within their soul space.

    [SS Rank New Sub-Abilities for Quantum Entanglement]

    1. Quantum Actualization: The user can turn an entire quantum world into a real universe.

    2. Quantum Purification: The user can allow any number of beings to enter and exist in quantum worlds and vice versa.

    3. Quantum Link: The user can permanently link two universes together through a quantum tunnel, allowing any being to travel between them autonomously.

    The list was even shorter than before, but it was for sure no less sweeter. It was contained, simple and very straightforward, no longer fluffy andplex to understand.

    Looking at the options, Dante simply did the usual of weighing his current goals and needs against what the various abilities could provide before making his choice.

    Quantum Reality was amazing, but altering reality abilities were not attractive since he was now a genuine Origin God himself. While he could not easily alter reality, his Origin Power could do far better than that.

    Quantum Control was also good until you realized that his Origin Power of Technology could generate entire quantum worlds by itself in seconds, much less take control of one.

    Quantum Seize thoughˇ­ now that was a good choice. Rather than seize powerful beings to work for him, he would rather just seize Lara''s clones so that he wouldn''t have to fight each and every one of them.

    Quantum Actualization was also pretty cool. This was something his Origin Power could not do yet, and doubted that anything below an Eternal Talent could achieve this. However, what purpose did he have in turning a quantum world into a real one? Sure, he could get more troops, but he already had a troop-making power system that was natural.

    Quantum Purification was nice but he was no longer in need of the power systems of quantum worlds, nor giving them to others. He had spent thest 6 months using his Origin Power to rece that, and the results were going to be excellent.

    Quantum Link was very useful for deployment. He had been considering this issue for a long time and nned to rely on a huge number of quantum clones to transport armies across, but this solved his issue nicely.

    As such, was it surprising when he chose Quantum Seize and Quantum Link?

    After making his choices and mastering the abilities that came with them, he left his soul space. Etz Chaim no longer bothered toe out because she was numb to Dante''s rapid progress and prowess.

    The man himself opened his eyes while on his couch, seeing his daughter ying with a device he created for her while seated on hisp. It was a small holographic projector that allowed her to y a sort of RTS game styled after older Warcraft games in their native style.

    No virtual reality, not augmented reality or AI chip connection. Just in using her fingers to tap the disy and makemands like Dante used to do as a child with a mouse. Funny enough, it had the little onepletely fascinated and enraptured, the novel experience really allowing her to have fun.

    Dante stroked her hair gently. "Alright Antonia, pause or save your game. We''re heading out."

    Antonia obediently did as Dante said, climbing into his embrace as Dante stood up and held her easily with one hand. Dante then teleported back to the observation deck of the Inferno Battleship which was parked in space above Etonia.

    The moment they appeared, the two noticed Beatrice who was idly scrolling through videos on her holotab. If it wasn''t for the fact that she had long stopped wearing her spandex-like admiral''s uniform, Dante would almost have felt like he was thrust back more than 3 years ago before they became a couple.

    "Huh?" Beatrice was surprised by Dante''s sudden appearance, especially with Antonia in tow. She had sensed that Quantum Entanglement had increased in power as Dante''s new abilities were also shared with her, so she was aware he was out of his seclusion.

    She had expected him toe here sometime soon, but not with Antonia. Meanwhile, the little girl was surprised to suddenly see her mother who she had not been able to see for a day for over six months before she burst into excitement.

    "Mommy!" She cried as she jumped out of Dante''s embrace and into Beatrice''s, her voice full of need.

    Beatrice put away her holotab and caught Antonia, hugging her daughter tightly with intense affection and longing in her eyes. She kissed Antonia''s chubby cheeks repeatedly, enough that Antonia giggled.

    "Oh my sweet baby, mommy has missed you so much." Beatrice gushed out with a soft caress of Antonia''s face.

    "Me too, mommy." Antonia responded softly, leaning into Beatrice''s bosom.

    Beatrice nced at Dante who was standing to the side with folded arms, watching the entirething with a slight smile ying on his lips. She then shook her head and decided to exin to Antonia herself.

    "Mommy was worried that I scared you when I got angry thest time." Beatrice stated guiltily, having regretted her outburst due to the aftermath.

    "No! I wasn''t scaredˇ­! I was just... surprised." Antonia lied with a red face, trying to downy her reaction out of embarrassment.

    "Huh? Are you sure? I remember you were shouting my name during your sleep quite often." Dante raised an eyebrow as he pointed out her obvious lie.

    Antonia turned to re at Dante. "Daddy!"

    Seeing his daughter''s resentful expression, Dante conceded and raised his arms, backing off. Beatrice chuckled at the sight and then sighed.

    "How do you feel now, dear? Does it still bother you?" Beatrice asked gently, cing Antonia in herp.

    Antonia hesitated and then shook her head. "Not really. At first, it was really scary, then I remembered that you did it for me, Mommy."

    "You beat up that bad guy for me, so it wasn''t scary anymore. Now, my wish is to be strong like you and daddy so I can beat up bad guys too!" Antonia dered her goal seriously.

    Both Dante and Beatrice were moved by this. Hearing their young daughter say such strong words with such a sweet little voice made them gush with emotion, and the family was soon reunited in a happy embrace as they clung to each other closely.

 Chapter 349 Establishing A New Army

    <h4>Chapter 349 Establishing A New Army</h4>

    ?The family spent a week together reunited, giving the various forces around the universe that had long been recruited but were busy ''repopting'' time to travel over using various battleships owned by Dante''s corporation.

    Antonia was much happier during this period of time, and so was Beatrice. Dante watched over them and mostly left them to fawn over each other, especially since Antonia was growing fast.

    At the age of 3, she was already looking no different from a six-year-old and was much smarter than that. During the 6 months that Dante had spent with her, he had seen the asional flicker of her physique awakening, as well as the myriad powers she inherited from him and Beatrice.

    She wouldn''t have much of a childhood anymore as a lot of responsibility would be thrown on her shoulder, if not for just the Eternal and Centralis universes, then for the entire multiverse that her own father would be managing on behalf of the creator.

    However, this was a matter forter. Already, it had been put off long enough, so it was time to deal with the situation at hand. Dante and Beatrice took Antonia long to the corporation''s military section, where things would go down.

    Now obviously, it was near impossible to fit trillions and zillions of beings in one ce to have a military speech and orientation. As such, all of this was going to ur through an Augmented Reality livestream for the new fighters on Dante''s side.

    Standing in the small rally square, dressed in their uniforms and already arranged in order, were the three original armies of the Superpowered, the Hellfire Demons, and the Martial Artists. At the front of the row were the 5 Deadly Sins; Harold, Lucian, Humphrey, Ricky, and Aisha, as well as the Gorgon, Slessor.

    Within the part of space that only technology could ess though, were all the other people who were semi-physically here in that they could ess all 5 senses passively, but could not actively interact with the world.

    When Dante appeared in front of the army, he did not adopt a stern demeanor, smiling casually. He nodded to everyone and began speaking right away.

    "Hello everyone and wee to what shall be a new force for the betterment of the entire multiverse. I''ll start by exining some things about the foundation of our universe." Dante began, immediately capturing the rapt attention of everyone with his words.

    "Firstly, you all know about higher dimensions through the establishment of the Eternal Academy and centuries of research into this matter. However, point of correction, there is only a single space of higher dimension above us and it is a single existing within a limited void."

    "That is naturally Earth. On it exist humans as well as various fantastical beings from human mythology including elves, demons, giants, and more, but they are hidden in the shadows as the society of the higher dimensional Earth is urban and modern."

    "Secondly, In this higher dimensional space lives the creator of our universe and the being keeping us all in existence. In a beautiful love story that transcends the ages, she fell in love with a mortal man and transferred him half of her divine power."

    "This formerly mortal man, a human, is very smart and skilled, possessing management skills unlike the carefree goddess. With the power given to him, he crafted the entire of our multiversal space, a gigantic void that can birth universes and have them expire at the end of their life cycle."

    "However, there is aˇ­ love triangleˇ­ between the goddess, another being, and the mortal turned god. This other being tried everything to sever the bond between the goddess and the human god, using very cruel means that will chill your hearts. This created a rift between them and the goddess as well as enmity between them and the human god."

    "Things came to a head and an epic final battle urred. For whatever reason, this other being was not killed, but was sealed by the human god, sealed with the body of a transcendent being that formed the divine connection between himself and the goddess. The safest ce if you will."

    "Thirdly, this being that represents the connection between the two deities of our entire reality was put in charge of managing our entire multiverse. They are the reason why we''re all here today, because this being needs our help and speaks through me as their representative."

    Dante raised a finger. "You saw the livestream with the two Laras and heard what we spoke about. If something from back then does not make sense now, you can rey them again."

    He gave them about 5 seconds to do so since everyone had AI chips and could easily rey scenes they had seen before at the speed of electricity. In no time, many confused expressions turned into ones of understanding and realization, then shock.

    "That''s right, the other being in this tale is Lara Sanguis. She was the first entity ever created by the Goddess and possesses authority over all elements in reality. After being sealed by the Human God, she sought to escape and stole a part of the authority used to govern and manage our entire multiverse to craft two things."

    "The Zero Gate and the First Gate."

    Dante chuckled. "These two things are not natural urrences, but deliberatelyid traps by Lara. Without going too deep into it, you can picture the universe as an engine. Its existence powers life,ws, and everything within, but requires the fuel of energy from the being put in charge of us."

    "Originally, with how it was designed, the system was autonomous and did not require work, as the energy consumed would be reced in time, causing there to be no loss and even endless growth."

    "However, the two new additions that we all treasure are actually akin to a sweet poison. Its framework is designed to drain the energy used to sustain the universes indefinitely for short term gains that are not reced, causing a permanent loss."

    Dante''s eyes narrowed. "So in essence, ever since the Zero Gate and First Gate were created multiverse-wide, we have been on a timer to total extinction."

    As expected, everyone began to panic internally as a sense of existential crisis of a great level befell them. They felt like the air was tough to breathe and the atmosphere around them was filled with a certain heaviness that weighed down on their bodies.

    Antonia, who had been listening quietly seemed to understand some parts but did not understand others. However, the child also felt the weight of the problem and became anxious, clinging to her mother even tighter, causing Beatrice tofort her gently.

    "And this problem has an actually very simple solution. To simply capture the one causing this problem and reorganize the structure of the multiverse so that we can keep the benefits without the detriments." Dante spoke in a light tone, truly making it sound casual.

    He then gestured to everyone before him. "That is why I need you. Your duty is to invade every other universe in existence and draw out one of the clones of Lara hiding there and pulling the strings so I capture them. Once I have all of them, the problem will be easily resolved."

    Dante then beckoned to the side, where a bunch of androids warriors came out with an assortment of items. They were separated into five distinct groups, which each one beingrger than the other.

    Everyone looked to the items with curiosity, wondering what they were. They were all obscured by a thick orange lightthat seemed to make their very souls tremble with desire, but there was also an underlying feeling of wariness and danger.

    "You must be wondering, as you all are, how can nearly a zillion of you from all around the universe possibly fit into one of my current three popr armies? There must not be enough superpowers, demon energy, or martial arts scrolls for all of you, right?"

    Dante nodded to affirm his earlier words. "Well, you''d be right. I won''t be incorporating those of you who just came into one of these three armies, but rather forming a new army based on my new title and power."

    Immediately, Dante could almost taste the disappointment in the air. The denizens of the Eternal Universe had heard of the exploits of Dante''s fabled army in the now-public First Gate, especially how they had torn through the Eternal Universe''s enemies as well as defended theirnds.

    The reason why Dante''s recruitment here could pull slightly over 50% of the known poption of the universe was partly because of the reputation of these armies, apart from his own reputation of course.

    Hearing that they wouldn''t be shuffled into these armies, many couldn''t help but feel disappointed, but none wanted to leave. After all, their burning curiosity towards the items Dante had brought forth and how he would use them to establish an army were at the forefront of their minds.

 Chapter 350 Benefits Of The Army

    <h4>Chapter 350 Benefits Of The Army</h4>

    Dante was amused by their reactions. "Well, just because you cannot join these armies does not mean you don''t have something to look forward to. Once I announce the various benefits and roles of this new army, I doubt many of you here will be able to sit still."

    His word piqued everyone''s interest and one could metaphorically see everyone''s ears perk up.

    Dante snapped a finger, leading to the first and smallest tray''s orange light being dispelled, allowing everyone to see what was on it. It was arge syringe that had a glowing greenish-blue liquid within.

    "My new army is an army built with the power of technology, which I am currently in possession of higher-dimensional level power in this field. As such, I will be taking you through five methods of orientation and enhancement before you can be called battle-ready."

    Dante gestured to the syringe. "The first is the most basic technological enhancement,ing from the field of biology, the gene enhancement serum."

    Dante nodded and folded his arms behind his back. "But as I have just said, this and everything behind me were created using my power over technology which is higher-dimensional; its capabilities far exceed that of anything in creation in lower space."

    "The list of its capabilities is endless, so I will highlight a few. Firstly, it grants a base SDI of 20,000 in all fields for any being that takes it, regardless of where you stand currently. I could have made the value much higher, but you will encounter energy problems and will experience diminishing returns in the long term."

    "Secondly, it eliminates all negative gics of your race and enhances all your positive gics. Expect to be tall, muscr, handsome, beautiful, smarter, and more, and not just in a way that your SDI will disy."

    "Thirdly and finally, it allows you to take the second stage and beyond. Without this as a foundation, you will not be able to survive or enjoyter levels of enhancements." Dante stated with a smile.

    At this point, everyone here gulped sub-consciously. After hearing what that small syringe could do, they realized that being in any of the original three armies was already pittancepared to just this, but there was even more?!

    As for the original three armies, their slightly smug expression from hearing that the newbies will not be joining them was wiped away and filled with jealousy and envy, their eyes looking at the syringe with a bloodshot nce.

    Dante then snapped a finger and released the orange light blocking the second item, which was revealed to be a set of three syringes the size of bicycle tire pumps that were filled with red, gold, and brown liquids respectively.

    "The second stage is something you are all familiar with, the implementation of Bionics, Psionics, and AI chips. The ones most of you currently have installed are thetest versions among either the civilian,mercial, or even private categories."

    Dante shook his head with a chuckle. "Naturally, such inferior products cannot work on you who has taken the first stage of enhancements, so you need apletely new set. Like the first stage, the benefits of this stage are too numerous to state, so I will only highlight the key ones."

    "Firstly, you will be able to achieve a permanent 10x boost to all physical stats with your Bionics and 10x with your Psionics. Does that sound lower than you expected? Well, that''s only because your Bionical and Psionical enhancements no longer cost energy to use!"

    "The science behind it is simple, the two enhancements cause a reaction in your body that generates heat energy and then converts that heat energy using transcendent means only I can replicate to turn that into base energy, which sustains your life."

    "Secondly, Your Bionics now grant you the ability to use the abilities of Martial Arts External Qi at the maximum level and Knight Energy at the maximum level as well, automatically Incorporated into your body based on your gics and species. Likewise, your Psionics grants you the ability to use Internal Arts of Martial Artists as well as the Elemental Magic of Magi at the highest level right from the get-go."

    "Use these powerful abilities wisely because they cost a lot of energy to use, and you might overdraft your natural energy generation." Dante warned seriously.

    "Thirdly, your AI chip now works cross-universe, allowing you tomunicate and do all the functions of a normal quantum chip with ease and more than a thousand times faster. Its processing power alone is enough to sponsor over 1,000 Eternal Academy level quantum worlds on its own, and you have that function. Create quantum worlds on your chip at will for training, entertainment, or whatever it is that you need."

    "These are the key functions of this second stage, but you can explore the other stuff once you undergo them." Dante finished with a smile.

    He had to pause here as the eyes of everyone became extremely bloodshot, and they were panting like starving beasts that had seen food in front of them but could not devour it. If this was already their reaction, then what about those that came next?

    Dante snapped a finger and revealed the third set of items that had been obscured by an orange light, disying itself as a special polymer suit that all mech drivers wore, but it was far denser and shimmered with a multicolored light.

    "This is the Polymer Mesh Suit that you are all familiar with, which basically allows specially trained mech pilots to enter mech suits and be able to connect their body''s function to them while providing some basic pilot safety."

    "However, as you can obviously guess, these Polymer Mesh Suits created by me are far superior to your wildest dreams of the same type in lower-dimensional space. Once again, they possess many functions, but I will highlight the few key ones."

    "Firstly, these suits are made of special nanites that cover your entire body and possess enough strength to withstand the explosion of multiple stars head-on. They can easily tank full power attacks from the versions of yourself that have taken both previous enhancements."

    "Secondly, they form the special helmet that allows perfect merger of thought between man and machine. Naturally, even the AI chips I made for you do not solve the problem of a dy within the connection, which is why the helmet is still needed. However, this helmet ys more than just the ability tomunicate with the mech suits in existence, but also has a unique and hard to replicate function that took me a lot of work to establish."

    Dante sized the crowd up and dropped the bombshell. "It allows you to fully and freely ess your Soul Space ande into contact with your core of existence, as well as utilize soul-

    rted methods in the form of attack, defense, and support. After all, you might encounter enemies with soul-rted powers in the various universes, and it would be a joke for you to be one-shot by them despite having such great physical and mental power."

    At this point, even Beatrice''s expression changed slightly, filled with shock. As a neo-Origin god, she knew just how difficult it would be to utilize Origin Power to permanently allow multitudes of lifeforms to actually ess their soul space autonomously and even utilize it skillfully.

    Then again, it was the power of technology, and with enough time, technology could theoretically achieve anything. Its raw attack power was not as high as something like Beatrice''s budding Origin Power of Physical Strength, butits versatility and support ability was off the charts.

    If anything could achieve this, it would definitely be the Law of Technology.

    Beatrice wasn''t the only one shocked, but so was everyone else. Their desire had been dissipated and reced by awe and a hint of reverence. The soul was the most important and much-researched topic in the Eternal Universe since the discovery of superpowers, but had yielded no results.

    The universe''s technological level did not reach the bare minimum required to research such a topic. Even Psion Energy had to be dropped by them because they were heading into dangerous territory that they would struggle to return from.

    Only superpower users of the E Rank and above were thought to be worthy of being able to unlock the ability to enter their soul space, and even then, it was only to cultivate their superpowers with the help of Zero Energy.

    There had never been a situation where one could actively use the facilities of the soul even when they unlocked the soul space unless they were a special species had that soul-rted abilities due to gics or they had a soul-rted superpower.

    Dante snapped a finger, which arrested the attention of everyone from their thoughts and musings once more. They all nced at the fourth tray which had its orange light dispelled, revealing the item there for the entire world to see.

 Chapter 351 The God Of Technology Army

    Chapter 351 The God Of Technology Army

    What left them baffled was that this item was a tform that was around the size of a typical teleporter but much more aesthetic and unique. While everyone stared at it with curiosity, Dante exined its purpose and function.

    "This item is a special one, and it took me a lot of effort to make. It is a quantum ascender, which is a tool made for each and every one of you. It has only three functions, but each function required so much power and concessions to make that I still shudder at the thought."

    "The first is that it allows you to enter designated quantum worlds with your real body temporarily. You cannot stay in these quantum worlds permanently, but you can infiltrate them and make use of their various services, especially rting to quantum beings. Not that you do not have a quantum body, so you cannot use any items or power systems from quantum worlds you enter lest you suffer quantum poisoning." n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "The second is that you will be able to cure quantum poisoning on yourself if you do unfortunately contract it, but quantum poisoning spreads fast and within seconds, easily capable of killing any of you before a minute passes, depending on how much gets into you. Be sure to always have your quantum ascender avable for purification purposes in that case, but it can only purify up to a certain amount before you need to return to base for proper treatment."

    "The third and final ability is why it''s called the quantum ascender. It allows you to select any quantum being to be your ''summoned beast'' in a sense that you can bring it - or them - to reality in their full glory to fight for you. However, you must note that they will be bound to your soul space, and their source of energy wille from you, so I would not advise taking god-level beings from fictional quantum worlds because just a single step from them could drain you into a husk." Dante said this one with a pointed look.

