Chapter 95: Blue Star’s Three Great Nations! Entering the Secret Realm!
The two of them rode in Ye Ze’s personal hovercar.
They headed for East China Military District headquarters.
To be honest, compared with a hovercar, Ye Ze would have preferred riding the magic dragon. It would have been far more imposing...But the military district had explicitly forbidden the riding of flying mounts within any urban area outside of wartime, so he had no choice but to give up on the idea.
When they entered the military district, Ye Ze looked around and felt as though the whole place had entered a state of war readiness. The number of high-level experts present was also noticeably greater than before.
The two of them were brought into the office of the Chief Administrator of East China Region.
Compared with Wan Feipeng’s City Lord’s office, this one was far more clean and orderly, whether in the arrangement of the furniture or the condition of the desk.
When he saw the two of them come in, Wu Ming pointed at the black leather sofa.
“Sit first.”
“This Secret Realm has truly caught me by surprise, so I need to hear your opinions before anything else.”
Wu Ming did not waste time on formalities. He got straight to the point and handed Ye Ze and Liu Anran each an A4 sheet containing a brief introduction to the Secret Realm.
Ye Ze took his and looked it over, his expression changing in surprise.
“The first Myth-grade Secret Realm is actually fourth-rank?”
Secret Realms were somewhat different from Dungeons. A fourth-rank Secret Realm meant that any Class User below level 49 could enter.
The difficulty of the competition shot up dramatically!
And more than that, the Secret Realm itself was fourth-rank in difficulty.
For freshmen like them who were only first-rank, the danger posed by the Secret Realm alone was enough to be fatal!
No wonder even those hidden classes had not been given the qualification to come. Their strength simply did not match the challenge.
This had actually gone somewhat beyond Ye Ze’s expectations.
“I thought the first Myth-grade Secret Realm to appear would be a low-rank one.”
According to the contents of the expansion, Myth Revival was supposed to unfold gradually, so he had instinctively assumed that the difficulty would also rise step by step from low to high...
He had never expected a fourth-rank Secret Realm right from the start!
“That was what I thought too, but the Secret Realm doesn’t follow the rules!”
“Based on our judgment, all Myth-grade Secret Realms are completely random.”
Wu Ming smiled helplessly, then continued, “The reason I called the two of you here is because among the freshmen, only your abilities truly stand out.”
One was Liu Anran, a hidden spatial class, the first of its kind in decades, with uniquely unusual abilities.
The other was Ye Ze...He did not seem especially unusual, just extraordinarily strong.
“So I want to respect your wishes. Do the two of you want to enter a fourth-rank Secret Realm?”
Having said that, Wu Ming looked at the young man and woman before him.
The difficulty of a fourth-rank Secret Realm was bound to be high. More importantly, death inside a Secret Realm meant real death, so the danger to the two of them was enormous.
He added, “On top of that, half of the slots in this Secret Realm will be contested by Class Users from other countries.”
“You need to think carefully.”
Liu Anran instinctively turned her head and glanced at Ye Ze.
Ye Ze did not hesitate for even a second. “Of course I’m going!”
Secret Realms came in many types, but one thing never changed:
there would always be treasure rewards at the end!
And in a Myth-grade Secret Realm, there would undoubtedly be Myth-grade treasure!
That reason alone was enough for Ye Ze to refuse to miss it.
Hearing that, Liu Anran thought for a moment, then said decisively, “I’m going too!”
“Good!”
Wu Ming seemed to have expected that answer. “Give me twenty minutes, then we leave immediately!”
With that, Wu Ming left at once and headed for a conference room.
Ye Ze and Liu Anran had been spoken to separately, while everyone else had been waiting in the conference room.
It was not long before Ye Ze finally understood what Wu Ming had made them wait for...
A full eighteen top-tier Class Users of the third and fourth ranks had gathered together, most of them carrying the hard, murderous edge of soldiers.
Among all third- and fourth-rank Class Users in the entire nation, these people were all strong enough to rank near the top!
They were clearly the other members entering the Secret Realm.
Wu Ming distributed consumables, supplies, and support items to each of them. There was even Heaven-Restoring Herb among them.
“This mission is of great importance. Be extremely careful!”
