On the day of the meeting, Ian went to the meeting on a specially modified interstellar battleship. In fact, he could tear apart space single-handedly, thus demonstrating in a high-profile way that he could realize Multiverse's abnormal ability to travel through space with his personal hard power alone.
However, after carefully weighing the pros and cons, he believed that it would be foolish to prematurely expose his terrifying hard power to such a gathering of all villains. This might cause other mutants to instantly regard him as the biggest threat, and thus tacitly join forces to strangle him.
But he also knew what his fellow mutants were really like, so he deliberately chose a battleship equipped with advanced black technology to make a high-profile appearance in order to quietly show off his muscles.
After opening the portal, Ian jumped directly to the top-secret coordinate point given by the meeting. Soon, he found himself on a desolate and unknown planet.
The battleship's scanning system accurately fed back a piece of information: This place was once an "Earth", but for some unknown reason, all life on this planet was completely wiped out.
"Is this caused by a natural disaster, or is it the work of a crazy variant of me?" Ian murmured in a low voice. The next second, the mysterious Law of Time appeared in his eyes Blink. He went back in time and saw the sad truth about the earth's extinction - it was purely due to extreme bad luck. A huge meteorite hit the planet accurately, just like it did when the dinosaurs were wiped out, cleanly taking away all life.
Ian breathed a sigh of relief, and then focused his eyes on a majestic and huge building suspended in the earth's orbit. He almost instinctively let out a sarcastic sneer, because he could tell at a glance that the design of this space Citadel was a gross plagiarism from that [Citadel of Ricks Fortress]!
"I have to admit that in terms of certain aesthetics and bad tastes, these variations of mine are easy to see through."
He knew in his heart that if he were responsible for building the headquarters of Bones Council, he would shamelessly copy the perfect design plan. Without any hesitation, he controlled the battleship and sailed directly into this fake version of space Citadel.
Citadel has divided a huge exclusive area inside for attendees to land, and requires everyone to complete mandatory identity registration here.
Ian Looking at the registrar opposite who had a face similar to his own and was numbly entering information, a sense of absurdity and strange magic suddenly arose in his heart.
"Are you G-003?"
"That's right."
"Before officially entering the venue, you must cooperate to complete a small test."
"What test?"
"Simply check your rank."
"I see," Ian nodded with a half-smile, "So, has Council taken strict security measures to ensure that our sensitive personal data will not be maliciously leaked?"
"Privacy and security issues will be discussed in depth at the next plenary session." The variant codenamed A-765 replied formulaically. His impatient tone showed that this was the unknown number of times he had answered this stupid question. Ian followed the variant obediently to the test area without asking any more boring questions.
As soon as he stepped into the spacious testing hall, Ian's eyes instantly turned into a deep, high-dimensional purple.
"What's wrong?" A-765 saw him suddenly stop and asked warily.
"You'd better explain to me frankly, why is this crude and broken machine, while detecting the rank, still scanning my magic wavelength, soul band, and even brazenly detecting other high-dimensional energy systems hidden in my body?!" Ian asked coldly.
Upon hearing these words, A-765's expression changed instantly, and he hurriedly pressed several complex command codes on the tablet in his hand. Ian's perception was so keen that he immediately noticed that the machine had quietly turned off the hidden depth scanning functions. He sneered, walked into the test cabin without hesitation, and strode out a few seconds later.
"Eighth Tier position." A-765 looked at the data displayed on the screen, and his tone instantly became solemn. So far, among the thousands of registered variants, Council has only recorded seven terrifying existences that have reached the Eighth Tier position!
Although all variants are blindly confident in their future potential - especially after coming into contact with the huge Multiverse resource library of Council - being able to enter this level early at this stage is definitely an overwhelming advantage.
After all, apart from Council Founders who is rumored to have vaguely touched the threshold of Ninth Tier, Eighth Tier is already the top combat ceiling of the Council pyramid.
"Warmly welcome you to join, G-003. I wish you a pleasant time during your stay at Council." A-765's attitude took a 180-degree turn.
"Give me your kind words." Ian nodded lightly, turned and left the testing hall. It wasn't until his back completely disappeared at the end of the corridor that A-765 breathed a long sigh of relief, looked down at the other hidden information displayed on the tablet, and frowned tightly.
[Car Technology Rating: Highest Tier.]
As an old man of Council, A-765 knows very well what it means that the G-003 battleship is rated as "Highest Tier". Coupled with his terrifying hard power of Eighth Tier, all this only points to one answer:
"Another apex predator eyeing the throne of [Chairman Council], and definitely one of the most difficult ones among this group of monsters."
A-765 sighed helplessly, put these complicated thoughts behind, and continued to devote himself to the boring registration work. He was very self-aware and knew that he would never be able to get involved in the chairman's throne in his life. Therefore, the small goal he set for himself was to work hard to become the person in charge of the "Member File Management Department" of Council.
After passing through the long corridor, Ian officially entered the main venue of Council. As soon as he entered, a noisy and energetic unique atmosphere hit him.
Countless "Ian" with the same face are gathering here. Some of them are talking loudly, some are competing secretly, some are exchanging inspirations about magic and technology fiercely, and there are even a few bad-tempered guys who are already fighting in a remote corner.
Ian observed these variants of him calmly, especially when he saw those variants in the crowd who brought their wives to the meeting, his eyes became very subtle, even revealing a hint of indescribable complexity.
Unfortunately (or perhaps unsurprisingly), these variants are surprisingly consistent in their taste in choosing a partner.
The harem lineup surrounding them is almost the same as Ian's Prime Universe. The only difference is that they are not able to expand those "special members" from other universes through cross-dimensional plunder like Ian did.