    Many expressions that had been full of nefarious intent and cleverness changed, bing despondent. They had naturally thought to be smart and seek the services of extremely powerful quantum beings to raise their standing and effective power, but it was clearly more than just that.

    They had not taken any of the enhancements yet, but hearing about their utility and rules had already made them feel the pressure of their energy budget. Adding a needlessly powerful quantum being to that budget would likely have them living in energy debt.

    Rather, it was up to them to sift through the many quantum worlds, even the ones they could craft with their super quantum AI chips provided by Dante, and pick a being that had great utility with minimal consumption.

    Dante nced at the thoughtful fellows and nodded with satisfaction. In truth, he had originally only nned 3 stages of enhancements, but it was Antonia who suggested this one and assisted him in crafting it.

    The difficulty he faced was no joke, and he immediately understood the gap between an Origin Power - and maybe even an Eternal Talent - and a real authority. What he could effortlessly do with limited restrictions under Quantum Entanglement required so much tweaking,promises, and concessions to be able to barely function.

    Even Beatrice looked surprised that Dante would give out one of his abilities from Quantum Entanglement like this, though greatly neutered to less than 1% of its true potential. Still, it was Dante''s decision to make, but she did notice the smug smile on Antonia''s face.

    Dante snapped his fingers to attract everyone''s attention, gesturing to the final item which had been dispelled of its orange light, revealing it in its true form.

    To no one''s surprise, it was a fully functional and extremely aesthetic humanoid mecha. It stood at around 9 feet tall and was extremely sleek and not very bulky, with wings emerging from its back that formed twelve appendages.

    "This is the final enhancement provided to members of my new army, which is the Supreme Mecha. This mech suit has functions and capabilities beyond anything you could imagine, much like the previous enhancements, but these ones will truly seal the deal." Dante stated with a confident smile, proud of his great creation so far.

    "As usual, I will only state the key features of the enhancement and leave the rest for you to discover. First things first, this mech suit is a mobile fortress of power and logistics for its user. It is in possession of the most advanced medical technology for its host, able to sustain your life functions in any environment and protect you from the intrusion of any foreign element, even quantum poisoning."

    Dante then smiled yfully. "Don''t even think about being smart by putting this on the quantum being you want to summon, as it does not protect from the poisoning quantum beings suffer from entering reality without using the quantum ascension device."

    Once again, many faces fell in disappointment and frustration as their quick thoughts were shot down continually.

    "Secondly, the Supreme Mecha can spawn mini-mechas that are fully linked to your AI chip, controlled with split consciousnesses from your mind. To be honest, you can create as many mini-mechas as your mind can handle, so I emphasize cultivating your soul and mind as much as you can. Each mini-mecha has about 10% of your supreme mecha''s power as well as most of its abilities."

    "Using the version of yourself that should exist after all five enhancements, if the final version of you is as strong as a gxy individually with everything equipped, then the mini-mecha is midary level. Use it wisely."

    "Thirdly, the Supreme Mecha possesses all the functions of a space ship, from mobility, transportation, and even firepower. You don''t need to get on any ship henceforth to travel space, you ARE the ship. You can enter warp space with the mecha to traverse any distance and seamlessly move anywhere in the universe you want including when within quantum worlds."

    "Fourthly, you can also establish bases autonomously when in deep space. The supreme mecha can create nanites to form up to a giant-sized star base for you to rest and recuperate when in unknown territory."

    Dante shrugged. "After all, we haven''t even explored the totality of our own Eternal Universe, how could we possibly know the fullyout of the universes you''ll be descending into? Always establish bases where you can and fortify them before moving on, setting checkpoints for yourself."

    "Along with that, the supreme mecha can provide you a small amount of energy when it is equipped. It has its own power core powered by energy that you cannot currentlyprehend, and no matter how you push it, there will always be a small excess that will be supplied to your Polymer Mesh. Use it wisely to manage your tight energy reserves."

    "Last but not least, the Supreme Mecha has the ability to multiply the strength of all your previous enhancements functions but at least two times. This is a passive feature and one of the main crowning achievements of this fifth and final stage." Dante concluded with a slight nce back to the glistening machine behind him, seeming as if it had a life of its own.

    "Now I know you''re excited to go through everything right away and obtain untold power, but I want you to remember that all of thises with a burden of responsibility. Since I am empowering you so greatly, I don''t n to send groups of you into one universe, or there would have been no need to invest so much to make you unparalleled elites." Dante began seriously, causing the rising impatience to start theenhancements among those listening from all walks of the universe to die down.

    "You will each be individually deployed to a single universe and be expected to either take it down or drag out the existence of Lara Sanguis'' clone within a year. Failure to do so will incur penalties, the least of which is me stripping everything I gave to you away."

    Dante''s cold words caused some to feel a chill, but others nodded their heads while a small percentage shook their heads speechlessly. They thought that Dante was far too kind, being given such power and not being able to wreak absolute havoc within a year was inexcusable.

    It was either one waszy or ipetent beyond measure, or that they encountered an inexplicable situation in the universe they descended into that held them back.

    Beatrice also smiled with amusement, feeling that Dante was too generous, but then again, that was generally how he was anyway. If he was as ruthless as she was, their chemistry would not be as good and Antonia would suffer for it.

    "But enough of that. As of here and now, I announce the formal establishment of the new army under my banner, with the presence of all recruits in attendance." Dante dispelled the rising tension with a blooming smile as he spoke grandly.

    "Give a cheer for the newly formed God of Technology Army!"

 Chapter 352 Deployment!

    Chapter 352 Deployment!

    The Nova Universe.

    This was a Third-Grade universe in the First Gate''s rankings, meaning that it possessed at least 10 million captured territories, which put it not far from the overall first, which was currently still the Holy Universe.

    This was a tip-top universe in the prime of its power, above trillions but below only a hundred at best. Incidentally, this universe had border disputes with the Eternal Universe due to Portia''s rampant iming, whichter escted to war.

    Their forces had given the Superpowered Army a great headache in the past, using up more than 70% of their manpower. When these forces were recalled for Dante''s reshuffling, this universe even pushed back and reimed many lost territories in a short time.

    This had initially caused the upper echelons of the Eternal universe much distress until they realized Dante was casual about it and was also cooking something much more important. Soon, the issues with Lara including his fight with her came to light and none of them had time to care about this.

    But for the Nova Universe, this was a crowning achievement that they deeply celebrated. Ever since they had been engaged by Portia in her path of dominance, they had lost many elite forces and even leader characters to her, causing many to be filled with a mixture of fear and hatred.

    So when she left their path and the ones left to defend her work were absent, they were filled with joy and many theories began to run rampant within the Nova Universe. Like the current Eternal universe, the First Gate was public knowledge due to the benefits it brought, and even a step further than the Eternal Universe, they publicized their progress to every denizen of the universe.

    The reigning theory was that the Eternal Universe had realized the mistake they made in offending them and had chosen to tactfully withdraw in order to appease their superior universe. This seemed logical to them because there was no sensible reason for the Eternal Universe to withdraw its forces so suddenly and so thoroughly.

    After all, for the Nova Universe, which had benefited for many generations due to the exploits in the First Gate, the existence of such a system was everything to them. The First Gate was the pinnacle of existence to them and superseded all forms of things, being of supreme importance.

    What at all could be of a higher priority than such a perfect creation?

    There was even a great celebration ongoing on a certain exotic in which all the dignitaries and powerhouses of the Nova Universe had been invited to. There, they engaged in social engagements of all kinds full of mirth, wine, and great food while theyughed about their sesses.

    If the denizens thought that the Eternal Universe had backed out, then these dignitaries were definitely sure. They even began to concoct ns to team up with other universes to take down the strongest fighter of the Eternal universe, Portia, so that they could exact revenge. N?v(el)B\\jnn

    So many ideas and ns flew by that were being refined and cultivated with each round that it even seemed like it would be a 100% sess when executed.

    However, what none of the various life forms within the Nova Universe knew was that on this day, at this very hour, their universe had an unwanted intruder that was exceedingly dangerous.

    A nine-foot-tall mecha that was camouged using elite technology appeared in a random area of space, holding the body of a Nova Universe warrior in hand. The warrior was crushed into meat paste that spread in the void of space while the mecha immediately performed a quantum scan of the nearby sector.

    Usually, such an action would be dangerous since quantum scans could be detected if the technology level was high enough, and you could be sure that the Nova Universe''s level of technology was slightly higher than the Eternal Universe.

    However, this quantum scan waspletely undetectable by conventional technology, and it was far faster too. Within a matter of seconds, the being controlling the mecha hadplete information on alls, gxies, and life forms within this sector of the universe.

    Cross-referencing with their base knowledge of this universe with the information gained as well as the protocols of the force they were a part of, the entity controlling the mecha decided to stretch its hand forward and release a stream of silver-liquid that looked like mercury.

    To what would be the shock and horror of any sane person, this liquid began to rapidly form and multiply, going from an orb to the size of a small castle within minutes. After taking shape to this extent, it began to grow even further and even faster, seemingly creating matter from nothing as its size expanded and expanded until it becameary in size.

    Systems came alive within the-sized star station, with hundreds of androids being crafted from an assembly line that instantly went to work in different parts of the station, managing its various facilities and functions fervently.

    The being within the mecha used this time to move to a fews within the sector at warp speed, observing the inhabitants up close for more solid information. Somes they just observed without doing anything, but others were infiltrated.

    Most of those that were infiltrated had some form of civilization that was at least, level 1. Once within this civilization, the being within the mecha would sneak up to the civilization''s leader and important decision-makers before using some strange magic on them that turned them into obedient puppets.

    After doing this, the being returned to the space in which the now fully functional star base floated majestically. It had to be said that something so huge and so powerful should easily have been detected by the various systems of the nearbys in the sector.

    However, much like the mecha, it wentpletely undetected, even visually. A passing spaceship''s passengers would not be able to even see it if they looked through their windows towards the vastness of space.

    Within this star station, hundreds of AI-controlled androids, cyber warriors, and battleships were being constructed every second from an assembly line. As the being within the mecha had already obtained information on the entire civilization of the Nova Universe when they subdued various leaders, these creations would form a small army and enter a war gate to different parts of this universe.

    The goal? Obviously conquest.

    Dante was already skilled at universe-wide conquest after having subdued his entire home universe''s known space as well as civilizations, while continually pushing the boundaries of unknown space. The protocols embedded into the systems and AI chip of the being within the mecha were clear on what steps to take at each time.

    It was also because of this that the being within the mecha only watched the process for a short while before entering warp space, traveling rapidly towards another sector of the universe to repeat their actions.

    ording to their directives, they only had a gross total of a week to establish one star base in each sector before they had to drop everything and focus on their number one priority, which was to find and lure Lara Sanguis into the light for Dante to capture.

    In actuality, the directive to establish bases was only secondary, but the reason why this being within the mecha was so fervent on it was that they would obtain great benefits for how much of the universe they had conquered before Lara Sanguis was captured.

    It was a small incentive program that Dante hadunched for the God of Technology Army that would decide the positions and ranks of each member. For now, they were all ranked the same, but the results of each soldier''s conquest would decide their fate.

    In a matter of days, the entire universe was riddled with star bases that began pumping out forcesfrom the moment it was spawned. These forces appeared and targeted weakers that were not even level 1, quickly subduing the native species there if there were any.

    Subdueds would then have central bases created within the strongest city or continent of that world in which ground troops would be manufactured, as well as spatial defense troops, in case of a remation force.

    In typical Dante fashion, civilians of that world''s dominant species would then be offered to undergo the basic enhancements in exchange for order and control over their growth, making them all around better than they were before.

    The lesser species or ''animals'' of that world would be enhanced based on the function they served to the dominant species, not their inherent functions.

    So using earth as an example, a cat was a pet to humans, so it would be enhanced in longevity, cuteness and be given the ability tomunicate rather than have its hunting and killing skills enhanced as it was also technically a predator.

    After such conquest, the would then begin its rapid growth phase to be integrated into the wider universe as a whole.

 Chapter 353 Chaos Beholder

    Chapter 353 Chaos Beholder

    All of this happened while the Nova Universe was still celebrating and oblivious. A severe ''virus'' had prated its system and was growing exponentially in power, and it was unknown if the universe''s natural defenses and ''immune system'' would be able to withstand its eventual explosion.

    Seven days passed quickly, and many events urred around the entire universe that were banal or exemry depending on the socio-economic, geo-politic, and militaristic elements of each sector.

    However, with an omniscient viewpoint, one would notice that there was a quick subjugation of manys in entire gxies, often targeting level 1 and below civilizations while transforming them, leaving those at level 2 and upwards aloneˇ­ for now.

    But that was not what was remarkable about today.

    What would forever go down in the history of the Nova Universe was a certain event that no one could have ever dreamed of happening actually urring during the early morning of the Sr Gxy''s central, Corvinus.

    Corvinus was special to the Nova Universe because not only was it the center of all political, social, and economic matters concerning the entirety of known civilization universe-wide, but also because it was a terraformed which housed the Zero Gate in its core.

    Corvinus was also home to the two most important institutions in the universe, the Nova Academy and the Nova Force. The former was created to train young students and neers in the world of superpowers to be adept in not only managing their power, but also spelunking within the Zero Gate.

    Meanwhile, the Nova Force was for graduates of the Nova academy as well as various powerhouses around the universe who awakened superpowers or acquired themter in life to be trained into capable warriors for fighting in the First Gate.

    Every citizen of the Nova Universe wanted to be a part of one of these two institutions because they promised prestige, wealth, and power beyondpare. Anyone who was someone in this universe had either been to one or both of these institutions without exception.

    Interestingly, the Nova Academy and Force appointed their overall leaders through an internal selection system that urred behind closed doors, much like how the Vatican handled electing a new pope.

    No one knew the criteria for choosing or who exactly it was done, only that when it was time for a change, the selection would be announced and the candidates would undertake some sort of trial or pilgrimage,ing out with one of them as the new leader.

    This was how it had been for generations upon generations, in fact from the very moment that the two institutions were founded even.

    As the two pinnacle institutions, their prestige was not only high, but so was their martial might. At any given time, more than 90% of the universe''s strongest powers were concentrated here if they were not in the First Gate doing tasks.

    To attack the Corvinus never even urred to the minds of even the most paranoid fellows. In fact, it was often said that taking up a guard position on this defense force was seen as a free vacation with paid benefits, something that manymon soldiers fought for earnestly.

    So theckluster and dyed response that urred when the Supreme Mecha appeared in the space above the was not too shocking, but this situation quickly changed when the Supreme Mecha pointed a finger upwards.

    To the shock and confusion of all those monitoring the spatial grid of Corvinus, a giant tear in space formed that began to expand further and further, looking like a huge snake eye in the void.

    From that tear, a moon-sized monster that had a spherical body covered with wretched red skin that had a giant eye and a huge maw full of razor-sharp teeth as well as countless tentacle appendages that also had individual eyes on their tips emerged from within with a silent roar since sound couldn''t travel in space.

    It was a Chaos Beholder that was summoned from subspace using 9th-rank spatial magic. This being, upon appearance, immediately focused all its eyes on the ripe and lively Corvinus, a hint of greed and rapacious intent appeared in all its eyes as it gazed on the.

    Immediately, a strange wave emerged from its eyes that could not be detected by simpler technology that traveled rapidly through space, traveling through the void around the Chaos Beholder for millions of light-years in every direction.

    However, these waves were harmless to all beings unless they made eye contact of any kind with one of the Chaos Beholder''s eyes, and in this case, all the members of the defense force who were monitoring its existence from their various monitors and screens were immediately besieged by these waves imperceptibly.

    Right away, they went ck-jawed as their eyes zed over, bing like zombies. With foolish expressions of joy, they began to enter various codes andmands that would simultaneously lower all defenses, blind all surveince, and make it easy for the Supreme Mecha to take over the''s systems.

    Just as this was about to seed, a counter wave of psychic force swept over all the soldiers who were dazed, causing the light to return to their eyes as they nced around with shock and confusion, not understanding what had just happened.

    "Focus! All of you had almost been done in by that strange beast!" A strong feminine voice sounded, causing all the members of the defense force to feel shocked as they stood up to salute.

    A woman had appeared in themand center of the entire defense force''s huge headquarters that spanned nearly an entire small continent. Her body glowed with a blue outline and her eyes shone with a light blue hue as psychic power emanated from her in great force, repelling the waves from the Chaos Beholder.

    She was tall and quite voluptuous, with wheat-colored skin and flowing blue hair that matched her azure-colored eyes. She wore a casual suit of light green nanite armor that hugged her amazing body tightly, meant not for attraction but for functionality as it possessed many high-tech abilities that could make the difference in a typical battle.

    However, none of the men nor women here could even dare to have thought in that direction about her, for this woman was one of the pirs of their entire universe!

    "Salute, Commander Serena!" Everyone saluted in a military fashion, utmost respect on their faces.

    Commander Serena waved her hand casually. "Salute warriors of Nova. Quickly return to your positions and sound aary rm about this intruder." N?v(el)B\\jnn

    Everyone acknowledged the order and sat down, getting to work furiously in dealing with the threat before them. No one felt that this response was exaggerated because they had nearly all been wiped by this monster without even being in its proximity, so it was clearly not something to be trifled with.

    Meanwhile, in space, the Chaos Beholder''s eyes narrowed coldly when it sensed the strong repulsive force of an opposing psyche. Its waves had already pervaded most of space around here and it was aware that there were many powerful beings here, concentrated on this especially.

    However, it was not phased and even became much greedier, intending to fully swallow this and all its inhabitants slowly in order to savor the taste. It sneered when it sensed that the began to dispatch fighter units into space to take it down.

    The defense force did have a pretty impressive armada though. There was one Destroyer-ss Command Ship, two Star-ss Frigates, nearly 50 Battle-ss Battleships, and over 100,000 Interceptor-ss fighter ships.

    That was not even counting the drones, support and repair ships, as well as bomber ships.

    This wasmore than enough to conquer some entire gxies alone, concentrated singrly on one. This went to show that even throughcency, the denizens of the Nova Universe were serious about their central''s defense.

    They charged into space, angling towards the gigantic Chaos Beholder which was only matched in size by the Destroyer-ss ship which was even only 60% of its size.

    The many tentacles of the Chaos Beholder began to stretch and flourish, giving one the illusion that the Chaos Beholder wasˇ­ stretching its legs?ˇ­ before a fight.

    The moment some of the Interceptor-ss ships got into range, they began firing their sma guns wantonly at the Chaos Beholder. However, when the impressive beams of condensed light struck the skin of the Chaos Beholder, they seemed to be no different to its durability.

    In fact, it only stretched out many of its tentacles at a speed that seemed to be near that of a blur, casually smashing hundreds of fighters into space debris with each swing. The amount of carnage it dealt in mere seconds shocked everyone, even Commander Serena who was watching with a severe expression.

    She realized that this monster would not be taken down by conventional tactics and would require someˇ­ specialˇ­ treatment.

 Chapter 354 Spatial Blast

    Chapter 354 Spatial st

    ??"Call the hub and request that the Space Squad be deployed using my name," Commander Keira instructed calmly.

    "Yes, Ma''am!" The members of the defense force responded as they made the necessary arrangements.

    Commander Keira gripped the arm of her seat tightly. "Let''s hope those guys are able to deal with this thing once and for allˇ­"

    Meanwhile, in space, the Chaos Beholder was running rampage. Its main eye was curled in enjoyment, clearly relishing the destruction it was causing. It was clearly in the midst of great euphoria and could do this forever if given the chance.

    The Supreme Mecha and the being within watched this with pursed lips. The reason they made this assessment was that the Chaos Beholder had already destroyed more than 70% of the interceptor-ss units that were sent out, severely crippling this armada''s fighting force.

    However, none of these ships were manned, obviously remotely controlled using high-tech war AI. As such, repair and salvage ships were dispatched behind these troops that would collect any remnant debris and head back to the nearest battle-ss ship to rebuild new units as fast as possible to deploy them.

    It was very easy to destroy these repair ships, but the Chaos Beholder purposefully let them gather the debris and rebuild more troops to send over for it to casually destroy. This was naturally a waste of time, but the Supreme Mecha did not do anything but watch.

