Terraforming was not as simple a matter as he had expected.
Of course, expecting it to be simple in the first place had been absurd.
Lacking any relevant knowledge, Suho first thought it might be better to terraform the nearest moon and looked into it here and there, but the Moon’s conditions were even harsher than Mars’s.
Unlike Mars, which had a thin atmosphere composed of carbon dioxide, the Moon had no atmosphere at all,
and while Mars’s gravity, at 38% of Earth’s, was at a level humans could adapt to, the Moon’s gravity was only 16% of Earth’s, posing many difficulties.
Not only that, but the Moon had far more extreme temperature fluctuations than Mars, making temperature regulation difficult, and it was also poorer in water and other surface resources.
In addition, because of the absence of an atmosphere, the Moon had the added problem of more urgently requiring infrastructure to block radiation.
After comparing many factors, he ultimately reached the conclusion that it would be better to choose Mars as the target of terraforming rather than the Moon, which was inferior in every respect—atmosphere, gravity, temperature, resources, and more.
Of course, it was only Suho’s personal decision, one he had settled on in his own mind, but at the very least, it was greater than any international plan, space exploration plan, or resource development plan.
* * *
The sixteen raid members who had finished clearing the Tower continued to stay at Elysium Heights for quite some time afterward.
By the time the joy of reuniting with their families had grown tiresome and they had instead begun bickering with them, each of their families returned to their own countries and homes, but the sixteen still remained.
“No... I can understand the others, but shouldn’t those of you who came from overseas be returning home?”
Suho asked seriously, focusing on the nine of them: Ragnar Bjornsson, Ava Mitchell, Laila Karim, Emilia Rossi, Haruto Takeda, Diego Hernandez, Katerina Ivanov, Zhang Wei, and Lucien Dubois.
“It’s fine. There’s a vice clan leader too.”
“When I looked into it, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they’d process an extension as well.”
“Now, now, we’re not children. Everyone can take care of that much on their own. Let’s hurry up and handle what we ought to be focusing on.”
The remaining nine foreigners said there was nothing urgent at all; a quick return home was of no interest to them whatsoever.
Needless to say, the rest of Suho’s companions—Lee Danbi, Han Taeung, Joshua, and Thomas—or the Korean S-ranks Kang Hojin, Seo Yunjae, and Park Seoyeon were the same.
They were people holding their ground solely with the determination to hurry the clan’s founding and “become founding members.”
At that fervor, Suho clicked his tongue in disbelief.
“No, aside from me, most of you already seem to be affiliated with clans. Is double membership allowed?”
“Of course. It is!”
“Here, according to the [International Admitti Regulations], ‘No Admitti may lead multiple clans simultaneously, and a clan leader may act only as the representative of a single clan. However, as a clan member, one may join multiple clans.’ That’s what it says.”
“Oh... So joining multiple clans is possible as a clan member...”
At Karim’s explanation, Suho marveled and leaned in to look at the clause in the regulations.
“Well, most of them will probably leave their existing clans anyway.”
When Park Seoyeon said this with her tongue stuck out, everyone nodded.
Through a vote, they decided on the clan name “Ultimate Line,” and the experienced clan leaders put their heads together to formally draft the clan’s structure and organizational chart, symbols and internal rules, code of conduct, missions and goals, regular meetings, training, and other detailed items.
For the clan building, they decided to use Elysium Heights as the main building for the time being and also resolve the clan members’ housing issues there,
and for the clan members’ training, they decided to use Winky’s old nest for a while until a new training ground could be built.
Then there was the recruitment of the remaining members.
The seventeen members, including Suho, were confirmed for now, and they decided to set an upper limit of forty members total, including them, and put out a recruitment notice worldwide.
The number forty was chosen with the goal of being able to clear up to two Towers of the 100th floor, the climbing limit for S-rank Admitti, at the same time.
“I hope there’s never a situation where all forty of us are needed, though.”
A “recruitment notice” for twenty-three additional S-rank Admitti was spread through various media outlets.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The [Ultimate Line] clan, founded by Jeong Suho Admitti, the world’s only Item Collector class, is recruiting S-rank clan members from around the world.
