Unedited chapter. It will be edited soon.

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Dan nodded slowly toward Aster Mane, seeming to approve of him in some way. It was quick and effective work that eliminated all problems and revealed to the elders that he could be several steps ahead of them.

None of those on the sand expected there to be so many Aster Mane troops among the visitors. Each of these people's identities was carefully checked before they were even allowed to enter the academy grounds.

They underwent extensive and rigorous investigation into who they were, what they did, and many other things, in order to gain access to areas where students were present, but they turned out to be men from Aster Mane!

The academy had failed miserably this time. Or rather, Aster Mane was more prepared than expected.

Being able to circumvent the security at the academy's headquarters was something worthy of praise; perhaps only he could do it, thanks to his rigorous and perfect control of the places that specialized in creating false information.

Dan then looked back at the emperor's men and made a gesture with his hand.

"Do you want to fight me?" he asked, with a mocking chuckle. "Fine," he nodded.

"Very well," he repeated. "Several of my territories appear to have been attacked, some of my men are surely dead, others may be wounded... For now, I will not go to see them, but I assure you that every hair on their heads will be avenged," he declared with a menacing look, which disappeared shortly after.

In its place, a calm smile formed that showed none of the evil thoughts he had had before.

"You may proceed. Didn't you just mention something about ordering all the young people from the different rankings of the different academies to enter the tower so that the Battle of the Hierarchies could take place? I want to see it, I'm intrigued by this new generation," he said.

The emperor and his men were in shock, but Lady Loren came up beside them.

"This is our chance," she said suddenly.

"O-opportunity?" stammered the emperor.

"Yes," she declared and stared at him. "They don't have what it takes to stop us. We've been working for years for this, are you going to be intimidated?" she asked.

She couldn't reveal too much information, but she was sure that he and everyone else understood.

The problem was what it entailed.

Certainly, this was a golden opportunity that had presented itself to them. But it could also go wrong.

He looked at Lady Loren beside him.

A woman who had one of the highest statuses in the world. Even within the Asoist Theocracy, she was among those with the highest status.

Her strength was real, as were her status and the power of the church...

He nodded, filling himself with courage.

It was true. There was something important to do here.

Finally, he looked at Dan and then glanced at Robert Priestley, Miss Evergreen, the students...

"You have powerful backing," he said. "But this is a war between you and us. I hope Mr. Dan keeps his word not to get involved in this."

Dan didn't answer him; he didn't owe anyone an explanation.

Then he nodded to Miroc. "Go ahead. Do what you have to do."

Miroc swallowed hard, not wanting to move. Dan Lockward himself had come and had nine executioners with him. What the hell was he doing opposing that bunch of walking calamities?

The strongest man in the empire, accompanied by nine of the strongest!

"Are you going to move, or do you want me to do it?" asked the emperor forcefully.

Miroc was alarmed and quickly nodded. "I will, sir. Wait a moment."

He then commanded several teachers to use different special items and conjure up numerous different spells.

Suddenly, several silhouettes of different people appeared in front of them on the sand. They couldn't see the other side, but they could hear.

So the emperor spoke.

"The Battle of the Hierarchies will take place at this moment. Prepare everything in 15 minutes, just as we agreed before."

The silhouettes seemed to nod. "It shall be done, Emperor," they replied.

"One more thing," he said. "We have new witnesses."

The silhouettes remained silent, waiting for his words.

"Lord Aster Mane has recently joined us. He is interested in this, and he is accompanied by the Duke of Sackville."

Those silhouettes seemed to tremble for a brief moment. They couldn't believe that guy was showing up again, but they nodded.

"Finally, the main witness, Lord Dan Lockward, and the nine main executioners of the Lockward Clan."

This time, the silhouettes seemed unable to stop trembling continuously at what they were hearing.

"L-Lord Dan?" one of them asked.

"Yes. He is looking at you right now."

They trembled again and saluted, even though they couldn't see him.

