「On the morning of the third day.」

"Commander, the final batch of ’Standard Patrol Golem Power Core - Type III’ has been packaged."

Jarvis’s voice rang in Allen’s mind. "All 500 sets of Type-V joint modules have passed quality inspection, with a tolerance three times tighter than the blueprint’s specifications. The 200 Type-III power cores have a combined energy output stability error rate of 0.12%, far below the 0.5% required by the blueprints."

The results were as expected.

For Cybertron, which could now produce Level 3 Golems, taking on a D-rank production task like this was complete overkill.

Allen sat in his study at Deep Blue Residence. He used his personal terminal to submit the delivery request through the Association’s internal system.

A prompt immediately appeared on the light screen.

[Task PR-2291 has been submitted.]

[Standard Timeframe: 240 hours. Actual Time Taken: 68 hours. Completed 172 hours ahead of schedule.]

He walked into the courtyard and transferred the dozens of packaged standard transport crates directly from the Cybertron Workshop onto the teleportation Array. With a flash of light, the cargo vanished.

Using the teleportation Array in his courtyard was one of the accepted delivery methods; the Association’s logistics system would handle the rest.

Less than twenty minutes later, his personal terminal chimed and a new notification popped up.

[Task PR-2291 has been received. Inspection passed.]

[Quality Rating: Excellent.]

[Task Reward Issued: 180 Mid-Level Magic Stones, 1 Credit Point.]

[Note: The recipient has sent a private message.]

Allen opened the message.

"The precision of this batch of parts far exceeds our expectations. The wear resistance test results for the joint modules are over 30% better than the standard product. Would you be willing to accept a long-term order? We can offer a premium."

With a light tap of his finger, Allen replied with four words.

"Happy to work together."

At the same time, a new system message popped up on the Association’s internal system.

[Efficient Fulfillment: Priority Recommendations for Production Tasks]

’Huh? It’s that advanced? It even has a recommendation algorithm?’

Allen found the explanation for the task recommendation system.

The recommendation ranking was strongly correlated with four metrics: total accumulated Credit Points, task completion rate, task completion speed and quality, and client evaluations.

"Investigators with high overall ratings gain ’priority viewing access’ and ’priority acceptance rights’ for high-value tasks when the list refreshes."

The strong get stronger.

The top-ranked Investigators got first dibs on the prime jobs. Only after they had picked them clean did the scraps trickle down to everyone else.

"If you continue to accept D-rank and C-rank production tasks at your current efficiency, your overall rating should enter the top 30% of the Level 2 Investigator rankings within an estimated 95 days," DSeek provided with precise analysis.

Allen stroked his chin. The task recommendation system was actually quite beneficial for him.

He continued to filter the task list.

[Task ID: PR-2305 | Type: Production | Difficulty: C-Rank | Details: Produce 2,000 sets of standard external armor plating for the defense Golems at the Plane 12 outpost | Timeframe: 20 days | Reward: 320 Mid-Level Magic Stones + 2 Credit Points.]

[Task ID: PR-2319 | Type: Production | Difficulty: D-Rank | Details: Produce 200 power components for micro-prospecting drones | Timeframe: 12 days | Reward: 150 Mid-Level Magic Stones + 1 Credit Point.]

[Task ID: PR-2321 | Type: Production | Difficulty: D-Rank | Details: Produce 50 part kits for repair and replacement (containing 77 types of components) | Timeframe: 10 days | Reward: 80 Mid-Level Magic Stones + 0.5 Credit Points.]

Confirm. Confirm. Confirm.

He accepted three more production tasks in a row.

"Jarvis, schedule production."

"Command received. Utilizing production lines two through ten, all three tasks will be processed simultaneously. Estimated total time to completion is 235 hours, or 9.8 days."

---

Becoming an employee of a large organization brought an unprecedentedly stable rhythm to Allen’s life.

Every morning, Allen would stand for a moment on the open-air balcony on the third floor of E-071.

The dawn on the Great Library Plane possessed a peculiar beauty.

At the instant the first ray of sunlight touched the horizon, tens of thousands of giant, glowing jellyfish on the sea’s surface would simultaneously retract their light, sinking into the deep like a reverse meteor shower, leaving behind only a shimmering expanse of shattered gold.