- Founding Purpose: Maximizing the efficiency of ultra-high-floor Tower clears
- Eligibility: Limited to S-rank Admitti
- Membership Condition: Acquisition of Republic of Korea nationality through naturalization
- Member Benefits: Official residence in Elysium Heights, base annual salary of 1 billion dollars excluding performance bonuses, provision of one S-rank item suited to your traits, provision of five S-rank Etherium for equipment upgrades, unlimited supply of high-grade healing, regeneration, ether, and disease-curing potions during Tower clears, provision of an Anti-Aging Elixir upon five or more years of service, ...
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
It was far too provocative an advertisement.
Of the 1,800 S-rank Admitti worldwide, a staggering 1,271 applied.
The remaining 529 were only those currently in the middle of clearing Towers, those who could not step down as clan leaders, or those with various other circumstances.
It was not as if they had no desire to apply.
Since there were only twenty-three slots, the competition ratio was about 55 to 1.
Suho first appointed the sixteen S-rank Admitti who had successfully joined as founding members as interviewers and examiners,
then selected members in the first round through a simple document screening → technical and practical evaluation (skill and physical ability test) → face-to-face interview process,
and decided that the members chosen that way would participate in clan activities as probationary members for about a month, during which they would be evaluated on how they adapted to life within the clan before final confirmation.
The final interview and contract signing would take place after that.
In truth, from the perspective of S-rank Admitti, these procedures were almost absurd.
After all, every clan had always been desperate to recruit them, never the other way around.
There were many applicants who could not endure this stringent selection process and dropped out, and such people were sent away without the slightest regret.
S-rank Admitti were VIPs wherever they went, but at least in “Ultimate Line,” that was not the case.
Because S-ranks were as common as day laborers.
* * *
“Ether measurement?”
“That’s right. It’s fresh information I just picked up myself.”
At the information Thomas had brought from somewhere, all the members pricked up their ears.
“So, you’re saying that even without verifying it through Tower climbing, they can determine an exact ether rank with that measurement alone?”
Bjornsson said, stroking his chin.
“That’s what they say. Since it came through official channels, there’ll probably be some kind of announcement.”
“If it’s true, that’s quite revolutionary.”
As with the Tower Break during Winky’s escape incident last time, the number of people taking the dangerous gamble of registering under a false rank in order to gain greater wealth and fame was gradually increasing.
Of course, most of them were eventually exposed during Tower clears and severely punished, but every time such incidents occurred, the risk the relevant raid team had to bear was far too great.
And because of that, Tower Breaks were also happening more frequently, which led directly to public anxiety and increased burden on management agencies.
This was not a problem unique to Korea, but a recurring issue all over the world.
In the first place, how unreasonable was it to confirm awakening simply by entering a Tower once, and then assign rank and class based solely on the awakened person’s own word?
Research institutes related to Admitti in countries around the world had been putting great effort into this research for more objective and accurate measurement results, but there had been no results for a long time.
Inanimate objects such as items, Etherium, and potions could be appraised for rank, yet the ether inside the human body could not be measured. This was because of ether’s unique reactivity.
Ether inside the human body had a special reactivity, so unlike Etherium, items, or potions, direct measurement was impossible.
Human life energy combined with ether to create a unique wavelength, and this irregular wavelength could not be recognized by existing measuring devices or appraisal tools.
Inside the human body, ether existed in an unstable state, and when measuring tools attempted to detect this ether, that instability caused the signal to become distorted or disappear. Because of this, identifying the exact amount or rank had been practically impossible.
But at last, a research institute in the United States found a way to solve this problem.
It was the “Ether Stabilization Injection.” When this drug was injected into the body, ether was temporarily stabilized. In the process, the irregular reactivity of the ether inside the body decreased, allowing measuring equipment to accurately detect the amount and rank of the ether.
After this drug was discovered, clinical trials continued to determine whether it harmed the body, and at last, it passed all drug safety tests and reached commercialization.
This technology quickly spread to Admitti management agencies around the world.
[Notice from the Republic of Korea Alien Defense and Tower Management Agency]
To all Admitti.
Recently, a new technology has been developed that enables the accurate measurement of the rank of ether within the human body. Accordingly, all awakened Admitti are obligated to have their ether rank remeasured. This measure is intended to strengthen the efficiency and fairness of Admitti rank management, and to more accurately understand the abilities of Admitti in order to increase the stability of Tower clears.
Remeasurement Requirements
- Subject: All Admitti (including existing rank holders)
- Period: From May 1, 2039 to April 30, 2040
- Location: Designated Admitti Centers nationwide (additional notices by region to follow)
- Required Item: Previously issued Admitti registration certificate
※ After April 30, 2040, existing Admitti registration certificates will no longer be valid, and only newly issued registration certificates may be used.
