CHAPTER 29: R&D

Marcus acknowledged the others with a nod.

"I believe you’ve already been acquainted with Dr. Iris and Professor Elaine. I am Marcus Valen, Chairman of the Awakener Association, and this is Victoria Cross, our Vice Chairman."

Victoria gave a slight nod but remained silent, her expression calm and observing.

"I’ll be straight with you. Your appraisal skill is really valuable to the Association," the Chairman said.

Cipher observed him. The Chairman was really straightforward. Well, this was much easier to deal with than having political standoffs. Since the Chairman was being so direct, he would do the same.

"I’d like to open up my own branch in the Association," he said.

Everyone froze upon hearing his statement.

Selene looked at him in shock. This was even more straightforward than the Chairman. It hadn’t even been a week since he’d joined, and he was already jumping this far.

The Vice Chairman had a slight smile but remained silent.

"Go on," the Chairman spoke.

Cipher sighed in relief. It seemed the Chairman didn’t think his request was too outrageous.

"I don’t want to be a tool to be used by the organization," Cipher began. "Don’t misunderstand - I respect the Association for what it’s doing, and I’m also grateful to the association for saving me. But my goal isn’t to remain here being used by others. I want to serve the Association in my own way."

He leaned forward slightly. "When I went out there, I discovered multiple issues with the Gates. The information I gathered is going to save millions of people in the future. I want to continue doing that, researching what other information we have wrong about the gates. Staying here, locked away... it’s just reducing my usefulness to the organization."

The Chairman’s expression remained neutral. "I understand your perspective, but you can still save people by working here. I know you want to raid these gates, but you also need to realize your value. This time, you got lucky. If you were to die in a Gate, it would be a great loss for humanity."

Cipher smiled. "That’s where you’re wrong."

He met the Chairman’s gaze. "My class is not a support class. I’m an All Rounder. I’m not a healer that needs protection. My combat skills are solid - you can confirm this yourselves. Besides, the All Rounder class isn’t as broken as you might think."

They looked surprised at his words.

He continued, "First, the All Rounder class isn’t like the Magic Swordsman that increases stats with every level up. It actually gives me two stat points per level, but these are free points that I can assign freely."

He paused. "But assigning them isn’t their only use. These points are also used for acquiring and activating All Rounder skills in place of mana. Didn’t you wonder how I could use an S-rank skill with D-rank mana?"

The others nodded in understanding.

"This means I need to constantly level up - at least until I reach S-rank mana to be able to use the appraisal freely. I can’t just use my abilities willy-nilly, or I’ll never reach S-rank. I’d be spending all my skill points on appraisal and would have to keep grinding monsters to level up."

He took a breath. "That brings me to my other point. The All Rounder class has one other restriction - I need 100% contribution. That’s why it’s called All Rounder. I need to do everything myself."

Everyone listened intently.

"When I hunt with others, I still receive experience, but I don’t get the stat points upon leveling up."

Everyone looked shocked.

"This means I have to hunt and kill opponents by myself to level up and gain the points. Even if you took me to farm monsters just to use appraisal, it would be a waste. It would just raise my level with no real benefits."

Cipher looked at them, wondering if he’d gone too far with the restrictions. He had done this specifically to counter being dragged around by high level awakeners for exp farming. With such a restriction, he wouldn’t be able to learn the Heavenly Demon’s technique efficiently.

Everyone seemed deep in thought.

After some time, the Chairman let out a long sigh.

"But there’s no need to worry," Cipher quickly added. "I’m quite strong. As long as I get my own branch and free access to apocalypse worlds, I can kill monsters and gain points. I’ll save half for my advancement and save the other half for the Association.

As long as you come to my branch through official channels we’ll establish, you can request my services. Since I’m also part of the organization, I won’t charge for these services."

He observed their reactions. Internally, he was pleased.

It wasn’t anything to him, but to these people, he was essentially sacrificing his stats every time he helped them.

"As for any risk to me..." He glanced at Selene. "Captain Selene’s team and I get along quite well. Why don’t you have her and the team accompany me in raids? They can carry out their own training as well as watch over me. When I can’t win, they can just step in. Although I’ll lose the points for that level, I’ll just have to work extra hard next time."

Cipher then gazed at the Chairman, waiting for his response.

He was such a good guy, working out all the details for them. What were they still waiting for?

The Chairman observed him. The kid had worked out all his worries without him even having to say anything.

"What will be the name of your branch?" he asked.

"Research and Development Department. Or R&D for short," he said with a smile.

"Alright," the Chairman said. He turned to Selene. "Selene, you’re under the Research and Development branch from now on."

Selene bowed.

He then turned to Iris and Elaine. "You two, help him in establishing the new branch."

They nodded.

"Now then, let’s talk about your discoveries..."

...

A few hours later, Cipher and Selene finally left the meeting room.

They had been discussing Cipher’s discoveries for hours, and they still hadn’t come to a conclusion. The Chairman would have an official meeting at a later date to discuss with the other executives how to handle this situation.

After the meeting, Cipher had come to understand the situation much more. He’d always thought of those Association executives he saw on TV as just stupid idiots who sat around in a room talking in circles and getting nothing done. But when he was actually involved, he finally understood that the situation was much more complex than he’d thought.

Earth had become quite reliant on the Gates over the past three years, and bringing changes like these could complicate things. There was this danger to Gate exploration now, but they couldn’t just stop it outright. They had to think about the awakeners.

The Association was also still relatively young, and trying to make big moves like these could be seen as trying to restrict awakeners - which could strain the relations between the association and the awakeners.

They had decided to first do their own experiments, trying to see if they could replicate the situation in the Murim Gate in another Gate. This was quite risky, as people who could remember the cycles were extremely dangerous.

Cipher decided not to worry about it for now. At least he’d managed to get the Murim World locked down indefinitely. That was something.