I'm really busy at the moment so I couldn't PR this, hopefully it's not that bad. Anyway, seems things are finally going to slow down with chapters. But, I'm going to enjoy writing these chapters so hopefully it will go faster.

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What Kyte saw amazed him. Not only was it huge, but it was brightly lit as well.

An enormous underground city lay before them. It was at most a tenth of the size of Hester, the city that Akina's branch is located. The city itself wasn't large, no, it was the fact that it was underground that made it large. There was an enormous orb of light located at the ceiling of the underground settlement and it brightly illuminated everything. 

There was a very large building at the center of the city and it looked more like a fortress than anything else. There was a large, exquisitely built mansion surrounded by large stone walls. Surrounding the walls was several other large buildings that had at least three floors. Behind the mansion was a large stadium that looked to be as large as a small football stadium.

In-front of the different branches were several people. Rose whispered into Kyte's ear:

"These people are sent to retrieve us. They will bring us to our housing area." Kyte slightly nodded with understanding.

Those several people walked up to the different branches and each leader briefly talked with them. 

"You are Sector 31 Branch 4, correct?" One of the retrievers walked up to Rose's group, and Rose let go of Kyte as she walked forward.

"Yes, this is us."

The retriever had an electronic tablet in his left hand and an electronic pen in his right.

Oh, pretty high tech, huh.

"Which members are not present?"

"Akina and Dan Steele."

"Confirmed. Please follow me to you housing area." The retriever responded after a few seconds of tapping on the tablet screen.

Rose's group followed the retriever down a long path along with the branches. The buildings weren't too far away and it only took about ten minutes until the first branch walked down a different path that turned off to the left. Another five minutes had passed and about a third of everyone had turned off the main path. 

"Branch 4, this way."

The retriever walked down a path to the right and Rose's group followed right behind him. They walked ont he path for a few minutes before arriving before a large two-story house. It looked just like a normal residential building, though it had a few medieval touches to it. It had a nice light brown color and there were several windows on each floor.

"This is where Branch 4 will be staying for the duration of the rank-up test and tournament. Here are the keys, and, before I leave, there are tablets in each bedroom which as all the information pertaining to the rank-up test. The rules and regulations are also stated within the tablet. Also, breakfast shall be served in the dining hall tomorrow at ten a.m. so please do not be late."

With that, the retriever politely nodded to Rose and silently left. 

"Wow, it's so big!" Jol jumped forward and ran toward the house.

"It's the same from three years ago, though." Shadow lightly stated.

"I still can't help but be excited! Such a big home for us to enjoy!"

Jol unreservedly entered the house, with Light directly behind him, leaving the front door wide open. Everyone else followed suit and entered the home. Kyte entered last and closed the door behind him.

"I call the room closest to the restroom!" Light yelled as he climbed the stairs.

"What?! No fair! I wanted that room!" Jol flung Light down the stairs using telekinesis.

"Ehhh! Jol, you're cheating!" 

"Hahaha! There's no cheating when it's- Urgh!"

Before Jol could finish, his foot slipped on the last step and his face directly slammed against the floor. Thankfully it wasn't a hardwood 

floor, it was carpet. It still made a loud thump noise, though.

"Owwww...."

Jol laid at the top of the stairs hugging his face while groaning in pain.

"Heeey, Kyyyte....could you give me a pill please?" Jol looked up at Kyte, who had climbed the stairs, and asked with pleading eyes.

"No." Kyte flatly declined and walked toward one of the rooms on the far end, opposite to the restroom.

"Wha-! That's so mean!"

"Ha! That's what you get, Jol!" Light gave a hearty laugh before jumping over Jol and leaping into the room closest to the restroom.

"Nooo!! My roooooom..." 

Shadow just walked over Jol and, before he left for his room, he lightly chuckled.

"Even Shadow?! Someone help me, please!"

Lucy silently took a picture of Jol's teary-eyed face before leaving for her own leave.

Rose had already left with Kyte to his room, leaving Jol alone at the top the stairs as he rolled around, still hugging his face. Meanwhile, inside Kyte's room...

"Oi, so soon?!"

Rose had basically thrown him against the bed and was steadily taking his pants off.

"It's been about a whole day and I'm super stressed from driving around the whole time. I just want to let out some steam." Rose responded by deeply kissing Kyte and rubbing her hands up into his shirt.

"If that's the case, then let me do the work."

Kyte grabbed Rose and flipped her underneath him. He then proceeded to quickly lift her shirt and bra up off her breasts and began to roughly kneed them. 

"Hn!...I didn't expect you to be so rough all of a sudden..."

"Well, how do you expect me to react when you suddenly attack me like that?"

"Oh, right...but still."

"I'm still new to this stuff; you can't expect me to be able to fully control it when you start groping and kissing me."

