With all of their plans in place, it was time for Theodore and Eleanora to bid each other farewell. Now that their century together was over, both of them were left with a positive impression of their business partner.
Even though they knew that they had been fortunate to not have actually been put in any situation where their cooperation and 'trust' in each other was being tested, their smooth dealings should still not be taken for granted.
"Best of luck to you in the rounds to come, Theodore! I hope we can continue working together when we see each other again."
Having followed him to the side of the Teleportation Array, the violet-red haired beauty beamed at him radiantly. While they stemmed mostly from professional courtesy and her desire to keep them on good terms, her well-wishes were nonetheless unmistakably genuine.
"I feel the same way! It's been a pleasure, really. I'm aware that it's not necessary for me to say this, but let me do so anyway: Stay safe out there."
Nodding at her with a smile of his own, he was about to return to his Subordinates' side, but then he paused in his actions, shooting her a meaningful glance.
"Oh, and before I forget: I hope we can meet in person someday."
Giving her no chance to respond, accompanied by a bright light, he disappeared from view. Remaining here all on her own, Eleanora–or rather, her clone–showed a conflicted expression at first, before finally sighing and shaking her head helplessly.
'I had always suspected that he found out long ago, but I never dared to confirm it. Well, now I don't have to do that anymore. From the moment that I sparred with his two girlies, I knew that I might have exposed too many hints.'
On the bright side, except for Theodore, it would be nigh impossible for anyone else to easily find out about her secret. Not only had all of her other clones been perfected to an unreasonable extent, but solely this one modelled exactly after herself–and acting precisely as she would–could realistically pose a danger in this regard.
'I appeared a little too weak in the face of my sparring partners, even when considering that I was holding back significantly. It's really too difficult to perfectly mimic how my real self would act with merely a copied body at hand...'
Sighing to herself once more, she returned back to the meeting table and picked up a few of the snacks that still remained, stuffing herself with them in an effort to ease her frustration. Eventually, though, she couldn't help but show a small smile.
'Meeting him in person someday, huh? That... doesn't sound too bad. Let's wait and see.'
Back in his palace, Theodore accessed a specific group chat that he had created on Kiran's network ages ago. He himself, Vigdis, Cheong Suhyeon, Kjartan, Navya, Satoru, Xie Mei, Han Junqiao, Kiran, Conrad and Corinna were a part of it–practically all of the ones close to him plus those who held influential positions amongst his Subordinates.
There, he shared the exact Heavenly Dao notifications that he had got earlier today, alongside his specific agreements with Eleanora, keeping everyone informed. Even after he eventually made it back to his cultivation chamber, he still discussed these matters and answered any and all questions that came his way. Occasionally, he checked the leaderboards for a name that his people brought up, satisfying their curiosity.
'That should be all for now–time to get busy!'
Having let them all know what preparations still needed to be made, he left all of these matters to them. There were naturally many things that only he could do, which was what he now got around to occupying himself with.
Plenty of Array Disks with a wide variety of purposes soon piled up in his Storage Ring, consuming a not-insignificant amount of the resources that his people had been hoarding until today.
In this way, a couple of rather boring days flew by–then, it was time for the comparatively more exciting business at hand.
'A couple of days before I went to see Eleanora, I reaped the last wave of Fly Slaves and finished dealing with all of the resulting notifications. I now have a considerable amount of Attribute Points to freely allocate: approximately 82.7 quadrillion!'
Due to massively increasing the originally intended scale of the Fly Slave Breeding Project early on, he now had more than enough to improve his currently sole lifeline, the Regression Talent. To upgrade it from Legendary-grade to Mythical-grade, exactly one quadrillion Talent Energy was needed.
'I could be going on an upgrade spree, raising a fair few of my Talents to the Mythical-grade, but I'd rather not do that. Instead, I'll save up to get Coattail Ascension to the Transcendent-grade, which should cost 100 quadrillion Talent Energy. Still, I can spare another ten trillion to raise Improved Threat Perception to the Legendary-grade, too. That should suffice for now.'
Moments after he had made his decision, his now stronger Talents' details were displayed in front of him.
[ Regression (Mythical):
• After death, one's mind will reawaken in one's past body, at a previously specified point in time.
• There is no limit to the number of regressions.
• Up to three points in time, to which one can regress, can be set at once.
• If the point that was chosen lies further back in time than other available points, then those will disappear. ]
[ Improved Threat Perception (Legendary):
• Threat perception sensitivity: +9,900%
• Considerable chance of experiencing a prophetic vision of a danger one is about to encounter in the foreseeable future. ]
Gone was the previous limitation, that had shackled him to merely once specifying the point to which he would regress–and then never again, entirely unable to change it. Now, not only could he choose to adjust that point whenever he wished, he could even set multiple!
This gave him a lot of potential options. If he ran into a headache, then he was able to slowly but surely feel his way forward in the dark, 'saving' his progress at intervals–therefore he might as well refer to them as 'save points'. As long as he didn't mess up and end up with only unsafe situations to return to, he would be golden.
