As soon as this was said, the atmosphere in the conference room changed immediately. Everyone looked toward the source of the voice and saw that the person who asked the question was a neutral Beyond Grade A called Lucie, nicknamed ‘Ancient Snake’. He was a shapeshift-type Esper who occasionally worked as a mercenary for advanced civilizations. He also frequented the black market.

Gaud stared at him feeling shocked inside.

He had only ever used his ability a few times. He had only fought a little bit decades ago during the Kunde Race war and never sparred with anyone after becoming a Beyond Grade A. Only a few people in the dynasty should have known about his exact abilities. This information was tightly controlled and had yet to spread. He did not expect someone to find out his ability on his first day after joining the association…

Where did the information get leaked?

Gaud did not respond, so someone asked curiously, “Lucie, where did you get that information?”

“The black market, of course. I heard it coincidentally,” Lucie casually said.

“Is it reliable?” someone else asked.

“How would I know? I’m trying to find out now, aren’t I? Did none of you hear anything similar at all?” Lucie questioned.

Secret Master frowned and slowly said, “My subordinates acquired similar information too, but there’s no solid proof. There are hundreds of speculations like this on the black market. God knows who they came from. Most of them are random guesses anyway.”

Seeing this, a few more frequents of the black market also expressed their agreement, saying that they had all heard similar things, but none took it seriously.

Han Xiao watched from the side and heaved a sigh of relief in his mind.

He was indeed the one who anonymously placed the information about Gaud’s ability into the black market. With his Virtual Technology skills, he left no traces behind at all. From others’ perspective, this rumor looked like it appeared out of thin air and spread so quickly that no one could find the root of it. This kind of thing happened every day on the network.

The black-market network was a magical place. Countless information trades were carried on here every day. There was a lot of false information, but secrets would also appear occasionally. Sometimes, even the advanced civilizations had no idea how their secrets were leaked.

For example, a Super High Risk Esper Ability that only existed in theory attracted enough attention and spread very rapidly. Currently, all the organizations were using their own intelligence channels to search for information related to Gaud. Therefore, for someone like Secret Master, who frequented the black market, there was a high chance he would discover it.

However, there were way too many speculations and no solid proof. These guys would not ask Gaud directly just because of these rumors. Therefore, Han Xiao selected a few targets to specifically leak this information to, luring these guys to bring up this topic when everyone was present. Lucie was one of them.

He did not select these targets randomly. Others thought Lucie was a neutral Beyond Grade A, but the truth was that his identity was exposed in the later versions in his previous life as a secret member of a Super Star Cluster civilization just like Traveler. Han Xiao knew all about who he was.

Due to the sensitive competitive relationship between the three Universal Civilizations, Han Xiao had some confidence that he could lure the secret members of the Super Star Cluster civilizations in the association to deliberately stir things up. Even if that failed, he had backup plans.

The crowd discussed the rumours for a while before turning to look at Gaud with strong curiosity in their eyes.

“What’s your real ability?”

Looking at everyone’s curious expression, Gaud exhaled and slowly said, “Do any of you have a habit of announcing your secrets? Well, I don’t. You don’t have to be so curious. You’ll find out in the future.”

Lucie curled his lips and continued to question him. “We’re all association members. What’s so secretive about it? You’ve joined the association, but you won’t share any information with us. That’s not sincere at all. It’s unfair to us. Or is your ability really Energy Control?”

Hearing this, many people nodded in agreement.

In the Beyond Grade A circle, rookies were all treated this way. Everyone wanted to know about the rookie’s secrets and abilities so that if they had to fight the rookie, they would not be surprised by unknown abilities. Most Beyond Grade As had already walked down the same path.

Gaud’s eyelids twitched.

He totally understood that Lucie was basically a sh*t stirrer who wanted to force him to share his secrets.

“Don’t bother asking anymore. I won’t answer you.”

Gaud shook his head and did not deny it but avoided the question.

Keeping his ability a secret was only temporary, not permanent. Once he grew to a certain stage, the dynasty would no longer keep it a secret and would instead promote the fact that he was the first person ever in history to possess this Esper Ability to intimidate the Beyond Grade As of other civilizations.

Therefore, dynasty’s current demand of him was only not to directly answer any question about his ability but not lie about it, or the promotion they did in the future would not be as effective.

Furthermore, denying his own ability was not something someone as strong as him should do. It was bad for his reputation. If he damaged his image among the Beyond Grade As, making up for it would be much more troublesome than simply not answering and avoiding the questions.

“So, you’re not going to give us face?” Lucie narrowed his eyes. “Our real bodies aren’t here, otherwise all we’d have to do is spar with you, and your ability would no longer be a secret. Why are you being so secretive about it? Looks like the rumors are not complete nonsense. Your ability is probably really Energy Control. Even if it isn’t, it’s definitely very special. That’s why you’re keeping it a secret.”

“Think whatever you want.” Gaud did not want to argue with him anymore and looked away.

Seeing this, many people’s eyes flickered with some suspicion.

From the way they saw it, by not giving a direct answer, Gaud having the Energy Control Esper Ability seemed more trustworthy. If this was not his ability, he could have just denied it.

If Gaud really did have this overpowered Super High Risk Esper Ability…

Having thought of this, many people had all kinds of ideas.

This time, Han Xiao who had been watching smiled and said, “Alright, alright, if Gaud doesn’t want to say it, don’t force him. Today, we’re welcoming him as a new member after all. Don’t make the atmosphere so uptight.”

The best result would have been for Gaud to admit what his ability was, but there was nothing Han Xiao could do if Gaud was not willing to answer no matter what. However, this was within Han Xiao’s expectations too. As long as he spread the information of Gaud possibly having the ‘Energy Control’ ability to all the Beyond Grade As present, he would have achieved more than half of his goal regardless of whether Gaud admitted it or not.

