"Sir. What are we going to do next?" Ethan asked.

"I need you two to maintain a close watch on this store but do not touch it yet. We’ll see how it grows first, and I’m sure someone will try to sabotage or even take over something like this because of their greed. At that time, the country will step in and take action against those people.

"At the very least, this way, whoever is behind that store will know that we’re on their side. We’ll gradually develop a connection with him, and once the time is right, we’ll set up the meeting.

"The National Cyber Security will try to protect his privacy, especially against other countries that are trying to get him."

Cynthia couldn’t help but ask, "But sir, we do not have to be scared. In the worst-case scenario, we can ask Sir Joker to take action. There’s no way the Evolution Association can do anything about it."

"He won’t make a move. I know that, but you don’t know that." President Gulkhas glared at her. "So, stick to your orders."

"I...understand." Cynthia lowered her head.

"Go." President Gulkhas waved his hand, gesturing that they were dismissed.

Once they had left, President Gulkhas moved to his desk and looked at the phone. "Who should I call? The minister of education, the minister of health, who else?"

"I need the minister of health to conduct a series of research to determine whether these techniques are safe to use. If they’re truly safe to use, I can ask for a license from this mysterious owner. This way, the minister of education can use it to raise the younger generation’s quality."

President Gulkhas had a clear plan. He established the connection by using Ethan and Cynthia.

It would then open up a chance to implement the techniques nationwide, which would be applied through the Ministry of Education.

It would benefit the country while minimizing the risk. He was, of course, curious about this owner, but the other party had yet to show any harm.

Of course, he might have to conduct a private investigation to handle this matter as well, but if he were careless about it, he might end up damaging their relationship.

As Chief Lucas said, the other party could leave the country. If the mysterious person demanded that the country he resided in not interfere with his life, they would surely accept.

Other countries would definitely be willing to beg on their knees to ask their unique-element evolution master to help their unique-element experts.

Hence, this matter was extremely delicate. He had to maintain balance instead of being an authoritarian.

"Still, we don’t know whether this is actually harming the people or if the research leading to this technique is actually harmful." President Gulkhas sighed. "I first need to classify this as top secret. This is going to be a headache, but I guess I have no choice."

President Gulkhas ended up calling a few people to discuss these matters, while carefully approaching the matter.

...

Meanwhile, the person who caused all his headaches was actually playing rock-paper-scissors.

"What? How did you do that? How could I not beat you?" Arina gasped. "Are you cheating?"

"Cheating? Tell me, how do I cheat?" Auric chuckled.

"Kh." Arina couldn’t really see how Auric was cheating.

"What are you two doing?" Ellia looked at them with a confused expression, as she had just finished brewing her tea.

"Oh, Miss, it’s nothing. We’re just playing this little game, and somehow I’ve lost twenty times in a row." Arina sighed.

Ellia shook her head. "Whatever. So, what are you doing here, Auric?"

"I’ve come to talk to you about the matter I told you about earlier."

"Huh?" Arina hadn’t heard about this matter, so she turned to Ellia, wondering if she was going to explain.

Ellia looked up as if she were trying to recall the matter. "Oh. The one you said back then?"

"Yeah." Auric nodded.

"I see. What do you need?" Ellia had agreed before, so she didn’t push him away.

"Well..." Auric smiled wryly.

"Okay." Ellia nodded, put her tea cup on her desk, and pushed Arina’s back. "Arina. Sorry, but can you go out for a minute?"

"W-What? What’s going on?" Arina was dumbfounded, not knowing why she got kicked out.

"Just go outside please."

"Fine, fine. Are you really not going to tell me what it’s about?"

"Sorry, but I can’t do that."

Arina sighed and decided to walk by herself.

Once she closed the door, Ellia walked back while asking, "Tea?"

"No, it’s fine." Auric waved his hand.

"Have you made a breakthrough on this project of yours? No, in the first place, didn’t you tell me that you would probably have a clue after your evolution? Don’t tell me... you’ve actually evolved?" Ellia raised her eyebrows.

Auric took out his silver badge. "Just my lightning element."

Ellia was speechless. This was the first time she had seen someone evolve this fast. "All right. What do you need from me? I’ve promised to cooperate, so just tell me. If possible, I also want to hear the explanation first before we begin the experiment."

"Of course." Auric nodded. "The project is called Artificial Heart. To put it simply, it is a technique that creates an additional mechanism that will allow you to absorb more energy."

Ellia thought for a moment. "Is it not the same as the gathering technique? It helps people to absorb more energy, right?"

"No, it’s different. Gathering techniques help absorb the energy, but they have a limit. For example, it’s true that when absorbing the energy, you will be able to absorb more, but your body won’t be able to retain all energy because of your affinity."

"Yes. You’re taught that the affinity is like a screen with holes. The energy flowing into your heart from absorbing the element will enter through the holes and stick to your affinity." Ellia already learned this on campus.

"Indeed. When you don’t absorb energy from material, the gathering technique will simply let the energy from the air enter your body and remain inside of the screen."

