Chapter 33 Appointment and Bottleneck
[This deployment has ended]

[Actual stay duration: 12 days]

[Resource collection: 514 Star Realm Points]

[Experience log archived, related exploration results recorded in the illustrated handbook]

[Next transit cooldown: 16 hours]

The deployment time has ended. Zhou Jing returned to the transit preparation space, and the panel information refreshed.

"Oh, quite a lot of Star Realm Points this time." Zhou Jing glanced at the statistics and discovered that the income came from killing high-risk aberrant beasts.

In addition, the synchronization rate of his Star Realm Apostle has reached 64%—when exceeding the 50% threshold, the synchronization rate bonus for returning settlement was triggered.

The portion of the synchronization rate exceeding 50% will become an additional bonus. Currently, the resource collection efficiency of this "Jason Wood" Star Realm Apostle is 114%, equivalent to a 14% increase in total income compared to the original.

This deployment was fruitful, allowing the apostle to obtain extraordinary power, enter the hunter circle, and take a solid step.

He planned to spend a few days letting "Jason Wood" develop, mastering the two newly learned Hunter Breathing techniques, and then he could start preparing for the second Alien Blood Enhancement, just like before.

"Things are looking great."

Zhou Jing secretly rejoiced.

He closed the settlement panel and entered the placement setting interface.

[Placement target: Jason Wood]

[Highest synchronization rate record: 64% (Phase 3)]

[Placement income limit: Star Realm Points 940/4000, Information-state income 0/40]

He was already skilled at this, and quickly set up a placement plan, continuing the conservative route of focusing on cultivation, and then left the transit preparation space.

Buzz!

His consciousness shook, and he had returned to his main body.

Zhou Jing opened his eyes, and it was already faintly bright outside the window.

He sat up and opened the panel to check his main body's attributes, and found that his Spirit attribute had increased by 1 point, currently reaching 8 points.

In the past few days, he had confirmed that continuous transits would hone his main body's mental strength. Every time he returned, he felt his mind was clear, seemingly more energetic, and only today had he accumulated enough to officially increase the attribute.

"If it can keep increasing, will my Spirit attribute directly accumulate to an extraordinary level? Or is this because my base Spirit is not high, so it can increase obviously?" Zhou Jing pondered.

It seemed that he was more suited to some super-power systems with Spirit attributes… but there was no choice at the moment.

Zhou Jing had transited several times and was skilled. He sorted out his gains this time, then got up to wash up, ate a simple breakfast, and then exercised according to his plan, learning relevant information.

Every time he returned in the past few days, he devoted his time to exercise and learning, very urgently. On the contrary, most of the time in the alien beast world was more leisurely for him.

From morning to noon, Zhou Jing casually made lunch, dealt with it hastily, and was about to continue seizing the time to study when his phone suddenly rang.

An unknown number called.

Zhou Jing turned his head to look at the phone, waited for it to ring three times, and then slowly picked it up, answered the call, and asked:

"Hello, who is this?"

"Hello, is this Mr. Zhou Jing?"

A soft female voice came from the phone.

An unfamiliar voice… Zhou Jing's eyes darted around.

"This is he, who are you?"

"My name is Cheng Li, I am a staff member of the Interstellar Immigration Bureau of Xihai City Branch. We have received your immigration information declaration. I am calling to confirm it and make an appointment for a visit… Are you available for a video call now?"

"Oh, I see."

Zhou Jing remembered this matter. When he came out of his home, he filled out the mandatory immigration personal information declaration, confirming this quota. According to the regulations, the Immigration Bureau would naturally visit.

He switched to video call mode, and a virtual screen popped up from the phone, displaying the appearance of a woman, precisely Cheng Li who was talking to him.

She looked about thirty years old, quite charming, with a polite and courteous smile on her face, wearing an Immigration Bureau uniform, sitting upright at her desk.

Cheng Li carefully looked at Zhou Jing through the screen, seemingly confirming his identity. After two seconds, she spoke:

"Mr. Zhou Jing, I am very happy to meet you. Before you board the immigration spaceship, I will be responsible for all communication with you. I will now tell you about the pending procedures for immigration, and I hope you take notes."

"Yeah, go ahead." Zhou Jing responded casually.

Cheng Li nodded and said in a soft tone with a smile, "First, conduct telephone and video confirmation. We need to confirm whether the immigration information was declared by yourself."

Zhou Jing raised his eyebrows: "If it is not declared by myself, it doesn't count?"

"Of course not. We must ensure that the applicant is familiar with the meaning of immigration and has not been subjected to any deception, coercion, bewitchment, or instigation, and ensure that the applicant does not have any objections. We have always adhered to the principle of voluntariness. The immigration must be declared voluntarily by the immigrant and confirmed by himself. We will record the video."