Hearing that the vice president had spoken, the others moved on from this topic, and the atmosphere became tranquil again.

Gaud glanced at Han Xiao and saw that Han Xiao nodded at him. He responded with a smile and sighed in his mind.

He had never enjoyed the feeling of being helped; he was always the shared enemy of everyone. At this point, he had to admit that having someone speak for him really felt quite good.

The meeting was casual and relaxed. The main goal of it was to welcome the rookie while helping him to understand the purpose, principle, and the rules of the association, or help him to solve some problems. For example, they could provide support in helping him to grow his forces, lend him resources, assist in battles, and so on. However, since Gaud was a direct member of the dynasty, he did not need help in terms of resources.

The people chatted casually, pulled Gaud around, and asked him questions. The people on the dynasty’s side were the more active ones; the other people only occasionally said a few words.

As they were having a good time chatting, Han Xiao glanced at Manison, chuckled, and said casually, “Gaud, you’ve just joined the association and don’t know about many things, so I must remind you. You have to be careful of our dear Mechanic Emperor. He’s very interested in new and young members.”

“Oh? Why?”

Gaud turned and saw that Manison’s expression was calm, as if he was used to it.

Sun Hunter, who was on the side, laughed out loud and said, “Haha, Black Star is right. Manison has been insisting on not giving up the Felon technology. If you really have a Super High Risk Esper Ability, you must be careful. He might be interested in your fragile body and turn you into his puppet.”

“Humph, ridiculous.”

Manison closed his eyes and ignored them.

Seeing this, everyone burst into laughter. The room was filled with joy.

Black Star messing with the Mechanic Emperor was already a routine part of the meetings. Hearing Han Xiao say that, everyone only felt it was usual. They were used to it and did not suspect anything.

As time was scarce for everyone present, the welcome meeting ended very quickly. The people went offline one after another. Gaud stood up and returned to the dynasty fleet as well.

As soon as he returned to the room, Gaud received a communication request from the dynasty upper echelons that began with a question right away.

“We’ve heard about what happened during the Beyond Grade A Association meeting. You didn’t tell anyone your ability, did you?”

“Nope.” Gaud shook his head.

He was not surprised about how quickly the dynasty got the news. After all, there were many direct members of the dynasty in the association, so they were all sources of information for the dynasty.

“Good. We’ll investigate where the information got leaked. To think that your ability was so accurately exposed, there’s definitely something going on… The contents of today’s meeting will certainly pass on to the federation, the church, and some Super Star Cluster civilizations. They might be suspicious about your ability because of it. Come back as soon as possible. The Flickering World is too dangerous.”

“You’re saying that someone might try to kill me?” Gaud raised his brows.

“I don’t know about that. Times are different now than before. Because of the Beyond Grade A Association, as long as the rules are not broken, this kind of thing will most likely not happen… but it’s still better to be cautious.”

“Alright then,” Gaud casually replied and hung up the communication.

He did not feel any organization would attack him. The Flickering World was still in war now. The federation and the church would not attack their allies, and the Super Star Cluster civilization would not dare dispatch Beyond Grade As too due to fear of the three Universal Civilizations also sending their direct members into the war. Plus, the Beyond Grade A Association was another layer of insurance for him. He felt he was in a very safe situation.

Unlike the past, the association Black Star and the others founded became a privilege for all Beyond Grade As.

In the past, when Black Star did a lot of things, he got targeted and attacked by the federation and the church all the time. Now, however, the association guaranteed the safety of the Beyond Grade As, so this kind of situation would most likely not happen again.

Gaud benefited from it as well. Furthermore, his identity as a direct member of the dynasty was another layer of protection. He did not think anyone would have any motive to want to kill him—the risk of it far exceeded the reward.

“Now is such a good era for the Beyond Grade As…”

Gaud sighed and ordered the fleet to depart.

Dynasty spaceships took off one after another, entered outer space, and headed in the direction to leave the Flickering World.

At the same time, the content of the meeting got passed into different organizations by the various Beyond Grade As.

…

On the Federation of Light’s mother planet…

“An Esper who possibly possesses the Energy Control Esper Ability that only exists in theory?”

As the federation’s president, Bader, browsed the report sent by the direct Beyond Grade As, his expression changed slightly.

The chief doyen on the side tapped his cane and said with a deep voice, “This is just a guess. It might not be true, and it’s too early to take it seriously.”

“It’s a discovery at least,” Bader said. “This new Beyond Grade A of the dynasty is so secretive about everything. It doesn’t matter if his Esper Ability is Energy Control or not. He’s definitely not ordinary… They say the information got leaked from the black market. Tell the intelligence department to collect related information from the black market network and see if they can verify it.

“If this is true, the dynasty really got lucky. If they acquired such a Super with infinite potential, he will most certainly replace Clotti and become the National Pillar in the future… They already have Black Star, and now they have Gaud too. In terms of individual strength, the dynasty will be able to maintain an edge for hundreds of years. Sigh.”

The chief doyen frowned. “You’re not going to do anything, are you? It will cost us much more than it’ll benefit us.”

“Don’t worry. One Beyond Grade A isn’t important. I won’t destroy the great situation we’re in now just for such a trivial matter. The church will probably make the same decision too.” Bader waved and suddenly said, “But as for others… I don’t know.”

“Don’t think too much.” The chief doyen shook his head. “Times are different. Nothing will happen.”

Bader thought about it and nodded. “Hmm, you’re right. No one will do it, unless they’re an idiot.”