Rumble
For a brief mont, Holak felt as if the flow of ti around him had abruptly
stalled.
The air froze.
The sounds vanished.
Even the ground beneath his feet seed to disappear.
It was as if the world had been suspended in an invisible void.
Holak felt completely weightless.
His body floated in a strange state, as if he were falling endlessly through empty space without gravity, without direction, without resistance. His limbs moved slightly, but there was nothing for them to push against.
It was the familiar sensation of planetary transfer.
Then suddenly-
Bam
Holak's body slamd heavily against solid ground again.
The impact was sharp, sudden, and unmistakable, as if gravity had suddenly rembered his existence and pulled him down all at once.
Dust rose slightly around his boots.
He steadied himself instinctively.
Then he imdiately looked upward, searching for sothing.
When he found it, a wide grin spread across his face and he raised his voice proudly.
"Well done, little spirit! Ahaha!"
The sky above the planet was still dark crimson, exactly as it had been before the transfer. But the lighting around him had changed dramatically.
The massive sun that had once dominated the sky was gone.
In its place there was only a faint, distant glow coming from far away, like a weak star illuminating the horizon.
And the sky that had been completely empty only monts earlier was now filled with countless planets and moons scattered across the heavens.
So were enormous.
So were distant points of light.
So drifted slowly across the sky like silent giants.
They had successfully arrived at their new orbital position within the galaxy. Ka
Holak reached down and pulled the nail from the ground with ease. The massive spike slid out smoothly before he rested it across his shoulder like a tool he had used thousands of tis before.
While looking up toward the sky, he spoke casually.
"Alright, alright. We've reached planet number 500 just like we agreed."
Then he stretched his shoulders slightly.
"Now I'll head back to Planet Dunara, and you prepare the coordinates for another 500 planets so we can move them during the next break."
Naturally, he was speaking to Kristan.
This had been their arrangent for years.
Holak would spend several years stationed near the gate, participating in the endless cycle of slaughter. Days filled with tearing apart beasts, cutting through monstrous flesh, and devouring fresh space beast at.
Then, once that period ended, he would spend several years traveling across the sector with Kristan.
Moving planets.
Relocating resources.
And occasionally supervising the training of newly recruited guards stationed throughout the worlds of the Young Belt.
It was a rotating cycle of war and logistics.
Fortunately for Holak, that portion of the cycle had ended today.
"...Hey, short Burton. Can you hear ?" Holak continued speaking while still looking upward when no response ca.
Silence.
"Hey! You crazy old man, are you listening?!" Holak turned to the side with an annoyed expression, scanning the area until he finally located Kristan a short distance away.
Then his brows imdiately furrowed.
"...What in the na of everything delicious are you doing?"
At that mont Kristan was kneeling on the ground, holding the Sun Seal Box
tightly with both hands.
He was examining it carefully from every angle.
Turning it over.
Inspecting the carvings.
Studying the faint patterns etched across its surface.
It looked as though he had just discovered the greatest treasure in the universe.
When Holak saw that scene, he began walking toward him with a slightly
knowing expression.
"...I really should do sothing about my magnificent scent," he muttered with mock seriousness. "It seems to attract unwanted attention!"
Then he extended his hand toward the box.
"Hand over my hamr case."
"Absurd!" Kristan shouted imdiately.
He stood up and stepped several paces backward while clutching the box tightly against his chest like soone protecting a priceless relic.
"For all these years I've been searching through cosmic records trying to find information about this box..." His eyes sparkled with excitent.
"It's a Sun Seal Box, and the markings engraved on it clearly indicate that it's fourth-tier!!" Then his voice rose even louder. "Do you know what that
ans?!"
"The last ti one of these boxes appeared in the universe was in the possession of a great demonic power... a monstrous entity that the Cosmic Elder himself destroyed tens of millions of years ago!!"
"And what does that have to do with anything?" Holak replied while continuing
to walk toward him casually. "Do you happen to have a sun you want to seal inside it, you crazy minister?"
"Hmph. As expected from an ignorant brute!" Kristan stepped back again, still
hugging the box tightly.
"This box is capable of containing a planet the size of Nihari inside it." His voice trembled slightly with excitent. "It can hold several planets the size of Jura." He raised the box higher. "It can even contain a small sun!!"
"..." Holak stopped walking. He stared at the tiny box for a mont. Then slowly
lifted his finger and pointed at it. "This thing?"
"Yes, this, you ignorant fool!" Kristan snapped angrily.
"Did it never occur to you to wonder why seventh-tier equipnt could be
placed inside this box... yet it cannot be stored inside a spatial ring?!" He lifted the box with trembling hands. His eyes were shining. "Can you even imagine what we could use this box to do?"
