Chapter 1151: You

“What?”

If it wasn’t for the chaos of emotions in his chest, Jala would have given Alex a weird look. To someone out there, this might be some sort of profound realization. But to him, it was all but gibberish.

Plus, what kind of ridiculous planet name was “Earth”? Did their people even try?

However, after the initial wave of confusion, Jala’s expression became more serious. Whatever this was, could it mean that what happened to his family was related to their connection to this “Earth”?

Wait…

Another realization hit Jala like a ton of bricks. Their world was most definitely a Summoned World not long ago. In fact, that was the reason they could have so many Legendary Path Treasures.

Unfortunately, Legendary Path Treasures or not, unless they had enough resources to progress them to the E-Grade and beyond, it was worthless. Plus, not only did the requirements for doing this skyrocket with every step forward, but not all Legendary Path Treasures were even capable of crossing Tier divides to begin with—only the absolute strongest of them were.

This aside, the main point here was that somehow the Hall Clan had come from another world, but became the Overlord of their current world? Not only that, but they helped it pass through a Summoning?

That made absolutely no sense.

A world was exceptionally sensitive to outsiders. Let alone the fact it wouldn’t even let them in to begin with—how could they not only be let in, but also be granted the highest status?

Unless…

‘We arrived on that world before the Summoning began? A coincidence? Or could someone potentially sense a world on the verge of triggering its Summoning ahead of time and plant us there?’

Just the idea alone felt almost existential in a way. Summoned Worlds were so incredibly valuable. If you could reliably find such worlds before they went through their First Summoning, then just how easy would it be for the system to mistake a superior Race of beings as the true Overlord of the world?

At that point, benefiting from this world wouldn’t have taken nearly the effort it took the Thryskai for Earth. And yet, all that effort only netted them death and more death.

Finding a world before it entered a pool to vie for the system’s favor would be like having a cheat code.

However, this was even more difficult than finding Summoned Worlds. At least if a world was in the middle of its Summoning, there was some connection to the system, even if it was highly restricted.

But a world that had yet to undergo its Summoning didn’t even have such a connection. There wasn’t even the slightest corner to tug on in hopes of finding something underneath.

Given the vastness of the cosmos, just finding habitable planets with potential was almost impossible without the system, let alone going further than that to predict when the system would set its sights on them.

But right this moment, Alex was essentially implying that that was exactly what happened with his family.

How was that possible?

Jala looked at Alex, only to find the latter staring back at him with a smile on his face. Clearly, Alex had no intention of saying anything more.

If Jala wasn’t smart enough to grasp the implications of his words, then it could only mean that from the very start, there was really no point in continuing this in the first place.

“What do you want from me?”

“Your bloodline is kind of useful to me. I need it. But if you know too much too early, I also won’t be able to control you properly. You know the world, it’s such a cruel place, and I’m not very talented, so I need to take precautions.”

“You want to enslave me?”

“Well, don’t say it so morbidly. Just for a little bit. Just a measly little 10 years. You know, back on Earth, that used to be a long time. But the way I see it, it’s not so bad. How long do you think you’ll live? At least a few hundred years, right? If you make it to D-Grade and cross the Level 100 barrier, you’ll see millennia.”

Alex’s grin was only growing wider, twisting the shadows that obscured his face.

Jala grit his teeth. He didn’t like to be controlled. There was a reason why he chose such a suicidal path when faced with the All-Seeing Eye. But this situation… was very obviously much different.

“… Okay.”

“Excellent!” Alex laughed.

There was a flash on Jala’s screen and his eyes locked onto the contract. After a long while, he accepted.

“Well aboard, friend. We have a lot to do!”

“Wait. You haven’t explained anything yet.”

“Well, there’s also a lot I don’t know. We’re going to have to figure that out together, now won’t we?”

“You…” Jala’s eyes blazed with fury.

“I’m kidding! I’m kidding! Well, sort of. There really is a lot I still don’t know. See, if you were Psycho Syl, you would have picked that up from the fact I said I didn’t expect you to appear here. You’re a little bit frazzled, now aren’t you?”

Jala grit his teeth. How was he supposed to pick up on such details when he had just come back to life in ways he didn’t even understand right now?

“Don’t make that face, there is still some stuff I can tell you. For example, Earth—that’s the place Psycho Syl comes from too.”

Jala’s eyes widened. “What? You’re from Sylas Grimblade’s world?”

“Indeed, I am. Are you really so interested in him that that was enough to get you to stop being angry? How interesting.”

Jala’s frown returned and Alex already had his hands up in surrender.

“What I can tell you from what I’ve pieced together is that Earth once had a very powerful Race—our first Overlords. But for whatever reason, no one wanted to see them born, so they were sought out and forced to fail. Earth was suppressed, its Grade fell substantially, and the Race was eventually replaced by a new one—still quite powerful, but not nearly on the same level.

“However, Races don’t just die out entirely, and the Genes that once made that Race so special proliferated, becoming aspects of Earth’s new Races. And ironically enough, it was the weakest Human Race that carried the most hints of this hidden Gene.

“Unfortunately, there were two Human Lineages on Earth—one that formed naturally through the Great Apes, and the other, allegedly wiped out during the Eighth Summoning, was, well…”

Alex looked at Jala with a serious gaze for the first time.

“You.”