Devil Fruits, armored gear, Kamen Rider systems, Imperial Arms, Spell Cards—
each of these items can grant a host extraordinary talents and power. The real key, though, is luck and one's own disposition: whether you can obtain more of them depends as much on chance as on character.
At the moment, within the Bureau of Spiritual Energy, a number of people have already acquired such things, and they've begun recruiting those empowered individuals who possess these items.
As for whether those people are willing to join, they're not forcing it.
In this era, apart from that one "God," there will be no fixed gods.
So long as an empowered individual can step forward and protect the people and the nation in their own way, the state will support them.
Skyler Quinn and the others are just the beginning; in the future, Huaxia will have more gods.
"So many Pokémon—are you angels planning to form a Pokémon legion?"
In the video call between Brandon White and Angel Yan, Brandon looked at the large number of Pokémon all around her and couldn't help the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.
Pikachu, the Starters, Milotic, Ralts, Growlithe—
he wasn't sure which sector of Merlot Heaven Angel Yan was in, but seeing so many Pokémon gathered in one place, he genuinely suspected they intended to build an entire trainer corps.
"More or less," she said. "But our original intention is simply that their pure, kind natures are extremely compatible with angels."
"No angel can resist these adorable little ones—not even Queen Keisha or the Tianji King."
"But as Pokémon possessed of decent combat strength, they aren't here to be pets. They're partners to angels."
Angel Yan didn't deny it. Her eyes softened as she watched the Pokémon moving about at her side. She casually scooped up a Squirtle and rubbed its smooth head.
The myriad worlds truly are wondrous—to have birthed a species so cute, so simple and kind.
They almost look more like angels than we do.
"You must have spent more than three hundred million points in the chat group by now."
"About that."
Brandon let out a soft sigh at that. Even with the vast resources of an angelic civilization, spending so many points in one go can't feel great.
After all, the universe's resources are limited, and angels follow Queen Keisha's order of justice. They occupy a fair portion of the known universe's resources, yes, but they don't plunder or overmine.
On top of that, many angel warriors require resources to advance. Three hundred million points is by no means a trivial sum for them, either.
"What's wrong—jealous?"
Angel Yan gave Brandon a playful look.
"Thinking about clinging to an angel's thigh?"
As she spoke, she tapped her own pale, slender thigh. Brandon glanced down on reflex, then pulled his gaze back.
"No need, for now."
If he needed points, he had plenty of ways to get them—whether by using aura beads, scouring Earth for rare heavenly-and-earthly treasures, or hunting mutant beasts, harvesting their corpses and reclaiming their abilities.
But there was no need.
He already had his own path to walk, and the chat group's current catalog wasn't something that would accelerate his pace.
Things like the Infinity Stones had some reference value for him, sure, but the resources required would be astronomical—and the burden on Earth right now would be far too heavy.
"Tch."
Angel Yan curled her lip, then, after another glance at Brandon, continued:
"I heard from Queen Keisha that the Tianji King, He Xi, is considering sending Zhixin to your world for training. What do you think?"
"Angel Zhixin?"
Brandon was a little surprised. He Xi wanted to send Zhixin to his world for training?
What's there to train in a pre-nuclear civilization like Earth?
Even with the Spiritual Energy Resurgence, not enough time has passed. Given Angel Zhixin's strength, there's currently no one on Earth who could stand against her—other than me.
Compared to his own world, either Roxie Vale's high-martial world or Tony's Marvel world should be far more worthwhile for her to train in, right?
Unless…
"The drunkard's heart isn't in the wine," Angel Yan said lightly. "It's pretty obvious the Tianji King wants Zhixin to bring home a dream guy."
"Tempted, Mr. Dream Guy? We're talking about Queen Keisha's Sacred Right Wing, disciple of the Tianji King, a second-generation god who could very well inherit the title of Tianji King in the future."
Her eyes gleamed with teasing as she aimed the barb at Brandon.
"Has Zhao Xin been given up on?"
"And Queen Keisha agreed?"
Brandon ignored the tease and instead frowned a little.
Angel Zhixin's original match was Zhao Xin—that was a choice derived by Queen Keisha from the Sacred Data Vault. Maybe Zhao Xin's strength and potential were on the weaker side, but what the Sacred Data Vault values isn't an individual's potential or power.
It's the compatibility of two people's data.
To Queen Keisha, the other party's potential doesn't matter; the angelic civilization doesn't need arranged pairings to bolster the civilization's deterrence.
What she values is whether the angel can find happiness with that person in the future.
The Tianji King, He Xi, doesn't believe love should be decided by data. If He Xi had known Keisha would assign Zhixin to Zhao Xin, in all likelihood she wouldn't have agreed. But in Zhixin's heart, Queen Keisha's orders come first; after Zhixin was rescued, the first thing she did was obey Queen Keisha's command.
If He Xi agreed but Keisha did not, then the odds would be slim to none.
For Angel Yan to bring this up directly to Brandon made it obvious that Queen Keisha had given her consent.
If it wasn't simply to honor He Xi's request, then…
"Did Queen Keisha run my data against Angel Zhixin's for a match?"
That was the most plausible explanation as Brandon saw it. His potential might be decent, but it wasn't enough for the angelic civilization to proactively send over an angelic warrior—much less one who served as the Sacred Right Wing and the Tianji King's disciple.
Far more likely, Queen Keisha had used the Sacred Data Vault to match his data to Angel Zhixin's—and the score was very high, at least no lower than Zhixin's compatibility with Zhao Xin.
What Brandon couldn't figure out was: how did Queen Keisha have his data?
Could the personality traits and capabilities he'd revealed through his chats with Angel Yan alone be enough to produce a reliable data match?
"—Ninety-eight percent."
"In the entire known universe, there's no one more suitable for Zhixin than you."
Angel Yan leaned her head against her knees and smiled softly as she said it, though a quiet complexity hid in her tone.
Zhixin had found her dream guy—but where was Yan's?
She was no longer the Angel Yan of the original story who could tell Queen Keisha, "I've already waited seven thousand years; waiting another seven thousand won't matter." She yearned very much for the arrival of love.
An angel's longing for love has nothing to do with growth; it's only that they've been forced to suppress it.
In the original, she managed to hold it down for two reasons: first, she saw that Ge Xiaolun still needed to grow, and Rose was in his heart; second, later on when Queen Keisha went offline, Yan took up the mantle of Angel Queen—matters of the heart naturally had to be set aside.
(End of this chapter)