The Deep Space Union's Stance

A massive cruise ship sailed across the sea, bound for Solaris's pole: the Lahai-Roi region.

Just as Lu Guan grew tired of the ocean scenery and prepared to return to his room to cuddle with Dania, a hand patted him on the shoulder.

"Yo, bro, all alone?"

Lu Guan turned around and saw a white-haired man dressed like a host, wearing sunglasses and smiling at him.

"Aalto? What are you doing here?"

"Uh... huh?" Aalto looked a little stunned when Lu Guan identified him at their first meeting.

But his professionalism as an information broker allowed him to quickly regain control of his expression, and his previously flippant tone grew much more serious. "Looks like... you know a few things about me too..."

"Hmph↗↘~" After letting out a "hmph" just like President Kaiba's, Lu Guan sat on the railing. "Don't underestimate my information network!"

"Not only that, I also know your partner is a little pink-haired girl named Encore."

"Your resonance ability is..."

"Stop, stop, stop!" Aalto hurriedly interrupted Lu Guan, feeling that if he kept talking, he would expose everything about him.

"Although you already know my name, introductions are still necessary." Aalto took off his sunglasses and extended a hand to Lu Guan. "Nice to meet you. I'm Aalto, a guest of the Black Shores."

Lu Guan shook Aalto's hand and said with a smile, "Lu Guan, an ordinary student at Stardust Academy. An honor to meet you, Great Leader Aalto!"

"No, no, no... I don't deserve that!" Aalto waved his hands repeatedly. Lu Guan was someone who could speak directly with the Shorekeeper; how could a mere guest of the Black Shores deserve to be addressed that way by him?

"Anyway... let's get to the point." Lu Guan's smile faded, and his tone grew serious. "Why are you here?"

"As I said before, I'm an information broker." Aalto fiddled with the sunglasses in his hand as he spoke. "At this time, there's only one passenger ship traveling from Jinzhou to Lahai-Roi, so I just had to board at one of the earlier stops and wait."

"As for why, naturally, I'm here to extend an invitation."

With that, Aalto took out a black flower radiating resonance energy and offered it to Lu Guan.

"I don't plan to join the Black Shores, at least not now." Lu Guan shook his head and pushed the black flower back.

"That's not quite right." Aalto shook his head. "This black flower is both a token for members of the Black Shores and a key to reach the Black Shores."

"And... the Shorekeeper asked me to give it to you."

"Is that so..." Lu Guan took the black flower in his hand. "In that case, I'll accept it."

"But you went to all the trouble of boarding the cruise ship early to wait for me. Surely that wasn't the only reason?"

"That's right. It's a pleasure dealing with smart people." Aalto grinned. "Actually, my main purpose was to tell you about the situation in the Deep Space Union."

Lu Guan nodded, indicating that he was listening.

"The Deep Space Union is currently divided over how to deal with Dania. Some believe she's a threat, a ticking time bomb, and should be locked up or dealt with as soon as possible..."

He paused and watched for a change in Lu Guan's expression.

Lu Guan's expression remained unchanged. He closed his eyes slightly, then opened them again. "As expected. Please continue."

"Others believe she has great research value and should be sent to a research institute. Perhaps they could find a way to deal with Aleph-1 through her..."

"Go on... don't stop."

"Some also believe she's a spy for the Fractsidus and should be expelled from the academy..."

"Heh... compared to the first two, that sounds more like a form of protection." Lu Guan sneered and asked, "What's Huanglong's stance?"

"The Huanglong representative... believes that since Dania is stateless and currently in Jinzhou, Huanglong, she should be subject to Huanglong's laws..."

That muddied the waters completely. In any case, Huanglong's laws had no special provisions for Threnodian Resonators, so wouldn't the specifics be up to Huanglong's higher-ups?

"What about Teacher Lacerta? What did she say?"

"Principal Lacerta... opposed every proposal from the committee except the Huanglong representative's. She believes that Dania is currently a student and has violated neither school rules nor regional laws... so she should be allowed to continue studying at the academy..."

