The three old men continued their relentless chatter, going back and forth until Lance and his companions were left utterly speechless.

  Having strangers offer to set him up with dates—or even introduce their own friends—the moment they met was beyond absurd.

  "Man," Lillian remarked from the side, a look of profound realization on her face. "It looks like you’re going to have quite the luck with the ladies from now on. I’m honestly starting to worry for Lorraine!"

  "Heh, you really are popular, aren't you?" A voice, dripping with sarcasm and envy, echoed directly in Lance’s mind. It was Sovereign Glacia. "At this rate, won't you end up with a whole harem of wives and concubines?"

  Lance rolled his eyes. They were making it sound like he was the type of guy who fell for every woman he saw.

  "Piss off! All three of you!" Guardian Aether finally snapped, unable to take it anymore. He glared at the three old men. "Is this really the time for this? Go back and guard your secret realms!"

  "Hey, Aether, what’s with the attitude? Did you already beat us to the punch on the way here?" one of them barked.

  "God damn it, I bet he did! House Roth has produced an S+ Rank genius girl lately, hasn't she? She was sent straight to the Vanguard Elite Institute!"

  "Exactly! You’re just trying to keep the good stuff for yourself, Aether. That’s low, even for you!"

  Instead of backing down, Guardian Aether’s outburst only made the three seniors more agitated.

  "I’m not even going to dignify that with a response. Lance, let’s go!"

  Utterly fed up, Guardian Aether shot them one last glare before leading Lance and the others away.

  Under Guardian Aether’s guidance, Lance first dropped Lillian off at the most prestigious middle school on Mother Planet. Selina, meanwhile, was enrolled in the planet's highest-tier university.

  As for Lance, he was taken directly to The Imperial Hub!

  They arrived at the Martial Paragon Plaza, located at the very heart of the hub. There, a massive statue of an elderly man stood in silent, dignified vigil.

  This was The Martial Paragon.

  As the guardian who had protected the human race for over a hundred thousand years, his existence was the single most important treasure of humanity.

  Standing right beside the statue was a gargantuan teleportation array.

  This gate led directly to the Vanguard Elite Institute.

  As the most secure location in all of human territory, placing the entrance to the Vanguard Elite Institute here was the only logical choice.

  "This is it. Let’s head in."

  Guardian Aether offered a small smile, grabbed Lance, and flew directly into the shimmering light of the teleportation array.

  Vroom!

  The world spun and shifted as space warped around them. When Lance’s vision cleared, he found himself standing on a massive plaza. Above him, the sky was filled with a boundless, swirling void of spatial turbulence.

  Clearly, this was another secret realm developed by the powerhouses of humanity.

  "Our race has developed dozens of secret realms within our borders," Guardian Aether said, sensing Lance’s curiosity. "Unfortunately, almost every single one of them had been picked clean long ago. Nothing major was left behind. But that’s to be expected. Even so, the scraps and fragments we found were enough to provide immense benefits to our people."

  "So... what would happen if a completely untouched, unexplored secret realm appeared?" Lance asked suddenly.

  He was thinking of the intel his Tier 7 Intellect had intercepted—the one regarding the secret realm found by the Cryo-Wraith Monarch. Based on the data, that place seemed entirely untouched.

  "If an unexplored realm truly appeared, the entire Milky Way would descend into madness," Guardian Aether replied, his voice turning grim. "It would trigger a desperate, violent struggle between the five Great Races and dozens of other smaller civilizations. Even if we managed to secure the inheritance, our race would likely suffer casualties beyond counting."

  This was both a magnificent opportunity and a lethal crisis. If such a thing appeared, they would have no choice but to fight to the death to claim it. If it fell into the hands of any other race, it could signal the end of humanity.

  "I see..."

  Lance felt conflicted. Should he tell the human leadership? If he kept quiet and another race found it, the consequences would be catastrophic.

  "Wait, I can tell them without actually telling them myself."

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  His eyes lit up. He immediately established a mental link with his AI.

  "Send an anonymous lure message to the Human Central Intellect. Transmit the coordinates of that secret realm directly. Make sure to mask the message so it looks like it originated from inside the realm itself."

  "Beep! Understood, Master. The masking process requires time. The message will be transmitted in one hour," the AI responded.

  Lance fell into thought.

  "This AI's level is becoming a bottleneck. It’s time to get a higher-grade unit."

  A Tier 7 Intellect was formidable, but it was currently on par with the Human Central Intellect. If he wanted to truly manipulate the major networks across The Milky Way, it wasn't enough. His current Tier 7 unit had been upgraded from a Tier 4. To upgrade it again, he would need a base unit of at least Tier 5 or higher. He wondered how expensive those were.

  "Oh, I almost forgot to mention," Guardian Aether interrupted his thoughts. "Your talent has been officially reclassified as SS-Rank. You probably don't realize how significant that is, so let me explain."

  Lance blinked and nodded, listening intently.

  "No one has reached SS-Rank since the time of The Martial Paragon. Because of that, while the rank exists in the archives, it was purely theoretical—until now. It is far beyond S+ Rank."

  He paused to let that sink in.

  "Since the establishment of the A-Rank Elite system, we've had maybe eighty to a hundred thousand S+ geniuses. Many became powerful Planetary Class warriors; a few even reached the Stellar Class. But we have never had an SS-Rank. Consequently, the treatment you receive will be worlds apart from an S+."

