Translator: Limostn Editor: Tennesh

  Everywhere around the world, the black rain was slowly stopping. More and more places became sunny and cloudless. Under the assistance of the Gene Production Association’s branches worldwide, huge air purifiers were produced to filter out all the devil race energies contained in the soil beneath each city after setting the soil on fire. With this, no devil race energy remained within the territories of humanity.

  This was an extremely important achievement. With this, the cities of humanity were once again safe. The devil race had seemingly noticed this as well. As such, the endless black rain vanished from human territories not long after. With the devil race energy burnt before being filtered out, the hibernating devil race members no longer existed. As such, apart from exhausting the resources of the devil race, the black rain was now pointless.

  Once again, the sky became sunny and clear. On the contrary, the black rain in the unknown regions was even heavier than before.

  "The devil race has shifted their focus to the unknown regions."

  "That’s for sure. After all, those places used to be their territory back then."

  "I suppose the world will not be a peaceful place anymore……"

  "Yeah."

  "Devil race, ancient race…… From the moment the darkness started descending, peace ceased existing."

  In a certain unknown region, amid the heavy rain, a certain terrifying devil race expert had awakened. Its entire body was filled with numerous tentacles, and a ferocious aura was leaking out of its eyes. This was a devil race member that had awakened from the soil the black rain had fallen on.

  "Haha, finally, I, Kreir Maastricht, am……"

  Bang!

  Suddenly, a terrifying power surged.

  Before this freshly awakened devil race member was able to rearrange its thoughts, a huge palm could be felt pressing upon its body. Next, a terrifying power descended and pushed it back forcefully.

  "No, I refuse! I am the great Krier Maastricht……"

  Rumble—


  That place recovered its previous tranquility. It was rather awkward for this great devil race expert to be pushed back the moment it was reawakened. Presently, the owner of that huge palm merely clapped his hands as his real appearance was revealed.

  A toying smile appeared on his face. "What a naughty fellow."

  Hum—


  Light started swirling on the ground. Only a crystal remained of the devil race member that had been forcefully pushed back. This crystal was also the main target of this person.

  He clenched the crystal in his hand. "Finally, I have obtained it……"

  Hum—


  A faint energy undulated out. A familiar power could be felt.

  "The future of humanity will depend on you……" he muttered. Slowly, he vanished amid the darkness. A similar event was playing out at numerous locations within the unknown regions. Evidently, only a small portion of the Genetic Union’s manpower was deployed to Star City. Their true experts all had their own missions.

  Of these devil race experts that were being forcefully pushed back the moment they reawakened, each of them was beyond A class. If any of them were allowed to fully awaken, a huge calamity would ensue. The moment they were allowed to join hands, humanity would be in grave danger. As they were forced to deal with this, the manpower the Genetic Union could spare to be sent toward Star City was truly rather limited.

  Amid the darkness, one devil race member after another perished. Before their full awakening, they were already dead. This restoration had been planned back then using the lives of their commoners as the sacrifice, yet now, during their moment of awakening, they were all forced back, forced to true death.

  Presently, Chen Feng was still researching the difference between B class and beyond B class. This was also the first time he had seen one of the crystals the Genetic Union experts had been gathering. The entire laboratory was filled with a radiance that caused one to feel flustered. In addition, there was also a power that felt so very familiar.

  Chen Feng’s eyes shone. "This is the main research target?" Hou Liang had already given him an introduction to the entire project. The project was codenamed "Beyond X" with X signifying all classes of genetic warriors. This also signified that this was a project allowing all genetic warriors to reach this stage called "beyond," regardless of their level. This was an extremely important project for humanity.

  As of now, based on what Hou Liang had told him, everyone was still breaking through by brute force. During the preceding periods, everyone’s understanding of this concept called "beyond" had been rather superficial. As such, they had believed that this was a mere formidable power belonging to those that had surpassed A class, those who had gone beyond A class. As such, this state had been named beyond.

  Based on the classifications for A class, after going up from A1 to A9, one could then concentrate on surpassing A class, entering the realm of beyond A class. Such a method of obtaining the power of beyond was rather brutish and idiotic. Now, due to the appearance of the devil race, these crystals had appeared as well.

  That changed everything. The moment this project succeeded, the entirety of humanity would transform as a whole. This would be a true transformation. Theoretically, the existence of this stage called beyond could allow one to be as strong as someone a level higher. For example, those beyond B class would be equivalent to the present A class. Those beyond C class would be equivalent to the present B class.

  Even so, this was a mere superficial benefit. One ought to remember that this would bring about a beneficial cycle toward humanity. For example, the gene tempering process genetic warriors underwent by killing mutated beasts. Due to the strength of the mutated beasts, humanity had always been extremely prudent when doing so.

  But now, if this project succeeded, a beyond D class could easily kill a D-class mutated beast. The act would be as easy as someone drinking water. This would enable that genetic warrior to charge straight to C class within a short period of time. After achieving beyond C class, the subsequent breakthrough would also be very simple for this warrior. This project would enable the process of strengthening genetic warriors to become a process of farming mutated beasts.

  And the moment humanity could accomplish this, would reaching A class be something really hard? Even those beyond A class would probably appear frequently enough. Granted, new beyond-A-class warriors that would appear through this method might be lacking in terms of combat experience. However, no matter what, a beyond A class was still a beyond A class.

  Chen Feng looked at the crystal before him like he was looking at some precious treasure. It was precisely the familiar aura emanating from these crystals that had caused those beyond-A-class experts to send these back for research.

  "The Genetic Union has already started their research. So far, there has been no progress. After all, when it comes to research, they are not as good as us. The Gene Production Association has already deployed someone over to assist them yet there has still been no headway. After all, our existing system of research was already too large and was already rotten with bureaucracy. As such……" Hou Liang shrugged. "We have decided to establish more than 10 mini teams to conduct their research independently. Each team will research in a certain specific direction, threading their own path. The teams that obtain progress will be rewarded based on their results as a form of encouragement. Only with this can everyone’s potential be forced out," Hou Liang explained. Chen Feng understood his point and did not find it surprising.

  Chen Feng recalled how, in his previous life, a certain battle royale game had become excessively popular. Stimulated by the success of that particular game, numerous other game development companies had started developing similar games, and shortly after, a huge number of such games had appeared. Even a certain company called Tencent, who had managed to obtain the original rights for the game, had released several similar games on top of what they had to encourage internal competition within the company. Why was that? Well, only through competition could one’s potential be forced out.

  Chen Feng looked at Hou Liang. "What if everyone fails?" Separating all the researchers might not prove beneficial.

  "All the teams are taking different directions in their research. Moreover, each of the teams has different specialties as well. As such, even if all of them fail, by combining the results of all the teams, we will still obtain a huge breakthrough," Hou Liang explained in an extremely well-practiced manner. Evidently, this was not the first time he had done something like this.

  "Which team will I be in, then?" Chen Feng asked.

  "Oh." Hou Liang paused before calmly stating, "You know what? I personally think that you are too amazing. As such, you can handle the task of an entire team all by yourself."

  Instantly, Chen Feng stopped walking.

  "In short……you failed to recruit even a single researcher for my team?"