Chapter 444: Chapter444-Alice’s Decision
The human Awakeners quickly noticed the key point here: so many ruins like these simply couldn’t exist in the world as it is now!
For many human Awakeners, wasn’t this an opportunity laid out right before their eyes?
At that thought, excitement lit their faces; their eyes sparkled.
Even with the Void Tower, most human Awakeners had only reached the demigod stage. Beyond that, only a few lucky ones who possessed a divine seat could continue to climb.
They had all but developed an obsession with obtaining a divine seat. Only by acquiring a divine seat could one step into the demigod rank. Only with a divine seat could one keep advancing.
Just as all the human Awakeners were getting fired up, they received another proclamation from His Majesty Daniel.
[Human Emperor Bulletin — To the Humans and to all Vassal Races][Open enrollment begins: Project Hope selection of candidates]
"Project Hope? What is that? Why have we never heard of it before?"
"No idea. But I can’t shake the feeling it’s related to those divine seats. They’re obviously the most valuable thing we can sense here."
"Wait—suddenly I have a question. If we obtain a divine seat here, does that mean we have to stay here?"
At the same time, Daniel shared an enormous amount of knowledge about this era, as well as the entire content of Project Hope.
So... if we stay, we’ll gain a chance to advance?
Many human Awakeners began to think seriously.
Humanity is now stronger than it has ever been. Virtually all humans have reached the demigod rank. Standing out from among them is an incredibly slim chance.
After all, the number of divine seats is destined to be limited.
But the number of humans has already reached tens of hundreds of billions.
So for many human Awakeners, after becoming demigod rank, there’s simply no road forward. Without a special opportunity, they will go no further.
And once someone has tasted the flavor of hope, it’s hard to return to mediocrity.
So... should they remain in this era?
Even if they accidentally died here, His Majesty Daniel could still resurrect them twenty thousand years later. They weren’t worried about dying for good; on the contrary, many Awakeners were itching to try.
Moreover, in Project Hope, His Majesty Daniel offered quite a few preferential terms. For ordinary Awakeners, those terms were simply beyond imagination!
Morris made up his mind and immediately registered.
Yet when he saw the number of applicants, he went completely numb.
Wait... it’s this cutthroat?
[Project Hope: Number of recruits — 1,000,000][Project Hope: Current number of applicants — 80,000,000,000]
????
Morris had thought he’d already overestimated the number of applicants as much as possible. But when he saw that figure, his face was still full of disbelief.
And this is only the sign-up count! How is it this insanely competitive?
Suddenly, Morris felt his prospects were very bleak.
...
The reason Daniel set the quota at one million wasn’t that he didn’t want to take in more—it was that, according to the results of his Mental Deduction, one million was the optimal number.
As a result, the humans and their vassal races—together numbering in the trillions—were all competing for those one million slots.
The difficulty was nothing short of a needle-in-a-haystack!
Daniel continued his Mental Deduction, but this time he targeted the screening of suitable people.
After countless iterations, he finally selected one million fortunate candidates. He then opened a portal and sent these one million to the wasteland.
One million humans from the future stepped onto the soil of twenty thousand years ago.
They looked around, amazement written on their faces.
"So this is twenty thousand years in the past? It really is desolate!"
"Never thought the day would come when fantasy becomes reality—we’ve actually returned to the past!"
"This is great—I’m one of the lucky ones!"
Snapping out of it, the human Awakeners threw up their arms and cheered at the top of their lungs.
After the cheers faded, each of them caught their breath. Then, as if by agreement, they all looked up at the figure in the sky.
His Majesty Daniel. That was His Majesty Daniel!
"Great His Majesty Daniel, what would you have us do?"
Hearing the call of the human Awakeners, Daniel nodded and conveyed to them the latter half of Project Hope.
Though it was only a very brief introduction, determination still appeared on their faces.
"What you need to do should be clear to you now," he said. "Aside from the tasks of Project Hope, the rest of your time is yours to act freely. On a day in the future, we will be waiting to welcome you back.
"I hope that by then, all of you will have grown into beings strong enough to protect humanity."
Daniel hovered in midair with a gentle smile.
Just then, a devout prayer rose from the depths of his heart.
"Great Lord Crossbridge, I pray to You."
Daniel paused—he realized he hadn’t heard a devotee’s prayer in what felt like a long time.
But on second thought, it made sense. Though his subjective experience made it feel as if a long time had passed, in the real world it had only been a few days since the Awakening Ceremony.
So... Alice’s prayer was perfectly normal.
An instant later, Daniel’s figure appeared upon the throne of the Infinite Divine Temple.
"Speak your petition."
Prostrate upon the floor, Alice spoke with solemn reverence:
"Great Lord Crossbridge, I wish to remain in this era.
"These past days, I’ve felt I no longer have any value. I want to improve myself."
This thought had arisen in Alice mainly because, in the previous battle against Fleshheart, she had been of little use and had needed protection instead. As the first devotee of Lord Crossbridge’s divine seat, Alice was dissatisfied with her performance.
She had even felt guilty about it for a long time—up to this very moment.
Daniel didn’t need to use Psychic Perception to know what was truly in her heart. Alice had always been strong-willed.
After a brief silence, he spoke slowly:
"Alice, if you choose to remain in this era, then the God Rank Skills I granted you will all become unusable.
"You must consider this very carefully."