"Meanwhile, if you absorb energy from the material, the gathering technique is like stuffing something that has leaked out of the screen. It’s like absorbing energy twice, but there’s a limit to how much it can do." Ellia had already understood this part.

"On the other hand, what I’m trying to do is create an artificial screen within your heart. If gathering techniques are like catching a fish by throwing your net twice, these artificial hearts work like catching fish by throwing two nets at once. It is similar, but they’re not the same."

Ellia crossed her arms. "I can get the gist of the idea, but how are you going to do that? After all, artificial hearts are supposed to be permanent, right? It will be different for gathering techniques."

"Indeed." Auric nodded.

"So, can you actually do it? I mean, after evolution, the flow of our energy will become different, right? Does your method allow us to maintain it even after we evolve?" Ellia was worried about this. If what changed at this stage affected her future, she might actually regret it.

Auric smiled. "I have a solution."

...

A few hours ago.

"Huuu..." Auric let out a long breath, trying to calm himself down. "This is quite hard."

"Of course, it’s hard. In the future, there will come a day when you will need to hide your presence. In that case, you first need to calm down almost immediately and blend your presence into your surroundings." Maya crossed her arms. "It looks like you need to run again."

"Okay." Even though it was hard, Auric immediately followed her instructions.

"By the way, did you get something good?" Maya asked.

"Something good? Why?"

"Nothing. It looks like you have more energy today, so something good must have happened to you."

"Do I look that easy to read?" Auric chuckled. "Well, you’re right. I just got a clue to what I’m looking for, but I still need to patch the missing link."

"Want to tell me about it?"

"Hmm..." Auric thought for a moment. After returning from the conference, he went to his store to gather more data about the evolution of avatars in baby form. He had seen a few people at the conference, but with more data, he was able to make a more accurate assessment.

After considering the information, he thought revealing a portion of it to Maya would be fine. "I’m thinking about how our energy flows."

"Don’t you already know about that?" Maya tilted her head. Auric had mentioned it previously and even proved it.

Auric waved his hand. "No. I’m talking about how they’re absorbed and thrown away."

"Hmm..." Maya carefully considered her words before answering, "You can imagine the solar panel. The beasts have cut us off from most energy sources, so we’re relying heavily on solar panels and materials obtained from beasts right now.

"For the materials, we’re simply throwing the parts everyone doesn’t need and extracting the energy to get electricity. However, the current technology is still not that effective, so we’re using solar panels.

"Solar panels can describe what you are thinking. The energy flows into your heart. The affinity will act like a solar panel and absorb that energy, but it has an efficiency factor, which is similar to the grade of our affinity.

"The energy that can’t be captured by solar panels will turn into heat and get reflected away."

"Solar panels?" Auric halted his steps as he had never used this analogy. If he thought about it, solar panels might actually be the ones he had been searching for.

Auric thought, ’Now that I think about it, the affinity is indeed similar to the solar panels. If that’s the case, how are we going to increase the efficiency?

’The affinity is like a screen with holes in it. The energy will flow inside, get absorbed, and the excess will flow back out through the same holes. The gathering technique makes the energy flow back for secondary absorption.

’However, this is not a way to increase efficiency. What if I add another screen? No, the energy will just hit the second screen and bounce off. In that case, I need a new system.

’It will function as a screen, but it is actually a system that is linked directly to the heart. In this scenario, the biggest challenge will be how to make it permanent because the energy will become stronger and a bit different after evolution.’

Auric ended up facing another problem, which he couldn’t solve.

"What’s wrong?" Maya tilted her head in confusion.

"No, I’m just wondering how you even generalize the energy from the baby-form avatar all the way to the highest form of an avatar. Can you actually do that?"

"No." Maya shook her head. "Are you going to create more gathering techniques? Especially the higher-level ones? Aren’t you supposed to be upgrading them?"

"Up..." Auric’s body shook. ’Upgrade them. That’s right. All I have to do is upgrade them. No, I just have to create an upgradeable system.’

Auric gasped. Suddenly, the ruins they visited flashed in his mind. It was as if the image was trying to remind him that the answer had always been in front of him.

"Having the ruins inside your body..." Auric muttered before a huge smile appeared on his face. "Teacher, I love you!"

"W-What?" Maya was startled.

"Please give me the rest of the day off. I have something to do!" Auric waved his hand while running away.

Maya tilted her head in confusion and scratched the back of her head. For whatever reason, it looked like Auric had found an answer he was looking for.

"What is he planning this time? After finding out that he’s a unique-element evolution master and the creator of the gathering techniques..." Maya let out a sigh. "Maybe I should get insurance before he gives me a heart attack with his creation."

...

Auric spent that time working together with Lindwurm to create a working system. Once he understood the whole concept, working out the details wasn’t that hard.

He had already gotten everything he needed in the first place. He just didn’t know how to link them before.

Now that he had found his answer, Auric smiled at Ellia. "Let me tell you about the Artificial Heart Method."