Zhou Jing smiled: "It's mandatory immigration, and it's still voluntary?"

Cheng Li's smile remained unchanged: "Yes, this is the regulation. Mandatory immigration must be voluntary."

"Alright, I haven't been coerced, and I know the meaning of immigration, you continue." Zhou Jing shook his head and smiled wryly, feeling ironic.

"Okay." Cheng Li nodded and smiled, "After completing the video confirmation, we need to make an appointment for a face-to-face home visit. The purpose of the visit is to understand your specific situation. I will ask you some questions about your family, education, childhood, etc., as well as your views on your hometown, immigration, and society, in order to make a comprehensive assessment of you. I hope you take it seriously."

Zhou Jing casually responded with an "uh".

He had seen the publicly available Immigration Bureau work process online and knew that this step was necessary. The Immigration Bureau mainly conducts two aspects of assessment on immigrants.

One is to conduct a psychological analysis of the immigrant, checking for mental illness or antisocial personality and assessing potential danger.

Because every time mandatory immigration occurs, a large number of "mentally ill" people emerge, trying to escape by pretending to be crazy.

But in reality, the assessment results have nothing to do with whether or not to immigrate, only affecting the strictness of supervision and management… The Immigration Bureau has a set of solutions for this.

If we find out you're faking it, you'll be locked in a black room after boarding the ship.

If you're really crazy, be good and sleep in a life-support pod, and you can live in a mental hospital on the new planet.

Antisocial personality is great, choose a straitjacket or a life-support pod to spend your time on the immigration spaceship, and you can receive further corrective education after landing, how thoughtful.

In short, the main theme is

—Even those who are going crazy will be immigrating!

Of course, occasionally, some people can't think straight and cause suicide incidents.

As long as it is confirmed that they are really dead, the mandatory immigration quota will be re-selected and transferred to someone else… Anyway, for the Immigration Bureau, it is just a matter of changing a person. There are people, so there is no shortage of choices. As long as someone goes, everyone is fair.

In fact, a long time ago, recruiting interstellar immigrants was easy, and there was no such trouble at all. The public almost rushed to go, and the opportunities to go to other planets might not be available even if they were snatched.

But after so many years of the interstellar development era, many things have changed. One interstellar immigration after another has made this matter no longer new, and many people's mentality has also changed. Compared with going to a strange planet, most people prefer to stay on the already developed colony stars, resulting in a year-by-year decrease in the number of people willing to voluntarily immigrate to other planets.

Extracting immigrants from a colony star, often the first few batches are voluntary applicants, who can easily fill the quota. Later, there will gradually be vacancies, and mandatory immigration needs to be implemented.

There are many records of such news events online.

The other thing to assess is the value and ability of the immigrant, divided into several grades, which is related to the treatment after immigration, basically equivalent to an interview.

Zhou Jing had read the information and knew this process well, nodding: "Okay, then let's make an appointment."

"Okay, are you available five days from now? I will bring staff to visit your home."

"Five days later… okay. Preferably in the morning." Zhou Jing glanced at the date and agreed.

"Okay, we will talk about further procedures in person at that time, and there will be some documents given to you… Then see you then."

Cheng Li hung up the phone with a polite smile.

Zhou Jing curled his lips and threw the phone aside.

He could feel that the Immigration Bureau staff member named Cheng Li sounded gentle, but her attitude was businesslike, just going through the motions.

But this was normal. She was just working. It was estimated that she had to deal with dozens of mandatory immigrants, and one could not expect her to be too concerned.

Zhou Jing recorded the visit time five days later on his schedule, then put the matter behind him and continued to do his own thing.

…

…

Alien Beast World.

In the forest, a group of hunters was quietly advancing, occasionally squatting down to check the surrounding traces, searching for the traces of their target.

"Any discoveries?"

Balon nodded towards Griff, who was squatting on the ground.

Griff shook his head: "I haven't found the whereabouts of that group of Earth Bone Clan."

Weiss leaned on his spear and complained: "We've been wandering in the forest for two days, and haven't found anything. Don't you even know the location of the Earth Bone Clan's lair?"

As he spoke, he turned to look at Zhou Jing.

Zhou Jing was standing aside, wearing a gray-black bear skin armor, with two long knives hanging from his waist, and a stubborn iron heavy knife on his back.

Seeing Weiss looking at him, Zhou Jing waved his hand: "Don't look at me, I've been in Frostwood Village for half a year, and I haven't even seen the shadow of the Earth Bone Clan."