Kyte began to suck on Rose's right nipple while pinching and rubbing her left with his fingers. He would lightly bite down and roll his tongue around it while massaging both breasts with his hands. Rose had stealthily moved her hand down to Kyte's thing and tightly grabbed it, making Kyte grab Rose and move her further onto the bed. He smoothly removed Rose's pants and panties, fully revealing her beautiful pink secret place....

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The next morning, everyone got ready and left for the dining hall.

The dining hall was located further down the path and to the left of the central mansion. It looked like a giant gym from the outside, but the inside was even better. 

It was like a five-star restaurant. The carpeting inside was red and there were many tables set up all around. Small carts full of different foods were present in varying locations around the tables to make it easier to navigate around for food.

When Rose's group entered the dining hall, they saw that almost every other branch had already arrived and were eating. When they walked further in, almost everyone turned to look at who had entered. A few people indifferently went back to their conversations, a few threw unfriendly gazes while others slightly nodded. A couple of people from all around got up and walked toward their group, and surprisingly most of them walked over to talk with Shadow.

"Hey, Shadow! Haven't seen you in a while! How's it been over in Branch 4?"

"The usual hunt and destroy missions. Nothing major has happened."

"Hm? Then, where's Akina and Dan?"

"They're doing something important at the moment."

"Ahh, the usual calm and cold Shadow. Lighten up for once, will ya? You and Light are like polar opposites."

"I can't do much about my personality."

"Hahaha, I guess that's true."

Shadow walked off with three other guys to a distant table that two other people were sitting at. Jol and Light ran off to find their favorite foods with Lucy directly behind them.

"Well...let's find a spot, shall we?" Kyte awkwardly smiled before walking forward to get some food from a stall.

"So, what's it like at the leader rank-up test?" Kyte asked as he was filling his plate with food.

"Hmm, it's not much different from this really. It's just on a much smaller scale than this. The rewards are also greater than the regular rank-up tests, although we've never ranked high enough to get any."

"Really? What's the highest reward?"

"First place gets one S rank weapon and armor. It's quite one-sided, really. The strong gets stronger while the weak gets weaker. But, that's just the way it is."

"Yea...there's not much you can do about that. The only thing we can do is just try as hard as we can."

Kyte and Rose finished getting their food so they walked to an unoccupied table and sat down. Kyte, being the incredibly kind and gentle man that he was, pulled out a chair for Rose to sit on and properly helped her. Well, that's what he thought of doing, anyway. For some reason he felt a pinch of embarrassment when he thought of it. Probably because he's never been 'gentlemanly' before.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Anyway, they sat down and began to enjoy their meal while having a nice chat. The subject was just simple things like funny stories or events that have happened. However, due to both of their social situations, they don't really have anything. Well, Kyte surfed the internet every single day so he has funny stories from his multiple experiences there. They both understood this problem but, nevertheless, they continued to talk. Even if it was about something completely out of the blue, at least there may be something.

"Ah, Rose!" 

Suddenly two people appeared at their table. The first, who called out to Rose, was a young woman about the same age as Rose. She had long brown hair and a tight but fit body. The other was also a woman of the same age, but instead of having long hair, she had short, black hair. However, both of them were equally beautiful.

"Mary! It's been a while! Nikki, too." Rose responded with a natural smile.

"Hehehe, it has. Who's that next to?" Mary asked with a weird smile.

"Oh, this is Kyte. He's the newest member of Branch 4."

"Hmm? Is that all??"

"Well, he's..."

"You're boyfriend, am I right?" Nikki said.

Rose questioningly looked at Kyte, and Kyte looked at her. He mentally sighed before saying:

"That's right, I'm her boyfriend."

".......Wow! I can't believe Rose actually got a boyfriend!"

"Right? So, how far have you two gone?!"

"Huh? Is that really a necessary thing to discuss?" Rose looked slightly embarrassed at the sudden question.

Huh? Rose is embarrassed? But she's never embarrassed when we're alone-...ah, so she's embarrassed because she's in-front of people?

Kyte hiddenly smirked before replying:

"Hmm, well, we've gone pretty far. You can say that we're pretty serious."

"Wha-! Kyte, what are you saying?!" Rose frantically whispered into Kyte's ear.

"Really! I never would have expected that! For how long?" Mary asked with an interested expression.

"We've been...together...for about a month now. However, even if we've been together for a rather short period of time, that doesn't make her any less energetic..." Kyte replied while looking at Rose out of the corner of his eye.

"Haah??!" Rose was completely shocked as her face slowly showed a small shade of red.

"Hahaha! Look at her! She's getting embarrassed! Quick, Kyte, tell us more. Where is she most sensitive?" Nikki quickly threw a question up into the air.

"Well, in my experience, it has to be her beau-mmph!" 

