Astral Apostle

Chapter 76: Appointment and Bottleneck (1)

Zhou Jing nodded casually.

He had seen the workflow of the Immigration Bureau on the Internet and knew that this was a necessary process. It was mainly the Immigration Bureau’s evaluation of immigrants in two aspects.

One was to do a psychological analysis of the immigration target to check if there was any mental illness or anti-social personality and evaluate their potential danger.

This was because every time there was forced immigration, there would always be a large number of “psychopaths” who wanted to escape their forced immigration status by pretending to be crazy.

However, in reality, the evaluation results had nothing to do with immigration. It only affected the strictness of supervision and management of that individual…

If they were pretending to be crazy after a thorough investigation, they would be locked in a small dark room the moment they boarded the spaceship.

If the individual was really crazy, then they would stay in an asylum on a new planet after sleeping in the life-support cabin.

If they had anti-social personality, they could choose to spend their time alone on the immigrant spacecraft. After landing, they could receive further corrective education. Thoughtful, right?

In short, the main message from the Immigration Bureau was—Want to make a fuss? Even if you make a fuss, you have to go!

Of course, there would occasionally be people who took things too hard and committed suicide.

As long as it was confirmed that he was really dead, the forced immigration quota would be re-selected and handed to someone else… Anyway, to the Immigration Bureau, it was only a matter of changing people. As long as there was a population, there was no lack of choices. As long as someone went, it was fine. This was fair to everyone.

Actually, a long time ago, it was very easy to recruit interstellar immigrants. There was no such thing as people trying to scam their way into not migrating. The public almost fought to be the first to be recruited—many didn’t have the chance to go to other planets even if they volunteered at that point.

However, after so many years of the era of interstellar development, many things changed. One interstellar migration after another made this matter no longer new. Many people’s mentality also changed. Compared to traveling to an unfamiliar planet, most people wanted to stay on a colonized planet that had already been developed. So, there were fewer people willing to take the initiative to migrate to interstellar space.

Choosing immigrants for a colonial planet was often easily recruited in the earlier stages as most were voluntary immigrants. Later on, there would gradually be vacancies, and they would have to carry out forced immigration.

There were many records of such news events online.

The other thing to evaluate was the value and ability of the immigration target. It was divided into several levels, which were related to the treatment after immigration. It was equivalent to undergoing an interview.

Zhou Jing had read the information and knew the process very well. He nodded and said, “Alright, let’s set a time.”

“Alright, will you be free in five days? I’ll bring the staff to visit.”

“Five days later… Sure. It’s best if it’s in the early afternoon.” Zhou Jing looked at the date and agreed.

“Alright, let’s talk about the further procedures in person. There will be some documents for you as well… See you then.”

Cheng Li hung up with a polite smile.

Zhou Jing pursed his lips before he threw the phone aside.

He could feel that while this Cheng Li’s voice sounded gentle, her attitude was businesslike.

However, this was also normal. She was merely doing her job. Since every person in the Bureau needed to induct and interview dozens of forced immigrants, he could not expect them to pay much attention.

Zhou Jing recorded the visit time in five days on his schedule. Then, he threw this matter to the back of his mind and continued with his own tasks.

...

...

Mutant Beast World.

In the forest, a group of hunters was quietly advancing. From time to time, they would squat down to check the surroundings for traces of their target.

“Did you find anything?”

Barong gestured at Griff, who was squatting on the ground.

Griff shook his head. “We haven’t found the whereabouts of that group of Subterraneans yet.”

Weiss leaned on his spear and complained, “We’ve been wandering the forest for two days and haven’t found anything. Do you even know the location of the Subterraneans’ lair?”

As he spoke, he turned to look at Zhou Jing.

Zhou Jing was standing at the side. He was wearing a grayish-black bear leather armor with two long sabers at his waist and a heavy iron saber on his back.

Seeing Weiss look at him, Zhou Jing waved his hand. “Don’t look at me. I’ve been in Frostwood Village for half a year, but I’ve never seen the Subterraneans.”

This group of people was made up of the hunters of Frostwood Village, as well as ten White Plains soldiers among them. They were searching for the whereabouts of the Subterraneans in the Black-Clothed Forest.

After Zhou Jing became a Mutant Beast Hunter, another three months had passed. This Astral Apostle had lived in Frostwood Village for half a year.

