Chatter began to spread through the hall, with most students already talking amongst themselves.
Most of them seemed to have known each other before now.
The clock that hovered in the air above the platform, as if gravity had no effect on it, ticked.
The countdown ended, and it disappeared.
Before the students could react to the sudden change, space cracked like glass.
From it, a man stepped out.
His eyes were cold as he stared at the students.
The doors that led into the hall were jammed shut at the same time.
Then he finally spoke.
"Welcome to the Imperial Academy."
His voice was as soft as silk, but sharper than any blade at the same time.
"We have a lot to discuss in this orientation since I would be introducing you to the academy's curriculum for seed candidates."
He paused, letting everything he had just said settle in their minds.
Then he continued.
"But before anything, know one thing: there are no organized classes here."
While he spoke, Silas's head was darting through the room, as if searching for something he had lost.
It was to the extent that the people sitting beside him had begun to stare at him with confused gazes.
'Maybe I was hallucinating,' he thought as he regained his composure.
He returned his focus to the teacher.
"And I am Professor Sheldon of the Imperial Academy," the man concluded.
"First of all, this place is only accessible through the various portals in your houses, since the academy is in a special plane."
Most of the students did not react to this.
After all, almost all of them were influential enough to have known that beforehand.
But there were some who did not know.
Like Silas.
"No wonder my strength returned to normal when I entered here," he muttered, flexing his hand.
Sheldon did not linger on those words for long.
"Points."
The word came out of his lips coldly.
It reached everyone's ears equally.
'I have never tried to do this voice enhancement,' Silas mused.
But he was snapped out of his thoughts by Sheldon's next words.
"It is the currency spent in the academy."
As he spoke, a screen appeared before everyone.
It was their AI assistants.
[A new plugin has been detected. Do you wish to accept it?]
That was the question on everyone's screen.
Their faces turned to Sheldon.
And he nodded in response.
Without hesitation, the students accepted it.
A loading screen appeared this time.
It was fast.
A new menu appeared on the screen.
[You have been granted access to a new virtual server in the Nexus Dimension: Imperial Academy.]
[Missions]
[Level: 1]
[Point Balance: 10,000]
[Facilities]
[Store]
[Library]
[Professors]
[Bookings: None]
[Facilities in use: None]
Everything unfolded in Silas's sight.
"Since you have all gotten the Academy's menu, let's continue," Sheldon said, folding his hands behind his back.
"For the first one, missions. It is as it says — you accept commissions from the academy, and completing them earns you points."
Silas tried tapping the menu, but it did not open.
"As for level, it increases with how many missions you complete. The higher your level, the better the missions, and hence the rewards."
His eyes flashed towards the students for a moment; he seemed to be focused on one particular student, but they could not tell who it was.
"Facilities, such as labs, training grounds, law comprehension steles, and the like. You can access any of these as long as you can pay the required points."
'Why aren't they responding?' Silas thought as he tried to tap the facilities tab too.
'Master Silas, your access to the menu has not been verified yet. You need to wait for it to be verified from the source before you can use any of them,' Rion said in his mind.
'Oh,' Silas replied. 'I thought the plugin had not installed properly.'
"Store, to purchase anything from the academy with points."
The students looked at the next item on the menu.
"Most of these things are self-explanatory. I don't need to tell you about everything," Sheldon said with a long sigh, as if he had finally grown tired of what he was doing.
"But the professors tab tells you which professor is available to teach you, alongside their specialty and point cost."
One of the students raised their hand at this moment.
Sheldon nodded.
"Yes, everything costs points," Sheldon said, not even waiting for the student to ask his question.
He already knew what it was going to be.
After years of doing this repeatedly, he already knew the first question every time.
And he was right.
The student lowered his hand slowly.
"Not just these — even your buildings and everything given to you by the academy will incur a monthly maintenance fee."
A grin spread across his lips as he said those words.
"The exact fee will be sent to you later today."
A ripple of unease spread through the students.
But Sheldon couldn't care less.
"Now, the rules of the academy."
The temperature of the room seemed to drop to a dangerously low level.
"First, and the most sacred rule of the academy: a student must never reveal their mission content to anyone, except where the mission states otherwise."
His gaze swept through the students as he spoke.
"Depending on the severity, you can be expelled or directly killed."
He let the words sink in.
After all, no one would like to toy with death.
After a brief moment of silence, he spoke again.
"That is the only offense with a punishment like that. The other rules only involve paying a fine."
He released both arms and brought them forward.
"You cannot tell anyone you are a seed candidate of the academy, no abusing facilities or professors. The rest are pretty much just normal human principles that everyone should abide by."
Then silence.
His gaze swept through the students.
He exhaled slowly, although it was not necessary.
"You can check whatever you want on the menu now."
With those words, his frame flickered out of the space.
'Rion, can I use the menu now?' Silas asked.
Rion was silent for a moment, then responded.
'Yes.'
Silas smiled as he tapped on the mission tab.
He read through the main list.
It only included things like killing a nest of tier 1 void beasts causing havoc on a nearby planet, or picking herbs.
But there was something he noticed.
None of the missions were on Earth.
Everything was off-planet.
"Do they place so much importance on the planet that they can't afford to use it as a training ground?" He muttered beneath his breath.
Another thing he noticed was that all missions required collaboration with another person.
There was no solo mission.
"I can find a teammate later. Let's see the other things," he muttered.
Next was the Facilities tab.
[Core Condensing Stele for Flame Core: 5,000 points per hour.]
Silas did not even bother to read further.
His eyes moved to the ten thousand points he currently had.
"Point-sucking academy," he muttered, shaking his head.
He exited the section with a tap.
The Store tab opened next.
A smile formed on Silas's lips as he looked at one of the items.
It was his rifle.
The same one he had created, the one that had spurred his rise to wealth.
But looking at the cost, Silas could not help but shake his head.
"10,000 points for one rifle."
But he thought about it again.
"I don't know how hard it is to earn points, so it might actually be cheap."
Previously he had been reacting to how high the points sounded, but thinking about it now, it might actually be reasonable.
'Rion, do you have any idea what the conversion between the Academy's points and credits is?' he asked.
"It does not have a specific conversion rate, but it is estimated at 10,000 to 1."
'Turns out I was right, points are really cheap.'
"No, each point costs ten thousand credits," Rion clarified.
'Please, you could have left me to my delusions,' Silas replied with a heavy sigh.
'But seriously, how do they expect us to grow if everything is this expensive?' he wondered.
"Hi."
Just then, Silas heard someone's voice.
He looked up slowly. His face creased in confusion.
He did not know anyone in this place, so the sudden greeting caught him off guard.
But on setting his eyes on the person who had spoken, all his thoughts seemed to melt away.
It was a lady with blue hair that cascaded down her back.
She had big blue eyes that seemed deeper than any ocean, and a face that was perfectly shaped.
She wore a black top and a half-worn jean jacket, and a pair of blue jeans.
On her left side, double sheaths were mounted one above the other.
She looked down at Silas with a stoic expression.
"Hi," Silas replied with a gulp.
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