  "For an S+ genius, rewards are typically Tier 5. But as an SS-Rank, you have the authority to pick whatever you want from the entire human race’s armory, cultivation libraries, and war art vaults."

  "The standard package is as follows: one cultivation method, four war arts, one weapon, and one combat suit. Your suit has already been decided—it’s the strongest armor our race possesses: The Martial Paragon Set. It’s a Tier 6 Peak combat suit, integrating our most advanced AI, protection, and combat sensors."

  "As for the rest, I’ll take you to the Vanguard Elite Institute’s internal exchange now to make your selections."

  Lance was stunned by the explanation of his new privileges.

  "Anything I want? I can just take whatever the human race has? Holy sh*t, that's insane authority."

  He was genuinely shocked. If he had known the perks were this good, he might have revealed his SS-Rank talent sooner. This solved everything in one go: his need for a better cultivation method, war arts, weapons, and a new AI.

  Given that he could pick anything, the base level of the items would be at least Tier 6 Peak. Once he used his own abilities to "enhance" them, they would easily reach Tier 9 or even Tier 10.

  He was about to completely overhaul his entire loadout.

  "Let’s go. I’ll take you to pick your gear. I’ll explain more about the Vanguard Elite Institute on the way."

  After Guardian Aether finished speaking, he grabbed Lance and flew directly toward the inner reaches of the Vanguard Elite Institute.

  Along the way, Aether provided a brief overview of the institute's structure. Unlike lower academies, the Vanguard Elite Institute had no grade distinctions. The minimum requirement for entry was the Grandmaster rank, and students had to be under one hundred years old.

  In practice, this meant that only the absolute peak geniuses from the various intermediate stellar academies—those who managed to graduate at least twenty years ahead of schedule—could even dream of entering. But graduating early was far easier said than done. Within a hundred-year timeframe, only a handful of S+ Rank geniuses managed to reach the Grandmaster rank, let alone do it with two decades to spare.

  The graduation age at the institute was capped at one thousand years. Since a Grandmaster could live for three millennia, reaching one thousand meant they were only a third of the way through their natural lifespan.

  Over those ten centuries, most S+ geniuses could reliably reach Great Grandmaster (Rank 5) or higher. Some managed to climb to the seventh or eighth ranks of that stage, though ascending further required significant luck and opportunity, even for the most gifted.

  The current High Speaker had once been a student here. He had emerged with the strength of a Rank 7 Great Grandmaster, a feat that had earned him the position of High Speaker of the Solaris Intermediate Sector. Today, he was only a single step away from the Planetary Class.

  Because the curriculum lasted a full millennium, the Vanguard Elite Institute currently housed over a thousand geniuses. Every single one was a powerhouse at the Grandmaster rank, capable of killing ordinary experts of the same level with ease. There were even a few monstrous geniuses among them who sat at the absolute peak of the Great Grandmaster rank.

  Essentially, according to Guardian Aether, Lance was currently the weakest person in the entire institute. Even the newest freshmen were supposedly hundreds of times more powerful than him.

  Lance merely smiled at the thought. It was true that he currently couldn't defeat the one or two nine-hundred-year-old monsters who were at the peak of the Great Grandmaster rank, but there were likely fewer than five people in the entire camp who could actually beat him.

  And that was based on today’s data. By tomorrow, even the strongest student wouldn't stand a chance. Once he hit Grandmaster Rank 10, his ultimate combat power would be enough to instantly kill even a peak Great Grandmaster. As for how he would fare against a Planetary Class expert, that remained to be seen.

  "We’re here! This is it!"

  Guardian Aether led Lance to an ancient, towering structure.

  The secret realm they were in was more than a hundred times larger than the one housing Solaris Academy. With a diameter of several million kilometers, its surface area was ten thousand times that of Mother Planet. Consequently, the building before them was gargantuan, piercing the sky at a height of hundreds of kilometers. Its footprint was so massive it could have occupied an entire continent on Mother Planet.

  Inside the tower, Lance sensed the presence of three Stellar Class powerhouses. This building held the same strategic importance as the homeworld itself.

  "This is The Paragon Vault," Aether said with a proud smile. "It houses every Tier 6 and Tier 7 item humanity possesses. Only those who have made monumental contributions to our race are permitted to choose items from here. It is guarded by three Stellar Class experts, and at least five more can warp in as reinforcements within seconds. It is the safest place in human territory. If this place falls, humanity is finished."

  Lance nodded, his anticipation growing. He wanted to see exactly how many treasures were tucked away inside.

  Aether led him toward the entrance.

  [System Alert: Identity Verification Successful.]

  [Guardian Aether. Authorization: SS-Rank.]

  [Lance. Authorization: SS-Rank.]

  The electronic voice echoed through the air. Lance felt a brief surge of emotion. He held the same level of authority as Guardian Aether. Clearly, the human race viewed an SS-Rank genius as their ultimate hope for survival.

  I suppose I can’t let them down, Lance thought, his eyes narrowing. If humanity was giving him this much protection and these many resources, the least he could do was wipe out the other four races as soon as he had the strength. Once the human race could live in peace, he could head out into the Great Cosmos without any lingering regrets.

  Creak!

  With the verification complete, the massive doors—forged from an unknown, high-density metal—slowly ground open.

  A vast hall unfolded before Lance’s eyes.

  System Notification: A massive stockpile has been detected!

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