Star Rank Hunter

Chapter 309: The Academia Storm

The unidentifiable fleet didn’t try to negotiate with Cillin. They immediately opened fire the moment they got in range.

However, Cillin’s spaceplane turned invisible before they could fire their guns. They couldn’t find him with their eyes or their scanner.

They activated their cannons and fired at random in hopes of catching the invisible spaceplane somehow, but the shots either hit nothing or a stray space rock.

A short time later, a terrible explosion suddenly exploded in the middle of the fleet, followed by a second and a third. No one had any idea what the hell was going on, and it wasn’t long before it was all over.

Things calmed down again after the fleet was completely annihilated. Cillin’s spaceplane appeared at the distance, but that wasn’t all. Several robots and a small starship had appeared as well.

The robots first reported the completion of their mission to Cillin. Then, they returned to the starship and went away to execute a new mission. The same scene had repeated itself multiple times since the presentation, so it was nothing new to him.

Not long after the robot left, he received a communication request from Xi Kai.

“What are you planning, Cillin?”

Instead of answering, Cillin countered with his own question, “Have you made up your mind about last time yet?”

Xi Kai paused for a moment before replying, “Give me a bit more time.”

“Sure.” Cillin didn’t care that Xi Kai was dragging out his response. He had his own plans to carry out.

“Do you need anymore robots?”

“No, this is enough for now.”

Xi Kai let out a sigh. “There are people in Black Viper who are dissatisfied with what you did, Of course, their objections don’t matter much, but think before you act next time, okay?”

Cillin smiled. “Is that a warning I’m hearing?”

“Of course not, you’e one of the three heads of Black Viper right now. Just do what you think is right. If you need anymore robots, you are free to contact me anytime you want.”

“Sure.”

Cillin cut off the communication tell and sank into his chair, thinking.

On the shelf next to him, a resting Wheeze opened its eyes and said, “That guy sure is taking his time.”

“It’s fine, we have other things to do anyway.” Cillin was never one to hedge all his eggs in one basket, especially when it was something as important as finding a way to return to GAL space.

Those restless pests should be about done, right? Cillin looked at the name list in his hands as plotted his next move.

Before Cillin made his presentation, he had spoken to Guan Feng about a new project. He wanted to create an online forum where academics could converse with one another.

There were all kinds of online forums in the empire, and of course there were academic types as well. But the online forum Cillin planned to build was different from them. For starters, he didn’t plan to impose too many restrictions on it, meaning that anyone—the noble or the commoner, the professor or the nobody—could take part in it. Everyone was free to speak and make their voice heard as long as they were proficient in the area they spoke of, no matter the identity. Naturally, the personal information of the participants would be kept a tight secret.

It didn’t take long for the project to get approved. In fact, the decision makers of the RAS approved it purely because Guan Feng had asked them to, not because they thought that the plan had any merit at all, at least at the beginning. Cillin was a member of the RAS now, so a plan like this go through them first before it was carried out. It would be a rule violation otherwise.

Besides that, Cillin had also requested for the emperor himself to give his online forum the stamp of approval. He succeeded. This meant that anyone who entered the login page of the online forum would be greeted immediately by the unforgettable stamp of approval and authority by the RAS and the Mist Bodhisattva Royal Family.

Right now, the academia of the empire needed a cause of motivation and cohesion. Unlike Neo and his kin, they were easily affected by outside influence, and they didn’t get to enjoy the protection of Black Viper. Therefore, the goal of the forum was to give these people, including the usually anonymous denizens of Black Viper a platform to make their voices heard.

The forum was currently still in construction. The main body would be completed by him and Wheeze, while Xi Kai and Black Viper would provide support. For the last period of time, Cillin had left the repelling of the assassins and the interceptors to the robots and the special forces completely so they could focus on the tasks at hand, and so far they had done a fantastic job. Not a single one of these troublemakers were able to do anything to them at all.

Tousen thought that Cillin was now a blade in the hands of the royal family. He believed that the royal family was using Cillin to do the things they couldn’t normally do and reorganize the academia. What he didn’t know was that Cillin was also borrowing the royal family and the RAS’ fame and power to accomplish his own goals.

Wheeze of course understood this. It was why it hadn’t spared any effort in constructing the online forum. In fact, it wouldn’t be long before the name “Whebeze” started making waves throughout the empire.

Just when the people of the twenty third star region thought that Cillin had ceased his movements, the latter had announced his forum—Return—to the world. The stamp at the front page of the forum especially stunned a lot of people.

There were a lot of online forums in the empire, and one that was approved by the RAS or the Mist Bodhisattva Royal Family was of course deserving of attention. But rarely was there an online forum that gathered the approval of both parties! It was instantly popular as a matter of course. Even those who didn’t dabble in the academia were curious to take a look and see what all the fuss was about.

