'Yeah, well, what did I expect? It's just a fact that I'm one of the weakest people here.'
'I'm no longer in a Tertiary World but in the Supreme World. If a normal person couldn't trade in Dollars, they would also find it quite hard to survive. I mean, technically, I could survive, but I don't just want to survive. I wanna live.'
'You need money to live, and the only way to get money is to work for it.'
Kyle really wasn't the biggest fan of signing another employment contract, but there was simply no way around it.
'In fact, I don't even know how this world works. Where are the powerful beasts? Which places are dangerous? Is there stuff like Skysand that just randomly shoots through space in waves, and you die if you're there at that point?'
'You need a certain amount of wealth and power to escape the wage cage, and I don't have that yet.'
'Well, at least this time, I'm actually signing this stuff of my own free will.'
"Thank you for answering my questions," Kyle said with a sigh. "I guess I will have to sign up with the Cult if I want to survive."
"Nobody forces you," she said.
"I know. I know," Kyle said. "Anyway, gotta go. Gotta enter the wage cage again."
The wolf-woman nodded. "When you have some Contribution Points, you can come back and look at the Laws on my planet."
Kyle nodded. "By the way, feel free to decline to answer if that question is too personal, but what Realm are you in?"
The wolf-woman's eyes narrowed, and Kyle's felt like he had entered a world of cold blood and steel.
This felt similar to the time Kyle had felt the Chief's true Momentum for the first time.
This was the pressure of somebody who was vastly superior to Kyle.
"Forget I asked," Kyle said nervously. "I'm just going to leave."
The wolf-woman took a deep breath as she tried to calm down.
"Do you feel how the Energy around me moves?" she asked.
"Eh, yeah," Kyle answered.
"A piece of advice. If you see anyone else whose Energy moves like this, never ask them about their Realm," she said with annoyance.
Kyle remembered that almost all of the powerful beings in the portal hall had Ether that moved like this.
At that moment, Kyle realized what the explanation was.
'The movement of their Ether feels mechanical because it probably is mechanical,' he thought. 'They are not using their own bodies to draw in the Ether but probably some kind of machine.'
'This can't be a natural way of advancing, and the only reason why someone wouldn't use a natural way in this universe is probably because…'
'They have failed.'
'They are like Nobodies, but of a higher Realm.'
'Their path to power is over.'
'Assuming I'm right, I understand why they would feel touchy about that subject. It's like asking someone in a wheelchair how fast they can run a mile.'
"Sorry for asking," Kyle said in an apologetic tone.
The wolf-woman didn't immediately answer.
"I am in the False Wisdom Fire Realm," she said. "It is the Seventh Realm."
Then, the wolf-woman just vanished.
She was so fast that Kyle hadn't even been able to see her move.
One moment she had been there, and the next, she was gone.
"Thanks," Kyle whispered.
Then, he quickly turned around and made his way back to Orchis.
'The Seventh Realm,' Kyle thought. 'As far as I remember, this means she would be on the relative power level of a Nobody in a Tertiary World but in a Secondary World.'
'Apparently, that's good enough to own a planet around these places.'
'She's probably on the level of a regular citizen or soldier for the Cult. She can have some property, but she's probably not very involved in the Cult's activities.'
'I mean, all the beings in the portal hall were also in the Fake Wisdom Fire Realm. They are probably useful workers.'
Kyle made his way back to Orchis, finishing the trip in far less time since Orchis' considerable gravity helped him.
'Huh, the planets actually aren't spinning,' Kyle realized.
He had been gone for a couple of hours, but the base was still in the same spot.
'Means I don't have to time my landing. That would suck.'
Eventually, Kyle landed at the base again.
"Look who's back," Yellow Head said with a sneer.
Apparently, the three of them were still there.
"Guess someone didn't have any money," Red Head said with a laugh.
Blue Head just sighed.
"Question," Kyle said, turning to them. "Is it rude to ask in what Realm someone is?"
Yellow Head and Red Head laughed, while Blue Head just looked at Kyle.
"You're from Earth, right?" Blue Head asked.
"Proud American citizen!" Kyle answered with a smile.
"Asking someone about their Realm is like asking them about their skin color," Blue Head said. "You don't need to ask because you can already see their Realm. Asking about it makes it seem like you're trying to insinuate something."
Kyle blinked a couple of times.
'I mean, yeah, I can see that. If I talked to a random black guy and asked him about his skin color, he would probably also think that I had a political angle to my question. I mean, I can see his skin color. Why would I ask about something like that? It's just a weird question to ask.'
"Yeah, well, I have not seen different skin colors yet, which is why I have to ask these questions to get a feel for them," Kyle said. "So, what Realm are you in?"
Red Head looked with interest at Kyle, while Yellow Head looked offended… as always.
"I'm an Advanced Primal," Blue Head said.
Yellow Head snorted in annoyance.
Meanwhile, Red Head just smirked. "I'm a Fused Primal."
Yellow Head didn't say anything.
Kyle remembered how that white-haired lady said that Kyle had chosen the Primal Enhancement and that it would stop being special in the Fifth Realm.
'So, the Primal Realm is the Fifth Realm, I guess, and those three are somewhere within that.'
Kyle looked at them and focused on their Ether.
The Ether was rapidly entering different parts of their bodies, as if it were being violently pulled in.
Surprisingly, the way the Ether entered their bodies was different from each other.
Almost all the Ether of Yellow Head entered through his four appendages.
Almost all the Ether of Blue Head entered through his torso.
Meanwhile, the Ether around Red Head was entering equally from all parts of his body.
"So, different question," Kyle said. "How do I sign up to join the Cult?"
Yellow Head snorted.
Red Head smiled like he had expected this to happen.
Blue Head didn't really show a reaction.
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