Ethan and Sivan were only the firsts of many to take risks and pick up a fortune in return, and while Rune knew that for every winner there were thousands of dead avatars, jealousy and envy was a sapient motivation and source of the desire to progress.

What every successful avatar had was physical stats, and what the majority of those who failed had were also physical stats, only luck decided their fates.

Rune also discovered multiple dangerous grounds over his farming travels, he just never entertained the idea of approaching them.

But the birth of those lucky ones, heroes in the eyes of others, was often as coincidental as they were worth passing on to the next generation as inspirational tales or teaching subjects.

The discovery of a way to exchange risk for massive gains of stat points appeared to be a completely worthy exchange for every hopeful explorer of the Void dimension.

And even if Rune didn’t know it, he was one of the reasons motivating those foolish people to take risks.

The image reflected by Rune and the majority of the members of the Tireless forum, sitting currently at 542 actives, was one of the perfectly oiled machines, running at every moment at 200% of their capabilities, racking hundreds of thousands of EP per month by virtue of their excellent planning.

‘It’s only been more than a month… Why are they all like that?’ Incomprehension was written on his face, Rune only ever saw the situation from the point of view of an arduous farmer, a steady one, a rational one who measured everything.

‘If they want to be part of the new era they should just be steady, once they reach the ideal gathering speed they will then be able to take however many risks they want…’

The spreadsheets used by the Tireless forum had long been released as they weren’t complicated to make and only served as indicators.

And with millions of people refining it as much as they could, always nitpicking on the details, trying to reach a 1% margin of error, the Tireless also realized some major changes to the ones they used.

‘I already told them that I only have 266 total stats and I’ve been surpassed by nearly everyone who used a special resource or has found opportunities like an asteroid belt or an asteroid field…’ Rune told the truth, the Tireless’s members also told the truth, but some just didn’t want to hear that truth.

Still, they continued to deny having secret farming knowledge or anything of the sort, being identified as an elitist group that withheld knowledge wasn’t good for business and social connections.

And there was nothing to do except socializing on the board.

[Rune: Did you all think about your specialization? I’m really hesitating, I think I’m just going to continue with a Perception-Momentum mix and attain the supreme 60 resources per hour]

[Utopia: Same! I’ll even find a way to break the one-minute limit!]

[Gar: The more time passes, the more everything becomes a mess! F*uck me!]

The current subject of their group was a theory that was taking lots of momentum as of late.

As the Ether Law capability scaled with the ether density, the higher the density, the more it became able to confirm information he refused before.

And a very surprising thing happened when something that the Ether Law previously refused to put on the wiki was authorized, something about tier.

There was no careful and detailed explanation put up with it, but tiers seemed to be a lot more important than planned by every prediction.

[Tier corresponds to the tier of your ether soul. Only by fusing your avatar with your original body and attaining mastery tier 2 of physical, energy, and spiritual fundamentals can it be reached. Each Tier corresponds to a maximum value per individual stat]

In the same manner that Utopia’s dream of 3 000 000 EP per day was destroyed by etherly constraints, every hard farmer’s dream of relying on just gathering ether resources to become the strongest was broken.

The guy who submitted this exact information now repertoried on the wiki was a genius conspirationist, and let’s just say that he was part of the gamers union and he himself thought he was just trolling.

That’s what his intent said.

AS for what was the situation on the board after this information became available? It wasn’t a buzz, it was a division by zero.

Every news forum sent a notification to their adherents, the government relayed the information on their personal forum, and even the special resources heroes were overshadowed, now only figurants against this realm-reversing intel.

‘Fusing your avatar with your original body.’

The meaning behind that was that the avatar add-on that was given to them due to their dimension’s status of “critically defective” would probably be canceled the moment they became tier 2 entity.

‘Mastery tier 2 of physical, energy, and spiritual fundamentals.’

It was just the confirmation from the Ether Law itself that firstly, you couldn’t only focus on one group of stats, that secondly, you had to dabble in everything, and that thirdly…

That martial arts were coming back by destroying the ancient connotation attributed to them and resurrecting concepts long lost to hundreds of thousands of years of lost history.

‘Each Tier corresponds to a maximum value per individual stat...’

This was the dream crusher sentence of the hard farmers' community, there was nothing else to add, everyone had to say goodbye to infinitely growing stats.

[Arik: Rune, are you still there?]

Coming back from another one of his over-imaginative brain trips, he continued his ongoing conversation.

[Rune: Yeah]

[Arik: I strongly advise you to start branching]

[Rune: I’m not above peer pressure, convince me]

[Arik: You’ll not be able to learn by forcing it if you want to focus on spiritual fundamentals with perception and momentum, then what’ll you do when you’re blocked? You’ll not be able to transition to another learning branch]

[Rune: Well, for my defense, I didn’t really think about it and said some nonsense to act like I was smart, as for what you just said, it seems really, like, really intelligent!]

