Chapter 25 President of the Federation

　　Main's heavy bet immediately sent Anse's value soaring, and with it his ranking. It jumped from its original sixth place to second, just behind Allen.

　　"Two tons of platinum is hopefully not in your private coffers, Mr. Main." Horn looked to the butler and nodded.

　　"Alan, two tons of platinum." The butler held up two fingers and said.

　　Main's face immediately sank, Horn had been keeping a low profile since he had been politically suppressed by him twenty years ago, and even the family ranking had slipped. But today, it was like he was clearly going against himself. He frowned, and with his shrewdness, he couldn't figure out why. In the previous Death Rings, there was no shortage of powerful families who had thrown money at a certain player, but it was rare to see a teenager invest thirty million dollars like Horn did.

　　"Anse, two tons of platinum." Maine raised her hand, again throwing in a heavy bet.

　　At this moment, all the public trust platforms of the federal government on the floating island were constantly refreshing the value of Allen and Anse. Behind the fierce competition between the two teenagers' ranking scores, many people could see that there was a big person making big moves behind the scenes, which caused a portion of the people to follow the trend of betting on these two teenagers as well, and so the scores of the two people were changing almost by the second.

　　Horn's face didn't change, and he once again scowled at the butler.

　　"Alan, two additional tons of platinum." The butler said immediately.

　　The banquet hall was silent, the Beskold, who had been silent for twenty years, actually made a heavy bet of fifty million federal coins for a terrestrial teenager, which definitely set a new record for individual bets in all the Death Rings. Now, the aristocrats in the hall all fell on Mein with a watchful gaze, they were all searching for whether Mein would continue to raise the stakes upwards.

　　Mein's forehead had already seeped out fine beads of sweat, four tons of platinum was already the largest amount of money he could use within his authority. If he wanted to continue to increase the size, he would need to pass the family council's consent. Although he is the patriarch, but also can not be carefree.

　　"Five tons of platinum, Mr. Horn, I'm puzzled. With your family's current situation is it able to come up with this huge amount, it won't be a blank check, right?" Mein forced a smile and said.

　　Butler Hessing drew out a check expressionlessly and handed it to Altais next to him, "This is a bearer check from the Beskold family, with a withdrawal limit of exactly fifty million dollars. Mr. Althais can use the check to collect five tons of platinum from our family treasury in a few days, or directly offset it as well."

　　As Artax took the check from the butler, Horn looked to his still-young rival and said, "Does Mr. Main want to keep raising the stakes?"

　　Mei Yin took out a handkerchief from his jacket pocket and wiped the sweat, "No, I'm a businessman. It would be too irrational to bet money on a project where the returns won't even equal the principal just for the sake of gambling."

　　Turning toward Artax again, he said, "I'll have my secretary bring the check over later."

　　"I have something else to do, so I'll take my leave." Mein resumed his previous demeanor, but anyone could see that he no longer had the condescension he had when he entered the door earlier. On his way out, he turned back and took Horn's shoulder like an old friend, slightly lowering his body and said, "For the sake of being a friend for many years, Mr. Horn. I have to remind you that Bethcord may have deep roots. But in the younger generation, I don't see any capable successors at all. If after Mr. Horn, there's no more rivals for Bethcord, I'm going to be quite lonely."

　　After saying that, he laughed and left.

　　Horn reached up and dusted his shoulders, his gaze falling on Alan's avatar, and said in a voice that only he could hear, "Fool, the future of Bethcord is here. It won't be long before you gain a formidable foe, dear Main Alexander!"

　　Just to the left of the banquet hall, there was a small private room. On the wall of one side of the private room was a coated SLR glass, people in the private room, but was able to see what happened in the banquet hall. At the moment, there was a tall, well-built man standing right next to the SLR glass window. Under the rare short black hair was a European face. The deep outline was like the statue of David under Michelangelo's carving knife, the black pupils, the high nose and a circle of well-groomed beard at the chin all emphasized the man's unique majestic temperament of a superior person.

　　In the banquet hall, men generally wore decent suits. However, this man was wearing a military uniform and boots, with white gloves on his hands and a lightweight sword on his waist. The sword's scabbard was a white-gold color, decorated with a dark gold pattern. The cuirass and the hilt were silver-white, the polished metal reflecting the other figure next to it.

　　"This old thing, Horn, is rarely stern today. Poor Main was still trying to pick up the slack, and when he bit down, he realized that the bone of Bethcord was still as hard as ever." The man in military uniform laughed lightly, his voice was deep with a slightly husky flavor, which made it even more magnetic.

