Chapter 38: The Imperial Capital is as warm as spring, an exquisitely gentle trap!

"I wonder what that piece of trash Su Mu is doing right now."

Wang Kun sneered, clicking on Su Mu's avatar in the chat channel. It was grey; he must be offline.

"Hah, he couldn't have died already, could he? Why isn't his name on the casualty list?"

"A loser like him dares to fight me, Wang Kun? He’d better pray he dies in this tide; otherwise, once I upgrade to a Level 3 Lord, he will finally understand the difference between a genius and a fool."

Wang Kun muttered to himself, his eyes glued to the screen, once again lost in his own wild, delusional fantasies.

...

"So, you're saying that at my current level, I'm unable to apply to open a Gate of Light to transport residents to my territory?"

At this moment, Su Mu stared at the light screen before him, asking the question. He had just tried clicking the button to apply for population transport.

Normally, this was a privilege reserved for Level 2 Lords. However, Su Mu had already satisfied every other condition: he had slaughtered over 30,000 monsters, and his territory spanned over eighty miles. The only missing metric was population.

He thought, *Maybe it’ll go through if I try.*

"I am sorry, honorable Lord. Your application has been denied. The reason for the refusal is that every Lord must undergo the trial of the Dark Tide before they can upgrade to a Level 2 Lord."

"Only upon reaching Level 2 can a Gate of Light be opened for you. Please wait patiently."

The digital customer service agent on the screen answered Su Mu’s question in a monotone, rigid manner. No matter how much Su Mu pleaded or insisted that he had already met the requirements, the system remained immovable.

"Damn system."

Su Mu cursed bitterly. He clicked on the manual service option and left a message:

[New Lord Su Mu requests to open a population migration channel. Personal profile is as follows...]

...

In the southern part of the Dragon Kingdom’s central city, Su Xia was in a foul mood. She wasn't a Lord herself, but as a relative of a Level 11 Lord, she had secured a job as a consultant at the Military Information Management Department.

Her job was simple: approve or deny various Lord applications according to the rules. It was easy—just press a button.

She was in a bad mood today because she had bought a bottle of fake nail polish and been mocked by her colleagues. As for the war or the dark creatures, she didn't care, nor was she afraid. After all, she was in the heart of the Empire, guarded by the Four Holy Seats, and above those sat the two God Kings. As long as she didn't wander off to the edge of the Dark World, she was safer than anyone.

...

"So annoying. I hope no Lords send in any applications today, or I’ll reject every single one of them."

Su Xia sat at her workstation, looking disgruntled. When she opened her work computer, her willow-leaf eyebrows shot up in anger.

A damn Lord had actually sent an application, and a rookie at that—only Level 1. How dare he bother Miss Su Xia? He deserved to be ignored.

"Let's see what he's applying for."

Su Xia looked closer; it was an application for a population channel.

"It would be a miracle if I let you pass."

Su Xia sneered, about to press the reject button, when a majestic voice suddenly came from behind her:

"Miss Su Xia, please wait a moment. I think this young man named Su Mu is quite promising. Perhaps we could grant him a special exception and open the population channel ahead of schedule."

"Oh, Supervisor Song Yan, you're here? Is this kid a relative of yours?"

Looking at the man with thick eyebrows and large eyes, Su Xia stood up instinctively, feeling somewhat nervous.

Song Yan was a Level 2 supervisor at the Southwestern Intelligence Aggregation Center of the Dragon Kingdom’s military. He was her direct superior and was rumored to have once been a Level 8 Lord and a favored student of one of the Holy Seats. He had only taken a desk job after retiring due to injuries.

"Oh, of course not. I don't know Su Mu. I just think the kid shows potential, so I'm giving him some special care," Song Yan said nonchalantly. He paused, then suddenly lowered his voice. "You must have heard about the situation with Li Mei. I mean, we should just send that madwoman Li Mei and the ten thousand bio-androids she created to that kid Su Mu. It would save us the trouble."

"Understood."

A sharp glint flashed in Su Xia’s eyes; she immediately grasped her superior’s intent.

Li Mei—a mad female scientist.

The Empire had once held high hopes for her, providing vast resources in the expectation that she would create powerful weapons to fight the Dark World. And she had lived up to their expectations, creating miracle after miracle. The "Material Synthesis Card" was one of her masterpieces, involving complex spatial compression and ion-deconstruction technologies that few in the world understood.

The problem was that she had gone insane. She had become obsessed with synthesizing a "Super Soldier" using the blood of demons, angels, and humans.

She succeeded, creating those half-human, half-demon, half-immortal monsters. The Empire called them "Type-3 Humans."

Type-3 Humans were undeniably powerful; they were born with strength above the Platinum rank, and their power grew much faster than ordinary humans. With enough spirit stones, they could level up once every single night.

The issue was that the Type-3s went out of control. One night, they suddenly began slaughtering humans en masse. This was a scandal for the Empire, so it was never made public.

Of course, even Type-3s were no match for a powerful Level 11 Lord. One such Lord had led his army to quell the rebellion. Out of the 30,000 Type-3s Li Mei had created, over 20,000 were killed by that Lord.

Li Mei and the remaining 10,000 Type-3s were imprisoned in a special facility within the Southwestern Military District.

Given their crimes, they should have been executed long ago, but for some reason, the four Holy Seats of the military had delayed the approval—perhaps hoping she would continue to serve the Empire.

But this left the Southwestern Military District under immense pressure. That madwoman was capable of anything. Even with the prison's tight security, who would take the responsibility if she escaped?

Supervisor Song Yan’s intent was clear: get rid of this hot potato. Send them to the Dark World, and whether Li Mei lived or died would no longer be the Southwestern Military District’s concern.

However, Su Xia still felt suspicious. Why was Supervisor Song Yan so insistent on sending Li Mei and those dangerous Type-3s to a rookie Lord?

What if those Type-3s suddenly went berserk and started a massacre in that rookie's territory?

At the thought, Su Xia shivered.

*This kid Su Mu isn't Supervisor Song Yan’s relative... he’s his target.*

Su Xia looked at Song Yan with a hint of doubt.

Song Yan’s face turned as dark as a pot. He reprimanded her in a stern voice: "Don't ask what you shouldn't. Just do as I say."

"Yes!"

Su Xia trembled, hurriedly pressing the "Approve" button.

Song Yan left with a dark expression, muttering to himself, "Kid, it’s not that I, Song Yan, want to kill you, but there are people in the upper echelons of the Empire who want you dead. Whether this is a blessing or a curse depends on your own fate."