“Understood!!”
After everyone answered in one firm voice, they were loaded into military armed helicopters and flown to a stretch of eastern wasteland at the border between nations.
But what surprised Ye Ze was that Class Users from other countries were already there, and they were even high-level experts!
The helicopters came to a stop.
A pale-faced sixth-rank Class User with blond hair and blue eyes walked over.
“Heh, so our key has finally arrived?”
“If you want to enter the Secret Realm, then get lost and go home.”
Tong Mo was here as well on China’s side. He swung his long spear, and the tip stopped less than half a meter from the other man’s head.
Ye Ze recognized him.
He was the sixth-rank Blood King of the Lionheart Kingdom.
After the arrival of the transcendent era, and with the pressure from the Fiends increasing day by day, Blue Star had now effectively split into three great nations...China, the Lionheart Kingdom, and the Freedom Empire.
Aside from those, most of the smaller nations had either been destroyed by the Fiends or forced to attach themselves to one of the three great powers.
In terms of strength, the three great nations were roughly equal, locked in a three-way balance, and they were by no means on friendly terms.
So when people saw a sixth-rank expert from the Lionheart Kingdom appear, some could not help asking in confusion, “There are really people from other countries coming into the Secret Realm too? Didn’t our China unlock this Secret Realm?”
One fair-skinned girl participating in the mission replied, “No one knows how the other two countries found out, but the moment the Myth-grade Secret Realm appeared, experts from both of them arrived very quickly!”
“A Myth-grade Secret Realm represents the world’s first Myth-grade item. It may even relate to the secret of advancing to the seventh rank, so the temptation is too great!”
“And since we can’t fight two nations at once, we had no choice but to split the Secret Realm slots with them.”
“But fortunately, because we hold the key, we still control half the slots and can send in twenty people!”
After hearing her explanation, someone cursed furiously, “What a bunch of bastards!”
“They’re like two damn hyenas!”
“So we have to represent China and beat the hell out of them inside the Secret Realm!”
At that moment, China already had four sixth-rank experts at the Secret Realm entrance.
Meanwhile, the Lionheart Kingdom and the Freedom Empire had each brought three or four sixth-rank experts as well, making the pressure in the area especially suffocating.
Wu Ming stepped forward. He could not even be bothered to negotiate with the other side and simply said, “Begin.”
With that, he walked to the entrance of the Myth-grade Secret Realm...It was an enormous crimson gate, with swirling streams of energy moving within it like a vortex.
Wu Ming took out the key and lightly touched it to the gate.
At the same time, the three great nations assembled at the entrance: China with twenty people, Lionheart with ten, and Freedom with ten.
Before the competition even began, a one-eyed man from the Freedom Empire suddenly burst into mocking laughter.
“Have you people in China run out of talent?”
“You actually brought two children? One of them isn’t even fully equipped!”
The one-eyed man stared at Ye Ze and Liu Anran.
Only then did the other Chinese participants notice the two of them, and many of them looked surprised. They had never expected the Chief Administrator to send high school students into the field!
It made no sense!
But just as someone was about to speak up in their defense, Ye Ze spoke first:
“So that means your gear is pretty good, then?”
The one-eyed man’s smile was full of ridicule. “In our Freedom Empire, of course our equipment is top-tier!”
That part was actually true. The Freedom Empire’s exploitation was extremely severe. The lower classes lived like slaves, let alone becoming Class Users.
All resources were concentrated on the upper-class Class Users, to the point that the elite were armed to the teeth.
When Ye Ze heard that, he smiled brightly.
“I’m really looking forward to meeting you in the Secret Realm.”
The one-eyed man froze for a moment, then sneered.
“That is, assuming you even get the chance to meet me!”
The moment he finished speaking, the Secret Realm opened.
Crimson vortex-light flickered with an indescribable aura.
It was a powerful presence that no one there had ever felt before.
This was Myth-grade!
“Magnificent! Truly magnificent power!” the Blood King of the Lionheart Kingdom exclaimed in admiration.
And at that very moment, while the others were still marveling in amazement, Ye Ze stepped forward without the slightest hesitation.
He was the first to enter the vortex...and the first to enter the Secret Realm!