With her presentation complete and a sense of satisfaction about her solutions, Iris sat down gracefully, her golden eyes scanning the room as she observed her colleagues.Her gaze lingered on Vice-Chairman Scorpio, waiting for his verdict.
The room remained silent as all eyes moved toward their superior. His expression was unreadable, his gaze moving between them. The silence remained for so long, those seated around the table realized he was expecting them to engage in further discussion.
Soone seated directly across from Iris broke the silence. Cloaked entirely in dark robes, their hood obscured most of their features, except for a pair of reptilian green eyes and a few strands of purple hair. Their voice was calm and feminine.
"There have been several instances where heavy interference by the council has backfired," the figure began, her tone carrying a weight of caution Iris didn't have. "In each case, the repercussions were severe. Long gone are the days when we could act with impunity. Now, we are watched too closely by spectators and betting platforms alike. And no one will allow us to easily manipulate the outco of these wars."
The woman tilted their head slightly, her eyes fixed on Iris. "Banning the human players from Server 69 is out of the question. Doing so would raise too many questions and invite the very scrutiny we wish to avoid."
The person seated beside her, having a similar appearance, nodded. This figure had a deeper and more masculine voice. "And we must be careful with infiltration. If our involvent were too blatant and were uncovered, die-hard fans of the duo would imdiately notice it. They would tear us apart in front of the dia, and the backlash could be catastrophic."
Iris's lips thinned into a frown as she looked at the pair. Addressing them directly, she said, "Aliss. Desmo." Her tone was polite, but soone paying attention would notice a subtle irritation in her facial expression.
"The players we send to infiltrate won't interact with Sora or Kara directly. Their missions will be hidden, with lower-impact objectives. Their focus will be on helping the other kingdoms accelerate their growth or sabotaging facilities that are contributing too much to the human kingdom."
Aliss tilted her head thoughtfully, her reptilian eyes narrowing as she considered Iris's words. "That could work," she admitted. "But the cost of such efforts will likely outweigh the results."
She moved on to her next argunt. "Returning to the idea of boosting other races through innate skills, I suggest favoring the Dragonborn instead of the Demon or Spirit Race. The Demon Race is too unpredictable, and they'd never repay us the favor if given this kind of advantage. And the Spirit Race, while formidable in the early phase, has weaknesses that the humans will undoubtedly exploit if given the ti to develop and train."
Before Aliss could continue, Vice-Chairman Scorpio raised his hand. The movent silenced Aliss instantly.
"This is not the place to discuss politics," Scorpio said, his deep voice sending a chill down her spine.
Aliss bowed her head slightly, her voice softer as she replied, "Apologies, Vice-Chairman." She took a mont before shifting the topic again. "However, regarding your first suggestion, I still stand by this: Sora Hashino is the bigger threat. More than Kara. He must be dealt with."
Iris's frown deepened. She displayed the graph of threat levels and opened her mouth to respond but was imdiately cut off by Aliss, who raised a hand of her own. "This is not a matter of data, Iris," Aliss said. "Removing Kara's innate skill would make it clear to everyone that we're behind it."
Iris exhaled sharply.
"Perhaps you're right," she admitted reluctantly. "Removing Kara's skill may draw too much attention. But there's still another option. We could issue quests to the other races for her elimination. High-level threats have been dealt with in this way before, and no one would suspect us. After all, quests to eliminate threats are commonplace on all servers. It is also sothing our spectators love."
Aliss's hooded figure shook slightly as she gave a subtle shake of her head.
"Eliminating Kara would unleash hell on Earth," she said evenly. "Sora's revenge on Rachel should be proof enough of this. He does not forgive nor forget. If we take Kara out, the aftermath could spiral beyond our ability to control. It would create chaos we may not be able to contain, let alone predict."
The room fell into a silence again. Iris's frown remained, but she didn't counter imdiately. Vice-Chairman Scorpio sat back, his gaze shifting between the two, as though waiting for soone to suggest a solution.