"And she also said... she believes her student would never deliberately do anything to harm the academy or even the entire Deep Space Union."

"...That's just like her." Lu Guan let out a long breath and looked north, toward the Royan Frostlands. "In her eyes, she's a teacher to her students first, and the academy's principal second..."

"She must have been under a lot of pressure these past two months, right?"

"The main dispute right now is whether Dania poses a threat," Aalto added. "And on that point, the Black Shores has absolute authority. If we can prove that Dania isn't actively aggressive and can freely control the Threnodian's power..."

"Then we can use that to win the support of some neutral committee members. After all, not every representative comes from the New Federation."

"How do you prove whether she's aggressive?" Lu Guan countered. "Even if the Black Shores provides an explanation, it won't be enough to change some people's prejudices."

"On a committee with such a high proportion of New Federation members, I'm afraid the help the Black Shores can offer is still very limited..."

Aalto was baffled by Lu Guan pouring cold water on his suggestion and spread his hands helplessly. "...Then that's all we can do."

"Benefits," Lu Guan said.

"Only benefits can drive those committee members to change their positions. The people who suggested researching Dania saw the value in her and wanted to claim the benefits for themselves."

"They call it a committee, but it's nothing more than a pack of jackals scrambling to snatch food and satisfy their greed. And the way they're going about it is downright ugly!"

Seeing that something was off about Lu Guan's expression, Aalto couldn't help feeling that something was terribly wrong. "What are you planning to do?"

"Don't misunderstand." Lu Guan suppressed the killing intent that had surfaced in his eyes. "For now, I still want to play by their rules... as long as they don't go too far, I'm willing to give up some benefits to feed them..."

"But if that's not enough to satisfy them... I don't mind..."

Just then, a piercing howl rang out across the sky. The cruise ship began to rock violently as a massive sea beast surfaced.

"There shouldn't be a Tacet Discord this huge in these waters!" Aalto's pupils contracted at the sight. He drew the gun at his waist and assumed a fighting stance.

He turned to look at Lu Guan, only to see that his expression was still calm, completely unruffled by the sudden appearance of the enormous Tacet Discord.

"Hey, Lu Guan! Stop spacing out. If we let the Tacet Discord keep attacking the ship, we'll all end up in the sea feeding the fish!"

Lu Guan shook his head. "It can't."

With that, he raised his right hand, his sleeves fluttering in the pressure of the wind kicked up by the sea beast, and chanted, "Nine ropes. Polarized light. Crow and declaration. Between front and back."

When he finished chanting, he flicked a finger.

"Hollow Technique: Purple!!!"

A towering beam of purple light shot from his finger. Its aura of destruction made the sea beast Tacet Discord instinctively afraid, and it roared as it tried to dodge, but its massive size had become a weakness.

Lu Guan's attack pierced the sea beast's belly, and shattered frequencies mixed with purple flames poured out. Even after taking the hit, the sea beast was not actually affected much.

"So it's a 'Desolation'..."

"You're unlucky. You just happened to run into me when I'm angry."

Lu Guan's voice was cold, tinged with anger.

Suddenly, his aura surged, and a deeply unsettling pressure began to spread outward from him.

Lu Guan claimed all the rewards in the system for reaching 20 favorability. His resonance ability development had now reached 80%.

And as mentioned before... if Lu Guan's resonance ability development and mastery fell out of balance, he would unleash an extremely terrifying burst of energy.

The last overflow had been 10%, and the Great Desolate Imprisoning Heavenly Finger it summoned had capsized the cruise ship Lu Guan had first traveled on...

And this time... it was 60%!!!

The next move would be insane.

Lu Guan slowly rose into the air, a golden warblade appearing in his hand as a gigantic golden manifestation of the Lightning-Lord materialized behind him.

It was Lightbringer, the ultimate of Jing Yuan, the Divine Foresight General and one of the Seven Arbiter-Generals of the Xianzhou Alliance, from the famous gacha game "12:3456"!

"Radiant spirit, heed my command."

"Strike-without mercy!"