Chapter 423: Shocking The World

[Breaking news.]

[People’s affinity grade is being upgraded.]

[Human limit has increased to SS grade.]

[The new classification is going to be updated soon.]

[I have increased my element by 15% from the original 12% just from swallowing the same material. This is insane.]

The UK—no—the world was actually swept up in a storm.

The Moon Store had shaken the entire world. This was the first time people witnessed a method to increase one’s talent, and the whole world was shocked by it.

The people were talking about the Artificial Heart Method nonstop.

"Dude. Do you know about this thing?" A man showed him a book.

"I know that. I really want to buy it, but I don’t know if I can afford one."

"It’s quite expensive, but it’s definitely worth it in the long run. Just imagine having an S-grade affinity rather than a B-grade like yours."

"I know. That’s why I plan to do everything I can to buy it. There is actually one with my affinity, so..."

"I heard the government is now thinking about measuring people’s elements more intensely. In other words, it will be a controlled awakening where you will know about your specific rating."

"Normally, we only know that our rating is 2.0 or 3.0, but this time, they’re going to create a system where we will know the decimal. This will allow you to know which technique you can use to increase your talent."

It had become a craze that shook the entire world. After all, they certainly wanted something that could improve the overall talent of their own people. If the UK got the monopoly over it, they would become much stronger than any other country in the world.

"Hahaha. Esfrata has the Sun Store, and someone is finally opposing them with the Moon Store."

There were a lot of people who weren’t happy with the success of the Moon Store.

...

Dermania.

"What is going on?" The president slammed his hand on the table, glaring at his people. "Why did it say the Moon Store was originally established in Dermania? Did all of you ignore it or suppress the information about it?"

They couldn’t really say anything. They didn’t know about the Moon Store until a few days ago.

"I want it back. If not, make sure to erase that message! Find anything you can about this Moon Store!"

They were already in shambles because of the beast wave. Ultias didn’t show up, which caused them to be condemned.

At the same time, they had crossed the lines when it came to Auric. Along with the pressure of other countries wanting to know about the mysterious angel, they were really having a hard time lately.

If Dermania had the Moon Store, it could finally fight back against Esfrata. While it was true that the Sun Store and their gathering techniques were important, it didn’t change the fact that they could still get stronger just by killing beasts and absorbing their materials.

On the other hand, the Moon Store offered the change in their very foundation, their talent. This was something that couldn’t be changed by any other means.

That was why the Moon Store was more important.

If they had known about the Moon Store beforehand, they would have made it the national store if necessary. As long as they could monopolize this store, they could force others to bow down to them to gain access to this store.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

...

On the other hand, the Ashavatalia family was in chaos.

The head of the Ashavatalia family just looked down while covering his eyes. His back was drenched as though he had just screwed up big time.

He had prepared a few moves to get what he wanted from the Moon Store. He thought that the Moon Store would be his, or at least cooperate with his family. At that time, his family would become big enough to rival even Ultias.

However, he didn’t expect that the Moon Store would leave the country.

In fact, he had actually used the Moon Store to gain some allies. He was enticing them with an upgrade of their talent in exchange for a huge favor to his family.

Now that the Moon Store had left the country, the president would definitely order an investigation into the Moon Store.

There was a big chance that the fact that their prior knowledge of the Moon Store and their use of it would become public. Their failure to report it or make it known in an attempt to keep the Moon Store in the country would become their downfall.

He could only imagine it. This time, he had really screwed up.

Did the Moon Store do anything wrong? No.

The Moon Store never took any action against them. Even when they posted the message, it was meant to attack Dermania, especially Dermania’s action during the training program, not their family.

In other words, it was their fault. Their greed would become their own downfall.

’That’s right. There’s only one more option left... Even if I have to beg and kneel in front of the Moonlight, I need to bring the store back to Dermania...’

Unfortunately for him, it wasn’t going to happen. Auric simply considered everything equally.

The Ashavatalia family’s actions didn’t exactly benefit him or harm him, but the family had taken advantage of him. There was no reason for him to accept their proposal. In fact, he would be ignoring all other proposals for the time being. He knew all the countries would reach out to the Moon Store to get the Moon Store in their own country.