[Gar: Of course my bro is intelligent, did you ever see a message from him that could express stupidity? Me neither]

[Adreana: The joke about the human, the kajo, and the rululu?]

[Arik: Stfu (Sh*t the f*ck up)]

[Nelo: Your intent is so strong, as vast as a mountain and as deep as the sea]

[Astryde: And yours is so weak it’s the same as that of a fly]

[Nelo: Yours I can’t comprehend as I don’t understand monkey intent]

It was a pleasure to see the two siblings, Rune always had a smirk when he saw their complicity and the jabs that could make anyone else become angered to death.

[Rune: So I should branch in energy or physical?]

[Utopia: Physical]

[Arik: Energy]

[Utopia: Physical because you will be able to farm more, I heard the ether resources in dangerous grounds are richer, in average they give something like 200 EP, learning martial arts can wait, farm before everything]

[Arik: Utopia… Everyone here except you will branch into energy, it’s the only field where there’s a lot to train in, your physical argument is so lame that I’m growing pity for your brain]

[Utopia: I don’t follow the masses, I’m no sheep!]

[Arik: It’s not the masses, it’s only us, I don’t know for the others out of this group, the board is very divided on this subject]

…

It strangely was similar to a debate between the IGS leader candidates, with one camp ridiculing the other because they had several advantages, and while Rune enjoyed their arguments, his mind was made after thinking a little.

Energy training was a long-term training, even the government hinted to that, and in terms of energy techniques developments, the IGS and probably every other universe sector was at the same era, that of primitive manipulation.

Compared to martial arts that had to totally re-develop themselves to adapt to humanoid bodies capable of crushing reinforced concrete, it was easy to make a choice.

It was of course better to leave the physical branch redevelopment to the talented ones. Their groups of friends were only mortals and average citizens of the IGS from what Rune observed, so their job was to optimize their training path.

[Rune: Energy it is… Did any of you hear about the sensitive subject of violence and fighting?]

[Adreana: I was expecting it from the start, the rise of individual power will lead to an inflated ego, leading to animal instinct, leading to whatever you want to think about]

[Gar: From what I can observe from the board, everyone seems thirsty for blood, the lack of permanent death is only contributing and amplifying that part]

[Nelo: A little scared not gonna lie, but I didn’t put aside my life to stop at the first sign of violence, I’ll just slowly start with safe energy fighting, and then follow up with martial arts or whatever the industry and government find to train the physical branch]

[Rune: Seems like we aren’t like-minded for nothing]

[Utopia: As a proud Utopia, I need to be a man, and fight for the future, becoming the hero in the heart of the hopeless!]

[Rune: There’s still an ambiguity on whether Utopia is a man or woman isn’t there?]

[Arik: Behavioral analysis tell us HE is a man rululu, pretty young even]

[Rune: What does mine say?]

[Arik: Puny human]

[Nelo: And mine?]

[Arik: Don’t know, it was a joke]

[Astryde: Hihihi]

[Utopia: Men or Woman, my gender will not define my achievement, I’ll pulverize every record in my way]

The friendly atmosphere of their little group was perfect in Rune’s opinion.

‘If only farming was the only thing we needed to do.’

But even him only entertained the thought for one second before trashing it.

‘I’m going to become a mage or an energy manipulator? Don’t know… And a psychic, that’s definitely the right term to use.’

Smirking at the familiar words, Rune started to link the change that was happening to a video game major update.

‘Let’s see when those so-called mage geniuses will launch the first-ever energy beam and get us all out from the primitive era or energy orb and energy revitalization only, at least physical stats users have a base to build on… Not that they have life easier for that reason.’

‘I’m still going to focus on spiritual stats, anyway it’s the same between energy and spirit, nothing to build on, everything’s new.’

For Rune, the way with the least amount of risk was the answer, if there was enough argument, he was totally ready to change his plan anytime.

But currently, mastering the spiritual side that depended on only 2 stats seemed better than focusing on the energy or the physical mastery that each had 4 stats linked to them.

Though it was debatable if the physical side needed anything other than the strength stat.

‘Maybe the argument Arik advanced is right, locking myself in only one domain is wrong, theory and practice isn’t it? Maybe I’ll become unable to train by myself without some guidance… Well, let’s take the energy path as a precaution so that if I ever enter a null period I’ll at least have something else to do.’

Polishing his plan step by step until he considered it complete, Rune ultimately went back to farming with peace of mind.

With his current 67 MO and 100 PER, at the average ether resources density of 75 per cubic kilometer, he could gain 15 905 EP according to the Divine Spreadsheet Of The Tireless, in 2 days, he could gain 3 stats points.

‘Maybe that’s the addicting feeling Utopia had in mind, except he was hoping for it to only grow and never stop…’ Gaining 3 stat points every 2 days was completely different from gaining 1 stat point every 2 days.

‘Maybe the updated info broke the dreams of many but for me, it only refined my plan.’

And so Rune still considered himself to belong to the top 10%.

And he was right to not touch the 1% and 0.1% because he for sure didn’t belong there.