"..." Holak looked at the box, then at Kristan.
His expression slowly twisted into sothing between confusion and
suspicion.
"So," he said slowly, "you're going to stuff that family of nine-tailed foxes you're clearly obsessed with inside it and smuggle them away in secret?"
.....
Kristan lowered his gaze toward the box in his hands, one eyebrow lifting
slightly.
For a brief mont...
It genuinely looked like he was considering the possibility.
He imagined it. His eyes narrowed slightly as if calculating the logistics.
Then he suddenly looked back up at Holak with visible irritation. "The box cannot preserve life. Stop saying useless things!" he snapped.
Then he took a breath and continued, his voice shifting back into the calm tone
of soone explaining a monuntal discovery.
"A single person carrying this box could travel across all of our affiliated planets, collecting resources from them and delivering whatever materials they require... and then simply move on to the next world."
He lifted the box slightly in his hands.
"With this single object, the movent of raw materials would beco easier
than any force in history has ever experienced."
His voice grew more excited.
"And the transportation of weapons would beco even simpler."
His eyes widened dramatically.
"We could even transport entire fleets inside this box! Fleets!!"
Holak blinked.
Kristan, however, was already lost in his calculations.
He tapped his chin thoughtfully.
"Of course... we would still need to send the crews of those fleets to the
destination through other thods. Most likely through the great space gates." He sighed slightly. "That would cost a trendous amount of money." Then he suddenly raised a finger. "But even so, the strategic depth and sudden maneuverability this would give us in military operations would be extraordinary!"
His gaze returned to the box again. "In fact... we could restructure our entire
logistical system."
He began pacing slightly as he spoke. "We could dedicate all of our transport ships exclusively to operations within the galaxy itself, while reserving this box solely for collecting and transporting raw materials from our partners in the
Mid sector."
He pointed to the box again. "That alone would multiply the flow of raw resources several tis over. Industrial production would increase dramatically. And we would eliminate the enormous cost of sending ships across those vast distances!"
"Waaaaait!" Holak suddenly raised both hands in front of him as if trying to stop
an unstoppable avalanche of ideas. "You want... to take the Sun Seal Box?" he said slowly. "Stop daydreaming."
Then he lifted the enormous hamr and pointed it directly at Kristan. "Where
exactly do you expect to store this equipnt?" His voice rose in irritation. It's certainly not going up my buttocks!"
He waved the hamr around in frustration.
"Am I supposed to walk around everywhere waving seventh-tier planetary
equipnt in public?!"
"That is your problem."
Kristan calmly pulled the front of his trousers outward and shoved the box inside with completely lifeless eyes.
"The Sun Seal Box now belongs to the empire."
"......" Holak stared for several seconds.
Then he slowly looked downward toward the box's new location, Kristan's
crotch.
After that he raised his head and stared directly into Kristan's face with absolute seriousness.
"My friend..." He paused. "...that's disgusting."
"Before you leave for the Mid sector, I want you to take one last look at the
Imperial Guard training barracks," Kristan said calmly while ignoring the insult
entirely.
He had already begun walking toward the space gate that had been constructed earlier.
"Because I will be closing them soon."
Holak's expression imdiately changed. "You're going to close the Imperial
Guard training barracks?" he asked sharply, "Do you even understand what
you're doing?"
His tone turned serious. "Does the boss know about this?"
"It doesn't matter whether he knows or not," Kristan replied without slowing his
pace. "The final line he drew for us is approaching. And when that mont
arrives, it will most likely an a forced ascension for the Nihari Galaxy." Holak narrowed his eyes slightly.
"I don't know how he plans to achieve it," Kristan continued, "but it will happen as long as he intends it." He fell silent for a few seconds while walking. Then he spoke again. "Recruiting more Imperial Guards during this short period would be pointless. You wouldn't have enough ti to train them properly anyway, so what exactly would be the point of spending resources on them?"
He stopped briefly and looked toward the distant horizon. "...It would be better
to focus on the ones you already have. Invest your entire budget into strengthening them, then after Nihari's ascension, you can return to recruitnt if you wish."
He glanced back over his shoulder. "...Don't you already have one hundred and
thirty thousand candidates right now? And all of them are already in the advanced stages of training"
Holak waved his hand irritably, "Not even ten percent of them will succeed."
He knew Kristan was probably right.
The failure rate had always been brutal.
But still...
If the old guards didn't have new recruits to bully and terrorize during
training...
What were they supposed to do?
"A ten percent success rate from that number is more than enough," Kristan
replied calmly as he resud walking.
"...In fact," he added after a mont, "the veteran guards alone are already more
than enough."
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