    After all, this was advantageous to the being within, as every second the Chaos Beholder bought, its created star bases around the universe could conquer one more civilization before Lara Sanguis was drawn out.

    On the battlefield, it did not take long for a change to ur. The two battle-ss ships and the destroyer that had stayed behind began to retreat slowly, making the Chaos Beholder stop its rampage as its eyes narrowed.

    Just because it was having fun didn''t mean that it was willing to mess around too much. After all, it had been summoned here and was maintained by the magic power of its summoner, so if they became dissatisfied with it, they could send it back and summon another one.

    The Chaos Beholder began to scan the area, but no matter how hard it spread out its psychic waves, it could not detect anything, which left it puzzled.

    However, unbeknownst to it, within a private pocket of space, around a hundred people were channeling a great amount of spatial energy towards one person. The person in the lead receiving this power was a middle-aged man with a sharp goatee and two purple eyes that shone unnaturally.

    This man was humanoid with human features, but his flowing purple hair which reached his shoulder and his polymer suit that was covered by a light jacket made him look like a deity by human standards.

    His muscr body twitched as he continually received an infusion of purple-colored energy, his veins wiggling and worming under his skin with the very same light coursing through it. His face was locked in the rictus of a snarl as he was clearly in some sort of pain.

    "Captain Seikerˇ­ it should be enoughˇ­" A member of the squad stated in a muted tone, their face subdued by the gravity of the situation as well as the loss of power they were facing.

    Captain Seiker''s eyes were bloodshot as he spoke deeply. "Do not stop."

    "Butˇ­" another squad member tried to speak but was cut off by a roar.

    "Don''t stop! That vile thing is eyeing all the people of our home and it has the power to even make Commander Keira especially request our presence, do you understand? This might be the greatest crisis the Nova Universe has ever faced!" Captain Seiker spoke with conviction.

    Everyone went silent and kept contributing their power. Captain Seiker closed his eyes and continued speaking in a softer tone.

    "It took the hits of all our ships, so it must either have a personal barrier or very strong skin. To destroy it in one fell swoop, we will need to unleash an attack of extremely high power that cannot be blocked."

    In the end, he said with a sigh. "ˇ­Please lend me your power."

    "Yes!" Everyone in the squad roared as they squeezed out what little power they had left from their superpowers into Captain Seiker, whose entire body was glowing purple by this time. If before he looked like a casual deity, now he looked like a vengeful deitye to punish sphemers.

    His team members all fell onto their asses, barely retaining enough space power not to be consumed into the void and stay ''stable'' within the void. Meanwhile, the captain was quickly deteriorating physically even as awesome as he looked, so he knew he had to be fast.

    "This is from the Nova Universe! Begone foul beast!" he roared within the void as he activated his superpower, which was at the A Rank, Space st!

    It was a concentrated wave of destructive spatial energy that rent anything in its way, and had been the reason why he had defeated so many foes for the Nova Universe in the Zero Gate as a student when harvesting fruits and in the First Gate when iming territories.

    It was also why he became the captain of his universe''s strongest force of space element superpower users. When one visualized the st that emerged from the void and swept towards the Chaos Beholder from behind, one would understand the rationale behind his promotion.

    It was no different from a-rending beam fired from destroyer-ssmand ships, easily reaching the size of the Chaos Beholder which was equivalent to some moons.

    The Chaos Beholder sensed the attack and felt a surge of death wash over it. Endless fear coursed through its face as its many pupils narrowed, its tentacles and main body rapidly turning to face the beam head-on.

    Immediately, a bright light began to gather in its main eye as well as the many smaller eyes, soon firing a yellowish-ck beam when it reached its peak that merged together in the center to strike the spatial st in the middle of its trajectory.

    However, the beam from the Chaos Beholder was only a quarter of the size of the spatial st charged from any potent superpower users, and it only managed to weaken the st but a certain amount before being shattered.

    The Chaos Beholder roared in pain due to the loss of the beam sh, many of its eyes exploding into a bloody mush that spread out through space. Itsrge eyes became bloodshot as it cried tears and had to close its eyes.

    At least, the good thing was that with its eyes closed, it did not have to see the spatial st descend upon it, eventually enveloping its form and turning its silhouette invisible as the powerful wave passed through the spit it had been in.

    Luckily, this was space, so there was no debris or dust to create suspense. The moment the beam passed through, everyone saw that the aftermath was that the body of the Chaos Beholder has beenpletely ruined, its life extinguishedpletely.

    Seeing this, the hearts of everyone from the Nova Universe who was watching soared greatly. The void of space that the space members had been hiding in had copsed due tock of power, revealing them in true space.

    However, each and every one of them wore a smile and cheered even in their fatigue due to their sess. The bloody and battered Captain Seiker who was being held up by two squad members also saw this and smiled weakly, feeling aplished.

    Within the defense forcemand center, the members were celebrating and rejoicing happily. Even Commander Keira, who was knownfor her sternness, did not reprimand them, rather smiling slightly and feeling a hint of relief.

    "However, we have to find out how these beasts appeared here and who called it forthˇ­" She began to mutter to herself and was about to givemands when the entiremand center became quiet.

    She raised her head to nce at the monitor and saw that there was a majestic-looking mecha that hovered near the corpse of the Chaos Beholder. What caused everyone to go silent was that this mecha simply tore open a slit in space and tossed the giant corpse through with one hand, a feat that boggled the mind of all.

    After doing this, the mecha turned to face the, almost seeming to be looking directly at those in the defense force''smand center. A distorted electronic voice then sounded out from their speakers, making many faces pale as it meant he had already hacked into their entire system.

    "Good job, you deserve to be in the top 100 of the First Gate''s rankings. You managed to defeat a low-level Chaos Beholder that was the youngest of its n in one blowˇ­"

    Suddenly, a gigantic tear in space opened that was so huge that it was more than five times the size of the itself, causing every being within the nearest ten thousand light-

    years to be able to see it.

    From this slit came hundreds of Chaos Beholders that were evenrger and more developed than the one that came before.

    "ˇ­ so you should be able to deal with the other members of its n, right?"

 Chapter 355 Nova Universes Crisis

    Chapter 355 Nova Universe''s Crisis

    ??A total of three hours had passed so far.

    The entirety of space around the Corvinus had fundamentally changed. The majestic ''capital'' of the Nova Universe was now mostly in ruins, huge patches of its body broken off and floating in space as debris.

    The death toll was uncountable, and spacey riddled with millions of humanoid as well as alien corpses from those of the Nova Academy as well as the Nova Force who rushed out to resist the onught of the invaders.

    However, it was not like they aplished nothing. More than half of the Chaos Beholders that had been summoned out had also been in, causing innumerable losses to this n of eldritch terrors.

    This only fueled their anger and hatred as they fought with 110% of their ability, but seeing as this was their spiritual core, the denizens of the Nova Universe defended with 150% of their strength!

    In fact, arge percentage of fighters hadn''t died from being hit with attacks but from overdrafting their bodies and souls to attack the assants, inflicting great damage before perishing.

    However, this was just the case of the general battle which was split into small pockets here and there within the nearest 400 light-years. What was truly tumultuous was the battle of the powerhouses, which entailed the headmaster of the Nova Academy as well as his two vices and all the teachers on one side and the 4 Commanders of the Nova Force and their deputies on the other fighting the Patriarch Chaos Beholder who was the size of a small.

    Despite outnumbering this being almost thirty to one, the entire upper echelon of the Nova Universe was beaten and bloodied, all of them panting as they barely kept themselves standing upright in the void of space.

    Of course, the Patriarch Chaos Beholder was not doing so good either. All of his tentacles had been ripped off, only leaving his main eyes, which were bleeding in the form of tears and were bloodshot.

    The teeth in its mouth, which had been razor-sharp, were now ruined and broken, looking like aedic scene from a cartoon where a character would have their teeth smashed in. Its skin was pockmarked with holes, copious amounts of blood and flesh leaking out into space, floating through while carried by their initial momentum.

    The two sides, despite being weakened and tired, disyed severe ferocity as they all had lost something great today. The Patriarch Chaos Beholder had lost half his n and many of his own children, while the upper echelon of the Nova Universe had lost many of their universe fighters and young talents, crippling them thoroughly for thousands of years toe.

    At this point, both sides wanted nothing other than the total destruction of the other side, even capturing a few to torture day and night to relieve the hatred in their minds and souls.

    However, the denizens of the Nova Universe, even as they fought, had a pressing sense of despair in their hearts. It was clear that they could ovee this Chaos Beholder army in time and even be able to rebuild after this, but it was the overbearing presence of the detached Supreme Mecha in the distance which watched coldly that caused them to feel weighed down.

    After all, this was the entity that summoned these beings. While there was no exact way to ascertain if it was a typical summoner that purely relied on their summoned beings to fight or they were too strong that these beholders had been enved by them, it didn''t matter.

    Because if they could summon this much, what if they just summoned more after the fight was over? How would they cope then?

    The eyes of Commander Keira especially were filled with sadness and a hint of confusion. She had seen too many of herrades and subordinates die, even some being her students she had nurtured for years.

    The question swimming ceaselessly through her mind right now was:

    ''Why?''

    Exactly why was this happening? What was the point? The kind of person who had the power to solo their universe definitely was some sort of higher-dimensional being, or at least, a subordinate of one.

    Why would such an illustrious beinge for their universe specifically? Commander Keira was puzzled and could not make heads or tails of it, which affected her battle concentration. As such, it was no surprise that when she came to, she realized that she was right in the middle of a huge beam.

    She sensed the aura of death upon her and she even seemed to wee it deep down. In her mind''s eyes, she suddenly saw the vision of a world enveloped in giant trees and filled with lush, talking flowers full of life and excitement.

    Her heart yearned to return to this ce, but her vision was broken by the sight of a slender back covered in ck and red military attire that appeared before her, especially that shoulder-length white hair that enraptured all eyes.

    "Hmph, the same as always Keira, always absent-minded and questioning everything around you." The person in front of her spoke in a chiding tone that was filled with familiarity and warmth, which seemed to be weirding from them.

    "Huh?" Commander Keira muttered with confusion. She did not understand why this stranger spoke with such familiarity towards herˇ­ but she also didn''t understand why she felt arge amount of reverence and innate closeness with this person either.

    She didn''t have time to ask as a wave of wind appeared in the void of space, covering her and sending her hurtling back towards the other powerhouses who had breathed quickly at the first moment, not noticing that she had been daydreaming on the spot.

    With the burdens removed, the woman with the white hair, who was naturally Lara Sanguis'' clone within the Nova Universe, nced at the various Chaos Beholders still rampaging throughout space, including the patriarch, with disgust.

    "Lower ss filth should be exterminated!" She dered calmly, waving her hand as a huge surge of blue-colored fire swept through space like a torrent, passing through every Chaos Beholder regardless of their distance or situation.

    They didn''t even have time to register their fate before they were all turned to ashes, including the various corpses that littered space. The desperate siege which looked to be a fatal situation for the entire universe had been resolved in a single blow by a single person, rendering every survivor confused and unsure whether to be happy or afraid.

    However, while Commander Keira and everyone else looked uncertain, the other upper echelons seemed to recognize this person and immediately knelt down with a subservient look.

    "Greetings, Admiral-Queen Lara!" They roared with their heads lowered.

    "Hmmˇ­" Lara hummed as she ignored them and focused on the Supreme Mecha who was coldly standing there. She did not know that the being inside heaved a sigh of relief that his job was done, having long sent a quantum message to Dante.

    Commander Keira looked at her colleagues who clearly knew this woman and even called her by the illustrious title of ''Admiral-Queen'', realizing that they knew her and had long pledged loyalty in some way or form.

    She felt disheartened and betrayed, not knowing what to think. More than anything, she wondered why she alone, out of all the leaders of those in her universe, was singled out to be left ignorant of such a thing?

    "Don''t overthink as you always do. You are a special being unlike any of themon rabble within this lower-

    dimensional space." Lara spoke as shecasually took her eyes away from the Supreme Mecha which had not moved since she appeared.

    "Iˇ­" Commander Keira wanted to ask this woman why this was all urring and try to process everything, but suddenly Lara''s face changed greatly.

    "Impossible!" Lara roared as she turned to nce at the Supreme Mecha, who was now kneeling on obeisance before a being that was forming out of the purest quantum energy, coalescing into a humanoid shape.

    She watched stupefied as Dante''s omni-clone formed on the spot, shaking his arms and legs then stretching casually as his bones creaked.

    "Wow, this thing is very handy. It doesn''t waste any Origin Energy but faithfully replicates half of my power. That''s pretty awesome." Dantemented casually.

    He then nced at the Supreme Mecha. "Oh, you''re Xander-

    Velocia-TR-5678321. Well, good job Xander, you have done your home of Velocia proud despite being the 5678321th person to apply from there."

    Dante nced forward and saw the carnage and bodies floating through space, shaking his head. "It could have been less messy though. Well, every universe benefits from it and it costs nothing, so I''ll revive everyone who died."

    With a casual wave of his hand, a wave of origin light pervaded the entire area epassing thousands of light-years, causing life to be renewed where it was once lost. All the bodies reformed back into the ce they had been before, and the ruined Corvinus as restored to perfection immediately.

    Even the soldiers still fighting were restored to peak conditions, including the upper echelon who were still kneeling to a now scowling Lara Sanguis.

    Dante then slowly tuned to face her, his smile waning slightly.

    "Now, to deal with you."

 Chapter 356 Beatriceâ€™s Excursion

    <h4>Chapter 356 Beatrice''s Excursion </h4>

    Lara Sanguis had an expression of incredulity, as if she had seen the most absurd thing in her life. Her attention was no longer on the Supreme Mecha or her people but solely on Dante''s omni-clone, which had spawned here.

    "How can it be? How could there possibly be an Origin God in lower-dimensional space?" She asked with shock, sizing Dante up and down.

    After all, it was impossible for such beings to descend ording to the rules Luka set; otherwise, lower-dimensional space would have be the ything of the various higher-dimensional beings who were bored.

    The option higher-dimensional Origin Gods had was topletely seal their Origin Power and origin core then reincarnate into the lower-dimensional space as a lower-dimensional being, but that was too risky.

    Unlike the Forest Fairies who had the favor and blessing of Myra on them, making them more likely to be favored by the Universe''s Will and luck in general, all other Origin Gods would face hostility and be filled with misfortune upon trying this method.

    Clearly, Dante was not a forest fairy since he was male, and forest fairies were female only. This could only mean that Dante was a genuine lower-dimensional being that had ascended to an Origin God on his own, which was something that Lara found hard to believe.

    It had nothing to do with her usual prejudice but went againstmon sense. This was why Etz Chaim was also bbergasted and would not have believed it had she not seen it. Dante did not yet realize how absurd his aplishment was.

    "No need to droop your mouth so much," Dantemented casually and flicked a finger, activating his Quantum Nullification Field.

    Lara''s expression disyed rm as she found her powers and authorities cut off immediately, leading her to even greater dismay. She could sense that Dante was using some sort of authority that superseded hers to restrict her own which was too weak right now.

    What made her expression be ugly was that she recognized this authority, for her main body had used it precisely to create the Zero and First Gates as well as generate her clones and let them fill all universes without suffering the penalty.

    "How does a mere Origin God like you have ess to this authority?" She asked with a cold expression.

    Dante rolled his eyes. "I have been asked this same question more than a billion times by now, all from you. Are you really not that original?"

    He did not have time nor energy to banter with this random clone at the moment as he was dealing with countless others around the multiverse at this moment.

    Dante simply teleported behind Lara and pped a hand on her back, cing his Quantum Marker on her and activating Quantum Seize. The clone showed intense struggle on her face - which went to show how powerful her soul and origins were - but eventually became frozen in ce andpletely lethargic.

    Dante easily collected her into his quantum space, cing her around the section in which he had cordoned off for the now millions of Lara clones who were either freshly being sent in or had been sent in only a few moments ago.

    The original two clones who had gottenfortable with each other and had even been discussing ns were left speechless to see so many of theirpatriots being sent over like this.

    The quantum space became silent as the clones all gazed at each other, their expressions bing grave as they realized the magnitude of the issue even as more of them were being sent in.

    Meanwhile, Dante''s omni-clone in the Nova Universe sighed with relief and was about to dissipate when he noticed the shell-shocked Commander Keira.

    "Huh? Levi, is she what I think she is?" Dante murmured to himself.

    "Yes, she is a Forest Fairy of the same rank as your ex-lover," Levi stated after a casual nce from within Dante''s soul space.

    Dante''s forehead creased. "We were not lovers, just friends with benefits."

    Levi sneered and looked away. "Well, if you say so. I am a Truth Beast; I am literally obligated to say the objective truth, even if some people don''t like to hear it."

    Dante pursed his lips but could not rebut that. In the end, he nced at Commander Keira and ced a quantum marker on her as well, seizing her but not putting her into his quantum space since she wouldn''t survive.

    Rather, he used Quantum Entanglement to send her along with this clone back to the Eternal Universe where Dante was currently rxing with his family, not training or doing any work at all.

    When the omni-clone appeared and ced the controlled Keira in one of the rooms in the mansion on Etonia, it dissipated as its job was done. The main Dante nced towards the room from the one he was in but made no movement to check anything.

    However, Beatrice''s eyes narrowed as she stood up. Antonia and Dante were surprised by her sudden action, but seeing the seriousness on her face, they knew Beatrice was about to do something veryˇ­ questionable.

    "I''ll be right back," Beatrice said with a sweet smile that looked like a thorny rose, causing Dante and Antonia to shiver internally.

    Beatrice used quantum entanglement to leave, making Antonia sigh with relief. She then leaned onto Dante and asked him the question that was bothering her. "Daddyˇ­ why did mommy leave?"

    Dante patted her little head gently and tried his best to exin it. "Wellˇ­ she has some misgivings about things I did in the past but doesn''t want to bring it up. However, she now has a reason to deal with those things once and for all."

    Antonia seemed interested in this, as if sensing some gossip. "What did you do that mommy doesn''t like?"

    "Uhˇ­ you''re too young to know about this stuff. Let''s go back to watching Tom and Jerry, dear," Dante changed the topic because he didn''t want to go down that rabbit hole right now.

    Antonia was naturally not happy about this, but Dante did not budge on the issue no matter what she did, so she could only forcefully bury her curiosity.

    Meanwhile, Beatrice appeared in the room where Commander Keira was and unfroze her from the Quantum Seize ability. This caused the woman to return to her senses, disying shock because even though she had been rendered immobile, she was still capable of thought.

    She had just seen the arguably strongest being of her universe be captured with ease, like a human catching a snail, and had been taken away as well. She still had not been given even a second to digest all that she had seen and experienced so far, so she was clearly still overwhelmed.

    Beatrice patted her on the shoulder with a fake friendly smile. "You''re one of her kind, huh? Interesting. I hope you can lead me to her, since we have some things we have to settle once and for all."

    Commander Keira was speechless. "One of whose kind? Lead you to whom?"

    Beatrice was surprised and then sized this woman up. "Oh, you so haven''t awakened. Then you must be very confused about everything. Sit down and let''s help clear up your doubts then, consider it me being generous."

    Commander Keira hesitated and then sat down slowly, looking at Beatrice expectantly. Beatrice chuckled and did the same, crossing her legs in ady-like manner before exining toKeira what she was and why she was in this situation.

    "Huh?" Beatrice eximed in surprise, noticing that Commander Keira''s eyes had zed over as if remembering something. Immediately, a wave of orange light appeared around her that was stained with a deep green color.

    However, this orange light was soon suppressed and dissipated, causing Commander Keira toe back to her senses as she shook her head.

    "That was weirdˇ­ am I reallyˇ­ a forest fairy?" She muttered uncertainly.

    Beatrice pped her hands and stood up. "Doesn''t matter, as long as I think you are. Come on, we''re going hunting for one of your sisters."

    Commander Keira didn''t have a chance to refute before being grabbed by Beatrice and taken through a quantum tunnel that led to the Centralis Universe. Once here, Beatrice let go and left Commander Keira in the middle of space as the woman quickly activated her power to prevent herself from being killed by the void.

    The difference was that this time, the blue outline that Commander Keira usually manifested was flecked with ayer of green that had small orange lights within, making her seem like some multicolored LED light.