Unfortunately for them, Auric didn’t plan to rush his expansion. The only way to access the website to buy them was to access it from within the UK. People tried to use a VPN, but they were having a hard time doing it.

Even when they managed to get it, it was hard to open. They could also be flagged, and the entire access could be removed, so it would be hard to distribute it or cheat their way in.

Of course, it was possible, but it was extremely hard.

Still, rather than forcing them to do the worst, such as hacking, Auric was accepting their proposals at first, telling them that he intended to review them. He merely told them that because of the number of proposals he received, he had to carefully consider them.

They had no choice but to come up with a more lucrative proposal if they really wanted the access to the Moon Store.

In addition, there were only a total of 21 techniques in the Moon Store currently. One element needed 41 techniques for each rating, so there were eight elements. The Moon Store was nowhere close to publishing everything, not to mention the unknown number of unique elements.

That was why it wasn’t wise to provoke the Moon Store. What if the Moon Store decided to close the shop and prevented anyone else from having access to it? What if the Moon Store decided to only allow such a thing in the organization the Moonlight belonged to?

That would be a huge loss for the entire country. Of course, it didn’t mean that the Moon Store could be left unchecked. They needed to figure out who the Moonlight was, understand the conflict between the Moon Store and Dermania, investigate the rivalry with the Sun Store, and many more.

Unfortunately for them, it wouldn’t be easy.

However, there was one question that kept flashing in other world leaders’ minds.

"What is going on with the European Union Great Base?"

Not long ago, the Sun Store appeared out of nowhere, raising Esfrata’s standing in the world.

Then, the angel that could regrow limbs and even revive people appeared during the beast wave.

And finally, the Moon Store openly challenged the Sun Store.

It was easy to reach that conclusion. Something big was definitely happening in the European Union Great Base.

They needed to figure it out, and they needed to do it fast. They wanted to participate in it and get the most out of it.

...

Still, many more people were happy with the Moon Store. While it was true that the price was extremely high for normal people, it wasn’t impossible. In addition, the increase in talents could change their entire lives.

Some people were even happy to buy one book for their son even if it meant selling their house and car. Once their son became that strong, they could easily recover from this setback.

Still, the happiest one was actually the one who wasn’t that much interested in the Moon Store. It was Lady Merlin.

"I’ve done my best in this investigation. With Sir Bedivere, I have finished the investigation and confirmed that the artificial heart methods are safe to use. We are doing our best to see if there are any other viable options that everyone can benefit from.

"Fortunately, despite the strong opposition from Sir Gawain, we managed to confirm its usage and stop Sir Gawain from forcing the Moon Store to close and banning the artificial heart method. Thank you."

Lady Merlin just smiled. When people told her she was petty for mentioning it in front of the media, Lady Merlin would simply ignore it. Yes, she was petty, and she was enjoying every second of it.

Just thinking about the frustration on Sir Gawain’s face was more than enough to make her chuckle.

Sir Bedivere whispered, "You do know that after this, there might be a boycott on Sir Gawain, right? He might end up losing his title."

"He’s grown senile. He should start living in the nursing home if he can’t adapt to the change. You need to be young to understand the change and live through it."

"..." Sir Bedivere just looked at her with a face devoid of emotion, as if he wanted to say, ’You are older than him by two years. If I said that, you would probably start telling the press that I’m in cahoots with him. This old hag!’

"You have a very unkind thought, Sir Bedivere. You should be nicer to people..." Lady Merlin patted his shoulder with a smirk.

"..." Sir Bedivere froze. ’How did she know? This witch.’

"In any case, I shall return to handle the discussion. There are a lot of things we have to discuss moving forward after all." Lady Merlin smiled.

That was why she returned to the hall where they decided the next course of action. They needed to find a way to treat the Moon Store appropriately. Since Lady Merlin was the first one to recognize it, her insight would be the most important.

Lady Merlin opened the door herself with a big smile on her face as she gazed at all the members of the meeting. "Hello again."