The Sovereign Veil Chapter 20: Chapter 20: The Ghost Protocol

Read chapter 20 of The Sovereign Veil by GodEmperor on NovelPedia.

"Nerve damage?" Lucian carefully observed the stocky instructor. Even when looking directly at him, Instructor Deng's eyes were aggressively narrowed into a permanent squint. "Incredible!" Instructor Deng stared at Lucian with his contemptuous squint, his face flushed with sheer excitement. "At such a young age, his kinetic output has reached the absolute peak of Tier 1. His combat power is practically bordering on a Tier 2 Innate!" Despite the high praise, Lucian felt deeply uncomfortable. He complained internally that the man should have led with the nerve damage explanation. He had intended to only reveal twenty percent of his power. Instead, the misunderstanding caused him to expose half his hand. It put him in a highly passive position. How was he supposed to maintain a low profile at the academy now? Other proctors rushed over from the adjacent testing bays. They gathered around the shattered titanium column, marveling at the sheer kinetic force required to snap it. "Am I cleared for admission?" Lucian asked, double checking his status. "Outstanding performance. Return home and await your formal draft notice." The female proctor smiled warmly. The Obsidian Vanguard's baseline requirement was age eighteen or under with a stabilized Tier 1 Aether core. If a candidate possessed exceptional genetic talent or a specialized Awakened classification, the threshold could be slightly lowered. Just that standard alone eliminated ninety percent of candidates globally. Most teenagers, even if they Awakened, were merely seedlings. Refining the biological vessel to stabilize at Tier 1 usually required years of grueling kinetic tempering. After Lucian left the testing dome, the proctors conversed in hushed, excited tones. "The recruit quality this cycle is terrifying. We actually secured a top tier physical seed today." "The Pan Asian Zone is producing monsters this year. Just yesterday, that naturally Awakened Catalyst stabilized her telekinetic force field at Mid Tier 1." "Thank the heavens this boy is an Aether Forged. If he were a Psion or a Catalyst, the central military command would be fighting a bloody war over his drafting rights." Lucian exited the testing facility. Without delay, he boarded his waiting corporate aero car and departed. The youth with cropped hair from the commercial flight had wanted to network but entirely missed his window to initiate contact. Lucian still had business in Zenith Capitol regarding his mother's new logistics firm. As the political center of the Pan Asian Zone, Zenith Capitol hosted the exclusive distribution hubs for the Sovereign Apothecary Consortium. For the next two days, Lucian utilized the Black Card to permanently lock down priority supply chains for Evelyn Croft's firm. The moment he flashed the card, the Consortium's Terra Nova General Manager personally chartered a sub orbital flight to receive Lucian, acting as his dedicated concierge throughout the visit. The Black Card was an artifact jointly endorsed by the supreme medical titans of the human factions. The bearer was considered an absolute VIP of the highest order. The local Terra Nova executives did not dare breathe wrong in his presence. As for whether using the Black Card would expose his civilian identity, Lucian had already calculated the risks. Even if Valerius Locke and Bitter Medicine investigated his family, they would logically assume he was a distant, discarded bloodline descendant of Silent Cold Moon left behind on the planet. They might even deliberately assist the Croft family to curry favor with The Primordial's proxy. Lucian had intentionally laid the groundwork for this assumption during his last login to the Void. Furthermore, Lucian had deployed absolute countermeasures. He had spent 500 Aether Points authorizing the Primal AI to execute the Multi Dimensional Information Interference Protocol. For the next six months, any external entity attempting to investigate the Croft family would only access shallow, supe