    She noticed that her power felt leagues stronger than before, at least 10 times more powerful. The current her could easily have soloed her entire universe and even defeated the invaders that ruined Corvinus with ease, Keira realized.

    However, when she raised her head to nce at Beatrice, Keira''s rising thoughts of rebellion were swept away. She felt like if she herself were like a nuclear power nt, then Beatrice was like the sun.

 Chapter 357 Beatrice vs Valeria

    <h4>Chapter 357 Beatrice vs Valeria</h4>

    Keira was stunned by Beatrice''s power while being in close proximity, despite the woman herself not exhibiting anything. Her attention was soon stolen away by a simr but far stronger power than what she exhibited that was rapidly approaching them from afar.

    It turned out that Beatrice was looking out in that direction with narrowed eyes, a cold smile ying on her lips. Keira only saw aet-like streak hurtling towards them at speeds she couldn''t have fathomed before her current awakening, reaching their position in the blink of an eye.

    The greenish-orange light dissipated to reveal a tall dark-skinned woman with a very voluptuous body, being far superior to Aisha but one level below Beatrice. She had short cropped hair with a fade on the side, two dark brown eyes filled with intensity, and small pursed lips.

    She was dressed in what seemed to be a suit of armor made from green leaves that were woven expertly and aesthetically, highlighting her feminine assets withoutpromising on the protective aspect for vital areas.

    The woman scanned the other two females here and her eyes fell on Keira first. There was a hint of surprise as she called out to Keira. "Sister Keira, you have awakened as well?"

    Keira hesitated and shook her head. "Not fully. I do remember things about forest fairies and the like, but I don''t know who you are."

    "Ohˇ­" Valeria muttered with obvious disappointment.

    She then turned to nce at Beatrice, who had folded her arms and was looking at her coldly. Frowning, Valeria turned to Keira again and asked. "A friend of yours?"

    Keira turned to Beatrice and distanced herself immediately. "No, I don''t know her. She brought me here saying she was looking for someoneˇ­ and I think that person might be you."

    Valeria turned to size up Beatrice. "Hmm? And what could you possibly want with me to the point where you would kidnap one of my sisters?"

    Beatrice sighed. "Finally decided to look over here huh? You''re quite the funny person and far shallower than how he described you."

    "What?" Valeria''s expression darkened at thement, but Beatrice continued without caring.

    "My name is Beatrice Alighieri. Oh, you know thatst name huh? That''s good because I am currently the wife and soulmate of Dante Alighieri." Beatrice casually introduced herself, smiling when Valeria''s expression changed as she mentioned her affiliation.

    "Dante?! You know him?!" Valeria eximed, a mixture of excitement and anxiety in her voice, both of which made Beatrice''s casual demeanor shift greatly.

    "...Why is there joy in your voice when talking about my husband?" Beatrice asked slowly and dangerously.

    Valeria sized up Beatrice once more, and a hint of disapproval and disdain appeared on her face. "When Dante called me that day to break our rtionship off, I was devastated. I couldn''t think of a woman better than me on earth, but I respected his decision anyway."

    "I left the and secluded myself in space to recover my power as much as I could and thene back to take him away from this lower dimensional world."

    "The entire time, the woman who managed to take him away from me was one I pictured to be transcendent and awesome, on the level of General Lara."

    Valeria paused and raised her nose slightly. "Howeverˇ­ it''s just you?"

    Beatrice raised an eyebrow and then smiled coldly. "d to hear that. I originally came to beat you up a bit to vent my anger, but hearing that you actually n to steal Dante from me gives me the right to go further."

    "Oh, I am going to enjoy this." Beatrice stated as her body lit up with her origin power of physical strength, fueled by her endless origin energy.

    "What?! Origin Power? Origin Energy?" Valeria only had the time to exim this before Beatrice charged at her, cracking space with just the movement of her body from her sheer strength.

    She then threw a simple punch forward which was coated with a brownish aura, this blow causing quakes that traveled through space to destroy nearbys and asteroids within a 100 light years into fine powder.

    It had not evennded on its target yet and this was the effect. Valeria felt the severity of this blow and knew she had deeply underestimated her rival, which could lead to a terrible oue if she didn''t rectify this.

    As such, she also utilized her Origin Power as a forest fairy to generate the element of wood within the void of space, creating a giant forest in front of her that had thick wooden trunks as branches and lively vines as leaves.

    With a grunt, Valeria sent the forest to attack Beatrice who was rushing head-on while trying to create some distance for herself. However, she could only exim in shock as Beatrice simply released her charged blow upon the entirety of the forest, clearing away more than 60% of its mass in one go.

    Valeria was shocked because this was her strongest technique, the strongest ability of all forest fairies. Sure, due to her power still awakening, it was only around 30% of its full power at its peak, but that was because asmander-level forest fairy, she was at least universe-level in terms of her Origin Power, if not outright half Eternal.

    However, for a lower-dimensional life form who miraculously became an Origin Goddess to use a casual attack to destroy arge amount of it in one go was unheard of! Just what kind of freak did Dante go and find for himself this time, Valeria couldn''t help but wonder.

    "Hmm, is that all you have? If so, I will begin fighting seriously now." Beatrice paused to say with a hint of arrogance.

    "Ha. You are only at the Neb level in your Origin Power at best, yet you dare speak so arrogantly?" Valeria rolled her eyes and responded with amusement as well as mocking.

    Beatrice waved a hand to the side and seemed to call out something. "Heh, while that might be the case the breadth of my powers is not limited to just this. Say hi to a good friend of mine who likes to expand to perfection."

    Beside Beatrice was Biggie, who had been called from her soul space. The moment Biggie appeared, he roared his usual desire into the universe as he began wantonly absorbing Beatrice''s Origin Energy to make it happen.

    "I want to be big! I''m talking HUGE!" Biggie cried out and began to expand greatly.

    However, the Infinity Beast expanding was not the actual problem. The real problem was that Beatrice also began to expand in size along with him, bing a veritable behemoth that floated in space, more than twice the size of an average.

    Keira had already been smart enough to evacuate the area when they started fighting, using her newly awakened power to protect herself from the aftershocks, but she was left bbergasted by the sudden change that she could never have predicted.

    Valeria was even worse, being the target that was being suppressed by the woman before her. Beatrice''s size coupled with her origin power gave her an exponential boost that not even Dante could have pictured when he handed Biggie over to her.

    Beatrice grinned and raised her right fist to punch down towards Valeria, not exhibiting the typical slowness of giant beings since she was in the void of spaceand there was no air pressure to limit her.

    Looking at that gigantic fist that epassed the area covering tens of light-years around her, Valeria knew there was no chance of escape. She would have to tank this blow head-on or be vanquished, and that was a fate she was not willing to ept as a higher-dimensional being existing in lower space.

    Valeria burned her origin energy crazily as she infused it into her origin power bestowed by Myra upon the creation of every forest fairy, which was thew of nature and life. The shattered forest that existed within space began to crazily grow to match Beatrice''s size, hundreds of dryads and ents being born that roared with madness, striking forth to catch the iing blow.

    Meanwhile, Beatrice, who was smiling yfully, also unleashed more power into her blow, making the brownish aura that covered her fist - which represented her origin power - extend all the way up to her shoulder.

    When the charged blow shed with the forest, this time it didn''t shatter its target once and for all. After all, Valeria had squeezed out every bit of her power this time and while Beatrice was certainly at an advantage, it was not so easy for Origin Gods to defeat each other at once.

    "Oh? You''re quite resilient." Beatrice mocked, but secretly felt dissatisfied internally.

    Valeria panted, but the smile of aplishment couldn''t be hidden on her face. "You have done well to be an Origin God, far better than I expected. But as expected of a being trapped in the lower-dimensional world, you don''t have muchmon sense about Origin Gods and how we fight."

    "It is not impossible for us to call a truce. Let us seek Dante and see his opinion on which of us is more suited to him as a partner. In the meantime, I can teach you about Origin Gods and how to maximize your power." Valeria quickly offered before Beatrice could throw another of those blows, because she was not sure she could take it.

 Chapter 358 Resolution

    Chapter 358 Resolution

    ??Beatrice paused as well and seemed to consider the idea. She sized up Valeria who had sweat on her brow and her origin energy was struggling to quickly recover from the wanton consumption and smiled yfully.

    "Sure," Beatrice agreed casually as she shrunk down rapidly.

    Valeria sighed with relief internally and was about to say some tough words that contained some hint of deference in order to simultaneously cate Beatrice and establish herself as not that weak, but her mouth snapped shut when Beatrice suddenly appeared beside her faster than she could think.

    "Let me handle the transportation then." Beatrice offered without waiting for eptance, cing her hand on Valeria''s shoulder and teleporting them right in front of the still stunned Keira.

    Before this second semi-awakened forest fairy reincarnation could even exim, she was also grabbed and taken through a quantum tunnel into the Eternal Universe. The two of them only realized that they were in a new location the next instant, within arge chamber that was very stylish and modern by the Eternal Universe''s standard.

    Beatrice let go of Keira and pushed her onto the couch. "Sit there for now and be good. Don''t bother trying to escape because we own this entire universe."

    Keira sat down and wore a conflicted expression but obediently settled in. After all, she had seen so far, the rebelliousness had been beaten out of her. Now, she just wanted to survive this entire ordeal in peace and possibly regain her full memories and power.

    As for Valeria, she was still stunned. The realization that Beatrice could easily teleport like this and without any dy nor detection made her understand that Beatrice could have ended her at any time when they were fighting.

    In other words, Beatrice had been toying with her the entire time!

    "Now you. Let''s pay a visit to my husband and see what he has to say about your existence, hmm?" Beatrice turned to Valeria and said with a fake friendly smile.

    Once again, Valeria was unable to react as Beatrice took them both to the master bedroom where Dante was currently watching cartoons with Antonia, the father and daughter having a great time.

    When they noticed that Beatrice had returned, there was initially some happiness and excitement on their faces until they noticed the apanying guest. While Antonia had an expression of curiosity, Dante''s expression changed greatly as he recognized who hade.

    Meanwhile, Valeria also had a happy expression when she saw Dante again after so long, but it warped when she noticed the child on his chest. Looking at Antonia''s purple hair and eyes, whose child could she be except Beatrice''s, her rival?

    "Well, here we are. Dante dear, this is your ''friend'' Valeria, and she couldn''t wait to see you again." Beatrice said in a sickly sweet tone as she patted Valeria on the back as if to encourage her to go on.

    Antonia became silent as she realized that something was wrong from her mom''s behavior and sunk into Dante''s chest, while Dante himself sighed internally and decided that this matter had to be handled properly if he wanted peace in theing centuries.

    "Not my friend, but an ex-lover of sorts. There''s no need for theatrics Beatrice, I want to know why you brought her here, right in front of our daughter?" Dante asked with a sharp expression, going on the offensive.

    Beatrice faltered here, not expecting Dante to say such a thing. Meanwhile, Dante turned to nce at Valeria, a neutral smile on his face. "Hello again Valeria, it''s been quite a while since west met."

    Valeria snapped out of her stupor and managed a weak smile. "Right, hello Dante. I see you and this woman have advanced your rtionship quite far while I''ve been away."

    She said this while pointedly ncing at Antonia, making Dante''s lips twitch. "That''s right, due to a set of fateful circumstances, I happened to meet and engage with my soulmate, eventually marrying her and having a child. That soulmate is the woman beside you, my wife Beatrice Alighieri."

    "And this is my daughter, Antonia Alighieri. Come on darling, say hi to your Aunty Valeria." Dante prompted his daughter with a gentle stroke of her head.

    Antonia reluctantly but obediently turned her head and greeted in a subdued tone. "Hello Aunty Valeria."

    Valeria was disheartened by Dante''s words, and couldn''t help but feel a pang of resentment. After taking her first time and causing her to experience these emotions for the first time, he was going to run away with another woman?

    Suddenly, Dante stood up and split into two. His clone held Antonia and took her out of the room with a simple teleport, nning to resume his family time with his daughter in a ce where she wouldn''t feel ufortable.

    Meanwhile, his main body stood up and faced the two women who had surging emotions and a hint of darkness radiating from their bodies with his arms folded.

    "Now I will say this. In another time and another ce, my rtionship with you, Valeria would have progressed beyond being lovers into an actual rtionship that could have crystallized into marriage. I did have the n initially, but this is not that timeline unfortunately."

    "In this timeline, I happened upon a special circumstance involving meeting Etz Chaim, the bond between the two Creators and being taken as her chosen champion to stop the insidious plot of Lara, something you should know very well about."

    "In that circumstance, I met Beatrice and due to various ys by fate, found her to be sopatible with myself physically, spiritually and emotionally that I cannot even muster an ounce of interest in another woman. Things have progressed naturally up until this point and I am perfectly happy with my current life, not wishing for any change."

    Dante focused on Valeria with a serious expression. "Do you understand what I am saying?"

    Valeria''s mouth pped open and closed slowly, no wordsing out as she was unable to say anything in the face of Dante''s blunt statement. However, this was clearly not enough for Dante as he pushed further.

    "Do you understand, Valeria?" He asked slowly and deliberately, staring intensely at her.

    "Iˇ­ understand." Valeria managed to squeeze out with a bitter smile, her heart sinking to her stomach as pain surged in her chest area, making it hard for her to breathe.

    Dante then turned to Beatrice and continued. "And from you Beatrice, I did not expect this. I''d understand if Valeria had caused me or you some problem which caused you to seek her out, but to go so far just out of jealousyˇ­ I''m disappointed."

    Beatrice was shocked. She looked into Dante''s eyes and saw that he was serious this time, and she could help but feel extremely sad. Now that she had been confronted about it, she realized her actions were irrational and unfair, but she also knew she couldn''t have stopped herself.

    This left her unable to speak and defend herself because there was nothing to defend. If Dante had cheated on her, this would have been her battlefield, but he had ceased all contact with Valeria from the moment she signed the contract with her way back then, even before they actually confirmed their rtionship properly.

    Since then, he had not made any attempt to rekindle his rtionship with her, having remainedpletely loyal. The more Beatrice thought about this, the more shame she felt and the more she understood Dante''s disappointment.

    Having sessfully dealt with the situation, Dante nodded his head. "I don''t expect you two to be friends, but we are not enemies. As far as I am aware, you, Valeria, came down here upon Etz Chaim''s request to help prevent Lara from achieving her goal, isn''t that right?"

    "..yes." Valeria answered tersely.

    "Great, then we''re allies in the same boat. I don''t know what the conditions you forest fairies require to return to higher-

    dimensional space in your true form are, but I''m sure once we see this collective goal aplished, you can go back in peace." Dante replied with a smile.

    Valeria didn''t say anything. In the end, she shook her head and left the room, standing outside the door with a conflicted and lost expression, not knowing where she wanted to go or what she even wanted to do.

    In the end, she left the estate and entered the streets of Avalon City, disappearing into the crowd once more.

    Back at the estate of the Alighieri family, Dante took his nce from the direction Valeria left in and then focused on Beatrice who looked terrible. His heart did soften considerably, but he did not show it on his face.

    "Well?" Dante asked with folded arms.

    Beatrice sighed and moved to sit down. "I''m sorry Dante, I let my jealousy get the better of me this time."

    Dante rxed and sat down beside his wife. "To be honest, I understand how you feel. It doesn''t feel good knowing that the person you love has had altercations with another person before you, especially when you actually know who that person is."

    "I''m not angry at you for seeking her out, its understandable. I am only angry for you bringing her here when our daughter was around, causing her to feel ufortable." Dante revealed as his clone brought Antonia back into the room, the youngdy fast asleep now.

 Chapter 359 The Final Sprint

    Chapter 359 The Final Sprint

    ??Seeing the sleeping Antonia, Beatrice''s eyes became slightly red. She got up and walked to the omni-clone, taking her daughter from his arms and holding Antonia close. Antonia, even asleep, recognized the familiar scent of her mother and snuggled in closer, a silly smile appearing on her little face.

    Beatrice stroked her daughter''s hair and spoke softly. "I''m sorry, my love, mommy has let you down."

    Seeing that Beatrice was able to understand the problem, Dante sighed and stood up, holding the two in his embrace. "For me right now, more than any universe crisis or raising my power, there is nothing more important than taking care of the two of you."

    "We have quite possibly a very long life ahead of us, and I want to make sure you''re happy for as much of the journey as possible," Dante stated his position softly, making Beatrice feel reassured.

    "Okay, that''s fine. Still, you''ve already captured more than 75% of all the Lara clones in less than a few hours. There''s no point in slowing down now, get them all and let''s finish this thing so that we can move on to the next stage of our lives," Beatrice responded with a smile after calming her emotions.

    Dante grinned warmly. "That''s my Beatrice."

    "Right, so what do we do about that forest fairy chick?" Beatrice asked silently, ncing at the room where Keira was slumped over a bed while being tended to by android maids.

    "Collecting them for Etz, basically. She is the one who dragged them down here, so she is responsible for them. She has not considered it yet, but she will have to ount for them after dealing with Lara, so I''m doing a part of her job for her," Dante exined while folding his arms.

    Beatrice took Antonia to their bed and ced her down gently, covering her with the sheets. "That Etz should be grateful that she has you, really."

    "Hahaha, I agree, but without her, I would never have met you, so it cancels out," Dante said as he sat beside Beatrice,ughing.

    The two continued to chat peacefully while discussing their future ns even as the multiverse tremored from a huge quake. Hundreds of thousands of universes were undergoing groundbreaking changes that would forever shift their trajectory in the form of a conquest as well as the usurping of their premier political influence.

    Dante truly had to give it up to Lara. She adapted based on the technology, political, and social climate of the universe she was on, sometimes working in the shadows, sometimes working through proxies, sometimes being the overall leader herself, and sometimes even having forcefully subdued the entire universe herself.

    The variety of methods could be codified into a book called the ''Art of Control,'' which would likely be a timeless ssic on par with another literary great of a simr name.

    However, one thing rang true, and that was that each universe she controlled had a very established system for the two gates her main body crafted. She mostly used the academy - or a simr tutge - system for the Zero Gate, only allowing newly awakened youngsters to enter within at the behest of the universe''s powers.

    For the First Gate, it varied. Some universes were ignorant about it like the Eternal Universe, with only a small amount of fighters allowed to enter, controlled by a force that could be a council, a board, or even a senate.

    Some universes, it wasmon knowledge, like the Nova Universe, and only those specially trained were allowed in, while in others, one could enter in a mercenary-like manner to take on ''jobs,'' while in others, one had to pay for entry or sign some contract.

    However, what was important was that each universe thrived in its own way under Lara''s control. Obviously, not everyone could be number 1 given how things workedas well as have so much territory, but every universe made somewhat of a positive gain each year using her various methods.

    This would be good if the consequence of such a thing was leading to a possible demise of the entire multiverse after a few million years go by.

    After the capture, it wasn''t like Dante would act reckless and leave the politically devastated universes to enter chaos to fill the gaps. His supreme mecha soldier would quickly elerate the conquest process and take over everything while establishing a new universal order and educating all species about the evil of the Zero and First Gate.

    Coming to know how close they were to killing themselves, most species were spooked whereas a good percentage were skeptical and believed it to be propaganda. To that, there was nothing Dante could do because it was not possible nor did he have the energy to show them irrefutable evidence.

    However, the reason he hadn''t captured every Lara at once was due to the fact that even with trillions of troops, he still did not have enough to cover all the universes. He had to wait for his current troops to finish their assignment before being deployed to the final billion or so universes to carry out the necessary task.

    So with the urging of Beatrice and his own ambition rekindled, Dante finally decided to raise Quantum Entanglement up to the final EX Rank, its pinnacle and the point where everything would change for him.

    To that end, he entered meditation and seclusion once more. Since he had no idea how long this one would take, he created more than a few clones to handle various issues he might be needed to be present for.

    Luckily, Beatrice had all his abilities, so she could fill the gap for him. She could also create omni-clones in the various universes and capture any Lara clone into the quantum space, so Dante wasn''t worried that anyone of them would slip the and escape.

    The final sprint of EX Rank Quantum Entanglement was not a joke at all. It was just one single cord that was about as thick as an industrial pipe but it was thergest of the lot and seemingly the central one.