As if struck by an epiphany, Iris abruptly stood up, her golden eyes alight with realization. The sudden movent drew every gaze in the room, a few individuals raising brows or exchanging puzzled glances at her childish outburst. Noticing the reactions, Iris blinked, composing herself. "Apologies," she said,before she returned to her seat.
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Once seated, she started speaking, with excitent evident on her face. "I believe I've found a way to address most of our issues," she began, "With a few carefully calculated moves, we can reach most of our goals."
Intrigued, everyone looked at her, awaiting for her suggestions.
"Early World Update!" She said, her face lighting up. Seeing the look of understanding on the Vice-Chairman's face, she noticed he was the only one who fully understood her idea.
Raising her hand to interrupt Aliss who was about to cut her off, she continued, "Please let continue."
-------------------------------------------
Weeks passed.
Sora left the [Ti Space] and was deep in thought.
Every day after completing his daily tasks, such as training the Alpha Division and the Apprentice section, he entered Kara's [Ti Space] to train his own skills.
'After all the ti I've spent trying to copy Kara's innate skill, I'm still unable to imitate it... It seems that my affinity with the elent is too low, and even pushing that to the limit won't necessarily give the ability to copy all her skill effects.'
Rembering his progress with the ti elent, he shook his head.
'From what I've learned about [Ti], having a strong affinity with it is crucial to affecting higher-level targets. My current affinity is too weak to impact anyone above level 40 or 50... That ans using it in battle isn't an option right now... But if I refine my energy and improve my control over the elent, I can gradually increase that limit.'
Sora felt a surge of excitent, knowing there was still plenty of room to grow and refine his skills. His mind buzzed with training ideas.
'Let's aim for a level of control over ti that allows to affect level 100 targets. That'd be a solid starting point,' he thought, a smile appearing on his lips.
As he pondered how to achieve this, his thoughts drifted to Kara's [Ti-Bending] innate skill, and his expression shifted to a frown.
'Kara's innate skill is strange. It uses mana as fuel, but it also seems tied to her life force. Almost as if it's secretly draining her life force, even though the skill's effects don't rely on it directly...'
Having unraveled part of her skill's chanics, he couldn't help but feel frustrated by its inefficiencies. So aspects seed redundant, overly complicated, or just plain wasteful.
'Her skill feels like it's built with layers upon layers of energy manipulation... Yet, the actual effects are surprisingly simple.'
His thoughts then turned to his own innate skill. 'I've never really taken the ti to study my own innate skill... It might hold the key to refining my other abilities or even pushing [Prestige] to an entirely new level.'
As Sora made his way to et Emily, a series of notifications suddenly interrupted his thoughts.
[Congratulations to player N'logo Twane for reaching level 180.]
[As the 1000th player to reach the maximum level, the [Earth] has fulfilled the final hidden requirent for the second major update: Beyond The First Limits, Earth V2.0.]
[System Announcent: The Beginner Phase has ended. Your real journey begins now.]
[The update will begin in 72 hours.]
[All players will be protected for the duration of the update.]
[Prepare yourselves. The world you know is about to change forever.]
Sora stared at the notifications, stunned. 'End of the tutorial?'
Almost imdiately, ssages from people on his friend list began pouring in.
[Kro Nel: Contact after the update.]
[Klunor Sapher: Can we et after the update?]
Noticing dozens of requests from players in enemy kingdoms. Sora's confusion deepened.
'What's going on? Why are they reaching out to ?' The more ssages he received, the more puzzled he beca.
After quickly responding to the private ssages, Sora stepped into the teacher's lounge. Inside, he found Emily, Salim, and Kim deep in discussion about the notifications.
Emily, who had her back to him, turned around as he entered. "Ralph! Perfect timing... Did you see the notifications?"
Ralph nodded. "Are you all talking about the update?"
Salim chid in, "We're trying to figure out what to do after the update hits. All of us here have already reached level 180, so it might be smart to work together and maintain our lead over other players."
Kim added, "We don't know what the update will bring, but it might be wise to stock up on resources. So items could disappear from the market and beco more valuable."
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