Chapter 30: Rich
Chapter 30: Rich
"Why can't I?"
Hugh answered the facilitator in an arrogant tone. His eyes fired up in a haughty way, displaying his disdain for the show of power by the facilitator.
"It's impossible to reach that score."
The facilitator put more pressure on his domain trying to make Hugh crack and reveal his secrets. This result that he displayed will surely hit the news and the ears of the hegemons up top. All kinds of experiments were done to push the limits of mankind's talents yet they came at a dead end.
Having a Desire intensity of 200 was the ceiling every prodigy could achieve. It was the bare minimum score for someone that had an S-class talent. Once geniuses reached further advancements, discrepancies would show and they would be weeded out from the true geniuses.
For example, 100 people reached a Desire intensity of 200. In the next stage of advancement, only 90 people would reach a Desire intensity of 400, and the other ten would only reach 390. In the next stage of advancement, out of the 90 people, only 60 people would reach 600 Desire intensity and the others would have something lower.
In that example, it was assuming that 100 people would have a Desire intensity of 200 but in reality, there may be less than 100 S-class talent in a whole galaxy.
This example just goes to show how groundbreaking the result obtained by Hugh. The facilitator was generous enough to not split open Hugh's body for examination.
Hugh smiled as the pressure bore down on his whole body. He was confident enough here in the virtual world because he was completely anonymous from his real self. They cannot figure out his real identity by bypassing the security of the game and obtaining it from there because of the cyber protection law decreed by the CDA.
"Hmph...then they are just trash."
The facilitator went wide-eyed as he saw the arrogance in Hugh's eyes. He frequently dealt with geniuses all over the world and saw that they were naive youths. Hugh was no different in his eyes but there was a sense of mysteriousness in his confidence. The facilitator would have ignored it if not for the fact that Hugh reached a Desire intensity of 201.
"And you are not? Although you have reached 201 Desire intensity, it doesn't mean crap in front of someone in the fourth advancement."
Hugh looked up at the figure of the facilitator and found it to be larger than it should be. He blinked his eyes and it was just the same as before but his aura briefly showed the power of the facilitator through the intimidating pressure.
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Hugh felt a slight prick in his eyes, making him squint in the tense pressure. After he opened his eyes, the pressure was gone and the facilitator leaned back against his chair. The domain of pressure was retracted, giving him time to catch his breath.
"You do know that they will come after you, right?"
The facilitator crossed his arms and looked firmly at Hugh, anticipating his response.
"Yeah, but they can't do anything about it."
"True, but they will harass you until you tell them your secrets."
"Hmph....."
The facilitator sighed. He found Hugh to be too arrogant for his own good. He did not know the dangers of the greedy hegemons who would do whatever it took to further their pursuit of power. He used to be one of those people, used to.
"I'm Richard. You can call me Rich."
Rich reached out his hand for Hugh to take. Hugh was not comforted by the fact that Rich had a disarming smile, contrasting the serious look he displayed when showing his domain.
Hugh raised his right hand and grasped Rich's hand, completing the handshake. Hugh tightened his grip on the handshake, showing off his prowess to Rich. He tried as hard as he could but it felt like he was crushing an indestructible hand made of diamond.
Rich smiled as he put a little bit of pressure on Hugh's hand as he accepted the challenge.
*crack*
Hugh's hand cracked under the pressure, his bones broke and dislocated themselves. Hugh displayed no discomfort as he felt his hand get crushed in to a bloody pulp, to which Rich displayed a surprised reaction.
Hugh took his hand back from Rich's clutches and his right hand was now bent into a weird shape. Rich watched as the microscopical tears in Hugh's hand stitch itself back together. In normal human terms, it was a rate of regeneration that put modern science into shame.
From his perspective, Hugh had a Desire that multiplied his strength multiple times. The way that Hugh punched the punching bag only served to confirm his assumption. The regenerative healing he witnessed was way beyond someone who had a fighting Desire.
What Rich saw was a level of healing at which was comparable to a support type Desire. The shroud of mystery Hugh emitted got even muddled as Rich could not figure out anything from him.
Hugh retracted his hands and hid them in his pockets. He could feel the piercing stare that Rich was giving him like he could see through everything.
"When am I gonna get it?"
Hugh spoke to Rich, waking him up from his stupor. Rich was speechless as he looked at Hugh, confused at what Hugh was implying.
Hugh saw the confusion in the facilitator's eyes so he made his question clear to him.
"My reward for reaching the top 1."
Rich's haws were wide open, flustered at the simplicity of Hugh. Here he was, a once in a lifetime genius who reached a 201 Desire intensity while still being unadvanced, still worrying about some measly reward for reaching the top 1. He knew numerous corporations willing to give Hugh anything and everything he wanted for a tiny bit of information on how to reach the 200s as an unadvanced.
"Oh..ah....yeah. We'll give it to you."
Hugh took a big breath as he got confirmation that he would be getting the prize money. He was a little bit worried that the facilitator would not give him the money because of the complaints of some people. He was willing to fight for his reward since he followed the rules of the ranking facility. He was glad that he would be able to get the money with no fuss
Hugh looked at Rich with anticipation while Rich just stood there staring at Hugh.
"Aren't you going to get it?"
"Oh, it's going directly at your inventory."
Hugh opened the game's inventory and found 50,000CM on his virtual wallet. He was finally able to get enough points to exchange materials with. Once he obtains enough wood and steel, he would be able to complete his daily missions.
After getting what he wanted, Hugh sat up from his chair and turned to leave. This left Rich mute but he regained his composure and prevented Hugh from leaving.
"Wait!"
Hugh turned around and faced Rich, awaiting the reason why Rich wanted him to stay.
"What are you going to do about the people? They will revolt and spread hatred amongst people. Those rumors will only bring trouble to you."
Hugh looked at Rich's face and without missing a beat, he spoke with confidence.
"I'll deal with it somehow."
Rich sighed at the response he got. He put his hand on his forehead and shook it.
"This is why geniuses only last for a couple of years....give 10,000CM back and I'll make you anonymous."
Hugh was intrigued at the proposition. Although id the people outside caused him trouble, he would not shy away from dishing out retribution. If this problem could be solved with money, he would do it.
"Okay."
"Good choice. Although I can't make the witnesses forget about your actions or your face, I can prevent any recordings about this incident."
Hugh nodded his head and went out of the room.
As soon as Hugh closed the door, Rich spoke into the empty room.
"What do you think, Raechel?"
The wall to the side slid away and a feminine figure came out from the shadows. If Hugh could see the face of this woman, he would recognize it to be the receptionist back when he registered himself to test his Desire intensity.
"I scanned him and he's clean. He is truly an unadvanced kid. Even the machine showed no malfunctions, except for a slight deformation the shape of a knuckle."
Rich put his hand in his chin and made a mysterious face.
"Delete all the recordings here but leave one for me."
"Already done."
Rich leaned on his desk as he faced Raechel.
"Find out everything you can about that guy."