My Talent's Name Is Generator

[Base 34]

The control chamber on the first floor of the tower was quiet.

Unlike the chaos that had existed here earlier, the room now carried a steady sense of order. The consoles that once belonged to Hollow Star administrators were active again, their screens glowing softly as streams of information moved across them. A few soldiers from the mixed force we had brought were here, monitoring the systems.

Outside the tower the base was already secured.

Demons, Ferans, and insectoids moved across the asteroid’s surface as they reinforced the perimeter and took control of the surrounding structures. The communication relay had been restored within minutes of our arrival, and the tower now carried the same signal as the rest of the network.

Base thirty-four belonged to us.

I leaned back slightly in the chair positioned near the central console, my attention shifting inward as I finally allowed myself a moment to review the changes that had accumulated during the assault.

The System window appeared in front of me.

My level rested at the very top of the current rank boundary.

Level 499.

For a moment my eyes lingered on the number.

Only a single step remained before the next threshold, yet that step felt far more significant than the hundreds that had come before it. The moment I crossed it, I would enter Saint rank. Even thinking about it carried a strange weight, as if the world itself was aware that I was standing at the edge of something larger.

Amun had given me several thresholds to reach, and once this Hollow Star operation was finished, I planned to start working toward them as quickly as possible.

I moved past the level notification and opened the merit window.

The number was far larger than the last time I had checked.

Almost fourteen million merit points.

A small smile appeared on my face.

Destroying Hollow Star’s network had proven to be extremely profitable.

Beside me, Steve was leaning back in his chair with one leg resting across the other, casually spinning a small dagger between his fingers while he watched the activity on one of the screens.

”Primus has still not received his quest for rank up from the System,” he commented.

I nodded. That did worry me. His levels were already at the peak, and yet nothing had appeared. I was not sure why. Was the System deliberately delaying it, or was it somehow connected to the incident with his wife, the one where she had stolen his fortune? I did not know if that situation could affect the System’s recognition, but the thought lingered in my mind.

”Yeah, it is worrying,” I said. ”We’ll need to figure it out and help him.”

”Do you have any plan?” he asked.

I shook my head slowly.

”Not yet. Let’s finish this first,” I said.

Steve nodded and leaned back again.

My eyes moved toward the console once more, studying the projections that floated above it. The network map of the seventy-two bases filled the display, each location now marked with the emblem of the Order of Absolute.

Hollow Star’s backbone had been broken.

Nearly ninety percent of their operations were gone in a single strike. Of course, we had not captured every individual member of their organization. Many of them would have been scattered across different worlds, operating under false identities or hiding inside cities and trade hubs across the galaxy. But that did not concern me much.

Organizations could survive the loss of people. They could not survive the loss of infrastructure.

And the bases were now ours. Still, they were simply sitting there at the moment.

Seventy-two strategic bases spread across the galaxy, connected by portals and communication networks, and currently they had only one real purpose, to prove that Hollow Star had been destroyed.

That was a waste. I leaned slightly forward and rested my arms on the console as I began thinking about how they could be used.

The first use was obvious.

The Eternals.

If they attempted another coordinated invasion through rifts or hidden gates, these bases could become forward observation points. Each one already had sensors, communication arrays, and teleportation networks. If we integrated them properly, they could form a information grid across large portions of the galaxy.

Another possibility was dealing with the other traitor organizations that still existed.

Hollow Star had not been the only group working against the Prime universe. There were others, smaller networks that thrived in the shadows. With this many bases spread across different sectors, we could monitor movements far more efficiently than before.

Then there was my own organization. The Order of Absolute was still small. Too small to hold seventy-two bases permanently. But these bases could become training grounds, supply depots, and staging areas. If I expanded the Order properly, the network could eventually turn into the backbone of our operations.

The rifts were another problem. If even a portion of these bases were positioned near major rift zones, we could deploy forces far faster than any conventional fleet.

And then there were the other races. Control of a network like this meant influence whether I wanted it or not.

I exhaled slowly.

There were too many possibilities. For now, however, the network had only one immediate role.

A foundation.

The rest could come later.

”Oh,” I muttered quietly as I felt a sudden disturbance ripple through the spatial structure outside the asteroid.

The sensation was subtle but unmistakable.

I stood up immediately.

”I think they are coming,” I said.

In the next instant I flashed out of the tower and appeared above it. One by one the others arrived beside me, their movements almost simultaneous as they followed the shift in my attention.

We hovered above the asteroid base and looked out into the surrounding void.

At first everything appeared completely normal. The dark expanse of space stretched endlessly around the drifting rock, the faint glow of distant stars reflecting off the surface of the asteroid and the structures built upon it.

But far ahead in the void, I could see it. A point in space where the structure of reality itself was beginning to distort. The location flickered slightly, as if something beneath the surface was trying to push through.

My laws were extremely sensitive at the moment, far more than they had ever been before, and the fluctuation stood out clearly to me.

Someone was opening a spatial gateway. If I wanted to, I could end it before it fully formed. With nothing more than a flick of my finger I could collapse that fragile point and shatter the gateway before it stabilized. Anyone attempting to cross through it would be lost within the broken layers of space.

But I did nothing.

I simply watched.

The point fluctuated again, and then the surrounding space rippled outward as the distortion expanded rapidly. Within seconds it formed a large rotating vortex.

The gateway stabilized.

And from within the swirling depths of the portal, two ships suddenly shot forward into open space. They moved quickly, their engines glowing faintly as they cleared the vortex and slowed in the void ahead of the asteroid.

Both ships were sleek and narrow in design, their surfaces covered in smooth gray armor plating that reflected the distant starlight.

One was larger, easily the size of a small fortress vessel. The other followed slightly behind it, smaller but still heavily built.

Across the hulls of both ships was the unmistakable emblem of the Naga race.