This group was the hunter team of Frostwood Village, including ten Baiyuan City soldiers. Everyone was searching for the whereabouts of the Earth Bone Clan in the Black Shirt Forest.

Three months had passed since Zhou Jing became an aberrant beast hunter, and this Star Realm Apostle had lived in Frostwood Village for half a year.

During this period, Zhou Jing also trained [Hunter Breathing Power] and [Hunter Breathing Swiftness] to lv4 proficiency with the help of the cultivation acceleration function.

Seeing Zhou Jing grow up, Balon gradually felt that the time was ripe, so he finally gathered people and decided to crusade against the Earth Bone Clan and complete his revenge.

The team not only included Zhou Jing, Balon, and Griff, but also pulled in Weiss.

Weiss had lived in Frostwood Village for three months, teaching Zhou Jing the Breathing Technique. He finally understood that Balon hadn't fooled him, and he was also breaking his worldview by Zhou Jing’s fast learning speed, staying dazed for many days.

Two hundred Terra silver coins were also lost, losing to Balon, it was very painful.

Originally, Weiss didn't want to participate in the operation to exterminate the Earth Bone Clan's lair, but Balon said that as long as he participated in the crusade, the two hundred Terra silver coins would be returned to him.

Weiss sneered at this.

——Taking my money to hire me to do things, it’s empty-handed White Wolf.

Hmph, do you really think I agreed for this little money!

I and the Earth Bone Clan are irreconcilable!

In addition to the tough-mouthed and soft-legged Weiss, this time Frostwood Village's visit to the lord finally had a response.

Perhaps seeing that Zhou Jing had solved the aberrant beast threat last time, Luther finally sent ten soldiers to assist Balon and others in exterminating the Earth Bone Clan's lair, who were also in the team at this moment.

Hearing Weiss' complaint, Balon shook his head: "We only know that their lair is nearby, but the specific location is not clear. Those Earth Bone Clan raiders are wandering around, making it difficult to track."

"Okay, okay." Weiss said helplessly.

Everyone gathered together to discuss how to locate the Earth Bone Clan. Zhou Jing did not participate.

He was not particularly good at tracking. He mainly trained direct combat power and had not been further trained in this area.

Zhou Jing quietly opened the panel and looked at it. In addition to the two new Breathing Techniques, the original [Hunter Breathing Forging] had also been upgraded by one level in the past three months, but [Weapon Mastery - Swordsmanship] had not moved and was still lv4.

Moreover, he felt that even if he turned on cultivation acceleration, the efficiency of practicing swordsmanship was not as good as before. It seemed that he had touched the limit of his aptitude and was stuck in a bottleneck.

When a skill reached a certain level, if the aptitude could not keep up, the cultivation speed would be greatly reduced and a bottleneck would be encountered.

His [Swordsmanship] aptitude was green, and it was slow to practice from lv4 - this type of skill aptitude had a significant impact on the skill upgrade efficiency, and even determined the upper limit of the level that could be improved.

Zhou Jing vaguely had a feeling that with this apostle's swordsmanship aptitude, he seemed to be able to upgrade [Weapon Mastery - Swordsmanship] to lv5 or lv6 at most, and it would probably not be possible to upgrade it further.

Like many ordinary people who learn a skill, they start to improve quickly, but after reaching a certain height, there may be no qualitative improvement for decades, just spinning in place. People all have limits, so geniuses or masters who can leave their names are so rare.

"If you want to solve this, you can use achievement rewards to improve the apostle's aptitude… but it's not necessary now. The current level 4 swordsmanship is enough for the time being. It doesn't feel worth it to use achievement rewards just to improve this skill."

Zhou Jing secretly calculated and carefully looked at the current attributes.

[[Hunter Breathing Forging]]

[Current level: lv5- (Instinct)]

[Effect: Physique +4, Resistance +3]

——

[[Hunter Breathing Power]]

[Current level: lv4- (Proficiency)]

[Effect: Physique +1]

——

[[Hunter Breathing Swiftness]]

[Current level: lv4- (Proficiency)]

[Effect: Physique +1]

——

[Current attributes: Physique 29, Resistance 21, Perception 11, Spirit 6, Energy 0]

The two new Hunter Breathing Techniques are mainly for combat, and there is not much increase in attributes. Upgrading significantly enhances the effect when used and can better exert the combat power of the extraordinary physical fitness.

While he was thinking, Ross's positioning in his mind suddenly flickered. He had sent him out to secretly search for the Earth Bone Clan's location, and he had now returned nearby.

Zhou Jing's eyes moved and he said:

"You search here, I'll go take a look nearby."