During this period, Zhou Jing had also trained [Hunter’s Breath: Force] and [Hunter’s Breath: Swift] to Lv. 4 Mastery for both.

Seeing Zhou Jing mature, Barong gradually felt that the time was ripe. Therefore, he finally gathered some men and decided to lead a hunt against the Subterraneans to complete Zhou Jing’s revenge.

Not only were there the local village hunters like Griff, Zhou Jing, and Barong, but they also especially pulled Weiss along.

For this period of time, Weiss lived in Frostwood Village and taught Zhou Jing the breathing technique. He understood that Barong was not fooling him, and his worldview was also broken by Zhou Jing’s learning speed, leaving him muddle-headed for a few days.

He had also lost 200 Terra silver coins. It was painful to lose to Barong.

Initially, Weiss did not want to participate in the extermination of the Subterraneans’ lair, but Barong said that as long as he participated in the hunt, he would return the 200 Terra silver coins to him.

Weiss had scoffed at this.

—You take my money and tell me you’ll pay me with it? Isn’t that gaining something without risking anything of yours?

Hmph, do you really think I agreed for the money!?

The Subterraneans and I were irreconcilable from the start!

Other than Weiss, who was stubborn and weak-kneed, there was finally some response from the Lord of White Plains Town.

Perhaps because Zhou Jing had resolved the threat of the mutant beasts last time, Lutt finally sent ten soldiers over to help Barong and the others destroy the Subterraneans’ lair. At this moment, they were also on the team.

Hearing Weiss’s complaint, Barong shook his head and said, “We only know that their lair is nearby, but we don’t know the exact location. That group of Subterranean raiders is wandering everywhere, so it’s not easy to follow them.”

“Okay, okay,” Weiss said helplessly.

Everyone gathered to discuss how to locate the Subterraneans, but Zhou Jing did not participate.

He was not particularly good at tracking. He mainly trained in direct combat power and had not yet managed to branch out to this aspect.

Zhou Jing quietly opened the interface and took a look. In addition to the two new sets of breathing techniques, the original [Hunter’s Breath: Forging] had also increased by one level in the past three months, but there was still no movement from the [Weapon Mastery: Blade Technique]. It was still stuck at Level 4.

Moreover, he felt that even if he activated the Accelerated Learning, the efficiency of practicing his saber techniques was much lower than before. It seemed that he had touched the limit of his aptitude and was stuck at a bottleneck.

When one’s skills reached a certain level, and their aptitude could not keep up, their cultivation speed would greatly decrease, and they would encounter a bottleneck.

His [Blade Technique] aptitude was green, and he had been practicing it slowly since he reached Lv. 4—this sort of skill aptitude had a significant impact on the efficiency of upgrading skills. It could even be said to determine the upper limit of his level.

Zhou Jing had a vague feeling that with this apostle’s talent in blade techniques, he could at most raise his [Weapon Mastery – Blade Technique] to Lv.5 or Lv.6. He was afraid that he would not be able to improve further.

It was common for people to grow exponentially at first, but no improvement for decades. They would walk in circles. Humans had limits, so there were very few geniuses or masters who could leave their names behind.

“If I want to resolve this, I can use the achievement reward to increase my apostle’s aptitude… But there’s no need for that now. Currently, I have enough level-four saber techniques. It doesn’t feel worth it to use the achievement reward just to increase this skill.”

Zhou Jing calculated in his heart before carefully looking at his current attributes.

[Hunter’s Breath: Forging]

[Current Level: Lv 5 – (Instinct)]

[Effect: Physical Fitness +3, Resistance +2]

[[Hunter’s Breath: Strength]]

[Current Level: Lv 4 – (Master)]

[Effect: Physical Fitness +1]

[Hunter’s Breath: Swift]!

[Current Level: Lv 4 – (Master)]

[Effect: Physical Fitness +1]

[Attributes: Physical Fitness 14, Resistance 12, Perception 10, Spirit 5, Energy 0]

The two new Hunter’s Breathing Techniques were mainly used for combat. While there wasn’t much of an increase, the upgrade would significantly increase the effects when used, and it could also unleash the combat power of his extraordinary physique.

As he was thinking, Ross’s location suddenly flashed in his mind. The location that he had sent out to secretly search for the Subterraneans had returned to the vicinity.

Zhou Jing’s eyes flickered.

“You guys can search here. I’ll take a look at the side.”