Chapter 1021: The Awkward Position of the United Club
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1021: The Awkward Position of the United Club
As the saying goes, once you’ve had a taste of the marrow, you can’t go back. This particular "one-versus-two" bedroom competition had finally come to a close.
Under my "intense persuasion," Sister Bai had finally grasped the true essence of the Life Clone. The cognitive barrier that had once seemed like a wall turned out to be as thin as window paper, shattering with a single poke.
I had left Sister Bai with an unforgettable experience, and it seemed I had also opened her eyes to a whole new way to play.
But bedroom athletics are, in the end, merely an embellishment of life.
Returning to my so-called daily routine, there were still many goals waiting for me to pursue and realize.
For instance, the techniques of Life Clones and Consciousness Incubation—these were vital for the "revival" of Ling Yi’s friend and for my deal with the Main World Consciousness.
Then there was the Primal Great Fool's Dream Transformation Spell, which was key to opening the Fool's Dream Life Sequence.
And finally, there was the Witch United Club and the Academy War, which were crucial to the restructuring of the Main World’s order.
As long as the Transcendent Academies remained standing, any talk of rebuilding the social order of the Main World was a joke. Once they fell, the Academy Wars—and the family wars linked to them—would serve as the fuse for a chain reaction that would reorganize the world's order.
The main reason I was so invested in the Witch United Club right now was to use it as a cover for my Life Clone to experiment with Infinite Mana.
The commotion caused by experimenting with Infinite Mana was simply too massive. If I kept doing it at the Witch Academy every few days, Dean Mei would be calling me in for "talks" every single day.
So, I had to do it elsewhere.
For example... the remaining members of the No. 0 Special Combat Sequence stationed in Sun Rock Territory were perfect for the job.
The reason so many members of the combat sequence remained there was to maintain transcendent suppression. After all, when a Transcendent Academy collapses, the resulting chaos is no laughing matter. Without sufficient transcendent combat power to keep a lid on things, a riot could break out in minutes.
At this moment, the United Club was holding a regular meeting to discuss several matters, primarily how to digest the newly conquered Sun Rock Territory.
An Omni-Link Main Network Tree had already been planted there, so the Academy hoped to use the territory as a pilot site for the promotion of extraordinary power—building an extraordinary industry centered around the Root Network.
The plan was to win over some local families while suppressing others, granting Seed of Wisdom qualifications, and standardizing the promotion of extraordinary power.
This was essentially the same model used in the Expansion Realms. Once this model was successfully implemented, it would carry another monumental significance:
The legal possession of extraordinary materials!
Heaven only knows how much that concept meant to a family.
However, matters at the family level had little to do with the Transcendent Academies. What the Witch Academy wanted were families that were obedient and didn't cause trouble.
Meanwhile, within the Witch Academy, the United Club was contemplating other things.
The resources from academies conquered by the Witch United Club during the Academy War would belong to the club itself. The territory would be merged into the Witch Territory, while the management of the fallen academy's framework and industries would be handed over to families for absorption.
It could be said that the United Club had already preliminary mapped out an effective path forward.
However, this path was built on the foundation of the Witch Academy actively promoting the liberalization of extraordinary power, as well as the need for continuous expansion and aggression.
To ensure the Academy War remained sustainable, the Witch Academy’s attitude toward other Transcendent Academies became increasingly hostile.
Furthermore, the project regarding the Witch Battleships was finally showing progress.
There was plenty of space within the Witch Academy to construct strategic equipment like Floating Battleships.
However... not a single student in the academy had any relevant construction experience or technical accumulation. They didn't even know how to begin drafting the blueprints for a warship.
But there was a shortcut.
They were just warships, after all. Many Transcendent Witches had seen them before—though the ones they had seen were super-warships capable of sailing through the void.
Using that level of technical knowledge for a ship confined within a world was a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Still, guiding students to build a ship that could fly, with some added defenses and offensive capabilities, was more than doable.
Consequently, several new elective courses appeared in the Witch Academy: theoretical construction of Witch Battleships and practical assembly...