"Greetings, Lord Dan."

Although Dan did not respond to the greeting, the emperor continued.

"Go back, he waved to you."

They had to nod and soon disappeared. Finally, the magic cast by those guys from before began to materialize into a huge special fabric when the item used to display those silhouettes was no longer in use.

Louis finally came out of his stupor.

"These past few weeks he's been gone, he's been regaining control..." Louis thought, watching his uncle from afar.

Not only that, but his personality today was completely different. He seemed like a new "Dan."

That was amazing.

He thought he had been very effective these past few months. He had leveled up quite a bit, reaching over 200 points in some of his stats, and had even achieved a significant increase in his magic, going from practically level 0 to level 4.

The short time he had been given made him think he was being extremely skilled and effective, but in front of his uncle, who seemed docile and who had practically surrendered on his first day here, it seemed that he still had to compete to reach that level of effectiveness.

When he thought that, he suddenly frowned.

"Wait," he thought. "I remember him telling me to leave because I could die here. He mentioned that things wouldn't be easy from now on... Was he preparing himself beforehand to give it his all, and my arrival here simply came at the perfect time?" he thought, puzzled.

In fact, that was very likely the case.

No one would change overnight, let alone such a drastic change. So it was very likely that he had always been that way, he just didn't show it to prevent his plan from being revealed.

He had heard more or less some of the information his uncle had given him before disappearing, about the plan of action he was taking. But now that he thought about it, wasn't almost everything he told him so that he would try to control the Lockward market again?

Considering that Lockward is quite small in terms of "market," and that Dan is from that family, which considers money to be meaningless, why would he have so many plans in place to control that small market?

"It was just a cover, right?" he wondered, and soon smiled.

"Hell, even I was fooled. So this guy is a good planner after all," he thought.

He sighed. Anyway, he was happy that his uncle had regained control of that place. Not because he was his uncle, but because of...

The 10,000 coins that had just been deposited into his account.

An amount he had never received before, something he thought would take him a couple of years to achieve... he had achieved it in just a few months. Things had been going so well recently that he felt something was wrong.

He hadn't had several months going so well even during his life on earth; something always happened to break that streak.

That's why he felt a little uneasy, but happy. Even if something bad was coming, his newly acquired 1,000 points told him that a beautiful path lay ahead.

He was finally able to look at the system, ignoring his surroundings because those guys were just working on nonsense that he had no idea about and didn't care about either.

The first thing he saw was the name "Divine Award." When he saw it appear in that mission, he thought it was just a saying, but now it seemed that wasn't the case.

He made up his mind to help his uncle now more than ever, with better plans than that.

After that, he looked at the next window in the system...

The biggest mission he had ever created from a bet had been completed.

[Congratulations. You have completed the mission: Bet 100 billion against Robert Priestley and take first place in the Ascended Tournament.]

[You have received 10,000 Coins.]

He smiled.

Wow.

It was all too good, wasn't it?

Creating a mission that would give him 10,000 coins cost him a bet where he could have lost a thousand of them. The bet was risky, but the reward was tremendous.

This was wonderful.

Another thousand stat points added.

"If I could add them all to my strength stat, I wonder how many people here could withstand a blow from me," he thought, smiling softly.

Maybe none... maybe he was overestimating himself. After level 100 and level 500, there are radical changes in how stats are obtained, he knows that, so he can't go around underestimating people.

Feeling happy, he received the reward, closed that system window, and looked at the next one...

[Hidden Missions: "Win the Ascended Tournament" and "Obtain 2,000 Stat Points at the same time" have been completed.]

[Given the sudden strengthening of the Host, the System believes that it meets the requirements for the Money God System Update to its Final Phase.]

[The System cannot interfere with the Host's decisions.]

[The System asks the Host for permission to proceed with the System Upgrade, which will come with major improvements in all aspects.]

[Do you accept?]

[Yes.] [No.]