    Dante could tell that every other cord was present to serve an auxiliary function for this one, which was why without it, he could never reach the EX Rank. If he wanted to perfectly inherit the Authority from Etz, he would need to ensure that this particr connection was primed and ready.

    Working on it was something that Dante wished he could document for others to understand the difficulty and frustration. It felt like he was a child trying to carry a tray of food across a garden to his parents on the other side without dropping it.

    Even with origin energy and Origin power, this was the current difficulty he was facing. Dante truly wondered how on earth he could ever have reached the EX Rank on his own had he not ascended to an Origin God.

    Was that why Etz initially gave him a time frame of millions of years?

    In terms of progression, Dante wasn''t sure how to quantify it. Rather than untangle this one like the others, it was more like he was trying to ''clean'' it, allowing things to pass through smoothly.

    Currently, it waspletely blocked and unusable. As Dante worked, it became slightly better, but the amount of time it was taking made him shake his head. An entire week had passed outside, but he had only made what he estimated to be 1% progress.

    The good news was that this would give his clones and troops time to capture the various Laras on the side, on one hand, and that the further hewent in clearing this connection, the faster and easier it would be to clear the rest.

    In the end, over 12 weeks passed, and he had made about 15% progress. That was 3 months gone, but Dante was only about 1/7th of the way there, which made him frustrated, but he reasoned that he would need to develop this kind of patience for the years toe.

    This time, 24 weeks came to pass, and he was now sitting squarely at 60%pleted. This was 6 whole months and surpassed the longest period of time he had spent on Quantum Entanglement since he began.

    With a sigh, Dante could only continue after taking a short break since he was locked in andmitted to achieving this difficult task that would have originally taken years upon end using simple Zero Energy.

    Finally, another 24 weeks passed, making it a grand total of 61 weeks spent on this upgrade, or a year and two months!

    On this fateful day, Dante was forced to take a break because he was finally at the limit, at 99%. One more push would see him through to the other side and cement his greatest achievement in life, allowing him to stand above all living beings in the multiverse!

 Chapter 360 Ex Rank Quantum Entanglement

    <h4>Chapter 360 Ex Rank Quantum Entanglement </h4>

    Dante did not know what awaited him on the other side of this achievement, but he was ready to find out. Interestingly, it wasn''t just him who was interested, but so was Etz Chaim, who woke up from her hibernation toe out and give him moral support.

    Dante speechlessly watched her try to do some form of cheerleading dance but had to stop her due to how cringe it was.

    Extremely dissatisfied, Etz Chaim asked, "Huh? What''s the problem, don''t you know I''m cheering you on?"

    Dante pursed his lips, holding backughter. "I''m aware, but you don''t need to go so far. Besides, it''s distracting me."

    "Huh? How is that possible, I''ve seen Myra do this for Luka when he was training his abilities back then too," Etz Chaim eximed with disbelief.

    Dante was speechless. He wondered how Luka must have felt at the time, but then his own mind wandered to an image of Beatrice wearing a cheerleading uniform to support him, jumping about with her massive assets bouncing freelyˇ­

    "Helloˇ­? Soul Space to Dante? Hellooˇ­?" Etz Chaim waved a hand before Dante, who was drooling slightly while fantasizing about evil things.

    Eventually, he shook his head and came to, coughing lightly. "I was considering something important pertaining to the sess of our mutual n."

    "Heng? Really?" Etz Chaim asked suspiciously, not entirely sure.

    Dante folded his arms behind his back in a regal manner. "Hmph, have you seen me do anything but work and take care of my family?"

    "Hmmˇ­ true, I guess," Etz Chaim acquiesced reluctantly.

    "So what exactly will happen once Iplete this?" Dante inquired to be sure.

    "Well, I will hand over the entirety of the energy Luka left behind to control the universe, which will instantly make you a peak Eternal. I will also give you 99% of the authority to control the entire multiverse, so it''s quite a huge flow of power," Etz Chaim responded casually.

    "If you didn''t be an Origin God, I would have fed it to you slowly after a few hundred years while keeping you in stasis. However, I can hand it over to you almost instantly without overwhelming you," Etz Chaim added with a thoughtful expression, leaving Dante speechless again.

    "Rightˇ­ and what happens to my Origin Core and Origin Power? Do they get overwritten?" Dante asked the thing that bothered him the most.

    Etz Chaim considered her words carefully - for once - before responding. "No, not overwritten, but more likeˇ­ upgraded."

    "Upgraded? Fine, I''ll ept that. Also, if the need everes, can it be taken away from me? These ''upgrades,'' I mean?" Dante asked with piercing seriousness.

    Etz Chaim did not recognize the gravity of Dante''s words and answered casually. "Only the authority. Upgrading you to an Eternal cannot be taken back."

    Dante breathed a sigh of relief internally but still pressed. "How so?"

    Etz Chaim sized Dante from head to toe before answering with a smirk. "If you feed a pig good that fattens it, can you unfatten itter? No. But you can stop feeding it the special food that made it fat."

    Dante: "ˇ­"

    "Right, so are you going to do this or not? I have things to do," Etz Chaim said while yawning sleepily.

    Dante sucked in a deep breath to control his temper and meditated carefully. The entire time he had been talking to Etz Chaim, he hadn''t been idle. He was converging a great amount of Origin Power and Origin Energy in the area around him, ready to unleash it all in one go.

    Now that he was done talking, he readied himself mentally for what came next and controlled the sheer amount of power he had umted to smash through thest barrier that prevented him from connecting with Etz Chaim properly.

    BANG!

    It felt like using one''s shoulder to crash into a steel door, trying to break it down. Dante almost shouted out from how tough it was and the severity of the recoil with regards to being bounced back, but he kept it in.

    Instead, he gathered up even more energy and charged once more, smashing against the barrier with even more momentum. Higher momentum meant that he achieved much higher progress in breaking through, but also suffered much more pain.

    In the real world, blood leaked from Dante''s nose, something which hadn''t happened in a long time. As he was meditating in seclusion, there was no one here to see it, or Beatrice and Antonia would have been frightened.

    Meanwhile, in Dante''s soul space, Etz Chaim was watching only expressionlessly, not seeming bothered by Dante''s suffering. In fact, she felt a hint of surprise and resentment because what Dante was going through was considered easy.

    Advancing to an Eternal, and all you had to do was ram a barrier then suffer some mere pain? How many Origin Gods at the peak of their realm would give anything they had for a chance like this with a wide smile.

    Dante seemed to realize this, not because he was aware of the status of higher-dimensional beings, but because he could easily reason how valuable his chance was given everything he had experienced so far.

    So he continued to work, only resting and umting before striking again. No matter how hard a wall was, if it was hit with a strong force repeatedly over a period of time, it would begin to crack and eventually break.

    The same held true for whatever ethereal barrier separated Dante and Etz Chaim''srgest root. It took more than a few days of constant work, since Dante would spend a whole day gathering energy as fast as he could, consolidate it for another day, and then smash as much as he could for another day till it dissipated.

    Finally, after 10 rounds, totaling around 30 days, Dante finally smashed the wall that prevented him from seeing the other side, and immediately, he felt a feeling of connection with Etz Chaim that was clearer than ever.

    He could finally understand Etz Chaim''s state of being. She was not an Eternal like he thought, but something that was more like a half-step god. She possessed the power of Luka and Myra at a very diluted level, which was enough to put her above any Eternal in existence, which was why she was so powerful.

    Dante could also vaguely glimpse the existences of Luka and Myra through her senses, but they were extremely far away. Myra he could tell was not even within their universe, being somewhere else entirely.

    Luka, he could sense, was in the middle of some form of intense crisis and did not even have the attention to check out his peeping through Etz Chaim''s eyes. It was no wonder Luka himself didn''t handle the matter with Lara; he was dealing with something more important.

    "Enough peeping, focus on yourself," Etz Chaim chastised him with a roll of her eyes, her voice clearer to him than ever before.

    Without warning, she began unleashing a torrent of energy that entered his soul space through the quantum gate that formed his superpower. The gate began to swirl and sucked everything within his soul space within, his Origin Core,Origin Power, central soul, and even the void in his soul space.

    Even his soul projection was not spared and was sucked in. Due to this, Dante''s connection with Beatrice was severed, causing the woman who was currently teaching Antonia how to manifest her power safely to falter.

    Seeing Beatrice''s sudden change, Antonia was surprised. "Mommy, what''s wrong?"

    Beatrice remembered that she was with her daughter and sucked in a deep breath before manifesting what she thought was aforting smile but was actually extremely weak. "N-

    Nothing dear, let''s continueˇ­"

    Antonia nced at Beatrice''s hands, which were suddenly shaking, and her paleplexion, which contrasted with her usual vibrant vitality. The young girl might be a little inexperienced, but she was not stupid.

    Immediately she stood up and held Beatrice''s hands gently. "Mommyˇ­ daddy will be okay, alright?"

    Beatrice was stunned. She had not told Antonia anything about Dante, but when she looked down at her little girl''sforting look, Beatrice understood that she had long been seen through by her perceptive daughter.

    "ˇ­Yes, daddy will be fine," Beatrice murmured, her worry lessening greatly as she hugged her daughter gently.

    In truth, Dante was fineˇ­ mostly. His main body slumped to the ground lifelessly, his life functions continuing despite his mind and soul beingpletely gone. All his clones also dissipated regardless of where they were or what they were doing, causing some minor problems universe-wide.

    Dante did not have the consciousness to care about this. He was isted within the space within the quantum gate, everything that formed his existence floating around him. Before he could even wonder what was happening, the familiar surge of energy rushed into this space and beganpressing everything together from all sides, all at once!

    Immediately, Dante felt great pressure like never before!

 Chapter 361 Origo

    <h4>Chapter 361 Origo</h4>

    It was said that in order to acquire a piece of diamond, a great amount of pressure had to be applied to a piece of carbon. The carbon that could withstand the pressure and evolve was seen as good, while those that crumbled were seen as trash.

    Dante felt like a piece of carbon right now. The energy that poured into this tiny void that contained all of his existence began to apply pressure, squeezing every aspect of him together like he had entered a small car with two very big-boned people on either side of him.

    The more ''he'' was pushed together, the more the various parts of ''him'' began to forcibly use and merge. This process was not free of pain, but ''he'' did not have the facilities nor organs to sense pain physically, but ''he'' felt it on a spiritual level.

    If ''he'' could make a sound, he would be roaring in agony, but that was not possible. Unfortunately for ''him'', the fusion was not fast and was actually rather slow, as if the one handling it was being careful because this was their first time doing something like this.

    ''He'' did not know how long this went on for, only that it seemed never-ending. However, ''he'' suddenly felt a strange feeling of fusion and perfection at a particr moment in time, a sense of connection to ''his'' entire being.

    It was then that he rememberedˇ­ he was Dante Alighieri!

    Yes, he was Danteˇ­ but he was now so much more. His various soul elements that had now fused coalesced into a soul projection that was the same as always, but now, there was a sense of physicality andˇ­ wholenessˇ­ to it that was not there before.

    Not to mention the sense of raw power that came from his soul, but its current pulse was weak, seemingly like it would need to develop over time. Before Dante couldpletely feel his changes, the gate spat him out back into the void that was his soul space.

    Looking at the familiar but now unfamiliar zone, Dante felt first his great control over his soul. This space was a ce he could only visit and control some of the things within, but it was now like an entire part of him that he could reshape at will.

    With a wave of his hand, his entire soul space that was like an endless void condensed rapidly and virtualized into a scene of a small bourgeoisie neighborhood on Earth during its 2020 era, with a strong focus on one of the houses that had a few high-end cars parked outside.

    Dante stood and gazed at the home he grew up in with an emotional expression. He easily went through his memories of his over 20 years of life on Earth, which formed the majority of his memories in total, and realized how lucky he had been to enjoy life thoroughly up until this point.

    No dead parent, no cheating girlfriend, no severe heartbreak, no violence or abuse during childhood and no mistreatment during adult life. He had the picture-perfect upbringing that most would ask for, and he even got this opportunity as well.

    Despite not ''suffering'' like most others given his opportunity would have been required to in order to develop the will to push forward, Dante had been carried solely by his ambition to be greater than he already was.

    It was a ridiculous myth that one needed to suffer first for them to develop a strong will and a disciplined mind that desired for better things. It was perfectly possible for a ''normal'' and ''nd'' person like him to also make such great achievements if he put his mind to it.

    And here he was, at the cusp of his greatest achievement, and possibly one of the greatest achievements in history, bing the first lower-dimensional being to be an Eternal.

    Even if he had received ''external help'', it would be foolish to downy the achievement for that. After all, the motto was work smarter not harder, and going through needless suffering to achieve a goal that another did with ease did not make you more special.

    If anything, it made one look a bitˇ­ not very clever.

    Dante was pulled from his thoughts when Etz Chaim materialized beside him. The moment she sensed her, Dante''s feeling of aplishment was diminished significantly, because by the love of all things holy, she was powerful.

    He felt like a little snake looking up at a majestic fire-

    breathing dragon. However, this imagery was shattered when Etz Chaim began patting his arms to see if he was still in one piece with a worried expression before sighing in relief.

    "Right, so it worked. That''s good."

    Dante''s expression changed upon hearing that, and just as he was about to pursue it, Etz Chaim floated backward and smiled. "Get ready, you''re about to start receiving the energy control."

    There was no time for bickering when he suddenly saw Etz Chaim send over a tiny green and white crystal that rushed through her central root and was spat out through the gate. Dante could not dodge the crystal as it smashed into his soul''s ''chest'' and lodged itself where his ''heart'' should be.

    There was no pain this time, only shock. Shock from the sheer amount of senseless energy that this crystal could produce that had no end, no limit, and no beginning. Not only was it purer than anything he ever sensed before, he got the feeling that all forms of energy originated from a speck of this one.

    "That crystal is a piece of Origo that can channel a small amount of its energy into the lower-dimensional multiverse in order to sustain life. You can really use it however you want, but remember that the crystal is only a conduit, not the source. It can be destroyed and/or melt due to overuse." Etz Chaim began exining with folded arms.

    Etz Chaim waved a hand to stop Dante. "Forget it, I know that look on your face. Everything in reality has a source and a beginning, and for our entire reality when counting the five universes, that source is Origo."

    "You can picture it as a giant star simr to the sun that is made of special energy which is infinite and evesting, able to be used without any end. This star-like entity that is Origo then birthed its avatar after millions of centuries, forming the Gods of Gods, Deus."

    Etz Chaim''s expression was a bit pensive as he recounted this bit. "Out of boredom, Deus who had full control over Origo''s energy, used it to create the first universe in existence. It was just a barren void though, so he created the first-ever being, Caelo, who was granted the attributes of Destruction and Creation."

    "You could say that Deus trusted Caelo greatly, or that he had some sort of affection for his first creation, but in the creation authority he gave Caelo, there was a hint of control over Origo within."

    "Oh, one thing I should point out is that everything belongs to Deus and Origo that is created from Origo''s energy. It''s basically the same theory as when you had an Origin Core, assuming you ever fed your energy to any entity." Etz Chaim added as a sort of interlude, making Dante''s face change.

    "Caelo eventually got lonely and split into two, forming Ca his feminine counterpart. He retained the attribute of destruction which he was more familiar with while she obtained the attribute of creation. However, unlike the crass Caelo who could notutilize Origo''s authority properly Ca has equal authority to Deus currently."

    "Let me guess, Deus is not happy about that and wants Ca dead?" Dante interrupted with an ugly expression.

    Etz Chaim sized Dante up and looked surprised. "Yeah, Luka also realized it after Myra exined this bit to him. So right now, all the five gods have been summoned to Origo for a ''family gathering'' but everyone knows that things wille to head during this event, so the other gods began to train ''generals'' to assist them in suppressing Deus."

    Etz Chaim patted Dante on the shoulder with a look of passing on responsibility. "Luka created the entire lower-dimensional multiverse to not only find special beings but to train them too. He entrusted this task to me and now I am entrusting it to you, as you are what would be his first general."

    "You!!" Dante wanted to grab this pipsqueak, shove her into a cannon, light it on fire, and send her flying like a projectile into a steel wall. Or maybe even a diamond wall.

    Etz Chaim shrugged. "Don''t me me, I am bad at reading people and I don''t have enough free time to watch the multiverse, so you can do it. You have all the tools you need to make it work anyway."

    Dante: "ˇ­"

    Did Luka really make the right choice in leaving everything into thisˇ­ this damned tree?!

 Chapter 362 Supreme Authority

    <h4>Chapter 362 Supreme Authority </h4>

    Dante sucked in a deep breath and calmed himself down using various meditation and psychological techniques. After working up a wan smile, he decided to pursue his line of questioning.

    "I can sense the limitless energy of Origo, but how do we benefit from it?"

    "Oh, that? It''s pretty simple actually. Origo produces near-infinite energy of a limitless quantity such that it can never be exhausted, so it doesn''t take back the energy taken from it, ever," Etz Chaim began exining boredly.

    "All the gods have authority to pull energy from Origo to create limitlessly, but what they create has Deus'' imprint minus Ca. What is created then goes through its natural lifespan and then perishes, especially in the case of living beings."

    "Yet when they die, the energy they produced during their lifetime and the energy they consumed to be created should theoretically return to the source, which is Origo. However, it doesn''t and rather stays here, permanently increasing our own energy reserves."

    Dante nodded in understanding. "I see, okay then. I think I can understand why Luka created the multiverse then, and what the overall goal is."

    Etz Chaim seemed heartened by this. "That''s great because I personally have no idea. I always thought it was strange, but it has been fun to watch the multiverse grow so strongly over the centuries."

    "Anyway, here''s the 99% of the Authority I promised you." Etz Chaim suddenly said as she snapped her fingers.

    Once again, arge chunk of mass surged through the root and entered the Quantum Gate, existing into Dante''s soul space and then charging at his soul projection like a bullet.

    Slightly more ready this time, Dante did not feel asˇ­ overwhelmedˇ­ as before. Whereas the energy went into his heart area, the authority went into his soul''s brain area. The moment it connected with him, Dante felt a feeling of supreme power like never before.

    It was a familiar feeling, just like his same old Quantum Entanglement, but like everything had been dialed up by a factor of 10,000 at the minimum. All those upgrades he had passed up, omniscience, creation, life and death, timelessness, were in his hands.

    Even the powers he retained like replication, mass teleportation, or gate opening, bestowing powers, creating bonds, it had all been upgraded to a senseless level. Dante did not know how Luka and Myra felt, but he currently felt like a God ording to the beliefs of earth.

    He was not sure about outside the multiverse, but within it, there was almost nothing he couldn''t do. For one, he could easily see the total number of universes in existence, their locations within the chaos, and even see what resided in the chaos.

    He could destroy or create a whole universe at will, reset time, reverse time, or simply generate a new species if he wanted. He could also sense the various origin and above beings who had snuck into the lower universe through reincarnation, as well as the forest fairies who were trapped here.

    He could see, create, and destroy all parallel timelines for each lower universe because each one had trillions of alternate timeless due to different decisions.

    "Feels amazing, doesn''t it? When I first received the authority from Luka, I spent countless years trying to piece it out. I haven''t really done much though because I didn''t want to ruin his system," Etz Chaim smiled as she made a circle round Dante''s soul body.

    "Right, don''t forget to get the rest of Lara''s clones. Without them, I cannot get the final bit of the authority that Lara stole and dispersed into them to permanently weaken me. That should be your main priority now, but it should be very easy for the current you," Etz Chaim continued casually.

    Dante finally recovered from his out-of-the-world experience and focused his mind. He flexed his arms and felt the rity of mind that was very normal to him despite the near limitless power, and was surprised he had not been overwhelmed by the trance he had been in just now.

    "So this is what omniscience meansˇ­" Dante muttered with a wry smile.

    He thought he would be overwhelmed by the knowledge of all universes, but it was like possessing muscle memory, or knowledge of a skill. For example, driving; when one knew how to drive and had been driving for years, you didn''t consciously think about driving, it just happened in the back of your mind.

