Dante smiled with satisfaction at his growth and felt that he was at the peak of the first step of his power. He checked the public records and found that his current SDI was already in the top 5% of the entire universe.
At least, of what was publicly made available.
That was a crazy concept that would be hard to fathom. If one did a census of the universe, the final number that would come out might take an entire day to speak out.
Of this horrendous number, Dante was in the top 5%.
Feeling proud, he gobbled up his food quickly and then left his residence, walking casually towards the Student Enhancement Center. This was the hub of all upgrades a student could receive, whether physical or mental.
When Dante entered, it was choked to the brim as usual with students of different years and batches who came to seek improvements for themselves. This time, there were some Unique Batch students ahead of him, so Dante still had to wait.
Soon he was called in and greeted by an android nurse with a very pleasant smile that was disarming. "Greetings, student, how may I assist you?"
"I'd like to check if I can receive another gene enhancement session today, or when the next time I can receive it will be." Dante replied with a calm nod.
"Right away. Please let me check your details… done." The Android Nurse spoke as she checked Dante's details and his SDI, as well as his medical records that were taken when he first came in.
"According to this, you took your first gene treatment about a month ago. Normally, it will take a few months for your genes to stabilize before we can give you another session. Judging from the poor quality of your genes in the record, it should take you a year to recover." The Android Nurse concluded with a wide smile.
Dante was speechless. A whole year was not bad at all, to be honest, but he only had 5 years in this school and 15 free treatments. If he had to take one a year, that would mean 10 of them were wasted.
However, Dante was also thinking about it wrongly. If he took another gene treatment next year, he could rapidly increase his SDI by an unknown amount till he hit his next limit.
Assuming every gene treatment doubled his limit, he could have 500 points in all stats by the second year, 1000 in all stats by the third year, 2000 in all stats by the fourth year, and 4000 in all stats by the final year.
In other words, by the final year, he could have an SDI that was in the top 0.1% of the entire universe, and it would only take five years to achieve this!
One might ask, why doesn't he consider other treatment centers in the universe if he graduates and continues to accumulate stats? It seemed like such an obvious thing that it was strange for Dante to not think of it.
Well, the obvious answer, given how the Eternal Academy has been represented, was that it had the number 1 treatment center that could treat any species in the universe. Even the number 2 treatment center was more than 50% worse in overall quality.
It was not for fun that everyone and their mum tried to send their wards here and that various alumni groups were lobbying to re-enter and enjoy the resources again.
It was also the simple logic of not changing your doctor willy-nilly. This concerns your life and your health, so one mistake and you get to see whether there really is an afterlife or not.
Dante sighed and left the center. He did not update his SDI in the system or tell the nurse to do a check-up on his body to see if his genes stabilized.
Christ, did you think Dante was an idiot? Showing his talent with superpowers caused teachers to go crazy and try to capture him, but at the end of the day, superpowers were a niche that was greatly respected.
Some people had it, some people didn't, and there was a low chance of getting it.
But stats were something everyone had and formed the basic hierarchy of the universe in some ways. If they discovered that Dante went from abysmal stats before his treatment to the top 5% of the entire universe in one month - one day, to be honest - everyone would go crazy.
There would be two likely culprits, the Student Enhancement Center's methods or Dante's genetics. The Student Enhancement Center could totally bear the external pressure and be fine, but he could not.
Being able to raise your SDI in such a crazy way affected too much and directly challenged the stability of the universe, so Dante could not escape the vortex unless he completely gave up his identity in the Eternal Universe.
Whatever the case, he was now bored and decided to check his Supercoin payout from the first run in the Apocalypse World.
[Supercoin Settlement for Dante.
World Name: Apocalypse World
World Type: Shared (5% Score Bonus)
——————————————————
Online Time: 36:55:09 (F Rank)
Mutant Kills: 375 F Rank, 1 E Rank (F Rank)
Player Kills: 0 (F Rank)
Native Kills: 3 (F Rank)
Superpower Rank: E Rank (E Rank)
Reputation: An unremarkable cog in the wheel that no one will remember (F Rank)
Final Score: F Rank
Payout: 10.5 Supercoins (bonus added)]
Dante was not surprised nor insulted. His behavior truly had been confusing, landing in a world with a 30-day time limit and spending less than two days online. Did he have mental problems, and why didn't he just choose another world?
Not to mention the first time, he only wore that heavy armor and shot a few F Rank monster waves before killing the Withering Irradiated Zombie and then basically quit the game until his body was kidnapped.
How could he earn anything big?
Still, it was his first payout and it also indicated the standards for a high score. Dante could invest a month in this world truly and get a C to B Rank overall score for sure with his current abilities, but he wasn't exactly pursuing perfection.
He wanted to extract tangible and intrinsic value from the worlds he entered, like the Apocalypse World which was not valuable for the setting nor the score per se, but the ability to raise his SDI using a slew of tricks.
With that in mind, Dante perused through the top worlds once more and even looked down the list a bit more. He saw many interesting and fun looking worlds with unique themes and different backgrounds, but it wasn't a thrill he was seeking.
Dante thought back to the Apocalypse World and realized that his current problem was inefficiency of movement and combat. The Eternal Universe was a high Sci-fi place meaning that they had hot weapons of great power, but no matter the setting, cold weapons had their value.
In the Apocalypse World, despite being able to even buy anti-material guns, Dante still had to buy a halberd. Even the Zero Gate, which he would be entering at the end of the year, disallowed Bionics, Psionics, AI chips, or any form of technology so students went in with their raw SDI, their superpower given naturally, and whatever cold weapons they had for defense.
So it was necessary to gain some skill in that end. He was not the only student entering the Zero gate with high SDI, so others might have the same SDI as him but better skills in which case he would have to run.
Not to mention others might have offensive superpowers like Humphrey's Aerogenesis which would inflate Dante's lungs with air till he explodes or sweep him away into space as well as Slessor's space folding which could bend him into the 2nd dimension and have him hopping around like Paper Mario while she laughed uproariously.
ραndαsnοvεl.cοm Dante shuddered at the thought. So with that in mind, he needed to pick a suitable virtual world to conquer - *cough* play through and gain the skills. Sheesh, all these thoughts of controlling universes sure was making him arrogant.
Whatever the case, his eyes landed on what he felt was the best choice.
[World Name: Rising Star
World Owner: Eternal Academy
World Creator: Eternal Academy
World Size: Medium
World Type: Instanced
World Genre: War
Bionics Allowed: Yes
Psionics Allowed: Yes
Superpowers Allowed: No
Requirements: Student ID
Duration: 90 days
Description: This is a world that has been styled in a medieval setting. You are a random foot soldier assigned to one of the various armies of the kingdom you are serving, thrust into full-blown war as your King has ambitions to rule the entire continent.
Objectives: Survive for 90 days or rise through the ranks to become a General.
Limitations: Your Bionics and Psionics will be limited to your military Rank in terms of power, and all entities in this world have the same power as you per rank.
Provisions: You are given free rein to raise your rank through any means you can think of.]
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