Worldwide Class Change: Minimal Effort, Maximum Reward!

A vast blue display that materialized in the sky above the expanse and expanded until it was visible from every island, every fragment, every location across the entire space simultaneously. Not just visible to Lin Yi. Visible to everyone. A public interface, open to all sixty million registered hunters who had entered any version of this space anywhere in the world, each one seeing the same display in whatever language their system was registered to.

The text appeared in sequence, each line arriving after the previous with the weight of something being formally declared.

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[THE RULES OF HEAVEN]

[Welcome, hunters of the mortal world, to the Allheaven Expanse.]

[This space is an extension of the Heavenly Dao’s will, made accessible for a period it has determined appropriate, for purposes it has determined worthy.]

[The path to Sub-Class Awakening is singular.]

[Scattered across the ten thousand islands of this expanse are Celestial Jades. They exist in all locations. In the ruins of fallen palaces, in the depths of caves that pierce through island surfaces, in the possession of the spirit beasts and ancient entities that have inhabited this space since before your world opened its first gate.]

[The Celestial Jade does not reward strength alone. It rewards comprehension. Each jade contains a fragment of dao insight — a piece of understanding that the Heavenly Dao has encoded into physical form. To hold a jade is to begin absorbing that fragment. To absorb it fully is to be changed by it.]

[Collection is the mechanism. Comprehension is the condition. Awakening is the outcome.]

[The hunter who collects the most Celestial Jades across the duration of this event and absorbs their contained insight most completely will stand at the threshold of Sub-Class Awakening. When the event concludes, those who have gathered sufficient jade and absorbed sufficient insight will be offered the final step.]

[The event duration is three months.]

[All hunters present in this space, in any of the simultaneously active instances worldwide, participate in the same collection. The jade count is global. The ranking is global. The threshold for awakening is global.]

[Spirit beasts and ancient entities are guardians. They do not attack without provocation. But they protect jades in their possession with the full measure of their capability.]

[Other hunters may be engaged directly. Jades held by a defeated hunter may be claimed by the victor. This is permitted.]

[There are no other rules.]

[The Heavenly Dao observes.]

[Three months begin now.]

[BEGIN]

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The blue interface held for three seconds after the final word appeared. Then it dissolved, the sky returning to its constellation-filled expanse as though the display had never been there.

For approximately two seconds, the entire space was completely silent.

Then it wasn’t.

The hunters across the thousands of visible islands reacted simultaneously in thousands of different ways. Some moved immediately, their decision already made before the rules finished appearing. Some stayed still, processing, calculating the implications of a three-month competition for a global jade count with direct combat between hunters permitted. Some looked at the sky where the interface had been as though it might return with additional clarification.

From various locations across the visible islands, Lin Yi could hear the beginning of the noise. Not panic. Something more electric than panic. The specific frequency of sixty million people who had just been told that the most significant opportunity in a hundred and fifty years was real, had specific rules, and had just started.

Long Tianyu was already moving his gaze across the terrain, mapping, planning. His dragon aura expanded slightly, the translucent form circling outward as he activated his perception range.

"Three months," he said. "Global ranking. Direct combat permitted." He looked at Lin Yi. "The major guilds are going to treat this as a warfare scenario. Every large organization worldwide is going to mobilize their full strength toward jade collection."

"I know," Lin Yi said.

"The spirit beasts on the larger islands will have significant jade concentrations," Long Tianyu continued. "But the guardian quality will match the jade quantity. The thunder dragon." He looked upward. "A jade concentration that size, guarded by something that caliber." He paused. "Most hunters in this space won’t be able to approach it."

Lin Yi looked toward the upper sky where the thunder dragon had last been visible.

"Most," Long Tianyu said, with the particular emphasis of someone making a distinction rather than a generalization.

Lin Yi looked at him.

Long Tianyu met his gaze. "Whatever level you actually are," he said, "this environment was built to scale. The original event one hundred and fifty years ago produced no confirmed awakenings. The hunters of that era didn’t have the training framework, or the level development that the current generation has."

Lin Yi looked back at the expanse. Thousands of floating islands. Ten thousand by the rules. Three months. A global ranking that included every hunter in every instance of this space worldwide. Direct combat permitted. The most significant event in registered hunter history, and it had started thirty seconds ago.

His system was running. The amplification was active. The Celestial Lord Blade was at his side. Level 120, Strength 812, the full accumulated capability of every decision he had made since an E-Rank Laborer class appeared in a room full of people who found it funny.

He looked at Long Tianyu. "I’ll see you inside," he said.

Long Tianyu nodded once. "Collect everything you can reach," he said.

Lin Yi stepped forward off the stone fragment he had been standing on, onto the first of the bridges between islands, and began moving.

The three months had started.

And the Allheaven Expanse was waiting.

*****

A/N: Thanks for everyone who is reading, I have listened to every complaint and amended any inconsistency. I’m planning a mass Chapter release, if you want to support the effort, gifts and golden tickets will be appreciated.

For gifts:

1 Dragon = 5 Chapters

1 Magic Castle = 10 Chapters

Above Castle = 15 Chapters

Also reviews will be appreciated, and I don’t delete reviews, I read them and improve