    Likewise, everything was at Dante''s fingertips, not overwhelming his conscious mind, but there for him to pick and choose when he wanted to. Omniscience was described as knowledge of all things in existence; however, Dante would describe his version of it as having the ability to ess knowledge of all things.

    But what pleased and surprised him was that through all this power and all this energy, he could still sense his now Eternal Talent, which was Technology. It was separated from these two new powers Etz Chaim gave him, as well as his Eternal Source Origin.

    So his Eternal body, power, and energy were free for him to use and cultivate as he willed, eventually raising them to the peak. Even if these grand powers he just got were taken away, he would still retain his Eternal abilities.

    Dante nced at Etz Chaim who seemed relieved to have passed off this burden. The avatar saw his unfriendly gaze and stiffened, quickly manifesting a crooked smile before retreating into her main body.

    "Right, I leave everything to you, Dante~"

    Dante''s lips twitched but he decided not to pursue the matter. Rather, he manifested the 5 summoned beasts he always had who Etz Chaim had sidelined during his upgrade, and were now very confused.

    With a point of his finger, they were reconnected to his Eternal Source Origin. Feeling the energy that sustained them return, they were first relieved and then suddenly shocked because the quality and quantity of energy was multiplied many times from before!

    The energy felt like what they had before Dante became an Origin being, which meant thatˇ­

    Dante had be an Eternal?!

    "No need to think so much, friends, you are right. Still, you don''t exactly have the full picture just yet, and I will disseminate it to you in time. For now, you no longer need to be confined to my soul space, you can exist freely in reality as true beings," Dante exined with a nod.

    "Huh?" Levi was the most shocked. Simply ncing at Dante revealed so many truths as well as facts that he had never even considered and he found himself rapidly bing overwhelmed by the slow omniscience that was descending upon him.

    Luckily, Dante snapped a finger and broke him out of it, causing the Truth Beast to reveal a look of fear as he quickly exited Dante''s soul space, refusing to look at his soul body again.

    The other summoned beasts also left quickly, sweat dripping from their foreheads at the sheer power radiating from Dante''s soul body. The fellow himself rolled his eyes at their antics and tuned to nce at Etz Chaim one more time before dissipating, merging with his entire soul space.

    Dante opened his eyes in reality, located within an underground chamber that acted like a Faraday Cage. This chamber was deep below their estate and was usually meant for him to make breakthroughs without destroying whole swathes of area like he did in the past.

    He sighed and patted his thighs before pushing himself to his feet, ncing at the five summoned beasts who were actually quiterge in reality. The smallest of them, Dorothy, was about the size of a whole human head.

    He initiated the release procedures for the Faraday Cage and came out with the group, only to see Beatrice and Antonia standing together at the entrance while wearing expectant expressions.

    He smiled and took a big step forward, capturing the two into his embrace. Feeling the softness and warmth of his beautiful wife as well as the gentleness and reliance of his lovely daughter, Dante felt the pains of his seclusion wash away.

    "I''ve missed you two so much," Dante said softly.

    "Me too, Dad, I''ve missed you! It''s been so long since I saw your main body, and your clones disappeared for like a few months, and Mom and I had no way to contact you, andˇ­" Antonia immediately began a barrage of words that smacked Dante in the face as he listened with amusement.

    While he listened, he nced at his wife who had been silent all this while, lying in his embrace while enjoying his presence. Dante felt his heart ache because he knew how much Beatrice loved him, and he did not feel good about making her worry like this.

    He knew his darling wife best, she was tough and strong on the outside but sweet and soft on the inside. He was one of her vulnerabilities and he always tried not to make her feel any form of pain given the suffering she had experienced growing up.

    "Don''t worry, Bea. I am here now," Dante reassured her gently with a kiss to her cheek.

 Chapter 363 Task Complete

    <h4>Chapter 363 Task Complete</h4>

    "Mhmm," Beatrice mumbled weakly.

    "Alright, alright, there''s enough of me to go around, guys. Why don''t we go sit down and you guys can tell me about all that happened while I was away, okay?" Danteughed softly as he kissed both his wife and daughter enthusiastically, trying to raise their spirits.

    "Oh! Oh! Yeah! Let me start!"

    Antonia practically jumped with excitement at the idea of being able to show off in front of her dad. She pulled Dante and Beatrice to the side, even choosing where they would sit so that they could better view her.

    Sitting down, Dante finally had time to size his daughter up. His seclusion had been pretty long this time,sting about 3 years in total. The toddler-like Antonia who could only reach his shin was long gone, maturing into a young teen of 11 years.

    Due to her superior gics and stats, she was a lot older physically than she actually looked. From her current height of 5 feet and 6 inches, she was taller than most even at the age she was stipted to be at.

    This entirely came from her two parents, Dante who was 6 foot 2 and Beatrice who was exactly six feet. Her height definitely would not stop there and even had a chance to reach Augeus or Portia''s levels.

    Her purple hair, which she inherited from her mother, had grown out, being tied into a ponytail which allowed Antonia to take care of it better. Her skin tone had not changed, rather bing more pronounced if anything.

    It was also clear that puberty was beginning to strike his young daughter, and Dante now had to face every father''s fear, the prospect of his little princess, a swan in his eyes, being targeted by lustful toads, which were boys her age.

    He was dragged from his thoughts by his daughter, who was impatiently waving her hands in front of his face. "Dad! Focus!"

    "Alright, alright, let me see what you''ve got." Dante chuckled and admitted defeat.

    Dante nced at Beatrice who was calmly watching with a slightly amused smile, clearly already aware of whatever Antonia was going to show off. This also made Dante somewhat curious and he could easily get the answer using his new abilities, but he didn''t want to ruin the novelty and fun of this moment.

    "Now, look!" Antonia eximed as she stood a few steps away from Dante and began to focus.

    Suddenly, her eyes changed color from their usual purple to a golden hue, and Dante felt a slight pull towards them, especially since he was looking right into them. His soul space began to waver and quake slightly, but a casual flick of his soul body''s finger steadied it.

    Antonia seemed to be trying very hard at the moment, so Dante eventually pretended to be in a trance, which made the youngdy feel extremely satisfied. She rxed and let the golden hue disappear, returning her eyes to normal, in which Dante also pretended toe to.

    "Huh? Did something happen?" Dante acted dumb, which made Beatrice giggle and Antonia sigh with exasperation.

    "Dad, I''m not dumb. I know there''s no way I can trap you, but can you at least pretend normally?" Sheined unhappily, making Dante rub the back of his head.

    Well, he had never actually fallen into an illusion before. Except that one time he was first spelunking in the Zero Gate and was slightly influenced by some random beast to lose his sense of direction.

    But that obviously wasn''t the same thing, so how could he skillfully pretend.

    "Fine, but it''s great that you have unlocked your Eyes of Illusion so early. My darling Antonia is a prodigy not seen in ten thousand years!" Dante quickly praised to change her focus, which worked splendidly.

    "Haha, that''s right, even mom said so. I am quite a talent, aren''t I? I''ve also reached the Martial Grandmaster realm in External Martial Arts, the Great Knight Realm in Knight Breathing, as well as a 6th Rank Lightning and Water Magus!" Antonia immediately boasted as her head swelled with pride.

    "Wow! My Antonia is so amazing!" Dante cried out as he pped his hands with shock.

    "Hehe, and also, I have be an Internal Grandmaster in both the Inferno Ascension Technique and the Celestial Ascension Technique!" Antonia quickly added her crowning achievementst to extract the maximum effect, and Dante naturally let her have her way.

    "Oh my! Antonia, how is this possible?! Only the most talented and cutest girl could possibly aplish this!" Dante stood up as if in disbelief.

    Antonia was beaming from ear to ear,ughing happily. She had waited for this day for a long time, and had worked hard while Dante was away to achieve it. Having her efforts be rewarded made her feel a sense of aplishment like nothing before.

    "Wellˇ­ it was also thanks to mom''s guidance that I got this far." Antonia stated as she skipped over to Beatrice and hugged her gently, surprising both Beatrice and Dante.

    The two parents shared a look and smiled gently. Dante then spent the rest of the week with the two, not leaving their side for even a second. As for the pursuit of Lara''s clones, he didn''t see the need to rush it and continued to let his army handle it, only that the process got much more efficient since he had knowledge of all universes.

    There was nowhere for Lara''s clones to hide nor would there be a single universe that would be spared. Troops were dispatched daily and within a week, would lure out the clone. An omni-clone of Dante would descend and effortlessly capture her, tossing her into the now limitless quantum space that extended into the chaos itself.

    The good news was that Lara was predictable, or at least her clones were. The same set of actions always yielded the same results at around the same time and with the same amount of effort.

    Then again, that was what would happen if you cut off allmunication between the clones such that each one acted independently of the other. Since all their personalities and logical reasoning came from the same source, it was natural that their actions would be the same.

    Time flew by and the number of clones out there in the wild began to diminish rapidly. They had formed quite the civilization within the quantum space, living in peace with each other, something that Etz Chaim found suspicious.

    Quote Etz Chaim: "I know Lara, it''s impossible for her to even tolerate herself, so how could billions of clones do the same?"

    Eventually, another 3 months passed by. By this time, Dante had gotten used to his new powers and was exploring new utility for them slowly. It was quite frustrating that he could touch and reshape all the universes in existence, but he could not, for the life of him, even remotely affect the Zero and First Gates.

    Then again, if he could, Etz Chaim who originally had the same authority would have long disabled or destroyed them since they were the primary source of the problem. Dante, now in control of the multiverse, felt the distress Etz Chaim felt as energy was forcefully pulled from hiscore to fuel the activities of those two gates.

    Lara was truly insidious in this regard because the energy did note from the crystal that connected to Origo, or there would have been no problem. Rather, Lara set toe from whoever held the authority directly, meaning it was their own personal energy being sapped away.

    Dante was only a new Eternal who just entered the realm, not a peak one like Etz Chaim. He was really feeling the drainage and estimated that he didn''t have her millions of years, but maybe only a few decades at best.

    However, unlike Etz Chaim who was too busy suppressing Lara''s main body to do anything about it, Dante had all the time in the world. As such, he devised the very simple and obvious n to prevent all captured universes from using the two gates for the near future.

    Going from actively being exploited to passively being exploited greatly changed the energy consumption and reduced it by more than 30%, giving Dante a lot of breathing space.

    Of course, no matter how smart the idea was, it was only a stopgap measure that did not truly solve the pressing problem. Dante issued amand for the conquest to be sped up so that not only could he integrate all universes into one whole family, but he could also achieve his goal.

    Luckily, thismand was carried out quickly and efficiently. From zily'' conquering one at a time, the army went into frenzy mode and disregarded all niceties. Many universes fell on the same day, some even within the same hour, numbering in thousands.

    There weren''ts or even gxies, but entire universes that fell like dominoes!

    So it was without surprise that almost a yearter, thest Lara clone had been captured and arranged before Dante, fulfilling his second task.

 Chapter 364 A Question

    Chapter 364 A Question

    ??Dante knew that the penultimate moment hade. He informed his wife and daughter of his task, and the two of them gave him their blessings to go ahead in peace, as they were waiting for him.

    Dante rolled his eyes because they were acting like he would be gone for long when an omni-clone was always present with them at the least. For all they even knew, Etz Chaim''s solution might take a split second and he would be back.

    Regardless, Dante kissed them both and left the Eternal universe, heading into the primal chaos that existed in between the universes. The moment he entered this void, the first thing he felt was the vast nothingness and the thunderous silence.

    It was the kind of silence that was so intense that your ears started ringing. Next was the darkness where no light existed. Apart from the universe behind him he just came from, and the countless universes spread around contained in egg-shaped bubbles, there was not a single speck of light and Dante could not even see his own body.

    Next was the danger. There were lifeforms that existed in chaos, created by Luka in order to present a challenge for inter-universe transportation andmunication. If it was safe to cross this void, stronger universes with greater technology would have long found out how, and it wouldn''t be Dante''s turn to conquer the multiverse.

    These lifeforms were the eldritch and space horrors that many knew of, and were in fact what existed in the subspace of the First Gate that had caused Dante trauma back then. Because, as it should be obvious, the battleground where the First Gate was located was smack dab in the center of the chaos.

    However, as an Eternal, Dante''s presence soon lit up the chaos like a beacon. His sense of silence was gone, his sense of blindness was gone, and the sense of danger disappeared as the eldritch monsters that had been rushing over to feast whimpered then fled.

    All this, and he hadn''t even used a speck of his authority yet. The power of an Eternal truly was the peak of existence below that of Godhood, and Dante was beginning to see why.

    He casually used his Eternal talent of Technology to create a small spaceship that was above anything any universe''s technology could match, with speeds and features that were insane.

    He boarded it and let its onboard AI drive him towards his destination within the primal chaos. It took off and tore through the primal chaos, leaving a searing streak on its version of space like someone using chalk to draw a line on a ckboard.

    As for Dante, he was reclining infort within the spaceship, his eyes closed and his thoughts on what was about to happen. As he contemted, the onboard AI let him know he had reached his destination more than a few dayster, causing him to sit up and begin leaving the craft.

    Upon returning to the chaos, the first thing that came into view was a huge ne that stretched out farther and wider than any single universe, with different biomes spread all around it. Unlike the universes that were within a powerful bubble that protected from outside forces, the so-called Universe Battlefield was only covered by a thinyer.

    If we were topare them to dressing, then universes would be like nuns whereas the universe battlefield was like a one-piece swimsuit that only covered nipples and genitals.

    The slightest force from a strong being like Dante could pierce it open and render every being within the First Gate''s universe battlefield at the mercy of the chaos.

    This made his expression be cold because he saw the malice in Lara''s design. Even if the universe battlefield could somehow be destroyed without using the authority, one would have to put up with ughtering all the existences within the ne.

    Dante himself had not been here in a long time, refraining from partaking in the First Gate''s troubles ever since Etz Chaim revealed the truth to him, but his mother-inw was there. Even if he could easily resurrect her right now if she died, he did not want her to have to experience death twice.

    Dante took his eyes away from the ''fragile'' universe battlefield and focused on a giant tree that swayed in the chaos, forcefully creating an area of meadond for hundreds of miles within its own space.

    Etz Chaim''s true body.

    Obviously, it was not possible for Etz Chaim to squeeze her Eternal existence into Dante''s tiny soul space. What had been there was a semi-projection and semi-corporeal entity, connected to him through the cords that linked to his quantum gate.

    She had initially been in higher dimensional space until Dante reached the S Rank, where with Etz Chaim was able to descend into lower dimensional space and ced herself near the Universe Battlefield.

    In terms of size, she was thergest thing he had ever seen, farrger than any universe or even the nearby universe, which was crazy because through his connection with Etz, he knew that she was normal size in the upper dimension.

    Dante gathered his scattered thoughts and moved closer to Etz Chaim until he stood right in front of her trunk. Unlike the chaos, here there was a warm sun, a soft and cool breeze as well as swaying grass.

    "So you''re finally here. Took you long enough," Etz Chaimined as her avatar separated from the trunk, forming a humanoid body dressed in leaves.

    "I thought you said I had millions of years?" Dante retorted with a smile.

    Etz Chaim was left speechless unable to refute her own words. Besides, theint was rhetorical, not intended to garner a response!

    "Whatever. Did you bring the goods?" Etz Chaim asked shiftily.

    Dante almost facepalmed. "Let''s not speak as if we''re here to trade illicit materials. Yes, I have all of Lara''s clones, all 34 zillion-billion of them."

    Etz Chaim pped her hands in excitement and stretched her palm out. "Great, now give them to me and I can end this finally."

    "No," Dante replied calmly.

    Etz Chaim stood there, frozen for a bit, before processing Dante''s words. "Huh? No? Why?"

    Etz Chaim then sized Dante up and down suspiciously. "Don''t tell me you''ve also been bewitched by her?"

    Dante shook his head but remained neutral. "Not at all. The reason I won''t give her to you is that I want you to answer one question for me first, just a little question that has been troubling me for a long time."

    "Ooookayˇ­ sure," Etz Chaim acquiesced uncertainly, wondering what this was all about.

    "Hmm. You know, you once told me the story of Luka and Myra, how they connected and how they were almost ruined by Lara. In this retell, you painted Lara as an incorrigible and unforgivable viin, which she is as far as I can tell," Dante began, rubbing his chin with a strange smile.

    "However, in the end, you left something out, didn''t you? Because help me understand this. How could Lara be the one who separated Luka and Myra, erased Luka''s memories, killed his biological parents, caused him all sorts of agony as well as trauma during his formative years, and yetˇ­"

    Dante turned to face Etz Chaim, his smile slowly fading. "And yet, after all that, whenhe had her defeated in and at his mercy, he chose to seal her rather than kill her?"

    "The power and authority of the creator of the universe are absolute; even a being like Lara cannot be immune to that, first creation or not. So, what exactly did Luka learn or know about Lara that made him spare her life and decide to seal her?"

    Dante took a step forward. "And why did you hide this from me?"

    Etz Chaim paled and took a step back. It was clear that this was likely one of the questions she hoped Dante would never ask nor think of, for she had never reacted so strongly to anything before.

    Dante also waited until now to ask this because he wanted to hold the initiative. With all the Lara clones in hand and the multiversal authority in his control, Etz Chaim could not do anything but answer if she wanted to proceed with this n.

    "Well?" Dante pressed.

    Etz Chaim gritted her teeth, seemingly very unwilling and reluctant, but slumped her shoulders in defeat.

    "I was hoping you wouldn''t want to know. Hahaha, I knew you and Luka are very alike."

    Etz Chaim looked to the sky of her own world and sighed. "Lara was spared by Luka because he pitied her after finding out the truth of her existence. He decided to seal her instead of killing her, even after she tried to kill all his friends before their final battle."

    Dante raised an eyebrow. "And what was that? What was it about Lara that caused Luka to do this?"

    Etz Chaim hesitated and spoke slowly. "Because Laraˇ­ Lara is not the way she is naturally. Someone tampered with her mind and soul to turn her into a weapon that would harm Myra at all turns and hinder her growth to keep Myra under control."

    Dante''s eyes narrowed as his breath caught.

    "ˇ­Deus."

 Chapter 365 An Answer

    <h4>Chapter 365 An Answer</h4>

    "Yes. We didn''t know why at first, but it became apparentter when Luka dug deep into it. If Deus created Caelo out of curiosity and loneliness, then he created Myra purely as an experiment," Etz Chaim exined slowly.

    "His train of thought was simple: since Caelo was created as an adult, that might be the reason he became rebellious against authority. So the next god he created should be a child that will look at him more like a father figure, and therefore be more attached as well as controble."

    "He eventually got bored, though, after raising Myra here like a father for a few decades and left her to grow on her own while he developed ns for the next universe and his next experiment."

    "It was then that he tampered with the initially strict but benevolent Lara, turning her into a ticking time bomb that would only get worse with time, leading to the current situation," Etz Chaim concluded weakly.

    Dante frowned slightly. "I see. And why did you choose to hide this from me? There must be a reason that such crucial information was held back."

    Etz''s expression changed many times until it became one of grievance. "Becauseˇ­ Because I didn''t want you to end up like Luka!"

    "Do you know what it''s like having to watch him and Myra suffer under the hands of Lara but have them forgive her when it''s time to finally punish her? I was born the moment Myra shared her power with Luka as children, starting as a mere seedling."

    "During that time, I couldn''t evenmunicate, but I could see things from both Myra and Luka''s perspectives. Myra spent every day after Luka was taken from her in confusion and pain, finally deciding to age herself naturally after remaining child-like for centuries under Deus'' order."

    "For Luka, it was even worse. Lara ughtered his true parents and diminished his memory of them, then sent him to the foster home where she cursed the son of his foster mother with a deficiency while making her irrationally hate him, leading to abuse growing up."

    Etz Chaim began to cry at this point, her eyes bing red. "Every step of the way for the two of them was paved in suffering, and I was connected to them the whole time, able to feel it all from both ends but do nothing about it!"

    "And yetˇ­ and yet!"

    "After going through all that, they still decided to spare her life and simply seal her just because they felt pity for her!" Etz Chaim practically roared.

    Dante was silent in the face of Etz Chaim''s revtion, but he sighed internally. He could perfectly understand how Etz Chaim felt because it happened to many people nowadays.

