Mila
The Universal Auction is about to begin in 24 hours and the United Federation of Planets is qualified to join.
You, Shadow, a weak little E rank, are the leader of your force, and you, despite having no help from anyone stronger than a now dead D rank with minimal contributions, have personally led your force to become 5th Tier B rank even before your home planet has fully integrated with the universe.
Your force has, without relying on external power and influence, had the quickest rise of all forces over the last 11,943,936 years.
And the System has judged your force to have the most talented average members of all forces over the last 20,901,888 years, showing your ability to raise elites.
Finally, your force has had the most impressive battle record of all forces over the last 63,810,006,294,528 years.
Competency is to be rewarded!
You gain the following benefits:
1. +100% force membership limit increased to +500%
2. Costs of buying up to B rank goods from the System reduced by 25%, replacing old reduction
3. System teleportation free for the leader of your force and up to 12 others, membership of which can be changed every 144 years
4. One 50% off coupon for the upcoming Universal Auction
5. One 75% off coupon for the upcoming Universal Auction
6. One Planet Rank Escalation Coupon limited to planets undergoing integration (current choices: Earth (C+ rank), Hira (F++ rank))
“Wow.” Nana Xara sounded about as stunned as Mila felt. “Every single one of those is ridiculous.”
“Yeah.” Mila, who was sitting on the large geodesic marble and glass dome roof of Aalam’s crafting hall in Earth’s enlightenment zone, couldn’t help but nod.
The United Federation of Planets could already hold up to 41,278,242,816 members before, but now that number was tripled, and this was the least of the benefits.
Being able to buy all System goods below A rank for 25% off, even though the benefit would be lost if she used it to buy from the System and then resell, was ridiculous, better than even what the Forest Cauldron and most other A rank forces had access to. And free teleportation for 13 members would add up to huge savings over time, especially if the main members of the force could eventually advance to A rank.
These benefits, however, were possible to buy with enough money. The latter three, however, were not.
The coupons for the Universal Auction would allow her to bid for items even if she only had access to half or a quarter of the price she was bidding, and that was already amazing. But Mila wasn’t stupid enough to use these herself as, given the contract she had with Joma La’Vordi, she’d be able to trade the coupons to the alchemist to obtain far, far better resources than she’d be able to afford herself.
Finally, the Planet Rank Escalation Coupon was something Mila had never even heard of and, using video game terminology, it was incredibly broken. The coupon itself was likely only given because of her force’s achievements before even half their planet’s process of adapting to mana and integrating with the wider universe had been completed. And its addition to the System likely didn’t take into account the idea of a newly integrated world gaining access to a divine subspace dwelling whose linkage to a world was capable of raising a planet from E rank all the way to C.
More important, however, over the last six years, Mila had gotten a better understanding of the blueprints inside the legacy of Steel Swamp Sorin Aalam had obtained, and one of those blueprints, an array formation, could temporarily raise a C rank world to B rank for a rather extreme cost. Normally, such a blueprint would just be theoretical, as the cost to run such an array even for a month would be measured in thousands of A rank universal credits, but, if Mila could get the right materials, which would be possible through the auction as Nana Xara was able to buy things as well, Aalam could build the array and, if this particular System loophole worked the way she hoped, they could turn Earth into an A rank world of their own, one the System would keep hidden from the rest of the universe for only 12 C rank universal credits per year due to Nana Xara’s old deal from 2,000 years before Mila or anyone else from Earth were even born.
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“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Mila asked through her bond with her master.
“That the idea of a group of E ranks having a hidden B rank world is amazing?”
“No.” A big grin appeared on Mila’s face as she realized her teacher didn’t know about the blueprint. “That the idea of a group of E ranks having a hidden A rank world is.” She then told Nana Xara about her plan.
“Oh.” Nana Xara’s voice was devoid of emotion and Mila suspected the level of shock her teacher was feeling was a lot higher than she would have suspected.
“So, do you think it would work?” Mila prompted after several seconds.
“Yeah, Mila, I think it would.” As Nana Xara spoke, a hint of pride entered into her voice. “I think it almost assuredly would. But it is just so ridiculous.
“Granted, a group of just a few E ranks, without outside help, taking out an entire B rank force is something I’ve never heard of, nor is an E rank leading her force to have had the qualifications to participate in a universal auction while her planet was still in the starting stages of undergoing integration, but still.