As for how long it would take to actually produce a ship that could take to the skies... that was anyone's guess.
* * *
Currently, at the Baking House club headquarters.
"Cleveland, give me a report on the United Club's recent situation. Just hit the highlights; you guys can handle the trivial stuff yourselves," I said.
Lately, Cleveland had been attending many of the United Club's meetings in my stead. I had delegated a significant amount of authority to her, and I only knew the details of most matters through the information summaries they compiled.
"There have been quite a few internal disagreements within the United Club lately," Cleveland began. "Most of them revolve around Sun Rock Territory. Because you haven't been present, they’ve been arguing more and more based on their own families' interests rather than the club's."
"Currently, several representatives of the combat sequences from the core clubs want our Baking House No. 0 Combat Sequence to withdraw from Sun Rock Territory and hand over control to them. Their excuse is that it would be easier to interface with the families. They claim that since the Baking House doesn't have a family foundation behind it, we aren't suited to accelerate the integration of Sun Rock Territory into the Great Families of the Witch Faction."
"I did not agree to this. Setting aside the fact that Sun Rock Elf Academy was a territory you personally led the students to occupy, it serves as a pilot site for the Omni-Link Main Network Tree and is surrounded by affiliated academies of the Elf Academy. Its strategic value is immeasurable..."
Cleveland reported the important matters one by one. I generally approved of the decisions she had made and didn't interfere much.
When it came to interests and profits, one had to fight for what was theirs; otherwise, it would just end up lining the pockets of the families.
As for the Baking House becoming one of the eight core clubs, leading many other clubs to seek cooperation and many families to try and pick a side early—I didn't care. I had explicitly given Cleveland the power to decide on those matters herself.
Keep the useful and efficient ones; kick away the useless ones who just want to be leeches.
The Core World was destined to fall into chaos, and the primary development of the Baking House was actually in the Expansion Realms.
The order in the Expansion Realms was currently developing according to the Witch Academy's expectations, and the region as a whole was gravitating toward the Ninglan Territory. The process of promoting and integrating extraordinary power was within an acceptable range.
The reason the Witch Academy dared to promote extraordinary power so brazenly was primarily because the Witch race was backing them. Even if the Main World underwent a period of frenzied development where everyone became extraordinary, they still wouldn't be able to escape the control of the Transcendent Races.
At this point, Cleveland moved on to a topic that actually piqued my interest.
The territory represented by the Sun Rock Elf Academy was far from the limit of the Witch Academy, and even further from the limit of the United Club.
After witnessing the Witch Academy's maneuvers, the other Transcendent Academies' reactions had remained purely verbal.
Although each academy only had its own internal network—such as the Elves' Natural Network, the Wizards' Wizard Network, or the Witches' Ley Line Network—and these networks were not interconnected, it didn't mean the academies couldn't communicate.
For instance, there was the massive internet of the outside society.
As for the contracts signed with the Witch Academy that restricted revealing information to the outside world, there were ways to circumvent them. By layering an Extraordinary Dark Web on top of the outside world's internet, one could bypass those restrictions. This allowed students from different Transcendent Academies to communicate with each other.
Most academies were aware of this practice. Since it didn't cross the academies' bottom lines, they tacitly allowed its existence.
Only the families who controlled the internet in the Main World had the resources to set up an Extraordinary Dark Web across the entire Core World.
Because of this, average students in the Transcendent Academies rarely had access to something like the Extraordinary Dark Web.
Like me, for example.
Extraordinary Dark Web accounts mostly circulated among students from the Great Families. In reality, the Black Market Street also offered Dark Web services, and access could even be set up on the phones issued by the academies.
Even though the Witch Academy had promoted the Seed of Wisdom on a large scale, it couldn't completely replace mobile phones. Many students kept their phones out of security considerations.
"Currently, because of the level of performance shown by our No. 0 Special Combat Sequence in its first battle, the United Club is facing a dilemma," Cleveland continued. This was the part that interested me.
