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Chapter 189 : Server 69
🕑 Added 2025-01-26 23:03:41 +0000 UTC« Chapter-188 | Index | Chapter-190 »
Sora looked at his recruits. Some where still exhausted from the spar while others had already recovered.
However, all of them were in awe.
He had sent a clone weaker than the weakest of them, and still managed to defeat all of them.
He had tested their speed, endurance, strength, hand to hand combat skills and even tested their weapon mastery. None of them could hold a candle to him in any field.
Even when they surrounded him, they failed to hit him even once.
When it was his turn to attack, they had all suffered humiliating defeats, as he made sure he knew each player's performance in all fields, including their ability to take hits.
When he revealed that this would be the level of physical power they needed to reach to graduate from the Sky Academy, they looked at him in disbelief.
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While Sora spent the following weeks alternating between training himself, teaching the teenagers, and guiding the adults, a group of individuals gathered in an unknown place to discuss something critical.
Around a long rectangular table, the room sat in silence, each individual distinct and unique in appearance.
A woman seated near the middle of the table broke the silence with a soft sigh. She appeared young, her features almost human at first glance. But upon a closer look, her golden eyes glowed faintly, and a purple halo hovered above her head, moving slightly as she moved.
"The audience of the streams is skyrocketing for Server 69," she began hesitantly. "But according to our estimations, the war will end before we even have the chance to release Update 2.0..."
A man seated to her left nodded in agreement. His features resembled hers, with a golden halo hovering above his head.
"Iris is right," he said. "We’ve seen this before. The way events will unfold, this will be a short-lived server where a few stars bulldoze through the content, wiping out the competition and exterminating other nations with ease."
He tried to maintain a tone of indifference, but the irritation in his voice was unmistakable. "The spikes in audience numbers are good for short-term income, but in the long run, we lose far too much by hosting servers that collapse after only a few years."
Iris’s golden eyes narrowed slightly as she continued. "We’ve invested too much already. This server has cost us countless soul pearls and spirit stones."
Her voice became louder. "We can’t afford to lose it so quickly. And it’s not just the short-term losses that worry me. The ratings for this server are higher than anything we’ve had in decades. If it fails, we’ll struggle to create another server with a similar level of hype."
She paused momentarily, allowing her words to settle, when someone on the opposite side of the table chimed in. "Humans are indeed captivating... And it’s not like we can just find a new world populated with an intelligent, high-potential species every year or two."
Iris nodded and spoke again. "And let’s face it. People are growing tired of seeing the same old races constantly fighting for survival. Take the Dark Elves, for instance. They’ve had four chances to earn a planet. Four. And every single time, they’ve failed to conquer it."
The room remained silent for a moment.
A person sitting near the edge of the table spoke.
"Iris, if you’re stating the obvious, it likely means you have a solution in mind, doesn’t it?"
The others’ reactions confirmed the speaker’s authority. All eyes were on him, their expressions proof of the power his words held.
Iris’s voice shook as she replied. "Vice-Chairman Scorpio, you are correct. I’ve gathered the necessary data and information to explain the root of the problem and will propose a few methods to resolve it."
Vice-Chairman Scorpio waved a hand, signaling her to continue.
Rising from her seat, Iris connected a small device to the center of the table. A moment later, a hologram flickered to life, revealing two figures.
If Sora had been present, he would have immediately recognized the two persons. It showed him, not as Ralph Eden, but in his original appearance, standing side by side with Kara Spirine. The image rotated slowly, for everyone around the table to see.
Iris gestured toward the hologram, her golden eyes narrowing slightly. "These two have been the center of attention ever since their time in the Ascension Tower."
She tapped on a device that was used as a remote, and the projection changed. A live graph appeared, spikes and valleys fluctuating wildly.
The tallest peaks were highlighted in red. "This graph tracks their popularity levels, measured in terms of audience engagement. Notice how their influence has skyrocketed since the tower's mid-level challenges. Every spike corresponds to a critical moment— overwhelming victories, exceptional skill acquisitions, and moments of defiance against us."
A tap of her finger made the graph disappear. A short video clip began playing, showing Kara surrounded by enemies, her body glowing faintly as she wielded her [Time-Bending] ability to help her allies achieve unbelievable results on the eighth floor.
"We'll start with the lady over there. Kara Spirine has always remained relatively discreet, but everything changed after meeting the Sora Hashino we'll talk about later. Her innate skill, ranked 134, is a famous ability that has been adjusted repeatedly over the past hundreds of year in attempts to achieve balance. After its repeated nerfs, it was supposed to be an extremely costly and draining ability. A skill meant to have close to no long-term impact. Any user that would push this skill to the limit would age and die in seconds or less."