　　The man next to him whispered, "Thanks to Main's blessing, the 10% commission we take from his and Horn's bets alone is a lot of money."

　　"However, Horn is old after all. Being so stimulated by Maine to place such a heavy bet, I'm afraid he's already regretting it now." The man laughed lightly.

　　The man in uniform said, "Just hearing that, I can tell Vince that you're only going to be a clerk and not become a character like Horn."

　　The man next to him froze and busily lowered his head, his eyes flashing a hint of dissatisfaction, but his tone was respectful, "I wish to hear more."

　　"If you've read Horn's biography, you know that this old fox never makes meaningless investments. Do you think that just one Mayne can make him lose his temper? That would be too high of an opinion of Main, back then, Horn only allowed Alexander to take advantage of the situation, not because Main was capable, but because he was doubly devastated and disheartened, and that's why the family's ranking slipped." Speaking here, the uniformed man paused and said, "Otherwise, three Mains are no match for Horn."

　　"You watch, there must be a reason why Horn is betting heavily on that teenager."

　　"Your honor's high opinion." Vince said respectfully.

　　He added, "In your opinion, which teenager has a better chance of winning this Death Ring?"

　　"Who knows, even the little guy that Horn favors may not always win. After all, there are just too many unexpected things in this world." The uniformed man walked towards the other gate, "Besides, this is just a game for children to play. Once every two years, let those pariahs on the surface harbor a small hope so that their eyes will be on the game and they won't care about anything else."

　　"Something I don't want them to care about." He emphasized, "Our real stage is on the outer battlefields, my dear Vince. I hear our General Greedy Wolf is returning, I hope she has good news for me."

　　"General Windsor Baylow is both young and capable, and will certainly not disappoint you."

　　When he opened the door, the uniformed man said, "Oh," as if he had thought of something, "Vincent, I'll put a million dollars in my name for our little Allen."

　　"Your Excellency also ..."

　　"No, this is a tribute to Horn. Bethcord has been quiet for twenty years and it looks like it's about to make a move, and I'm glad, that's all."

　　Leaving those words behind, he walked out the door. The clerk hung his head behind the door and whispered, "As you wish, His Excellency Morbitt."

　　The man in uniform was the current President of the Federation.

　　The rain continues to fall on the floating island of Babylon, and in the training center building, Alan is still being thrown around by Hughton as he practices his "spin" technique. The world seems to stay the same, but in reality, everyone's fate is changing rapidly.

　　At the end of the third week, the ranking scores were updated again. Allen is still firmly at the top, but Lucy has slipped to third place. Ans came in later and moved up several places to stay right behind Allen.

　　This time, Allen had received a single set of battlefield defense light armor, a precious source power stimulation potion, and other bits and pieces of rewards. Within these rewards, the former two were the most valuable. The one-man defensive light armor could be split into a tactical suit and an armor component, and they provided Allen with additional defensive power. The Source Power Stimulation Potion, which worked just as its name suggested, could stimulate the user's source power growth rate.

　　Together with the Fire Berry and Physical Strengthening Potion from earlier, Allen finally formed his fifth Source Power Vortex on the weekend of the third week. But when he walked out of the training area, he was all mopey.

　　Hughton took a sip of his drink and asked, "What's up, kid?"

　　"Mr. Hughton, I've formed my fifth source vortex." Allen said.

　　Hughton looked him up and down, "That's a good thing, why are you still depressed like you lost your entire fortune."

　　"But it's too slow." Alan sat down, and with a young sigh, he said, "According to what you said, it takes at least nine source power vortexes to impact the first barrier. It's only a week now until the Death Ring begins, yet I only have five source power vortices."

　　"Be content, brat." Hughton shook his head, "Your growth rate is already fast, not to mention, there is no shortcut to source power growth, you can only accumulate it through time and diligence."

　　"Isn't there a faster way to grow?" Alan asked, raising his head in resignation.

　　Hughton put down his bottle and said, "It's not that there aren't any, it's just that people don't usually like that method. But it doesn't matter to you, even if you don't like it, soon enough, you'll be exposed to it."

　　"What method?" Alan's eyes lit up, right now for him, as long as he could refine the nine source power vortexes as soon as possible, he was willing to try any method.

　　"Battle for battle." Hughton burped, so the air was filled with the strong smell of alcohol, "To put it bluntly, it's all about fighting. Fighting non-stop, constantly letting yourself hover between life and death, that's the fastest way to accumulate source power that I know of."