"H-how about we talk about something else? Ahahaha..." Rose said as she covered Kyte's mouth with her hand.

"Awww, Rose you didn't have to do that~."

"Yea, it was just getting good, too."

Both women replied while shaking their heads and sighing. They both silently laughed too, because, as both of them have husbands, they too remember the first few times they played around. After several years, they just got used to it. Talking about it isn't as bad anymore either, especially with their best-friend.

"So, what Branch are you two from, and how do you know Rose?" Kyte asked as he took Rose's hand off of him.

"We're both from Branch 5. We actually met Rose the first year she attended the rank-up tests, way back when she was thirteen. She was so cute and small!"

"Yea, she was so short back then. Hard to believe she grew up to be so tall. But hey, that's puberty for you."

"She was that small? Dang..."

"Hey, don't start thinking weird stuff." Rose said.

"Oi, I'm not a pedo. It's just weird to think of you being so short. " Kyte lightly laughed.

"Well, I'm not short anymore, so you don't have to worry about it."

"I guess so."

At this moment, a man began to walk out onto the stage which was situated in-front of the tables. Everyone noticed him walking out, mostly because of the majestic aura surrounding his body. His lush, long, golden hair flowed down to his shoulders. His eyes shone like gold pearls, and a faint golden aura surrounded him. He wore a long, red robe with gold trim down to his knees. The sound of his footsteps resounded throughout the dining hall, filling everyone with a type of awe.

Rose tapped on Kyte's shoulder and whispered in his ear:

"That's David Wux, the head of the Wux family that controls the entirety of Sector 31."

Kyte could feel David's powerful aura just from where he was sitting. It felt like an invisible mountain was atop his shoulders just by looking at him. That majestic aura, those clean, sharp eyes that shone with intelligence. Kyte immediately knew that this man...surpassed the S rank level!

Then, he spoke:

"Hello and welcome everyone to this year's GG rank-up test and power ranking tournament. Just like years prior, you will all find the information tablets within your Branch's housing. I assume all of you have already looked through the rules and regulations, so I shall skip that part. 

Now, as I do at every first breakfast before the rank-up tests start, I shall announce the rank-up reward to anyone that achieves a higher ranking. Starting from C rank and achieving B rank, the reward is one bronze B rank weapon of your choice. If you directly achieve a Silver B rank or higher, then you may choose a silver B rank armor of your choice.

From B rank to A rank, the reward is as follows: One bronze A rank weapon. Upon directly achieving silver A rank or higher, you may choose one silver A rank armor of your choice.

From A rank to S rank, the reward is as follows: One bronze S rank weapon. Upon directly achieving silver S rank or higher, you may choose one silver S rank armor. Anyone that achieves S rank will also get an additional gift of ten thousand Credits. Are there any questions?.....................Alright then everyone, please enjoy your meals. The first rank-up test will begin at two p.m. The schedule is shown within the tablet as well. Now, everyone, I must take my leave."

Just as quickly as he came, David left. His voice was as powerful as his aura, which only added to his firm and resolute expression. A few seconds after he left, everyone resumed their meals and conversations.

"So that was the Wux family head. The aura around him was so powerful." Kyte said.

"Yea, of course. He's the only Fighter here in Sector 31." Rose replied.

"Fighter?"

"Yea, Fighter. It's the rank directly after S rank. GG feels that, once someone's power exceeds the S rank, they deserve something more. So, they named the ranks after S rank. The only two ranks I know of past S rank is Fighter and King. Apparently there's two more after that."

"What? That many?..."

That's a lot stronger than I imagined.

"I assume it's the same with AHAD, right?"

"Of course. Although, the Guardians that exceed S rank are highly classified. Since they only show up within the Sectors of the Core Leagues, GG doesn't bother sharing that information with us. However, rumors still leak out here."

"Really? What are they?"

"They say that the first Guardian that exceeds S rank is a complete demon. Not only are they three times stronger than S ranks but they also mess with your mind. Not many people have strong defenses against mind attacks. At least, there are none here that are capable of offensive mind attacks, and vice-versa as well."

This...this is inconceivable. What is going on in the Core Sections? How is this not getting out?

Kyte only sighed at the thought of it. S ranks are already so terrifying, and the Guardian one rank higher than that is three times stronger? Isn't that too insane? And there's supposedly three more ranks after that? How far can AHAD's technology advance?

"Kyte, try not to think about it too much. We're here in the outer Sectors, far away from those monsters. We, or at least you, still have a while to go."

"Yea, I know. I just can't help but wonder. Anyway, I'm finished here. Wanna head back now? I want to read through the rules and stuff."

"Sounds good to me. Mary, Nikki, see you two later."

""Bye~.""

Kyte and Rose left the dining hall together and headed back to Branch 4's housing. Kyte felt anticipation toward the coming competition.