Building My SSS-Rank Universal Empire: From Trash to Cosmic Overlord-Chapter 69: How it is II

"Accept me?" I said flatly.

"Yes. All the teams here are numbered 1 to 34. Forget about the Ten and focus on getting to the 12 to 30 spot. They are also good, but obviously not like the top Ten. There’s no discrimination between Construct users and normal Knights; the important thing is power.

"And you haven’t even told me what Flag you are under. Or are you just joining a new Flag? Or has a Flag already commissioned you? I doubt that... I want to stop talking now, but coming back here is making me nervous!

"...Someone should stop me from talking... Okay, I will tell you about the Flags, and maybe next, we’ll narrow it down to the team you’re interested in. We have the Crimson Hood, represented by white; the Exiled, represented by black with white specks; the Forsaken Tribes, represented by green and brown; the Steelclaw, represented by red; and Scuffed Bones, represented by a skeleton on a black background.

"As I told you, of the team..."

Nobody stopped him; they watched him ramble on about the teams and their ranks. Then I said, "I’m not joining any teams." 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Xan stopped talking and stared at me as if he hadn’t heard what I said. "What?"

Slya repeated it for him. "We are not joining any teams."

Xan stopped walking and stared at us with wide eyes. "What are you talking about? You want to be outlaws?"

I smiled at the others. Maybe the only way to stop Xan from talking when he got like that was to shock him somehow. Slya laughed. "Being an outlaw won’t be so bad either." Then she laughed louder at the look on Xan’s face.

Tiber smiled even as he scolded Slya. "We are not going to be outlaws. We are making a new team."

That seemed to be a bigger shock to Xan, and he looked like someone who’d swallowed something too big for his throat. "What?" he demanded in a small voice.

I took note of his tone and frowned. "Why are you so agitated? It’s just the forming of a team."

Xan scowled. "I know, but you can’t form a team."

"Why?" Slya asked curiously. I wanted to know the reason as well.

Xan shook his head. "Because it’s not done! You can only join existing teams and be allowed to form a squad if you are strong enough! But no one is forming a new one. There are 34 teams, and it’s been that way for years. No one is forming teams." He repeated the last part again as if we didn’t hear him the first time.

I frowned. So they’ve stopped forming teams? I don’t get it. I was told that you can form a team if you wanted to. So why aren’t they forming new teams?

"Is there a law against forming new teams?" I asked because it seemed like the most important question.

Xan shook his head helplessly. "I... no. There’s no law against it. They just... stopped doing it. Now new members can just join teams."

Tiber’s deep voice rumbled then. "Then we can form a team. There’s no law against it," he said simply.

I nodded in support. I’m not joining any teams. It basically goes against my plan of subjugating the Borderland. I’ll form a team for now and observe what’s happening. I can’t just break the system; I must find a way to use the existing system for myself and then reshape it as I like later on.

Xan shook his head as if we were crazy.

The more we walked, the more Knights I saw in their different colors and numbers. Most of the ruins here had been converted into buildings for people to live in, and in some places, there were ruins located close to each other that were fenced around with wooden pegs. Xan told us that squads lived like that, or people who were close to each other.

We saw groups of carts and wooden stands with merchants looking over their goods.

Unlike the first layer, there wasn’t any unnecessary tension. Everyone seemed to have something to do or somewhere to go. But all of them stared at me and my companions with eyes filled with wariness and caution, and most with speculation.

The outskirts were like a town without streets.

Xan led us through the ruins and the many flows of people. Not all of them were Knights. There were ordinary people and Squires, merchants and peddlers, petty workers, food stalls, and inns scattered around.

I even saw a brothel, and I was left baffled. "I thought the Borderland was dangerous for normal people and those low in ranks?"

Xan laughed. "It is! But it’s also a source of wealth. The resources are big enough to go around, even with the taxes paid to the Flagbearers. Also, the Borderland needs all those ordinary people to function. The only issue is that, as an ordinary person, you must have a team that you’re under for protection in case of a Rift break. Or just join the necessary organization."

"And here we are!" exclaimed Xan.

Where he led us was a big building, like a cathedral. The first thing that caught my attention was the different flags of the Flagbearers, standing erected in front of the building. The building itself sprawled in a mass of grey stone like a resting wolf.

Xan pointed. "Those who work here are technically not part of any team or faction. It’s called the administration building, and it’s where you can join teams... or create one. It’s also where you can turn in your flakes for RP. Come, I’ll take you inside."

I wanted to ask what flakes and RP meant, but I just sighed and followed. The three of us followed the boy into the big hall. It was a large hall painted in grey and cut into different sections where different admins could attend to different people at the same time.

To the sides were different doors to other rooms. I saw one where the Knights that entered carried bloody sacks or just slung dead monsters on their shoulders.

And there were a lot of Knights, all going about their business, but they all seemed to pause as my companions and I entered. They stared at me with an almost instant hostility.

I had two options then: either go silently and pick an admin, behaving like the others, or, since I’d already decided to make a stir in the second layer, why not start now?