Speed Is King

"Yes! It's fully random! And that's TWICE now that the damned system granted him a Beyond SSS grade reward! At this rate, I will have to restock the Beyond SSS reward pool a full millenium earlier than scheduled! Damn that little punk! How lucky is he to be able to draw such a rare item twice in a row? Is he a bastard of Lady Luck and the God of Fortune or something?" El'Taras was so overwhelmed by Elliot's first reward that he continued his uncharacteristic show of surprise and cursed him Elliot heartily!

"Indeed. To think he, a mere player of a tiny and useless planet, would be able to ingest two full drops of Red Dragon Blood Essences and achieve a transformation that's worth millions- no, billions of resource planets…" Director Sands sighed.

"If you remember, those two Beyond SSS grade rewards were included into the general reward pool after the dragons insisted that I do so after I found them in the ancient inheritance site.

Being so valuable to the Dragon Clans, they wanted to at least gain the possibility of somehow having their dragon participants win those two vials in the challenges of all the Games they are participating across the known universe.

If they find out that both Red Dragon Blood Essence vials are now gone from the general reward pool…"

"Not if. When. Elliot will definitely consume it and complete his Red Dragon Transformation. When he does that, the entire dragon community will know he got both Red Dragon Blood Essences." Director Sands chuckled.

"And you might not know this, but that damned boy Elliot actually got his hands on five other Dragon Blood Essences! Gold, silver and bronze you have probably suspected with his blatant show of power. But in actual fact, he has brass and copper as well." El'Taras sighed deeply and tried to regain his composure.

Director Sands sat there and sighed deeply as well. He had been surprised so many times in the past few days that he wasn't even surprised by El'Taras' revelation anymore.

Plus, he had immediately focused on the issues that the revelation had brought.

The entire dragon community of the known universe was stirring.

It was bad enough that he got the first Red Dragon Blood Essence. Now that he had five other blood essences and the blue dragon's concentrated blood, he had become a walking treasure trove for the dragons.

"So we have half the universe powers hungering after his secret that enabled him to fight so high above his level, and the entire dragon community completely adamant that he belongs to them due to his bloodline.

Plus we have the Shadow Parasite Crisis giving them a very legitimate reason to visit Planet Earth and "eradicate the Shadow Parasites" who are technically, completely disarmed now that the secret of them producing a Queen is in our hands.

This truly is the Perfect Storm brewing on Planet Earth.

Would we even be able to continue holding the Games?" Director Sands thought aloud.

"Hold! Of course we have to hold the Games. How would I be able to restock my Beyond SSS item pool otherwise?" El'Taras grumbled.

"Plus, the viewers would definitely love to see the chaos unfold. Betting on Sports and Games is exciting. But betting on the result of a full blown conflict? It's a completely different kind of exciting. We will definitely make more money on this Game than all of our other Games combined this year."

"That's definitely true. So our course of action now is…?" Director Sands asked.

El'Taras pointed at the screen in reply.

"Watch him and get our money's worth of entertainment. I've given him a highly chaotic environment where Emperors and Hegemons hunt each other. I've given him that special ring as well. And that damned Red Dragon Blood Essence. That's practically all I can give, and then some more. Surviving the rest of the Game is now up to him." El'Taras sighed. "If it wasn't for the Ascendant Runes…"

"I understand." Director Sands nodded. "His growing strength would speed up the Ascendant Runes project. My granddaughter, Jessica Sands, has begun work on creating her Ascendant Runes. We should be seeing results shortly."

"Any luck on getting her to hand over her notes and explanations to us?" El'Taras asked.

"None. She is adamant that the Runes she's working on is for Elliot's exclusive use only. She said if I wanted those runes, then I am "welcome to apply to join Elliot's brand new Universe Empire". She said on the merit of me being her grandpa, she would ask Elliot to make me a Minister and report directly to her." Director Sands couldn't help but chuckle when he said those words.

"She's… still such a kid." El'Taras sighed.

"Very much so." Director Sands agreed. "All this is like a massive game to her."

"In a way, it is good that such power is held in her hands. She is still very pure, and as long as the power remains with her, we would not have to worry about it being misused. Our only problem is what she'll do when Elliot graduates from the Games of Planet Earth." El'Taras said wistfully. "Although the creation of "Elliot's Universe Empire" sounds like a childish notion, with Elliot's luck and unique power combined with the Ascendant Runes, they might be able to do it, you know. Especially if they have powers supporting them."

Chairman El'Taras looked at Director Sands slyly at that point.

"Erhm." Director Sands cleared his throat and gave Chairman El'Taras the most innocent smile he could muster.

That damned old man even blinked a few times.

It was exactly like a sneaky old Viper smiling and blinking evilly.

"No, not a sneaky old Viper." Chairman El'Taras thought with amusement. "The biggest, fattest, most venomous anaconda in the universe. Who can teleport. And cause the very fabric of space itself to swallow you and crush you.

"And who has a million other anacondas like him under his command." He thought sourly as he remembered that particular fact.

"If, and that's a big if, a massive universe power were to propose to fund their little project and smoothen their path for the first few years, do you think the ah, Emperor and his ah, chief minister? Would accept?" Chairman El'Taras asked the big, fat anaconda.