'It seems that the inability to establish a single and deep exclusive relationship emotionally is not just my personal problem, but a common underlying genetic problem of all "Ian" in the entire Multiverse.'
Ian sighed self-deprecatingly in his heart, and then quickly adjusted himself, with a flawless fake smile, and blended into this group of "selves" like a fish in water.
There are still five full days before the formal general meeting is held. These five days of free movement are obviously a buffer period deliberately left by Council for all variants to test each other, collect intelligence, and prepare for the worst possible situation.
During these five days, Ian relied on his superb social skills and deliberately disguised affinity to come into contact with a large number of variants and established a huge temporary intelligence network. After returning to the lounge late every night, he would conduct in-depth cross-references and summaries of the massive amounts of intelligence he had collected.
So far, he has successfully teased out several distinct core camps or factions among this group of variants.
The first one on the list is undoubtedly [Arcane Empire Faction]. The members of this camp are all like Ian, who in their respective universes have embarked on a hegemonic route to conquer the world, establish the dictatorship Empire, and madly plunder and centralize all magical knowledge.
Although the Empires they established have various names, and may not all be called "Arcane Empire", their ideas of governance, expansion ambitions, and pathological desire for absolute power are simply carved out of the same mold.
According to Ian's secret assessment, this faction is currently the strongest and most dangerous criminal gang in Council. This group of tyrants who control a huge Empire has a greedy desire for population and resources engraved in their bones.
To them, any parallel timeline in Multiverse is just a new colony waiting to be conquered and enslaved by them.
Therefore, even though they have now reluctantly formed a loose alliance for the common interests, they still maintain a strong vigilance against each other, and everyone is secretly guarding against being stabbed in the back by other "selves".
The second camp that caught the attention of Ian is the creepy [Dark Lord Faction]. The variants of this group are all degenerates who have completely succumbed to their inner darkness and desires in their respective Fate Node.
In order to pursue the ultimate magical power, they did not hesitate to abandon the last trace of moral bottom line and humanity. Although some of them were forced to embark on this path of no return because they encountered extremely tragic turns of fate (such as losing loved ones), this does not change the fact that they are now a group of lunatics who will do whatever it takes to gain power, even destroying the world.
In the danger level assessment of Council, this camp is recognized as the second-largest threat after Imperial Faction. Even in some extreme and unscrupulous situations, the destructive power that this group of bottomless lunatics can cause far exceeds the Empire emperor who pays attention to strategy and interests.
The third faction is nicknamed [Principal Faction]. As the name suggests, this group of variants all mixed into the principals of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in their respective universes. They tried to subtly carry out educational reforms to Gently changing the entire old pattern of Wizarding World. Ian does have the evil taste of being a teacher in his heart, and this group of variants has brought this talent and hobby of teaching and educating people to the extreme.
On the surface, these guys seem to be a group of pacifists who have nothing to do with the world and have a relatively mild personality. They are the most harmless group among Council. However, Ian has a deep fear of them.
He knows "himself" too well, and he is deeply afraid that among this group of seemingly kind principals, a few ambitious lunatics will pop up, trying to build an interdimensional [Super Magic Academy] in the entire Multiverse, so as to control all parallel worlds. Their teachings and knowledge are spread crazily in the timeline! Once they take control of Multiverse's educational voice, their threat level is definitely no less than those Empire tyrants who like to use battleships and artillery to reason.
Of course, if this group of principals can restrain their rampant "educational greed" a little, they will definitely be the most perfect united front and alliance targets among Council at present.
The fourth camp is the one in the most embarrassing situation [Divinity Faction]. These Ians have actually embarked on a road to become gods by gathering their faith and igniting Divine Flames in their respective universes!
This is an extremely unpopular and unpopular faction, because the vast majority of Ian are staunch atheists at heart, and even fanatical anti-God and anti-religion fighters.
Therefore, very few people among Council are willing to openly admit that they have any involvement with this faction, and their reputation among the mutant community is even worse than those of the notorious Dark Lord.
The fifth camp is the one with endless potential [Alchemists' Alliance]. This group is formed by a group of people who are obsessed with creating various magic Divine Artifact, brewing the best Potions, and studying the variants of magic puppets. The Martial Arts Alliance has an extremely profound scientific research foundation and technical barriers. Ian concluded that this camp definitely has the strength to thrive in the future Council and become a hot topic that all forces are vying to win over.
The sixth and last mainstream camp is [Magitech Faction]. The research direction of this group of variants is more focused on climbing the modern technology tree and trying to find the ultimate answer to the perfect Fusion of technology and magic. However, due to conflicts in academic concepts and resource allocation, they seem to have irreconcilable sharp conflicts with the traditional Alchemists' Alliance - especially those old-school magic craftsmen.
In addition to these six mainstream factions, Council is also dotted with some shady small groups. For example, those who are full of food and wander around the universe purely for the pursuit of excitement [Multiverse Adventurers Association]; there are also some who are dedicated to developing card magic. (For example, the monster card that Susan is researching) [Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Chat Group] is composed of patients with advanced chuunibyou. Although these small groups also have considerable strength, they cannot compare with the six giants in terms of scale and influence.
'In the upcoming power reshuffle, I must not only seize the chair of [Council Chairman], which represents the highest power, by any means necessary, but I must also work secretly to seize the absolute leadership of [Alchemists' Alliance]! Same thing. At the same time, I also need to place enough informants in [Imperial Faction], [Principal Faction] and [Magitech Faction], and ensure that I have a decisive say in decision-making in these three camps!'
After thoroughly digesting all the information, Ian had already sketched out an extremely large and crazy power map in his mind. He took a deep breath, adjusted the expression on his face, and strode towards the formal plenary meeting hall where the fate of countless universes was about to be decided.