Dead Circle

Lv Cheng was immersed in the novelty brought by the Superpower-Enhancing Items, completely oblivious to Qi Yuan's death stare.

His fellow martial brother Lv Cheng listened attentively to Lv Cheng's introduction, with no awareness of anything amiss.

Qi Yuan agonizingly listened to the introduction, feeling as if he had missed out on a billion dollars.

Not to mention anything else, having a Superpower-Enhancing Item with teleportation ability alone piqued his interest.

As Lv Cheng prepared for a second round of supplementary introductions, Qi Yuan interrupted him.

"Let's look at something else."

If he continued, Qi Yuan couldn't guarantee those items would remain unscathed.

"Oh, oh."

Lv Cheng slapped his forehead, as if realizing something, but his words diverged from Qi Yuan's thoughts.

"I forgot, Big Brother Yuan, you're not interested in these Superpower-Enhancing Items."

Introducing these things that Big Brother didn't care for was like flaunting money in front of a billionaire.

Lv Cheng reflected on his own narrow-mindedness, failing to maintain an unfazed demeanor, let alone remaining as calm as the collapse of Mount Tai.

With this thought, he tapped his martial brother's shoulder, who was still fixated on the Superpower-Enhancing Items, and his brother regained his senses.

"Do you guys want to change locations? Let's go."

Qi Yuan followed them to a cultivation room where the cultivation vessels were divided into several groups, seemingly for comparative experiments.

"This group is a comparison between the branches of osmanthus trees from the moon and ordinary osmanthus trees."

"This group is how microorganisms perform in lunar soil versus regular soil."

"This group..."

They were still in the experimental stage, only providing Qi Yuan with a general introduction.

Moreover, this wasn't their area of responsibility, and a deeper understanding would require consulting the person in charge.

Qi Yuan had little interest and merely listened.

The trio passed through numerous laboratories, with Lv Cheng introducing each one.

Qi Yuan's thoughts shifted from "so this is how they research" to "well, that's how they research."

But the contents of this research room were somewhat unexpected

—Theology.

The room contained numerous books and materials related to myths and legends. There were also many photographs on the tables and walls, mainly depicting the palace on the moon.

Photographs of the palace's murals and columns were laid on the table, evidently the current subject of research.

"That palace, also known by our code name 'Guanghan Palace,' its artworks are important research materials."

"We have many conjectures about the origins of the Fusion Zone, and myths and legends are among them."

"If not for domestic and international research indicating that within the Fusion Zone, organisms can only mutate and not increase aside from monsters, perhaps I'd still be dreaming of treading on divine beasts and punching heavenly beings."

"Therefore, although not a primary research project, theology is an important direction for us."

As Lv Cheng narrated this, his demeanor was relaxed, showing no concern for the supposed sacrilege against deities.

The Schrödinger's Belief in Gods of the people of the Dragon Nation.

When needed, they would share a koi fish blessing; when not needed, even if it were a god, they would slay it for all to see.

Coincidentally, Qi Yuan was also a typical member of the Dragon Nation, equally lacking reverence.

Something that might not exist couldn't evoke much reverence from him, even less than the respect he had for others, just as he dared not casually touch the items on the workbench.

While Lv Cheng continued to expound on various conjectures, an epiphany struck Qi Yuan's mind.

He had long harbored a misconception.

He always felt that to boast without sounding like he was just blowing smoke, he needed to have personally experienced or understood enough details, so others couldn't easily call him out.

This wasn't entirely wrong. If he recklessly boasted about S-level superhumans having limitless power, defying most people's understanding, he would undoubtedly be ridiculed.

Because "S-level superhumans" was a defined term, and anything that didn't fit its definition wasn't an S-level superhuman.

When he was still unknown, to let others directly understand his strength, he had to pretend to be an S-level superhuman.

And to pretend to be an S-level superhuman, he needed sufficient understanding of the term, otherwise he would be exposed.

But what if the term wasn't defined?

Although he didn't know the extent of the world, and whether there were truly powerful individuals who remained unknown due to personal or environmental reasons, he only needed to fabricate a notion of "the strongest" and convince the uninformed masses.

Even if someone later surpassed him and realized the discrepancy, he would genuinely be the strongest at that point, and he could simply brush off any questions with excuses like, "I progressed too quickly and got confused," or "It was so long ago, I can't remember clearly," and so on.

Qi Yuan's thoughts were quite idealistic, even considering how he would respond to doubts about his invincible, strongest status if he rose to such heights.

But he soon snapped out of his fantasy.

It was like watching a video—easy to understand, but difficult to apply.

Most countries had blocked information about S-level and above, withholding explicit details, so the masses' perception of the strongest didn't exceed S+ level.

In other words, for the masses to imagine what he envisioned, he first had to achieve it in front of them, otherwise they wouldn't conceive of such an outlandish notion.

It was like the famous meme:

"I can't beat this boss."

"Then upgrade your gear!"

"But I need to beat the boss to upgrade my gear."

"Then just go beat it!"

However, this was still a path to explore if he could find a way to break the cycle.

"Big Brother Yuan, what's wrong with you?"

Lv Cheng waved his hand in front of Qi Yuan's face, genuinely asking, "If you have an inspiration, can I freeride on it?"

As expected of you...

After all this time, your skin is still as thick.

Qi Yuan swatted his hand away. "I was just thinking of something else."

"The exchange event with the Bit Buddha Nation tomorrow? There's a chance I'll be participating, so remember to cheer for me."

"No, not that."

Qi Yuan first denied Lv Cheng's words. "How could it be about you?"

If someone else asked, Lv Cheng would probably retort, "Do you know I'm representing the nation?"

But...

He gave Qi Yuan an aggrieved look. No matter how handsome Qi Yuan was, why did he have to put on such airs?

"Both sides have nuclear weapon warnings, but we can't just launch a couple of nukes for fun, right? That's why it's changed to a relatively peaceful way, just showing off our strategic reserves."

Qi Yuan was speechless. After all that, it was just a junior/youth group competition, yet he had brought up strategic reserves.

He really could put gold leaf on his own face.

"Come to think of it, if not for the Shen City incident exposing your identity, if they had kept you hidden until now, the expression on the faces of the Bit Buddha Nation would be priceless."

This was a one-sided thrashing!

Lv Cheng couldn't help but snicker at the thought of the constipated expressions of the Bit Buddha Nation's people.

"Then I wouldn't have participated in this exchange event either."

The Dragon Nation wasn't short on people.

At worst, they would go and find a stable supply source, like the families they encountered last time.

With elite education, as long as one had talent, how could they not take off?

It was like a big company's HR department recruiting.

Everyone knew they might still hire capable people from regular high schools, but to reduce workload and save time, they would only recruit from top high schools.

The so-called non-discrimination against non-elite high school students only applied to irreplaceable professionals with experience, and had nothing to do with ordinary students.

Qi Yuan could attest through personal experience that if SS-level superhumans weren't so rare, the Executive Bureau would have likely overlooked him like an ordinary student.