There were many categories inside the forum, and each one came with a set of questions and bounties that participants could answer and win. The bounties offered real money, not virtual currency. This meant that they could either be converted into cold, hard cash or credited directly to a binding card.

Money was the driver behind most things, so Cillin spent a total of three hundred million to establish the initial bounties. It wasn’t just his money, of course. It was a mix of his money, Guan Feng’s, RAS’ startup capital and financial aid from the emperor himself.

The first set of registrants could be split into three groups: Those who were simply curious, those who were attracted by the stamps, and those who wanted the money. Some of the registrants used virtual IDs, but there were also people who used their real names, especially those who had established themselves as an authority in the academia. This type of people found the idea of hiding themselves behind a virtual identity beneath them, which was also why everyone quickly learned that, on the very first day the forum came online, a famous old scholar had fainted in anger after losing an argument to a person named “Whebeze” under the engineering and programming category.

It was said that the old scholar had to spend an entire month in the hospital to recuperate, showing just how angry the guy had been. However, the old scholar didn’t hesitate to return to the forum and “argue” with Whebeze after he had recovered to full health.

That wasn’t all. The ID “Whebeze” grew more and more famous because the person behind it was able to answer many confounding and difficult questions under that particular category. However, nobody knew who “Whebeze” really was because they had refused to reveal their true identity. As a result, a lot of people speculated that the mysterious “Whebeze” was a commoner.

As it turned out, there were a lot more hidden experts like Whebeze. Some of them were drawn out by the bounties, and some of them were remembered because they were able to hold a riveting argument against the famous scholars. Sometimes, it almost felt as if these people only existed in this online forum, and not in the real world.

The argument never ended since the day the forum came online. An arena was set up in the forum where participants could fight against one another, but instead of using their fists they used their brains and mouths to defeat their opponents. Popular topics would often be held at the arena. Each side would choose their representatives before sending them into the ring to kick off an argument.

Sometimes, the lecturers of HEIs were so engrossed by an “arena battle” that they forgot to attend a class. Some academic or educational institutions were even plotting to use it to their own advantage, such as advertising the fact that the theses brought up by the “arena battlers” were the research result of certain candidates or research institutions. It was a perfect opportunity to advertise some of the lesser known institutions.

A lot of thoughts were introduced, and a lot of people learned something new. Money was always a great motivator, but it didn’t matter what the motivation was. What’s important was that everyone was working toward solving the question.

Conflict wasn’t scary, the lack of conflict was. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing to expose more people to this kind of atmosphere.

Most of the people who stood at the top of the academia weren’t lacking in money, so the bounties they set up were enough to enrich a poor family in a single night. Not only was it a great motivator, it was a fact that some capable but poor academicians had managed to overcome their financial difficulties and more by answering the questions.

The Sizer Family had set up most of the questions and bounties under the flying car category. Their virtual IDs all had the prefix “Sizer/Whirlwind” in front of them, and they were handpicked by Fleka to answer some of the questions brought up by the community. It was a great advertisement that further expanded their influence even more.

Even Naimi had joined in on the fun using his true name. Over time, people came to know that the “young master” of the Sizer Family wasn’t all talk, and that he really had a deep understanding of flying cars. He might not be a master, but it was still enough to change many people’s impression of him.

“Cillin, you’ve started a storm,” Guan Feng said on the communicator screen. “But this is what Your Majesty wishes to see.”

So far, three famous theories that were thought to be correct had already been overturned on the forum. There were a couple more that were being hotly debated right this moment. As Guan Feng said, the academia was stirring from the quakes set off by Return.

Cillin shot a glance at Wheeze and just smiled. The gray cat was currenting crouching in front of a microcomputer and doing an “arena battle”.

Having “knocked out” a couple of famous professors in the arena, it would be an understatement to say that Wheeze was having a helluva good time. Funnily enough, a lot of professors—including the one who fainted from sheer anger—returned to Wheeze to ask for guidance, only to faint again from sheer anger. It wasn’t even the first, or second, or third time this had happened already. But it more than proved that the professors all acknowledged Wheeze’s prowess, and that they acted like this was only because they were too embarrassed to admit it outright.

The name “Whebeze” was a household name at this point. It was one of the few places this stupidity and glutton incarnate was allowed to display its true talent to its heart’s content.

Wheeze wasn’t the only one who had fun in the online forum. Some of the members of Black Viper were gradually integrated into the system as well, although Cillin of course warned them not to reveal certain secrets.

In fact, the three famous theories had been toppled by none other than the group led by Neo himself. It had been a most humiliating day for the RAS, and the rason why the dean of the RAS was looking murderous as of late. Every time he recalled the skepticism cast at the institute’s way, he couldn’t help but want to criticize the shit out of Cillin.

Cillin hadn’t set up Return for charity’s sake. Others had profited, but he himself had profited off the online forum as well. Besides being treated to all kinds new knowledge and insights, he was able to compile a list of names that might just help him and Wheeze return home.