Beyond the Zenith

Ironically, although the Azure Coalition’s research division had provided the initial basis for the inference that the Sharpies’ civilization was built on individual combat prowess and was not actually all that technologically advanced, they were also the ones who had the hardest time accepting it.

A debate had already been ongoing for some time in a relevant research office, with opinions varying widely.

“Personally, I don’t think it’s right to say that their technology is not that advanced. The truth is simply that their tech tree doesn’t follow the trajectory we’d assume based on our own development.” A young woman, looking to be around eighteen or nineteen, smiled brightly at the others, as if making casual conversation rather than arguing a point.

Having said her piece, she bit into the apple in her hand with a crisp, loud crunch. Then, lowering her head, she flipped through a white-cover document on the desk as she munched away.

“When Qiaoqiao puts it that way... she’s right,” an older woman chimed in. “Measuring the technological progress of different civilizations along the same axis is a truly laughable kind of arrogance. It’s only ‘technology’ as we understand it. Assuming every civilization uses hot weapons, for example, is naïve.”[1]

Another colleague made an agreeing sound. “If their civilization ‌had access to source energy and dead iron from the beginning, they might never have reason to use petroleum, whether it exists on their planet or not. At the very least, they’d lag behind us in petroleum-based technology. That’s perfectly normal.”

“Exactly. Source energy and dead iron are... truly incredible,” the young girl murmured, keeping her head down as she spoke. “They even built their spindle-shaped spacecrafts using those two as material and power source. Meanwhile, we still haven’t found many ways to use source energy.”

That civilization’s technological development had been concentrated almost entirely on developing and utilizing source energy and dead iron.

Following a similar line of logic, if humans had, for instance, been able to cultivate spirit qi to fly through the skies and burrow through the earth since time immemorial, then the tech tree and the shape of human civilization would look entirely different.

“If their entire population can wield source energy...” The girl paused in brief thought. “Then it wouldn’t be wrong to say that their civilization is built on individual combat prowess. The probability of them developing a slave-based hierarchy, with extreme martial force governing each layer, would be very high.”

The discussion seemed to be heading toward deeper insights, and everyone in the group was engaged.

Suddenly, the girl let out a little gasp, the half-bitten apple freezing before her lips as her eyes locked on the last pages of the open document. “Whoa... The new combat personnel... He’s cute.”

Standing, she walked straight to the office door.

“What? What cute guy? Yaoyao, let me see!” the older woman called out with a laugh from behind her.

Xin Yaoqiao turned back, hesitating briefly. She wanted to show the older woman and discuss the matter together, but unfortunately, she couldn’t.

“Hey, it’s work hours. Where are you going, Huanghuang?” another colleague asked with a smile as she passed through the door.[2]

“I... have something to do. Official business.” Xin Yaoqiao, the girl with many nicknames, waved over her shoulder and left the office with a little skip in her step.

She was far more upbeat than most would expect of a genius who had grown up in an Azure Coalition research family. At sixteen, she had been secretly placed in the prospective tier and joined the linguistics division of the Azure Coalition’s Oriental Republic research institute as a linguist that same year. Knowing this, it wouldn’t have been surprising if she had a rigid, even aloof, demeanor, but the reality couldn’t have been further from the truth.

In a way, Xin Yaoqiao was out of touch. Her colleagues had initially chalked it up to a generational gap, only to later realize that she didn’t fit in among her own peers either.

Xin Yaoqiao walked briskly toward the exit of the office area, heading for her home in the research institute’s residential district.

The white-cover document in her hand was, in fact, the latest update to the prospective tier’s file.

Others in the tier only knew about their own placement and not of the others in it. Xin Yaoqiao was the sole exception. As a liaison officer of the prospective tier, she had access to the files and information of all the other member.[3]

The document swung unassumingly in Xin Yaoqiao’s hand as she walked. Even his ID photo is handsome. Hm, and he’s combat personnel too. Super S-rank sensitivity, but A-rank integration. That’s a bit odd, but not important. At least we finally have someone who can fight.

The original files of the major tiers stored at the Oriental Republic’s Azure Coalition headquarters looked far more important than the white-cover document in her hand. At the very least, they featured leather covers with gold trim and text annotations.

The first tier was a combat tier, with a cover that read First Tier - Super Combatants. Top Secret.

The second tier was also a combat tier. Second Tier - Elite Combatants.

By comparison, the annotation for the prospective tier was much longer. Prospective Tier - The uncertain and unsupported, but with the hope of an unexpected victory.

This annotation was difficult for most to grasp, but the number of people who had read it and needed to understand it was small.

The people in this tier were the type that nobody dared to expect anything of, yet held the potential for greatness.

For instance, the genius from the Refusers. Nobody dared to expect anything of him, but there was always the possibility that he would one day produce a genius-level invention that could mislead and lure the alien civilization to another star system.

The Blacksmith was another example. There was always the possibility that he would one day achieve a breakthrough in using dead iron and the improvement of their devices, leapfrogging the Coalition’s combat strength.

Even Xin Yaoqiao, as a linguist in the prospective tier, held the potential to achieve greatness through dialogue. If she saw a breakthrough in the Sharpies’ language, perhaps she could help them reconcile with the alien civilization, deceive them, or even resolve some misunderstanding and end the war peacefully.

There were six other people besides them.

As for Han Qingyu, the most recent addition, he was probably a special case. Some even suspected he had been added just to round out their numbers, or because Chen Bu’e was petty enough to feel slighted that the prospective tier didn’t include anyone from the Only Witness Legion.

Han Qingyu was the only combat personnel in this tier.

The stated reason for his inclusion was flimsy: that the combination of super S-rank sensitivity and A-rank integration on the same person was unprecedented and couldn’t be explained.

So he, too, was treated as an unknown variable.

1. Hot weapons are firearms and explosives that use fire or chemical reactions to shoot, while cold weapons are hand-held tools like swords and knives that do not use fire or explosions. ☜

2. 摇晃 (yáo huàng) means to sway/wobble. Xin Yaoqiao’s nickname is Yaoyao, so Huanghuang is an extrapolation of that. ☜

3. The raws originally say this: “Everyone within the prospective tier knew about each other, except for the newly added combat personnel, as he had not yet been informed. Of course, that awareness remained limited to knowledge of each other’s existence for now.” However, as later chapters retcon this entirely, a paragraph from chapter 64 has been copied in to replace it, so if these lines give you deja vu later, you know why ☜