Recruitment terms!

The Kings nodded one after another.

Void True King looked at Hu Yanbo, his heart filled with emotion.

As one of the mid-to-high-ranking officials in the Universe Mercenary Alliance responsible for elite training programs in several High-level Universe Countries, he normally dealt with core talents carefully cultivated by the alliance.

Strictly speaking, he was not directly responsible for recruiting unaffiliated Immortal Experts-that was the duty of the Human Power Development Bureau, to which King Qian Cang beside him belonged.

When he first admired Hu Yanbo's talent with souls, he had indeed considered bringing him into the Mercenary Alliance, but he had only planned to find an opportunity to speak with him after his cultivation in Chaos City ended.

Thus, he had set the matter of recruitment aside, thinking Hu Yanbo's name would not come up again for at least tens of thousands of years.

But he had never imagined this!

Forget twenty thousand years-not even two years had passed!

Hu Yanbo's activities in Chaos City had already prompted King Qian Cang to approach him, the man who had recommended Hu Yanbo, with questions.

He had reached High-level Marquis in just six thousand epochs, entirely on his own, without a teacher or any powerful backing.

With just a little cultivation, then, he had a very high chance of reaching King Rank within ten thousand epochs.

To be honest, that talent and potential would have been considered outstanding even in the foremost Core Secret Realms where humanity's five great powers cultivated their geniuses, such as the Virtual Universe Company's Primal Secret Region.

The innermost secret regions of the five great powers gathered the most extraordinary geniuses of the entire Human Race, and the resources poured into them were staggering.

Yet even so, many geniuses in those secret regions became Immortals only to remain trapped at the Marquis stage, unable to advance an inch for hundreds of millions of epochs.

The road to King Rank was incredibly difficult. Success could never be achieved simply by piling on resources.

If every genius cultivated in a Core Secret Realm could reach King Rank, how could the King-level Immortals accumulated by the Human Race over its long history number only a hundred thousand today?

For precisely that reason, any expert who demonstrated the potential to reach King Rank was worth the five great powers' utmost efforts to recruit.

Aside from adding another King Rank expert to the race, it also meant substantial merit and generous rewards for the senior officials responsible for recruiting experts.

The Human Race had a comprehensive incentive system.

If an official successfully recruited an expert with clear potential to reach King Rank, then once that expert truly advanced to King Rank, the recruiter would receive an enormous reward from the race-enough to exchange for many precious resources and opportunities to study secret techniques that even King Rank experts would covet.

Naturally, the person who recommended the recruit could share in a small portion of those rewards as well.

That was why several Kings from different powers had appeared here almost simultaneously today.

They represented not only the giants behind them, but also their own pursuit of a rare opportunity.

The brief silence was broken.

The figure shrouded in starlight spoke first, his voice as cold as ever. "Hu Yanbo, I formally invite you to join the Virtual Universe Company!"

"And once you join, I will do everything in my power to secure a Special King Rank Seed Training Contract for you from the Virtual Universe Company's Universal Headquarters!"

"In any ten thousand epochs, no more than ten Immortals receive this Special King Rank Seed Training Contract! Every one of them is an absolutely first-rate genius."

"Over the last five thousand epochs, the Virtual Universe Company has issued only three Special King Rank Seed Training Contracts, and all three recipients were geniuses who had previously become Immortals in the Primal Secret Region. If you agree, I will do everything in my power to secure one for you."

Listening to the being within the starlight, Hu Yanbo felt his heart burn with excitement. Although he did not know exactly what extraordinary resources and privileges the contract included, its name alone, along with the limit of "no more than ten in ten thousand epochs," was enough to show how precious it was.

It would have been far more exciting without the repeated phrase "I will do everything in my power to secure one for you."

Everything in his power?

The way that sounded... it seemed he couldn't approve the contract on the spot and still had to fight for it internally?

In other words, this seemingly incredibly generous invitation was only an expression of intent for now, with no guarantee?

In the past, faced with an olive branch from the Virtual Universe Company, the foremost of humanity's five giants, he would most likely have accepted in overwhelming excitement, even if it offered only a possibility.

After all, wandering the universe alone was not an easy life.

It seemed free, but in truth, danger and frustration were constant companions.

Immortal Gods actually occupied a rather awkward position in the vast universe.

They lacked the strength to live truly free and unrestrained, yet could easily run into the invisible webs woven by the great powers.

Hu Yanbo himself had experienced that feeling all too deeply.

Sometimes, he accidentally offended an Immortal Army Lord from a great power. Although that person was clearly no match for him, they could easily summon a teacher or senior at the Marquis Level, or even the King Level.

Or he finally discovered a treasure trove and fought for a treasure, only to find that his opponent, backed by a great power, possessed better treasures and stronger secret techniques. He could only retreat, helplessly watching the opportunity slip away.

There were even times when he, a Marquis Immortal, had to tread carefully around Immortal Army Lords cultivated as core members of the five great powers.

Their backing ran deep. Beating the junior really could bring out the senior, and those "seniors" were often so powerful that they inspired despair.

Unaffiliated wanderers without anyone to rely on understood most keenly that frustration of having a status that did not match their strength.

But now that he possessed the Prepayment System, his perspective had changed.

The system's ability to rapidly increase his strength meant he no longer needed an institutional platform as badly as before.

Of course, having one would be best, but Hu Yanbo would be even more satisfied if it could provide more resources.

After all, repayment missions were sometimes a disguised way of using resources.

Thus, if this so-called "special contract" was only a possibility, he would have to wait and see.

After all, for a High-level Marquis like him, there was actually little difference between joining the top-ranked Virtual Universe Company and joining the relatively lower-ranked Universe First Bank or Universe Galaxy Bank.

Those rankings were based only on the number of Universe Masters at the very top and overall strength, whereas the benefits he received were tangible.

Surely he could not accept the fewest benefits, yet swell with pride whenever he heard or thought that his faction was humanity's strongest, puffing out his chest as though he had become its owner at that very moment!

Hu Yanbo did not know whether others would be swept up in such feelings. He wanted to see what the other powers would offer.

The being within the starlight had barely finished speaking when the burly man to the west, carrying a massive axe on his back, spoke in a booming voice like pounding war drums. "Hmph! Starlight, your Virtual Universe Company has too many rules! You even have to fight back and forth over a contract. How indecisive!"

He fixed his burning gaze on Hu Yanbo, his tone frank and direct. "Hu Yanbo! Our Giant Axe Martial Arena doesn't bother with all those twists and turns! I, Rift-Splitting King, can't guarantee I'll get you one of those 'Special-grade King Rank Seed' contracts, but I can approve a Superior King Rank Seed training contract right now. That's absolutely guaranteed!"

He slapped his solid chest with a dull thud. "And as long as you agree, whenever you encounter a cultivation problem while serving under me, you can come ask me!"

"I, Rift-Splitting King, have some insights into Space Strangulation and Space Teleportation. They're more than enough to guide you! Even after you reach King Rank, you can still come to me if you hit a bottleneck!"

"Besides," he continued with a sweep of his large hand, "I can also apply for a chance for you to enter the Ancient War Stele and gain insights! It holds battle imprints at the Universe Venerable level, offering unimaginable benefits for comprehending laws and creating secret techniques! What do you think? Concrete enough for you?"

Then the Kings from the other powers spoke in succession. Their terms each had advantages and disadvantages, making them difficult to rank, but all seemed to offer considerably more than the Virtual Universe Company.

Hu Yanbo weighed his options.

Since the terms were more or less the same, then...