"The Academy War might not be able to proceed smoothly. The Three Top Academies have issued a joint statement: if the Witch Academy's United Club launches an unprovoked Academy War, they will join forces to suppress the Witch Academy's 'evil' behavior."
"According to the meeting's assessment, if the Three Top Academies join forces and incite their affiliated academies to harass our borders, the Witch Academy won't be able to handle so many enemies at once. Even if you personally intervened, Sister Xiao Han, you wouldn't be able to stop a multi-front alliance of hostile academies."
"If they are truly that foolish, then even I can't help them," I remarked with a smile and a shake of my head. "So, did the meeting come up with any good solutions?"
"No effective solution has been agreed upon yet. Although many suggestions were made, they all ultimately cast the Witch Academy as the villain, which would put the United Club's actions in a passive position." As she spoke, Cleveland displayed the materials she had organized from the meeting.
"Let me see." I pulled the spell projection toward me. It was a very neatly organized mind map, with various categories clearly listed.
I scanned the proposals. Many of them suggested inciting wars at the family level first, then having the academies step in to escalate the conflict.
These tactics looked very familiar to me.
After all, if you removed the Transcendent Academies from the Core World, the society was essentially maintained by groups of ordinary people. Things I never gave a second thought to—like minerals, rare metals, and even grain—were of vital importance to ordinary people.
If a food blockade were implemented, it would be incredibly easy to spark an uprising.
This world didn't have national regulation; instead, individual families controlled the lifeblood of the common people. Every absurd maneuver by a family ultimately fell onto the shoulders of ordinary households.
In the summary of the Sun Rock Elf Academy territory, I saw several shocking details.
Because of geographical issues, the Sun Rock Elf Academy territory suffered from food shortages. The reason such a small Transcendent Academy could exist and still attract applicants was simply because the academy distributed grain.
Yes—just by giving out grain, they could lure children from ordinary families into the academy.
Food was absolutely not an issue for an academy that mastered extraordinary power. This was especially true for the Elf lineage; even the Sun Rock Elves mastered basic affinity magic. Crops like rice and wheat weren't extraordinary or non-extraordinary plants; using magic to accelerate their growth had almost no negative impact. After all, the purpose of the food was merely to fill stomachs.
Based on the varying standards of living across the world, the plan to incite uprisings among the common people had actually gained a lot of support.
After all, when the Players invaded the Main World, they had caused significant instability in many regions. This also reflected the fact that the "peaceful" society of the Main World was inherently fragile. Things that some Players could achieve back then, the students could achieve now.
But at the end of the day, the transcendents of the Main World still looked down on ordinary people far too much.
"What do you think of these plans, Sister Xiao Han?" Cleveland asked softly, noticing my furrowed brow.
"I think... the plans are quite good. I came from an ordinary background myself, and I didn't realize the commoners in other territories lived like this. If they don't explode in silence, they will perish in silence," I sighed. "So, how exactly do you plan to go about it?"
"The specifics are still being discussed, as the situation varies from place to place. But the general idea is to dispatch students to incite them."
"Just incitement?"
"For now, that's all we can do. If the results are ideal, we will naturally increase our efforts," Cleveland explained.
"Incitement alone isn't enough. They lack power, and... anger! Power gives them the courage to resist, and anger gives them the motivation. Without those, they'll just be a disorganized mob."
"We did discuss that point," Cleveland said, her tone hesitating. "But we can't provide them with extraordinary power. Even basic firearms are difficult to supply, and logistics are even harder. More importantly, few families are willing to spend such a large sum of money on an investment with almost no return."
"Are they really that short-sighted?"
"It's that the benefits can't be guaranteed. Families don't show mercy when it comes to profit," Cleveland added.
"I suppose that's true... In that case, can the power network extended by the Omni-Link Main Network Tree planted in Sun Rock Territory help them?"
"That... seems possible." Cleveland thought for a moment. "Those small Transcendent Academies haven't blocked the spread of the power network at their new borders. In a region as sensitive as Sun Rock, they haven't had the chance."
"Then I'll leave the specific operations to you all. I'm just making a suggestion."