    There was always one friend or family member that we cared about who had suffered at the hands of someone or something, but did not nearly hate that person or thing as much as you did. To you, it was baffling that the friend in question could possibly be willing to live in peace with the one you consider their worst enemy.

    From Etz Chaim''s perspective, Lara''s background or reason was unimportant. What was important were her actions and the consequences that urred because of them, which was a fair and logical way to look at it.

    But Dante also perfectly understood Luka at this moment.

    "So you were worried that if I found out this information, I would also spare Lara out of pity and kindness?" Dante asked gently.

    Etz Chaim wiped her tears and nodded weakly. Looking at her, Dante wondered how a millennia-old creature could be so infantile in behavior, but then what made people ''mature'' was not time, but experience.

    Etz Chaim spent too much time in this meadow, locked away from the world and reality, so she never received any external stimuli to help her grow as a person. In fact, one could say the time spent with Dante was more useful in this regard than all the time spent watching over Lara.

    "If you think that way, then you don''t truly understand why Luka sealed Lara. I guess you might have insight into his mind and feelings, but it''s not as strong as before, right?" Dante inquired.

    "Huh? Yeah, sort of. He doesn''t mind, but when Myra was around, they would do certain stuff a lot, and I was not interested in seeing that," Etz Chaim replied with a blush.

    Dante did not register the thought and continued with his point. "If you im Luka and I are simr, then his thinking is so; Lara is not the enemy. She-"

    "SHE IS!" Etz Chaim roared and interrupted Dante, but the fellow was not angry.

    "Calm down, let me finish, Etz. From Luka''s point of view, the final boss is not Lara, but Deus. Lara is just a tool that Deus used to harm Myra and hinder her growth for his own experiment, so dealing with Lara would only be ying into Deus'' hands."

    "Likewise, Lara is just as much a victim as he himself was. When a person is mind-controlled to do horrible things, who do you punish? The person who was mind-controlled against their will or the one who implemented the mind controlling?"

    Etz Chaim was about to speak, but Dante nced at her seriously, which shut her up. "It could just as easily have been you. As the representative bond between Luka and Myra, Deus could one day visit you silently and corrupt you just as he did Lara."

    Dante nced sideways at Etz''s trunk. "The reason he hasn''t after all this while might be just because there is no need to since the original ''tool'' is still alive. However, if it was ever destroyed, he might need to fashion a new one."

    Etz Chaim was clearly thunderstruck, as if the very idea had never urred to her. No young child would think that they might betray or harm their loving parent, so Etz Chaim never nned for nor envisioned a scenario where she would be used as a tool to harm Luka or Myra.

    Even if it happened to Lara, it was before Etz Chaim was even conceptualized. To her, from the moment she was born, Lara was already established to be evil, and she had never seen the ''good'' Lara, so she tended to subconsciously ignore the ''forcibly warped personality'' part.

    But now that Dante had pointed out the fact, it made so much sense to Etz Chaim that she began to suspect if she had already been corrupted somehow and did not know. Before she could fall into a rabbit hole of doubt, Dante''s palmnded on top of her scalp with a bit of force.

    "Don''t bother yourself with such things. Trust in Luka and Myra. Even if Deus can y with you and me like toys, he definitely cannot easily do so to the likes of Luka or Myra, or he would have long reset all the rebellious gods back into the aether eons ago, right?" Dante asked with a smile.

    Etz nodded her head slowly. "Yesˇ­ that''s correct. They were directly created from Origo''s purest energy from the core area, their existence and their souls being of such a level that they can only be ''dealt'' with if they enter Origo''s core physically."

    Dantenarrowed his eyes. "Hence why Deus invited them over. Meanwhile, everyone''s in a rush to power up and buy time for their helpers to grow, myself included. I see."

    "Hmm, this Deus sure is a thinker. Why do all of this just to leave trouble for yourself? After one Ca, why continue creating more? After all, you''re just creating more enemies for yourself." Dante folded his arms over his chest and used his right hand to rub his chin.

    "I don''t know. None of us knows, not even Caelo, which is why we are taking such measures," Etz Chaim admitted after much hesitation.

    "Oh, to that, we won''t get an answer until the final moment. Rather than that, what I want to know is what kind of nner Deus is like. Is he like Aizen, is he like Light, or is he like Nigma?" Dante waved his hand to indicate that the previous question was unimportant, leaving Etz speechless.

    She naturally did not know who any of those people were, nor did she want to know. Rather, the main question at the moment was how to deal with Lara, and Etz was hesitant to push Dante toward any resolution after all he had said so far.

    "Alright then, let''s do it," Dante smiled as he ced a hand on Etz Chaim''s head and gave her ess to his quantum space.

    "Huh? Do what?" Etz was taken aback by his sudden exmation.

    Dante looked at her as if she wascking all the brain cells possible, something which made Etz be red-faced. "The method to deal with Lara. What you had nned to do originally. Let''s go ahead with it."

    "Eh? Ehh? Ehhhh??" Etz Chaim''s eyes began to spin as she waspletely lost on what was going on and why it was going on.

 Chapter 366 Advent of Madness

    <h4>Chapter 366 Advent of Madness </h4>

    "Well, don''t dally. Let''s get the party started," Dante prompted the shocked and confused Etz Chaim with an amused smile.

    Etz had a million things she wanted to say right now, but she could only swallow them and do what she nned to do. She opened the quantum space that she now had ess to and saw the billions of Lara clones who were congregated together, forming a sprawling society.

    Etz Chaim was surprised that so many Lara clones could exist in peace with each other and even more surprised by the luxury Dante afforded her. Then again, Etz remembered that Dante was not Luka, who had deep beef with Lara, as the young man here only saw her as an enemy solely because of his task.

    Taking a deep breath, Etz Chaim activated her power, which caused a great number of roots to surge from her main body and pierce the chaos in front of her. These roots led right to Dante''s quantum space, appearing from a portal above the Lara society.

    The Lara clones saw the roots appear and did not panic but rather disyed intense expressions of hatred. They all manifested their power and began to strike at the iing roots, but it was akin to an ant trying to use its spit to drown a whale.

    The roots were merciless and efficient, immediately entering the midst of the Lara clones and piercing through their bodies, sucking the essence and power out of them, causing them to turn into desated husks that disintegrated into ash.

    Despite the resistance, billions of clones were sucked away like this, reducing the overall number in the quantum space rapidly within mere seconds. What had taken Dante quite a while to collect was emptied out before ten minutes psed.

    Dante himself quickly watched from an omniscient position as the clones were collected one by one, their collective essence being fed back to Etz Chaim''s main body in which Lara was suppressed within her core.

    "So, the n I guess is to return all of Lara clones back to her and then extract the fragments of the remaining authority that she split among them?" Dante asked casually.

    "Yes. Without returning those clones, that final part of the authority you''re supposed to have will never return. While it''s small enough to be overlooked, at the level of battles you will be facing as Luka''s general, you cannot becking even a bit!" Etz Chaim stated with her hands sped together, her face full of focus.

    "Mmm, I understand," Dante said with a smile, no longer looking at the quantum space that was devoid of life, but rather directly at Etz Chaim''s trunk which floated in the void before them.

    The roots retracted back into her body, having long fed the energy back and achieved their purpose. In fact, Lara''s main body had been brought out once more and one could see the energy visibly surging into her body through the various connections to Etz Chaim.

    "Hmm, almost done. When it''splete, I will extract the authority and give it to you the old-fashionedˇ­ what?!"

    Etz Chaim suddenly eximed in shock as she lost control of the energy, which bacshed on her as it crazily surged into Lara''s body. An explosion urred on her trunk that caused some of the wood to splinter, causing the already shell-shocked Etz Chaim to groan in pain.

    Etz Chaim''s avatar was blown back, being casually caught by Dante who nced towards her main body, in which a torrent of light and energy was converging towards an obscured silhouette.

    Dante ced Etz Chaim down and hovered slightly closer, stopping just when the light show came to an end, which revealed the presence of none other than Lara Sanguis. She was initially naked due to being sealed that way, but her familiar military attire formed around her body, her capeing to rest on her shoulders.

    Her eyes were closed, and her arms were ced in position of reception, up until the moment her energy subsided and settled. Like that, she sucked in a deep breath of air - which was pointless since they were in the void - and opened her eyelids to reveal her two blood-red pupils that were filled with intensity.

    Lara remained floating in the void, ncing back at her former prison with a cold nce, then looking forward to analyze Etz Chaim''s avatar. Seeing the familiar manifestation, a sneer appeared on her face.

    "Humph, to think you could keep me locked up for millennia on endˇ­ if I had known, I would have nipped you in the bud the very day you sprouted, Little Tulip."

    Etz Chaim was clearly in pain from the escape, but hearing the name ''Little Tulip'' made her freeze up like never before. Dante nced at her askance and then back at Lara, who slowly turned her attention to him.

    "And you."

    Lara spoke with such intensity in her voice as she red at Dante, her eyes narrowing dangerously. "I have to say, it has really turned my world upside down that a true lower-

    dimensional being could not only rise to this height but even pose a threat to my noble self."

    "Even though you have offended me, you did y a part in my release. Not to mention your quick growth and potential, you might have actually been someone I would have treated neutrally, if not an ally."

    Lara''s eyes shed with an intense red light. "However, just like Luka, you are hellbent on defying authority, the very authority that cannot be defied!"

    "The power of Lord Deus is not something you canprehend, being a mere lower-ss trash. Even that foolish Luka has intoxicated himself with merely half of Myra''s power, thinking he can face up against the very being that grants us existence. Reprehensible!"

    Lara flung her right arm to the side, causing her cape to billow. "Such foolish actions and childish rebellion will only hasten our demise and put Myra in danger. For her sake, it is up to me to vanquish the vile Luka and steer things back into the right direction."

    Lara then pointed a finger at Dante. "Here is your chance to make the right decision. Cast away your crass and uncouth thoughts of rebellion and aid me in subduing Luka, and I shall make sure to put in a good word for you with Lord Deus."

    "Never! You crazy woman, how can you still be willing to fight for that man after all he has done to Myra?!" Etz Chaim spoke up in anger.

    Lara''s eyes shifted slowly to Etz Chaim. "You understand nothing, Little Tulip, but I don''t expect you to. You have likely been corrupted by the evil thoughts of Luka, causing you to be muddle-headed."

    Etz Chaim gritted her teeth. "Don''t call me that nameˇ­"

    "You don''t like it? Do you prefer I call you by your false name, Etz Chaim? Tree of Life? Hah, what a joke!" Laraughed uproariously.

    Then her expression became cold. "You are and will always be one of the random flows in the Divine Meadow. Amon tulip among a field of millions, that just happened to be picked by Myra and used as a vessel to share her power with Luka when they were infants."

    Lara''s lips curled upward. "Had that never urred, who knows when you would have ever enlightened your fairy spirit? Even within your row in the tulips patch, almost all your sisters had gained consciousness, only the inferior little you remained unable to speak or think."

    "SHUT UP!!" Etz Chaim cried out as she covered her eyes with an expression of pain.

    Lara seemed satisfied by this and refocused on Dante who had been quietly listening. "Surprised? The almighty being that changed your entire existence and brought you to this level was a mere failure, a random flower in an expansive meadond created for the Forest Fairies to feel at home."

    "Not really. Everyone has got to start from somewhere, and it was always strange to me that she could pop up from nowhere without any backdrop then be the bond between a deity and mortal." Dante replied with what he honestly thought.

    "Oh? Interesting. You don''t seem bothered nor fazed by my presence at all. Do you really have so much confidence in your little authority?" Lara teased with a cruel smile that began to spread on her face.

    Dante also smiled, but his was neutral. "Not because of the authority or personal power, but because of predictions. You see, I knew this would happen."

    Lara''s growing smile disappeared. "Huh? Are you trying to suggest that a mere lower-dimensional being like you has foresight to predict my actions?"

    Danteughed lightly. "It has nothing to do with one state of being, and all to do with pattern recognition and simple deduction. With the information I had been given so far as well as my experience with your clones, I deduced that this would be the oue of Etz''s n."

    Dante''s smile disappeared and was reced with a cold glint. "Because whether it''s Etz, Myra, or Luka, they may know this about you but do not understand just how deep it goes."

    "The fact that you, Lara, arepletely batshit insane."

 Chapter 367 A Friend From Afar

    <h4>Chapter 367 A Friend From Afar</h4>

    Lara''s lips twitched slightly until her grin spread out to each side of her face in an eerie and inhumane manner. Hermanding posture lowered and her shoulders slumped, making her demeanor seem more wretched and ugly than she actually was.

    She burst into bone-chillingughter that was filled with madness and mockery. While Dante stood before her with a solemn expression, Etz Chaim became white as a sheet from shock, not believing what she was seeing.

    "T-That''s impossible! Luka changed some of the damage Deus did to you and let you be sealed by me because my Eternal Talent is best suited to curing your mental issues! How dare you still act like thisˇ­?" Etz eximed with iprehension, inadvertently revealing more information about Lara''s sealing.

    Lara ignored her and continuedughing wantonly, as if relishing being free for the first time. Dante floated over and patted Etz Chaim on the shoulder to reassure her even as he spoke in a deep voice.

    "Madness and corruption on Lara''s level can be weathered over time, but only if she herself wishes to go back. That is the mistake you and Luka made, thinking that Lara had possibly changed in some form."

    Dante sighed. "The simple truth is, Deus didn''t need to do much. Myra might have created Lara and established her ''base settings'', but people grow and change based on stimulus."

    "Does Lara have some element of maniption from Deus in her causing her to act this way? Probably. Does Lara truly have aplex towards Myra because she was the first being created and is psychotic about it? Yes."

    Etz''s face changed. "So everything she didˇ­"

    "ˇ­was of her own ord. It was convenient for her to me Deus for it because it gave her the chance she has today," Dante exined faintly, looking at the stillughing Lara with amusement.

    Lara''sughter suddenly cut off as she red at Dante with a cold expression. "Quite the smart one, aren''t you, lesser lifeform? Are you saying all this to intimidate me? Who knows if you''re just guessing?"

    Dante smiled inly. "I am intimidating you, and as for my knowledge, it''s due to observation and deduction. The first moment I clued into your n was when Etz told me about the history of Luka, Myra, and yourself."

    "At the time, she said that there was no way you would reim your clones or rely on energy from lower dimensions due to your nature, which struck me wrongly."

    Dante rubbed his chin with a smile. "At the time, I didn''t know the depth of your madness and cunning, but I did think to myself that if my enemy had a fixed perception of me, I would do the exact opposite of what they thought in order to catch them off guardˇ­ which is precisely what you did."

    "I was on guard against this for a long while, but it was mere suspicion to me. What made me certain was your various clones. You see, they might have been utterly clueless to your overarching n and even thought the same as Etz here, but it doesn''t change the fact that they are YOUR clones."

    Dante folded his arms behind his back. "Just like my own omni-clones, they are built of the blueprint that is you, so they act and interact with all things just as you would. Not counting the clone from my origin universe that I captured over 5 years ago, I had about two of them in my quantum space for over 2 years before I started capturing the rest slowly."

    "This gave me time to observe them in detail, and their interactions for so long gave me unparalleled insight into your psyche and abilities. Not to mention I had help from my partner and friend, Levi, who dug out your secrets slowly."

    Lara was silent in the face of this, then sneered. "And? So you predicted my appearance, but you didn''t do anything to stop it? Truly a foolish lower-dimensional lifeform."

    Dante watched Lara with a slightly speechless look, as if she was a colossal idiot. "Either you''re bluffing to buy time for something or you''re in stupid, and given your actions so far, it must be the former."

    Etz suddenly eximed. "Her authorities! She is buying time to generate enough Eternal Energy to power her authorities since she was drainedpletely while sealed!"

    Lara''s eyes shed with coldness and growing hatred. "ˇ­I don''t like you. You remind me of him too much."

    Dante had question marks above his head, but Etz snickered meanly. "She''s talking about Luka. He used to read her like a book just as you did right now, and that was how he eventually disgraced and humiliated her."

    "Everything, from your incessantughing, your speech to convert me and all that was just to waste as much time as you could. Pretty smart overall, but it doesn''t change anything," Dante acknowledged what Etz Chaim said, but spoke faintly.

    "Ha! A mere cretin like you doesn''t understand the depth of my power. You cannot fathom the true potency of my authorities, even with the mere energy I have now," Lara spoke majestically as the void surged and quaked under her power.

    A ball of me, water, wind, earth, and more elements began to form around her, spinning behind her back in a clockwise manner as they chased each other equidistantly. She hadn''t even unleashed them and already, the pressure they exuded was enough to deter even the strongest Eternal.

    "Come on! Take out your pitiful authority and squirm beneath my boot as you struggle to fend for your life and the life of all things you love!" Lara taunted with a growing smirk, showing that she was enjoying this.

    Meanwhile, Dante looked at her strangely. "Madam, if I knew that you were going to unseal yourself, why would I allow Etz Chaim to go on with the process? Have you ever thought of that?"

    The moment Dante spoke, the quaking was immediately silenced as the void held still. A portal that showed the other side of a lush meadond with endless flower fields appeared beside Lara.

    The moment the portal opened, the expression of Lara and Etz Chaim changed greatly, the former showing shock and hatred while thetter showed surprise and ecstasy. For within the portal, with his back turned to them, was a person they knew very well.

    "LUKA SANGUIS!" Lara roared with bloodshot eyes.

    "Luka!" Etz Chaim cried out with reliance and affection.

    Luka turned around and revealed his cold demeanor. He had glowing white hair that was cut short, with two green-

    colored eyes that had flecks of blue within. His features were superior, reaching perfection though his smile was thin.

    He wore a modern elite sniper''s garb with arge blue and red scarf that covered his neck. There was a set of two holsters on either side of his hips containing his special pistols he used forbat when he was still a mortal.

    Luka took a step and came out of the portal, closing it behind him casually. The moment he did, Etz Chaim rushed into his embrace, and his cold features broke into a warm smile as he rubbed her head gently.

    "Sorry for putting all of this burden on your shoulders. Myra is under a lot of pressure right now, and there is some trouble in the upper universe that I haven''t finished solving."

    Luka raised his head to nce at Lara, and his coldness returned. "But I still have some time to deal with this problem I left unsolved as well."

    Lara was practically smoldering, her veins visible as they shook and twitched under her skin, her eyespletely red as if painted with blood. Her beautiful features were twisted so much by hatred that it was actually frightening to look at.

    "How. Are. You. Here?" She asked through gritted teeth.

    Luka smiled faintly and floated over to Dante, who was calmly watching. "It was thanks to mypetent friend here. It is great to finally meet you, brother."

    Luka shook Dante''s hand, both men smiling with sincere respect. Dante replied. "The pleasure is all mine."

    Luka nodded to Dante and turned back to Lara. "Dante contacted me the first moment he got the authority using quantum entanglement and shared everything that went on, including his suspicions. Since then, we have been in constant contact as we refined how to give you a big surprise if you hadn''t learned your lesson."

    Etz Chaim''s face changed. "Wait, since then?! Why didn''t you tell me?"

    Luka poked Etz''s forehead indulgently. "Because, silly, she was sealed within you and leeching off you. If we let you know, she might have found out."

    Etz blocked Luka''s poke, seemingly having been struck there millions of times until she developed a defensive reflex. "Ohˇ­ that makes sense."

    Dante folded his arms with a smile. "So, Lara, what will you do now? The one you hate most is right in front of you, in the flesh too! Aren''t you going to strike him with your awesome authorities?"

    Lara red at the two of them, her eyes shifting between them slowly. Then, in the next moment, she did something that shocked Etz Chaim and startled Luka, but left Dante unfazed.

    Lara turned to run!

 Chapter 368 Beatdown

    <h4>Chapter 368 Beatdown </h4>

    "Impossible! Impossible!!" Etz Chaim cried out, not believing her eyes.

    Luka was also surprised, and his expression became serious. "Dante, you were right. Lara is currently nothing like what we knew before. The old her would have never run from her enemy even if it would kill her."

    "The madness in her has had too much time to fester and evolve," Dantemented with narrowed eyes.

    Luka stretched out a hand and wed at the void towards Lara. Lara, who was booking it desperately, suddenly screamed in agony as the floating balls of elements were stripped from her like the way one would rip off ster.