Currently, if he had to regress, then he would be sent all the way back to the beginning of the first round, after he had just met Xie Mei. But if he set up another save point, then he wouldn't lose as much 'progress' if he chose to return to that one instead. This choice would ultimately leave him with both the new save point, as well as the one back at the start.
But if it turned out that he had made the wrong decision, then he could always return back to the very beginning, practically permanently 'undoing' all of his choices from before. The 'downside' was that the save points which were a result of these would also be lost.
'I like it. I should 'save' another time before the next round starts. I can't see myself ever removing that initial save point, though–maybe one day, I'll need to take a very different approach. I want to at least keep this option on the table.'
With the first upgrade thoroughly inspected, his gaze fell upon his Improved Threat Perception Talent, which he had raised all the way to this point from Inferior-grade.
'... perhaps it's because I'm currently far too safe, or due to its grade being too low to spy on the future rounds of the Heavenly Succession... but I feel absolutely no difference. There was no danger before, and now, there are still no perils looming on the horizon.'
Shaking his head, he put this matter aside. His investments would pay off one day, he was sure of that. He shouldn't blame this Talent for being 'useless' when the challenging obstacles that he was forcing it to bash its head against were far above its pay grade.
'I've picked out a few more hidden gems like this one, which would gleam with impressive lustre if only they were of a higher grade. Should I feel them to be necessary, then I'll assign them the required Talent Energy. But for now, I want to primarily focus on reinforcing Coattail Ascension further. Eventually, it might give me the option of sharing Talents with my Subordinates–and that would be the most significant game changer!'
Admittedly, all of that was merely based upon his own deductions and theories–yet it did seem like a promising lead to follow. Even if he was met with disappointment in this regard, then at the very least, the Standard Attribute enhancements that everyone was already blessed with would become far more potent.
Thinking about his people, he recalled the various new hires that had joined his ranks during the past century. To him, none of them warranted especial notice or care, as at least compared to those who had submitted to him earlier, they were not as outstanding.
The highest that the Heavenly Dao had rated any of them was at B, with most of them being at B- or below. Still, there was a certain strength in numbers–especially considering that all of them got boosted by Coattail Ascension.
In total, 103 more Heaven's Chosen had become his Subordinates, with 63 of them bolstering the numbers of the guards and another 40 having decided to be maids. It had to be noted that there were now quite a few more women amongst his warriors–enough of them to form a whole squad which was led by Annis, their senior.
Those numbers might appear impressive, but considering how many worlds had been searched very thoroughly by his people, they were actually quite few. The vast majority of Heaven's Chosen had elected to stubbornly resist, donating him plenty of Talents in the process. None of them were especially great, but perhaps some of them could shine brighter one day, if he improved them.
'It's a bit of a shame that those from Named Families fled immediately upon realizing how outmatched they were. If I had led the troops myself, then a few of them might have chosen to join my ranks instead. But that would have derailed my cultivation efforts too much.'
Neither his people nor Eleanora ever came across another Pillar or Supreme Pillar descendant, showcasing just how unlikely it was for him to have ended up next to her and that one individual who had managed to slip through his net initially.
'But enough of that. Let me double-check everything–I don't want to accidentally forget something important.'
Shaking these distracting thoughts out of his head, he busied himself for another few days. Then, only one more remained.
"So, why have you asked all of us to gather here?"
A bit confused, Xie Mei glanced around her beloved's cultivation room, where everyone from the chat group Theodore had set up on Kiran's network was now assembled.
"It's simple. I'll designate this moment in time as one that I can return to in the event of my death. Naturally, it will be best if everyone of importance is made aware of this, and readily available to be contacted immediately. With all of you here, should something happen in the future, then we can all discuss it straight away."
Patiently explaining this matter to her, he made no attempt to hide the truth. Not only was it expected for someone like him to have many ways to cheat his permanent demise, but this was also his inner circle–trusting them was a rather reasonable choice. After all, nobody here could ever defy him, as they were his Subordinates.
It was still possible that they might accidentally leak the fact that he had this ability to rely on–for example, if they were caught by his foes and their souls' memories were ruthlessly combed through. But even for such eventualities, there were countermeasures that he would take in the not-too-distant future.
"I see! Go ahead, then. I'll be here if you need a hug!"
Smiling at him sweetly, Xie Mei stared at him curiously, no longer interrupting him. The quiet chatter amongst everyone else was also quickly dying down, until they were all waiting with bated breath. They knew that it was quite likely that 'someday', a future Theodore would need their current selves' help.
Shooting them all an appreciative gaze, the man in question sat down and closed his eyes, then carefully set up his second save point.
Yet immediately after, Cheong Suhyeon was the first to notice that something was amiss. His brows had furrowed and the previously calm and approachable aura that he had given off was now filled with caution and solemnity.
"... when did it happen?"
Rushing to his side, she took his hand in hers, whilst inquiring about the details. By now, even the densest amongst them could tell what had occurred. Their ears were perking up, ready to listen closely.
"Right after the second round began. I died immediately."
Confronted with this reality, even Theodore didn't know what to feel. Internally, he couldn't help but wonder to himself.
'... is me losing my life at the start of every round going to turn into a tradition?'