Chapter 46 – The Three Great Empires
The change from a fake fan to a genuine fan!
Big chested with brains, Sharmie had become the regional overlord of the CHF!
Although there were still discussions with the intention to mock, everyone still acknowledged Sharmie’s strength. Her adaptation had allowed her to turn an obvious loss into a trap, garnering her the win.
After all, to be prepared was half the victory.
Laura refused to watch Sharmie’s battle, but Anlor and Arnold Teuton both watched her match. They watched till they looked like they were about to cough up blood, which was something quite unlike their usual self.
In the past, Sharmie was inferior to Laura. Laura possessed her Explosive Flame Bear, which when combined with her special ability that she had honed at the same time, made her quite adept both in close and ranged combat. However, it was different now. Sharmie had made up for her shortcomings.
“It might be possible that boss got provoked.”
“That’s likely. This year, people from the various major academies have all put in their maximum efforts. My matches won’t even reach the top twenty rankings anymore.”
“It seems that no one rested during the holidays. Everyone was training hard for the CHF.”
“If we achieve a good result this time, it will have quite the effect for many years to come. That means that everyone is going to pay greater attention to it. Furthermore, it’s said that the trade alliance has prepared generous prizes, including several grandmaster rank rune weapons, rare and precious items and materials. There are even rumours going around saying that there will be soul beasts as well.”
“It seems like we really need to work a lot harder. If not, then boss would definitely destroy us. The rest of the guys should have returned by now. We have been training for quite a long time already.”
Arnold Teuton felt a bit emotional. With everyone around them improving, if they didn’t put in the effort and work harder, they would lose out to the others. It was unacceptable for the glory of Copperfield City to be tarnished by their hands.
Anlor went to earnestly rewatch the entire battle. It seems that he wasn’t the only one to have trained extremely hard during the holidays in order to develop techniques to overcome his flaws. It may look like an ordinary hammer strike, but it included many little intricacies of close combat. He feared that Sharmie’s clan had put in lots of effort to help her.
Changing one’s soul power emission to a close-combat type while simultaneously learning various close-combat techniques as well as honing one’s judgement wasn’t something to be done without experimentation. The precision and self-confidence Sharmie had exhibited during the match showed that she wasn’t a one-trick pony.
Having revealed abilities during her battle had sparked off a series of reactions, gaining her recognition amongst the high ranking personnel. Quite a few experts had appeared after hearing her name, even if they didn’t know who she was.
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The CHF took every heroic soul soldier of high standards very seriously. If one brought glory to the city they lived in, not only would the academy provide support and resources, but the Federation and Trade Alliance would also give out rewards and supply critical resources and items needed for casting the heroic soul. For those with the financial backing of their family, more resources would be made available to them. For those from the lower rungs of the social ladder, this would be the opportunity for them to change their destiny.
To put it bluntly, to those who have yet to cast their heroic soul, such situation would only just be a possibility. Only those who had cast their heroic soul would be able to change their destiny and head toward a brilliant future.
Those born and living within a city of the Federation were, undoubtedly, quite fortunate. At least, this was so for the humans living on this planet. In the distant empires, it was a completely different scene.
In the past, at a time when humans had yet to prosper and expand, mankind was harvesting resources from black holes. The highest echelons of mankind had considered the worst possible outcome and as a result, they decided to send a portion of the elites and rich people to the moon. Of course, at this time the moon could only hold a small number of people.
The larger portion of the population was centralized in Eurasia. This decision had been made after considering latitudinal and longitudinal factors. As such, Eurasia was chosen as the effects of earthquakes and tsunamis were minimal there. During this period of time, over fifty countries pooled together a vast amount of resources, wealth and power to connect several hundred cities. Its completion left many people very optimistic about their survival.
However, the superimposition of the black hole and dimensions caused the tectonic plates to shift violently. The Eurasia content received the most minimal of effects while the Oceania continent broke up into a group of scattered island chains as a result of the shift.
North America, South America, Africa. These continental plates also managed to stay intact during the violent shift. However, this tectonic shift caused a movement of the dimension’s magnetic field, causing it to inch closer and closer to Eurasia as the years go by. This was known as the New World movement and was one of the reasons for the increase in activities between the Freedom Federation and other empires over the last decade.
After the great shift had occurred, the areas abandoned by mankind didn’t waste away. Mankind relied on their combat prowess and understanding of soul power to persevere and survive. Although not all the tectonic plates had fallen apart, the degree of mutation in many areas had intensified.
For example, the humans and various lifeforms on the African plate had became immensely strong, especially the insects. Armies of ants were unstoppable everywhere they went, and they easily became the overlords of the continent. The jungles of the South American plate became a world of monsters. The shift had awakened the animalistic instincts of the wildlife, making them the dominant power. This also applied to the humans living there. Although they lacked adequate weapons and proper combat techniques, they survived by relying on their great physique.
As for the North American plate, one of the most magnificent areas of the old era, many remained there though a large portion of the population had migrated away. In the end, the remaining few had band together, resulting in the formation of the Kaiser Empire.
Although these other empires weren’t as united as that of the Freedom Federation, they possessed great military might. There were also many pockets of power scattered around the globe. Order had been completely destroyed, and survival became the number one goal in life.
The satellites in orbit hadn’t been affected by these changes. For the larger continents, this meant that some semblance of order was maintained through communications. Only the seas and oceans were seen as areas forbidden to humans.
Communications have always been properly preserved. Exchanges of personnel and materials was also re-established in the last fifty years. This mainly involved the exchange of rune transmission technology in order to close the gap between the continents. It was not surprising that this project required substantial amount of energy to pull off.
The Freedom Federation had helped each of the great powers within the three great continents to set up trade cities. They developed and gave Inca City to the Kaiser Empire, Dawning City to the Tutankhamun Empire of the African Continent, and Anaconda City to the Amazon Empire of South America. These cities were originally small cities of the Federation, but had experienced massive development due to the immense influx of trade with these empires over the last few years. Using knowledge and technology as a trade resource, the Freedom Federation had obtained massive amounts of rare and precious dimension materials from the three great empires.
In the eyes of the Freedom Federation, the three great empires were just supporting puppets, merely a bunch of blue collar savages of the new era.
After the disaster in Kaiser Empire and the loss of Inca City, their current trade and business city was Silla City.
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Kaiser Empire
A young man with short black hair watched a video on his skylink quietly. It was the match between Sharmie and Brad. This young man wasn’t observing the fight, however; rather, he paid close attention to the discussions within the gallery.
“The younger generations of the Freedom Federation can actually enjoy life to such a degree, treating combat as if it were a game…” The young man thought for a while, with a hint of a smile lingering at the corner of his mouth.
“The Federation is too rich, allowing them to enjoy the peace they have. The OP system brings power, but, at the same time, causes them to lose their vigilance. Yet, those bastards continue to wrestle away our resources every single day!”
Before the young man were five soldiers in army uniforms. They were of various ages. Some looked over 50 years of age, others around 40 years old. The youngest seemed to be just over 10 years old.