[Intergalactic: Online 16]

Creed was shocked by the words [Evolution-System]. After all, he hadn't ever seen such a thing in the game before. However, Rea quickly fell onto one knee at that moment, slightly surprising Creed.

"I, Rea Waters of LH-City, hereby pledge to be your follower for as long as I shall live. With the great path as my witness, your enemies shall be my enemies, and your goals shall be my goals. This, I swear!" Rea said in an almost scripted tone, making Creed wonder if she had been compelled to do so by the interface.

Creed quickly helped Rea up and patted her shoulder with a smile while accepting her oath, but inside, Creed was looking through his interface for the details of this new system.

[Evolution System]

[No suitable evolutionary materials found]

Creed was confused while looking at the interface. 'What evolutionary materials is it looking for?. Also, what am I evolving, myself?' Creed thought to himself. He didn't have the answers to these questions but was eager to find out.

"Welcome, Rea. I'm sure we will achieve great things together!" Creed said with a smile while patting Rea's shoulder.

"But, I don't plan on staying on this planet for long, so are you sure that you want to come with me?" Creed asked curiously. Rea had a life before him, so Creed didn't understand how she was so willing to drop everything and follow him. Creed asked the question to see if something was compelling Rea to act this way or if this was just her will.

"I understand. I would have died a long time ago without your help, so I'm willing to follow you wherever you go..." Rea said without blinking.

"Even if it means leaving your family behind?..." Creed asked with a dumbfounded expression.

Rea nodded her head solemnly, making Creed shudder. Creed quickly checked her NPC interface to see if there was some debuff making her say all this and was shocked by what he saw.

[Human-Female (F-Rank)]

[Path: Close Combatant (Novice)]

[Status: Creed's Follower]

[Combat Ability: 8/10]

[Intelligence: 6/10]

[Loyalty: 10/10]

'Since when is this a thing?', Creed thought in shock. This was the first time he had ever seen such an interface. Typically, one couldn't see NPC's stats in a numerical format unless you used the appropriate testing equipment in a lab, yet here it was, in front of his face.

Creed also noticed that the stats were not the same as those in the game that would show traditional MMO information like strength, speed, and health. The statistics he was seeing were a lot more abstract and difficult to measure, especially loyalty.

This had been an issue that many players faced within the game. In the early days of the game, when competition for competent Ranked-NPCs between Commander-players was high, there was rampant poaching of companions through bribes for better rewards and positions.

Each NPC had free will, so the players couldn't actually force them to do stay, even if they had spent considerable resources on them. This is when formal employer-employee contracts started being signed, forcing players to go into negotiations to get the services of competent NPCs while paying them accordingly.

'But, if I can see the NPC's loyalty like this, doesn't this mean that I won't have to worry about NPC betrayals?...,' Creed thought to himself in excitement. If this was the case, then he really had a massive cheat. He could easily weed out the less loyal of his followers while leaving only the most trustworthy and zealous.

Creed looked over at Rea's maxed loyalty rating and now knew that this was why she seemed so being so overly passionate about following him.

"Good, then I will tell you my plans for the future!" Creed said with excitement as dozens of ideas popped into his mind. Rea nodded her head in excitement as she listened.

"First, we need to make money. Lots and lots of money!" Creed said with a smile. In this universe, power meant freedom, but the quickest and most efficient way to gain power, was to have an insurmountable amount of money, so Creed's main goal had to be to make as much money as possible.

"Once you have the money, what will you do?" Rea asked curiously. She had the feeling that Creed's ambitions didn't end at just money.

"Well, once we have enough money, we'll join the Federation Army..." Creed said thoughtfully. However, Rea seemed confused.

After all, most rich people did their best to avoid being conscripted, yet Creed would join the Army willingly?. This didn't make sense to her.

"I can't go into too much detail now, but joining the Federation Army will be the quickest way to get to our next goal: gaining power and competent followers, " Creed said while placing his arms behind his back.

This was essential information given to most starting players in the game. Make some money and then join the Federation Army. One could get high-quality genetic augmentations for meager prices within the Federation Army since they could be supplemented with military merit points.

A player could easily make 1-2 years' worth of progress in a few months by simply joining the military and quickly moving up the ranks to unlock better procedures.

Creed had actually spent 20 in-game years fighting for the Federation Army, thanks to the time acceleration technology that had a 1:12 time ratio. This meant one year in-game was the equivalent to one month in the real world. This helped with the long-distance travel between planets as players could just log off and come back in a few hours, having made days' worth of travel progress.

This meant Creed's eight years of playing was equivalent to 96 years in-game, so spending a few months in the military was not too big for most players.

"So you're joining the army to recruit?" Rea asked, to which Creed nodded his head.

"Something like that. Anyway, you'll see when we get there. I promise to explain more as we go, but we need to get moving. Who knows when the next army draft will be, so we have to be ready and have enough money to survive in that place", Creed said as memories flashed back into his mind.

The military was not unlike the outside world, where access to resources could either make or break you, so Creed had to be as prepared as possible.

"Understood," Rea said while giving a salute. She had a feeling that her decision to follow Creed would lead her to unimaginable heights, based on everything she had seen him do up to this point, and she was willing to follow him wholeheartedly to see if this was true.

"Haha, no need to be so formal. Firstly, we need to start a business. Something simple that won't draw too much attention to us", Creed said as he fell into deep thought.

"Do you have anything in mind?" Rea asked while watching Creed pace back and forth.

"I do, actually. I have the recipe for a special kind of seasoning. If we add that to your mother's fantastic cooking, I think we'll have ourselves a hit. We can easily turn this restaurant into the place to be, and I'll get a small portion of the profits from each meal sold", Creed said with a grin.

"Wait, your idea is to use my family's restaurant?" Rea asked in confusion. She initially assumed that Creed would veer toward starting up a mercenary company or hiring himself out for assassinations, yet he chose to go into the restaurant business instead?.

"Yea, we have a location, staff, and an existing business model. All we need to do now is drive growth", Creed said with a chuckle as he headed upstairs to discuss it with Tea and Pea. Rea was still dumbfounded but quickly followed him upstairs.