He would use these few short minutes to completely empty his mind, performing no analysis and making no calculations.

Afterward, he would go to the restaurant at the Association’s headquarters for a meal. He could go for months without eating, but the restaurant’s food was so delicious and affordable that it felt like a crime against his own stomach not to go.

The restaurant, located in the basement of the administrative building, was astonishingly large and could seat three hundred people. The menu featured specialty dishes from the dozens of planes the Association traded with, and all payments were settled in Magic Stones.

Allen always chose the same spot in a corner by the window.

As he cut into a steak from some unknown Magical Beast, he would scan his surrounding "colleagues" from the corner of his eye.

’That tall Bloodline Wizard... the scales on his left arm look strange, as if he’s suppressing a bloodline rejection reaction.’

’That Contract Wizard with the delicate features... across from him sits a cloaked humanoid creature whose energy fluctuations rival those of a veteran Second-level Wizard.’

’The Female Wizard eating alone in the corner... her Spiritual Power fluctuations are like a pool of bottomless, stagnant water, restrained to the absolute limit. She’s probably an expert in Mind Witchcraft.’

’A purely professional habit for a Wizard.’

He soon discovered an interesting phenomenon.

Of the hundreds of Wizards who frequented the restaurant, only a tiny fraction were identifiably from the Alchemy School, just slightly more than those from the Bloodline School.

Most Investigators were either solo-combat or exploration-research types from the Witchcraft School.

They excelled at entering unfamiliar planes, battling unknown Magical Beasts, exploring ruins, and retrieving high-value samples. Their diverse skill sets perfectly matched the Association’s core business.

Alchemy Wizards, especially those who specialized in Golems, were extremely scarce here; Allen had only seen one other.

After all, most Golem Wizards chose to work for the Ring City Alliance, so the level of competition for production tasks here was far lower than for combat and exploration tasks.

It was, one could say, a blue ocean market.

When he walked through the public areas, other Investigators would occasionally brush past him. Most would simply offer a polite nod of acknowledgment and then go on their way, with no further interaction.

To a Wizard, small talk was an extremely inefficient form of social interaction. Cooperation and transactions were the only two mainstream modes.

But Allen also keenly perceived that a few gazes lingered on the badge on his chest for more than a second.

The "EX" prefix in the badge number "EX-8071" was an indicator only veteran Investigators would recognize, signifying a specially scouted, high-potential talent.

It meant trouble, but it also meant value.

「Ten days later.」

The three tasks were completed on schedule. Packaged, teleported, received, confirmed.

[Quality Rating: Excellent, Excellent, Excellent.]

On Allen’s personal terminal, his Credit Point balance had gone from 0 to 4.5.

"DSeek, update the earnings model."

[Model updated. Based on your current task types and completion efficiency, your average monthly Credit Point earnings are stable at 12 to 15 points, for an annual total of approximately 150 points.]

[To unlock the 247 key technologies in the "Short-Term Goals" knowledge base, a total of 4,980 Credit Points are required. Estimated time to completion: 33.2 years.]

This pace was already much faster than that of an ordinary Level 2 Investigator. Wizards from other schools were even less efficient at acquiring Credit Points from investigation and combat tasks.

They didn’t have a portable workshop like Cybertron, ten automated production lines, or a Jarvis to handle quality control.

But Allen’s brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

’More than thirty years... that’s still too long.’

"DSeek, based on this model, how long would it take to acquire all the knowledge needed to manufacture a mid-range Puppet?"

[Approximately three months.]

"And the ’Demiplane Expansion Technology’?"

[Approximately five and a half years.]

"What if the goal is to ascend to Morning Star?"

DSeek fell silent for 0.3 seconds.

[Conclusion: Relying purely on D-rank and C-rank production tasks for initial accumulation, your efficiency curve will hit a bottleneck after one year. Extrapolating from this model, the estimated time to accumulate all knowledge and resources required to ascend to Morning Star is—three hundred and forty years.]

The ceiling for D-rank and C-rank tasks was laid out clearly before him.

Cybertron’s production advantage had already been maxed out at this tier. No matter how much he improved his efficiency, the Credit Point cap for a D-rank task was fixed.

’If I want to speed things up, it looks like the only option is to take on higher-rank tasks.’