All Admitti must complete remeasurement within the designated period, and failure to comply may result in the invalidation of ether rank and related qualifications.
This remeasurement is an essential measure for the protection of the rights of awakened Admitti and for social safety, so please be sure to cooperate within the deadline.
We deeply appreciate your cooperation for your safety and the development of the nation.
- Republic of Korea Alien Defense and Tower Management Agency
“Oho... Looks like it’s true.”
“This is going to be fun!”
The sixteen, who were certain to be S-rank, welcomed the quickly realized remeasurement and wanted to be measured at once.
The Tower Management Agency also allowed these S-rank Admitti to receive priority measurements.
The tests they took after flying over all at once in Suho’s octocopter produced surprisingly varied results.
Detailed ranks that even the individuals themselves had not known were revealed.
In Joshua’s case, who had been called Heaven Beyond Heaven, they thought he was S+ rank, but when measured, his result came out as S++ rank.
S++ rank was a rank beyond S-rank and nearly approaching SS-rank. Though none yet existed on Earth, it was considered the kind of superhuman closest to SS-rank.
“Wow... Heaven Beyond Heaven really is Heaven Beyond Heaven. As a battle mage, he’s world-class.”
Everyone applauded Joshua’s result, and Joshua awkwardly scratched his head as he stepped down from the testing platform.
In Lee Danbi’s case as well, they had thought she was just S-rank, but her measurement result came out as S+ rank.
“Unnie...! You were S+ rank? That’s amazing, unnie!”
Park Seoyeon rejoiced at Danbi’s result as if it were her own, and Danbi’s face also turned bright red under the shower of praise.
“Tsk...”
“Same as before.”
Thomas and Han Taeung came out as S-rank, just as they had originally known,
and the rest—Kang Hojin, Seo Yunjae, Park Seoyeon, Bjornsson, Mitchell, Karim, Emilia, Takeda, Diego, Zhang Wei, and Dubois—also came out as S-rank, just as each of them had known.
Aside from Joshua and Lee Danbi, the other person who surpassed S-rank was Katerina Ivanov of the assassin class, who received the same S+ rank as Danbi.
“Lucky you.”
“Wow... No wonder the power was different when you used your skills...”
Everyone admired her sincerely and spared no applause for Ivanov.
Now only Jeong Suho remained.
“Clan Leader, hurry up and get measured.”
“I’m really curious what our world’s only class captain is going to get.”
After trying to dodge this way and that, Suho was eventually pushed forward by everyone to the testing platform.
“I... I actually have a fear of needles...”
“Ah, come on, don’t say something so ridiculous.”
“Now, now, Clan Leader, let’s hurry up and go home.”
“There’s no need to be embarrassed. So what if you just come out as S-rank? Most of us stayed S-rank anyway.”
“No, on the contrary, even if you come out S++ rank, we won’t be surprised, so don’t worry and just hurry up and get tested.”
Each of them said something as they dragged Suho along.
It was a checkmate with no way out.
Fine, what was the big deal if his rank came out a little high?
It was not as if the fact that he was not an “Item Collector” but an “Immortal Crafter” would be exposed.
The newly developed ether measuring device only measured the amount of ether; it did not identify each person’s trait class.
Letting out a short sigh, Suho shut his eyes tight and held out his arm.
The staff member, extremely nervous in front of a dozen-plus S-ranks, injected the ether stabilization drug into Suho’s arm, and the measuring device detected the ether dwelling inside Suho and produced the result va...
...or should have, but huh?
“What? Why isn’t there any response?”
Diego, who had been watching the situation with his arms crossed, raised one eyebrow.
“Is it broken?”
“Come on... We only had one person left...”
The machine’s power was on perfectly fine, yet as they watched it sit there as if buffering endlessly, everyone sighed.
“Th... this can’t be...”
The staff member, face turning pale and even breaking out in a cold sweat, made a call somewhere, and the technical team and several other team members came rushing in.
“There’s nothing wrong.”
“All functions are operating normally.”
“Then why...”
It was then.
After a long time, the measuring device displayed a screen.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Measurement Error: Detected ether value exceeds system limits.
Ether wavelength has exceeded detection range.
An immeasurable ether wavelength has been detected, so rank display is impossible.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Beep— beep-beep— beeeep—
Suho’s identity once again fell into mystery.