“This is an A rank world we’re talking about, something divine factions fight over. You don’t even have the requisite understanding of how the universe works to fully grasp what this means.”
Mila felt her heart start to beat faster.
“You know how there are multiple universes, right?”
“Yes.” Mila nodded. “You’ve explained that before.”
Their universe was called the Prime Material Universe and was quintillions of years old, but there were other universes as well and Mila had gathered from contextual clues that their universe was at war with several of the more powerful other universes.
“Well, the main reason gods own all the A rank planets is not because A rank planets provide the best training environments, but because most A rank planets exist only due to the planet hosting a portal to another universe, and gods and the System are generally the only ones capable of making such portals.
“Opening up such a portal is incredibly expensive, but it is the cheapest way of creating an A rank planet. So, if you were to raise Earth to A rank through your plan—which, given how the System operates, would almost certainly work—you wouldn’t just gain an A rank planet, but a portal to another universe as well, one which wouldn’t allow gods through.
“Given where Earth is currently located, however, raising it to A rank would be an absolutely terrible idea. The other universe Earth is closest to is the Origin of Undeath, the universe where necromancy first originated and a place ruled by the undead gods behind most of our universe’s undead empires. But, if you were to first move Earth via System teleportation, which is something the Universal Auction generally sells for C or B rank credits when limited to E rank worlds such as Earth’s normal state, you could choose any other universe you wanted.”
Mila’s heart was fully racing by this point. “I assume you have some suggestions.”
“Yes.” Mila could imagine Nana Xara grinning like a madwoman. “Temporary random passageways between universes are relatively common, so I know of seven other universes yet to birth their own gods and not yet invaded by our universe. And, of these, three are full material universes rather than universes with unbalanced Laws.
“I don’t know their current states or if any other forces know they exist. And I also don’t know if any of the three universes has a portal to other universes other than the Prime Material Universe we live in, but one of them is a primeval universe, very early on in its development, so it is probably your best target. It would be the least attractive of the seven universes I know of to gods, meaning you likely wouldn’t have any competitors even if other forces do know about it, but it would still have abundant resources for lower ranks.
“Also, moving Earth into position to make a portal to this primeval universe would place you in an area not valued in our Prime Material Universe, making it even less likely you would be found, while close enough to your existing Territories in multidimensional space so as to not interrupt your control.”
Nana Xara then started sharing all the information she knew about the seven universes, along with some information about the other universes she knew of which had powerful gods, and Mila quickly agreed with Nana Xara’s assessment. The primeval universe, which Nana Xara had temporarily named Material III, was only about the size of seven galaxy clusters, and there wasn’t that much data about it. Still, training there for anyone who hadn’t yet reached the Law Dragon stage of their Laws would be better than training in the Prime Material Universe by about a factor of 100%, and that was just the base benefit.
“Okay.” Mila started to smile as well. “We have a new goal.”
Then she frowned. “But the amount of energy this will cost the System will be a whole lot more than anything else we’ve done. Are you sure the creators of the System won’t be notified?”
“I highly doubt they will.” Nana Xara still sounded cheerful. “I have no way of knowing for sure. But I think the chances are low. Remember, there is a purpose behind the System, one I’m not allowed to tell you, but I can confirm you’ve come close to guessing it in the past.”
Mila’s theory about the System was that it was made by the highest gods of the Prime Material for two main purposes. One, to make it easier for A ranks to emerge, which the gods could then use as generals and cannon fodder in their wars with other universes. And, two, as an enforcer of rules for how the gods could compete with each other, making it so their internal conflicts wouldn’t weaken the Prime Material to the point they lose against foreign invaders.
If this was the case, it would explain all the various loopholes built into the System, ones seemingly designed for the most powerful in the universe to be able to exploit, and it would also make it unlikely that the uses of these exploits would be reported or recorded in any way.
Whatever the case, there was no advantage to worrying about such a thing. Even if all their information were being reported, there was nothing they could do about it. And those it would be reported to would be the upper level gods, those like the Divine Child who had a fifth of the Prime Material’s gods as his subordinates, so they likely wouldn’t even care.
Or at least that is what Mila hoped.
The rewards greatly outweighed the risks, so she would do her best to raise Earth to A rank, even if it might be something people way more powerful than them would kill them all to take.