    The elements then converged into Luka''s hands, spinning around his palm obediently.

    "When I fought you as a mortal all those years ago, you used these very same authorities to beat down Cardea until she almost died. Then you even used them against me, but I still prevailed and came out on top."

    Luka casually flicked the elements into Etz Chaim''s true body, causing her avatar to yelp with surprise as her aura surged crazily.

    "Now, without your authorities that you abused to ughter and torture millions of beings you considered lower than yourself, I wonder how you will fare?" Luka remarked as he folded his arms, having no intention of fighting directly.

    He had already beaten her once andpleted his story. Now, she would be the perfect stepping stone for his new ally and friend to hone his power to the level needed for him to participate in bigger conflicts.

    Dante waved a hand and created a portal beside him. From the portal came Beatrice in her usual conservative dressing that was quite refreshing.

    "Hello, nice to meet you," Beatrice greeted Luka with a handshake.

    "Hello, the feeling is mutual," Luka casually greeted back.

    Beatrice then approached Dante''s side and smiled lovingly. "Do you need my help?"

    Dante smiled. "Of course, I do, in anything and everything. I want to do it with you and only you."

    Beatrice nodded and red at Lara, who was gging as she still tried to escape toward the Universe Battlefield that floated in the void.

    Beatrice''s eyes narrowed as she murmured. "What is she trying to do?"

    Dante smiled. "Probably activate a failsafe she left behind when she created it in order to turn the tables."

    "Hahaha! You foolish cretins! You have no idea the mistake you''ve made by going against me! Suffer and die!" Lara screamed crazily as she immediately stretched a hand out toward the bubble containing the Universe Battlefield within.

    Immediately, the gigantic ne burst like a bubble, turning into energy that surged into Lara''s body wantonly. She continued tough victoriously as the energy fed her power, causing her aura to skyrocket beyond its previous levels.

    The entire ne that housed hundreds of life forms who either lived there or were fighting for the benefits of their home universe were extinguished immediately, bing fodder for Lara to stand equal to her opposition.

    "Haaaa... I may have lost those authorities, but I am still the strongest Eternal there is! A mere cretin like you cannot defeat me!" Lara stated as she basked in the power that surged through her.

    "No, you were the strongest Eternal only because of those authorities. You never spent a day in your life cultivating your Eternal Talent as a forest fairy, so don''t pretend," Luka shut her down casually.

    Lara''s expression became ugly, but she refused to look at or acknowledge Luka because she knew that there was no way for her to contend with him. Rather, she set her sights on Beatrice and Dante, what she considered two soft persimmons she could pinch to sate the hatred in her heart.

    Beatrice grinned widely and knocked her fists together. "I have long wanted to beat some sense into your skull. Because of your stupid ns, my husband has had to spend so much time away from me dealing with your mess. I will make sure you pay for every second that he spent stressing over your troubles!"

    Without giving Lara a chance to respond, Beatrice charged forth beyond light speed, her single step almost teleporting her beside Lara. With a soft grunt, she unleashed a powerful right hook infused with her potent Eternal Talent of Physical Power.

    Lara simply sneered and caught Beatrice''s fist easily, offsetting the damage as her palm glowed with a greenish light of her own Eternal Talent as a Forest Fairy. She pulled Beatrice closer and spoke cruelly.

    "Is this all you have, wretched female dog? If so, this won''t even be a warm-up!"

    Lara pushed Beatrice back and waved a hand, instantly unleashing a wave of potent natural energy that knocked Beatrice backward. Beatrice blocked the attack and grinned slightly as her entire body glowed with the same green light, but even stronger.

    "Hah, I''m not the one suped up on borrowed power from so-

    called lower life forms! And yet, I will still beat your ass!" Beatrice dered as she pushed her palms forward, releasing the same attack that Lara did but almost twice as powerful.

    "Huh?!" Lara was stunned by this reversal and reacted slightlyte, releasing increased energy to offset the attack.

    Just as she nullified it, Beatrice appeared before her andunched a charged punch right into Lara''s abdomen. There was no air or atmosphere in this void, but the sheer force of the blow caused the entirety of space within the nearest hundred light years to quake furiously.

    Lara yelped in agony as she hunched over, vomiting out the gastric juice that was in her stomach up until this point. She knelt in the void while clutching her abdomen, her eyes wide and bloodshot from the fear and pain she was experiencing.

    Before she could gather herself, her hair was pulled up roughly as Beatrice brought her face to her level.

    "You stupid cunt, you''re just a jealous and crazy bitch in the end. Dante and Luka might not be willing to dirty their hands on you, but ohhh boy, I love dealing with people like you the most," Beatrice said with a cruel voice.

    Immediately, she socked Lara in the jaw using her eternal power, causing the woman to spit out blood and some teeth, but did not stop there. Clutching her hair like this, Beatrice continued to rhythmically punch Lara''s face with all her force, causing blood and teeth to fly.

    "Lethˇ­Ghoˇ­Oufˇ­ Mhe!!!" Lara shouted as she exploded with the energy she had left, knocking Beatrice backward and giving her enough respite to create distance.

    Panting with a swollen and ruined face, Lara emitted a green light of natural healing to restore her face, but that only partially healed her since it shed with the remnants of Beatrice''s own Eternal energy.

    Lara red at Beatrice with anger, having never been humiliated like this, even by Luka.

    "A, is the evil bitch angry? How scary!" Beatrice mocked with her arms akimbo.

    "Hahaha, to think, this is just the effect of me beating your ass. If my husband joined in, wouldn''t you crumble into dust?" Beatriceughed uproariously, clearly enjoying herself thoroughly.

    Lara paled and clenched her fists. "This shouldn''t be happening. I am the strongest Eternal, the first being created! Not only that, but I absorbed the special energy I hid in that Universe Battlefield."

    Lara''s eyes became even redder. "I should be wiping the floor with you! I can''t stand losing like this!"

    A soft cough stole her attention as Dante floated over to stand beside Beatrice. "I can help clear your confusion. You see, as I have told you about a hundred times now, I predicted your escape. Following that, a quick discussion with Luka led to us deducing that you might have left some failsafes to bank on, and the Zero and First gates were the things you created after all."

    "Once I acquired the authority, the first thing I did was methodically scour the two implements, but I found nothing. However, as Etz Chaim revealed, you possess a small amount of my current authority, about 1% of it, which was allowed you to even redeem the Universe Battlefield right now."

    "So rather than look for what was there, I looked for what wasn''t. That''s when I found the core of the Universe Battlefield held a secretpartment of energy stolen directly from Origo. If you had absorbed that energy, none but Luka could have dealt with you, soˇ­ I simply swapped it out." Dante finished with a shrug.

    Lara''s expression fell drastically. "You did what?!"

    "You heard him, he swapped it out. You didn''t absorb energy from that Origo ce, what you absorbed is Dante''s own energy. The entire time, you''ve been using my husband''s own energy to fight me," Beatrice answered with a smile.

    "Hahaha, how does it feel to have Dante inside you? I can tell you from experience that it feels great, hahaha!" Beatrice couldn''t stopughing, her words piercing Lara like spears.

    Lara gripped her hair and pulled some of it out as her entire body quivered, and her bloodshot eyes began to leak tears of blood.

    "ARRRRGHHH!! I''LL KILL YOU ALL!"

 Chapter 369 Finale

    <h4>Chapter 369 Finale</h4>

    "Huh... she''s super malicious and cruel," Luka couldn''t help butment as he saw Beatrice torment Lara.

    Meanwhile, Etz Chaim''s eyes were shining. "She''s so cool! That''s how you have to deal with someone like Lara!"

    Luka''s expression darkened as he could tell that Etz Chaim was subtly throwing shade at him for sparing Lara the first time. He shook his head and spoke candidly.

    "No matter how much you dislike her, she still isn''t going to die today."

    Etz Chaim blew her top immediately. "What?! Why????"

    "Because she will be an excellent tool to use against Deus. Now that Myra isn''t here, I can do whatever I want to her," Luka narrowed his eyes and stated with an icy coldness that even chilled Etz Chaim.

    Knowing how ruthless Luka could be, especially after bing a God, Etz Chaim suddenly felt like pleading for Lara.

    Meanwhile on the other side, Lara had lost herst bit of rationality due to Beatrice''s provocation and attacked with her full power, holding nothing back. The area surrounding one light year around her shook from the greenish energy she was releasing that was tainted with flecks of ck.

    "Let''s deal with her together," Dante said with a smile, waving his hand to unleash the full power of his Eternal Talent of technology.

    "Yes, let''s," Beatrice acknowledged as she took the lead, unleashing biggie''s power as her fist magnified in size to epass the entire area around Lara.

    "DIEEEE!!" Lara screeched as she unleashed a beam of energy that collided with Beatrice''s fists, actually knocking her back and causing her knuckles to bleed slightly.

    Beatrice shrunk her hand and nced at her damaged fist with a raised eyebrow. "Huh, she isn''t as weak as I thought."

    Dante meanwhile, converged his power. He didn''t summon creations of technology to fight for him, opting to take to the battle himself. He manifested his power as a mecha suit that was simr to the Supreme Mecha he bestowed his subordinates, but was more than a trillion times more powerful.

    He stretched his hand out, and from the purest and more powerful nanites backed by Eternal Energy, a weapon simr to his blood battle halberd formed. Dante casually flourished the weapon and reminisced on his path from Etonia over 7 years ago to now.

    With a casual movement, he appeared beside Lara, his halberd glowing with the familiar blood energy that was replicated by his mech suit. Along with it was a white light of his knight energy that was at max power, causing his strike to possess the force of more than a million tons.

    The crazed Lara screamed and unleashed her energy crazily, causing orbs of greenish light to explode from her body in all directions. Each orb contained enough power to destroy a gxy, and was not something that anyone could take head-on.

    Dante weaved through the orbs using his suit''s navigation system as well as his spirit sense from his Inferno Ascension technique which was also replicated by the mech. Like a bullet, he swung his halberd towards Lara''s midsection, to which she responded by trying to grab it.

    To everyone''s shock, Lara actually managed to stop the blow with her bare hands, though they were coated in her energy. While her left hand held the halberd that was continually pushing its way closer, her right hand manifested her whip that she used to torture those she deemed beneath her.

    She swung the whip in close proximity to Dante, aiming to cause him pain to soothe the anger in her heart. Before the whip could hit him, Beatrice appeared and struck out with her fist, colliding with the end of the weapon in a tumultuous sh.

    Even though Beatrice blocked the blow, she was kicked backwards slightly. Her expression was no longer casual as she realized that Lara was not bluffing, even without the authorities she had extraordinary power as an Eternal.

    Beatrice and Dante were extremely talented and blessed, but they were only entry-level Eternals. Even if Lara was rusty and unskilled with her own Eternal Talent since she always relied on her authorities to suppress others, it was still stronger than what they had.

    Beatrice now understood why Dante summoned her here, and why Luka left them to fight. Lara was the perfect foe for them to hone their abilities and familiarize themselves with battles at the higher end of reality.

    The trio shed brutally in the middle of space, Dante unleashing blows from his halberd backed with his various powers and technology, asionally even casting magic from the Magus side.

    Beatrice used a mixture of biggie''s ergening to enhance her physical attack while using Dao''s counter ability to return the powerful attacks from Lara back to its caster.

    Lara meanwhile was using her full power in each attack to deal with the two, her abilities strained to the limit as she struggled to deal with two authentic Eternals who trained to get their power rather than be given it by virtue of their creation/status.

    "This fight is over," Lukamented casually with his arms folded.

    Etz Chaim had a shocked look. "Those two are so strong! I don''t think I could hold them off myselfˇ­"

    Luka smiled and patted Etz''s head gently. "You''re not built to fight, but to nourish. But yes, those two are shockingly powerful, mostly due to their tacit understanding and synchronization. Lara never stood a chance with her mediocre control over her Eternal Talent."

    In the battlefield, Lara was coughing blood endlessly as she clutched her abdomen, a severe gash that revealed her organs from Dante''s halberd bleeding profusely. Meanwhile, she had just barely blocked another full-powered blow from Beatrice when Dante appeared behind her and left a huge wound across her back, causing her to scream.

    The redness in Lara''s eyes disappeared as her rationality came back and with it, the fear and realization that she was going to die. She turned to run once more but was blocked in the front by Dante and then turned around only to see Beatrice grinning as her way behind was also sealed.

    "Noˇ­ No, you can''t kill me! You can''t kill me!" Lara squealed with panic.

    "T-That''s right, Myra! Myra wouldn''t allow this! I raised her, she wouldn''t allow this!" Lara spoke rapidly as her breathing becamebored due to her wounds.

    Luka spoke coldly as he approached the battlefield with Etz in tow. "Don''t worry about Myra. She isn''t here to protect you this time, Lara. Your fate is sealed."

    "Luka Sanguis! You can''t let them harm me! Myra will never forgive you!" Lara cried out as she saw Dante raise his arms to deal the final blow.

    "Myra is my soulmate and you are just her creation. You really think I woulde this far if Myra didn''t tacitly agree?" Luka revealed with a shake of his head.

    This revtion hit Lara harder than any physical attack or verbal assault she had received today. Her entire body seemed to shrivel and be pale as her eyes became hollow.

    "Noˇ­ no, this can''t beˇ­ Myra, my precious Myraˇ­ she wouldn''t abandon meˇ­ she wouldn''tˇ­" Lara muttered weakly, lost in a trance.

    Luka shook his head. "She''s finished. You can do with her what you wish."

    Dante nodded. "There is no escaping death for her. Not just for the actions she had done, but for the danger she possesses. Sealing her again would be a waste, she would eventually try somethingter on."

    "However, ever since I chatted with her clones on that livestream, I''ve been harboring an idea. Lara doesn''t need to be sealed because there is a better way to upy her until her timees."

    Luka was intrigued by this. "Oh? What do you have in mind?"

    Dante waved a hand, and for the first time since Lara was released, used his authority to act on her. Lara broke out of her trance when she felt deathe upon her, and this novel experience caused her to panic.

    "Nooo! I don''t want to die, I don''t want to die!!!"

    Her pleas fell on deaf ears as Dante crushed her body and extinguished her life using the authority he had. He then dragged over two things, one of which was Lara''s soul, which was a greenish-ck color, and another which was the purple remnant of his authority.

    After absorbing the remainder of his authority and perfecting it, Dante smiled and held Lara''s soul up.

    "I was thinking, why not give her the chance she never got? Just as Forest Fairies like Valeria and Keira were reincarnated into mortal lives and lost their memories, so too shall I specially reincarnate Lara into a loving family."

    "This might sound corny, but I believe in the power of love. The ckness that has appeared in Lara''s soul can be washed away with enough of it," Dante concluded.

    Luka nodded deeply. "Feel free, this idea is far better than the one I had."

    Dante released some energy which covered Lara''s soul causing it to float up and then shoot towards the depths of the void, heading towards the Centralis Universe to be reborn.

    The four people of Luka, Etz Chaim, Dante, and Beatrice watched the soul go, wondering what fate had in store for this troubled beingˇ­

 Chapter 370 The Second Gate

    Chapter 370 The Second Gate

    ??"Lara, hurry up! We''re going to bete!"

    A youthful voice cried out from a bathroom,ing out to reveal itself as a youngdy with blonde hair and blue eyes, as well as a flowery school uniform.

    "I''ming, sheesh!" from the same bathroom, another youngdy with extremely beautiful features and pristine now white hair walked out while wiping her hands. Her blood-red eyes showed exasperation and a hint of excitement for what wasing next.

    "Ca, you don''t need to rush...woah!" Lara began toin until the one called Ca grabbed her hand and dragged her along.

    "Hmph, Lara, you always do things like this! You have to be time-conscious, time-conscious, you hear?" Ca chastised thex Lara who preferred to do things at her own pace.

    "Yes, yes. Now let go of me before my hand tears in two," Lara whined pitifully, eventually softening Ca''s heart enough to let go of her.

    Lara rubbed her sore wrists and spoke unhappily. "It''s just our orientation in The Second Gate, what''s so big about it?"

    Ca made a sound of frustration and red at Lara, not willing to exchange words with her best friend anymore. Lara raised a hand in defeat and followed the brisk walking of Ca as they headed towards their school''s gymnasium.

    While Ca walked with a spring in her step, Lara walked like a delinquent, her hands in her pockets and her posture bent. Ca saw this and furrowed her brow, about to chastise Lara once more, but Lara simply plugged her ears with her fingers.

    Ca rolled her eyes and gave up. Soon, the duo came about the hallway to the gym, which was packed with students from their batch who were about to undergo the same experience as they did.

    Many students were chatting and gibbering among themselves with excitement and enthusiasm, but when they saw Ca and Lara approach, their voices died down. After all, the two school belles were notorious for being troublemakers in their own right.

    A teacher who was sorting out the students saw the two approaching and rolled his eyes. "Ca Dubois and Lara Sanguis, hurry up and get inside! Your names were called long ago!"

    Ca bowed to the teacher and apologized profusely, ring at Lara who seemed to not care, Ca''s eyes glowering as if saying that this was exactly what she was talking about. The teacher waved his hand as these two were the most excellent students the school had produced since its formation, so their little ''quirks'' were often ignored.

    They went in and were led by teaching assistants towards two beds with high-tech helmets attached to the head. Theyy down and were strapped in by the teaching assistants, before the helmets were ced on their heads and activated.

    Immediately, the minds and souls of the duo were whisked away from their school and into a special ce that every being of every universe had ess to and craved to partake in, the Second Gate!

    An AI-like voice greeted the two of them in their respective home spaces and exined the functions of the helmets as well as the nature and benefits of the Second Gate. Ca listened seriously while Lara kept looking for a ''skip'' button.

    At this point, who didn''t know about the Second Gate? It had been drilled into their heads since they were children, all in anticipation for the day they could qualify to enter it.

    Soon, Ca and Lara were taken into a lobby area where students from not only their school, but hundreds of schools in the gxy and their sector were packed together as today was the day of their orientation.

    As part of the orientation, they were to take a short tour of the history of the Second Gate as well as its creators.

    Before everyone appeared arge statue of a young woman who looked barely older than they did, a soft smile on her face as she wore regal clothes. Her purple hair was tied into a ponytail and her purple eyes glinted with expression.

    She was quite tall, almost 6 feet, and her caramel skin tone shone even through the projection.

    "First is Lady Antonia Alighieri, the current manager and controller of the Second Gate. She handles all affairs pertaining to the Second Gate and is our overall GM, so make sure to show her respect." A personalized AI voice repeated to each student privately as they looked up to the magnificent form above them.

    The statue changed to a still form of a mature woman with flowing purple hair that reached her hips and purple eyes full of yfulness. Her pristine creamy-colored skin shone with healthiness, though she dressed quite conservatively and casually, unlike the one who came before.

    "Second is Lady Beatrice Alighieri, the wife of our lord and the mother of Lady Antonia. She currently manages all aspects of each universe''s rewards and punishments from actions within the Second Gate. She is very strict and fair, so make sure to memorize the rules of the Second Gate before entering."

    The students marveled at the beauty of the two women who were disyed before them, but their excitement soon reached the peak when Beatrice''s statue disappeared as they knew what wasing next.

    "And finally, there is our Lord, Dante Alighieri!" the AI voice spoke with a hint of emotion, revealing Dante''s status that appeared the next moment.

    All the students cheered happily, their faces filled with worship and fanaticisms towards the most popr and respected being across their entire universe.

    The statue depicted a handsome man who had his arms folded behind his back, his slicked-back brown hair neatlybed as always while his wisdom-filled brown eyes filled them withfort.

    He also dressed casually, wearing a yellow jacket with a ck undershirt and yellow pants that were ended by ck shoes. Looking at him, he did not look like an Omnipotent God, but like a cool young dad who had the best advice for you.

    "He is the beginning and the end, the source of all our existences. His official title is the ''Quantum Lord'' and he is the one who created the Second Gate after the destruction and removal of the Zero and First Gates."

    The AIs collectively hesitated before stating this piece of well-

    known information reluctantly.

    "However, despite this, he prefers to go by his own personal title, The God of Technology."

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