Answer

"Reke, when did you arrive on this planet? What is your purpose here? Can you tell me?"

With the official business concluded, Plus asked curiously.

"There's nothing I can't say. I arrived eight years ago. My assigned mission was to conquer this planet—or as we call it, 'Purification'."

Reke explained simply.

"What does 'Purification' mean?" Plus pressed.

"So-called purification means the extermination of every living thing on the planet."

As Reke finished speaking.

Plus immediately shuddered, his entire body turning cold. The laboratory's climate control system might as well have been broken; it couldn't provide him with a shred of warmth.

"Are... you... se... rious?" Plus asked, his face deathly pale, arms wrapped around himself, teeth chattering.

Seeing the kid scared out of his wits, Reke felt he'd gotten a small measure of revenge. He shrugged and replied, "That was the original mission, but I never had any intention of carrying it out."

"Phew!" Plus let out a breath and slumped onto the floor, speechless for a long time.

Reke wasn't in a hurry, watching Plus with a faint, amused smile.

Damn, he really was the smartest person on the planet. In less than five minutes, Plus stood back up, his complexion looking much better.

"Reke, can you tell me about things in the universe?"

"Sure. Actually, I don't know that much myself; you have to realize I left my home planet when I was only two."

After hearing this, Plus's curiosity overcame his recent fright, and he looked at Reke with eyes full of thirst for knowledge.

"The knowledge in my mind tells me that, first of all, planet rankings are divided into five levels. These levels are determined by factors like combat power and the level of civilization."

"There's no need for you to know about the highest A-rank and S-rank; let me tell you about the remaining levels."

"First is F-rank, which belongs to primitive or uncivilized planets. We usually send a single operative for these, deploying low-level warriors. The mission received is generally purification, followed by selling the planet off."

"Don't rush, let me finish."

Reke interrupted just as Plus opened his mouth to speak.

"C-rank: a maximum combat power of a few thousand or a certain level of developed civilization. For these planets, we usually dispatch a combat squad to suppress them, then sell the original inhabitants as slaves. The planet might be converted into a tourist destination or sold outright."

"B-rank: highly developed technology or a maximum combat power in the tens of thousands. These planets are attacked by elite warriors, and afterward, they might be used as a base or sold."

"What were you going to say? Go ahead now."

Reke asked after finishing his explanation in one breath.

"Our planet doesn't count as F-rank, does it?" Plus asked the question weighing on his heart.

"Damn it, just thinking about this makes me furious. Those idiots in the reconnaissance team, I don't know how they calculated it, but they classified your planet as F-rank. Don't let me see them again, or I'll make them vanish from the face of the earth."

Speaking of this issue, Reke ground his teeth in hatred and began to curse loudly.

Once he started, Reke couldn't stop. He exhausted every swear word he knew from both his lives, ranting for a full half-hour before finally stopping.

Plus hadn't expected such a small question to make Reke lose his composure. He didn't interrupt; although he didn't understand many of the words, he could tell they weren't pleasant.

"Phew!" After venting, Reke continued, "I can tell you for certain that your planet is at least B-rank, maybe even A-rank."

"Because the day I went out to retrieve my ship, I fought a monster with a combat power of 100,000. As for whether there are higher ones, I don't know yet, and I haven't encountered any."

"?"

Plus could understand the previous statements and the later ones individually, but when put together, he was confused. Why were there contradictions?

"I have a few questions."

"Go ahead."

"You arrived in a single-person ship, so doesn't that make you a low-level warrior?" Plus looked at Reke.

"That's right," Reke nodded in confirmation.

"And you said you fought a monster with 100,000 combat power a month ago. May I ask what 100,000 combat power means?"

"Don't you have energy detectors? Combat power is similar to that; 1 point of combat power is equivalent to 1 unit of your energy readings."

"What?" Plus was startled, a lingering fear washing over him.

He was very familiar with energy detectors. 20,000 was enough to destroy their planet. Now, a 100,000-level threat had suddenly appeared, meaning that a month ago, he had been at constant risk of annihilation.

Tell me, what normal person wouldn't be terrified after hearing that?

"Are all you low-level warriors this strong?"

"I'm an exception. Normally, a low-level warrior is around 800 to 1,200."

"That's a relief!" Plus patted his chest and let out a sigh.

"Then what is your current combat power? And what happened to the monster you fought last time?"

"I don't know the precise number right now, I can only estimate. I finished that monster off. But don't get too happy yet."

"That monster belongs to a species. Even though I took out the one with the highest combat power, there are still many with tens of thousands in combat power."

Plus didn't know how many times he'd been shocked by Reke today. He learned to be calm. Let it be destroyed; he didn't want to struggle anymore.

"Where are those monsters? How come even our own planet's people don't know about them?"

"This discovery is thirty thousand li away." Reke pointed toward the direction of the rocky mountain range.

"That's not surprising then; that area is a forbidden zone, and we've never known what's inside."

"I happen to have an energy detector here. Do you want to test your precise combat power?"

Reke shook his head and said, "I've tested it before; it explodes once it goes over 50,000."

Plus nodded thoughtfully, an idea forming in his mind that he prepared to act upon later.

"Do you have any other questions? If not, I'm leaving, and I'll come find you again in three months."

Reke checked the time; it was almost lunch, and he didn't want to waste any more time here, so he asked.

Plus shook his head and walked toward the exit, intending to see Reke off.

Just as they stepped out of the research institute, Reke stopped Plus, preparing to take flight.

"Wait, there's an anti-aircraft system in the sky. If you go by air, you'll trigger the alarm."

"Fine. You still need to rest well. There are twenty years left; if you keep going like you did this past month, I'm afraid you won't last the twenty years," Reke said meaningfully.

"Understood, it won't happen again. This past month was only because I had to dismantle the spaceship."

Plus explained.

Walking out of the main gate, Reke slowly hovered into the air. Just as he was about to fly back, he thought of something, stopped in mid-air, turned back to look at Plus, and asked curiously, "Can you make a Gravity Bracelet? The kind I can wear while eating and sleeping?"

"No. Even if such a thing existed, you wouldn't want to wear it while eating or sleeping; the food and the bed couldn't withstand that kind of gravity."

With his curiosity satisfied, Reke no longer lingered, nodded at Plus, and vanished into the sky.