Iris projected the image of various holder of such talents dying from old ages on differents servers.
The video switched to Kara, mid-combat, her aura glowing bright.
"However," Iris continued, "with her Supreme Skill, she has bypassed these limits entirely. By manipulating life force to recover from any state, and repairing her body while it broke, Kara has completely erased her innate skill's weaknesses."
A new graph appeared alongside the frozen image, displaying a bold red line marking Kara's threat level. It rose steadily, with a sharp spike at the moment her Supreme Skill was unlocked.
"Since that day," Iris said, her voice colder now, "Kara has been classified as an S-Tier threat to system balance. She had not reached level 70 yet..."
The graph shifted to include another rising line. "But the problem wasn't just Kara Spirine. It’s what happened when she allied with the holder of Rank 7, the [Prestige] innate skill."
The hologram shifted again, this time showing Sora's figure standing before a massive crowd of defeated enemies. "Sora Hashino's dominance on the 12th floor, combined with his decision to probe the crowd despite system warnings, catapulted him into the spotlight."
"His stream now averages a million viewers, with peaks reaching 13 million during key moments—such as his revenge against Supreme Quest Holder Rachel. He is on track to enter the top 100 streamers globally, despite not even being aware of the existence of platform. This makes him one of the the fastest-rising stars in history."
"The combination of their abilities pushed both of their threat levels to the SSS-Tier."
The hologram changed again, this time showing a new figure. "But the cherry on top," Iris said grimly, "is the emergence of Sora Hashino's Alter Ego, Alius"
The screen displayed a simulation of Alius’s potential threat level.
"Alius was already an A-Tier threat upon unlocking his class," Iris explained, "but unlocking his Supreme Skill propelled him to SSS-Tier, just like the others. His ability to wield Soul Power can destabilize entire kingdoms if used recklessly. If Alius actively participates in conflicts, simulations predict an Apocalypse-Level Threat."
The hologram flashed red, displaying the words EX-Tier over Alius's figure. The council members murmured among themselves as Iris continued.
"For now, Alius has shown no intention of engaging in direct conflicts, which is the only reason his threat level remains at the SSS level. However..." She paused, "all previous Rank-7 [Prestige] holders have eventually absorbed their Alter Egos. Should Sora Hashino do the same, we know he won't stay idle as his kingdom loses the war. The synergy between his abilities and Kara's will obliterate any hopes of balance on server 69."
The hologram shifted to display a map of the world. It showed a simulation of humanity's dwindling territory, marked in glowing red, beaten and eaten by all invading kingdoms.
"Take this, for example," Iris said, pointing at the map. "Alius spent time in Kara’s accelerated world to generate Soul Pearls. The speed at which Soul Power was drained from our resources was comparable to the worlds on the fourth update for a few days, something unheard of in all 68 previous servers."
"Meanwhile, Sora is currently training thousands of players. With Kara's assistance, their victory in the war makes no doubt."
She waved her hand, and the map dissolved, replaced by a new hologram: a betting interface. Numbers flickered rapidly, showing the changes in trends in favor of humanity.
"There are currently 9 trillion Spirit Coins wagered on humanity's victory. The combined bets on the other nine races total barely 30 trillion. And every day, humanity’s odds increase because people are feeling the tides turning."
Iris straightened, her tone sharper now. "The problem isn’t just these two players individual talents. It’s the synergy between them. Left unchecked, they will not only win the war—they’ll crush every other race, leaving the server completely empty in a year or two."
"We have no doubts, and our audience will quickly understand this. To make the server 69 interesting for everyone again, we only have a few options."
The hologram displayed four bullet points, each lighting up as she listed them.
"First, we can get rid of Rank-134 innate skill, [Time-Bending]. We've tried nerfing this too many times, but never found the right balance. We can do something similar to [Prestige]. It was supposed to be a late-game talent. Our initial simulations were for that skill holder to shine in late stages of the war, not unlock three supreme skills during the first update and demolish everyone else with them."
"Second, as we awarded the Rank-1 talent to a newcomer from the Demon Race, we could similarly invest in a specific race to counterbalance humanity. I suggest focusing on the Demon Race or the Spirit Race, as they stand the best chance of challenging the humans."
"Third, we could deploy some of our own forces to discreetly intervene and tip the scales in our favor. One-sided conflicts no longer engage viewers the way they used to."
"Fourth, we could force Kara Spirine and Sora Hashino into making a critical mistake, using it as an excuse to suspend them for an extended period. If their reactions are too violent, we could even remove them entirely."
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Time for the second major arc of the novel!!
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