This was one of the traps that the upper realm had set up for the lower realm.

When Lin Fan heard the clerk ask this, he asked back, "How much is the fee?"

​​

The clerk looked at Lin Fan with a gaze field with disdain the moment he heard this, but he still said, "It's five spirit stones."

Spirit stones, that was the currency used in the upper realm and it was a currency that could only be obtained in the upper realm.

It was the concentrated form of crystals which were used as currency in the lower realm.

Which was why this was a trap.

The upper realm factions naturally wanted more talented people to work for them, so they tried to recruit from these lower realms. However, which genius was willing to work for others?

Every talented person naturally had their own ambition and they weren't willing to work for others that easily, which was why the upper realm factions had set up a trap for them.

They could have easily accepted lower realm resources as payment since it didn't cost them much to maintain these interstellar portals, but they insisted on making the lower realm experts pay with spirit stones, a currency that could only be found in the upper realm with its higher concentration of life energy.

Since the lower realm experts were unable to pay, that would mean that they would either have to fight their way out or they would have to accept different terms. Namely, they would have to pay with service instead of with goods.

The twelve upper realm factions that ruled over the Galactic Humanity Alliance took turns guarding the portal, which meant that they all had an equal chance of obtaining experts. But at the same time, they also had an equal chance of obtaining a monster, which was how a slow disparity had begun to form between those twelve factions.

A faction could never continue without new blood and those geniuses from the lower realm were considered new blood.

That was why they had to sign employment contracts with the upper realm factions. They would have to work for the upper realm factions for a certain period of time before they were free to go. Of course, they were free to stay in those upper realm factions as well.

That all depended on how the upper realm factions treated those experts, but in these starting contracts, they gave them the most basic treatment possible.

However, the upper realm factions were also quite greedy, only offering them one spirit stone a year.

For the experts that came from the lower realm, of course they didn't know any better when they first signed these contracts, but everyone who did felt like they had been cheated by the upper realm factions.

Now, it was Lin Fan's turn to experience this.

Lin Fan slightly knitted his brows when he heard this and he asked, "Is there no other way to pay? I have some herbs and pills that I can use."

The clerk's eyes filled with even more disdain when he heard this and he said with a soft snort, "You think we care about your lower realm resources? Your only option is to pay the fee for using the portal with spirit stones."

Then after pausing, he drew out his words as he said, "Of course, there are other ways that you could pay the fee."

As he said this, he also took out a piece of paper from the desk to his side.

Lin Fan saw this and asked, "What is that?"

The clerk curled his lips and said, "This is your other way of paying the fee. As long as you sign this contract, you won't have to worry about a thing for the next five years."

Lin Fan took the contract and looked it over before revealing a cold smile.

He had already heard about this "slave" contract, but seeing it now, he really couldn't help finding it funny.

The terms of the contract were worse than if he had sold himself, but that was also part of the upper realm factions' plan. By making it seem much worse than it actually was, even the smallest kindness could be seen as bigger than it actually was.

Naturally the upper realm factions would treat these geniuses well since they would want them as part of their factions.

The fact that this contract was nothing more than shame was common knowledge in the upper realm, but this wasn't as known in the lower realms. The geniuses that came up from the lower realms were fully integrated into the upper realm factions, so they had no reason to expose these contracts since they benefited the new factions that they considered themselves a part of.

The clerk sitting there wasn't worried at all since he had seen this many times, he was just waiting for Lin Fan to sign.

However, that never came since Lin Fan already knew what this was about and was prepared for this.

Lin Fan casually waved his hand and there were five stones that came out of his Spatial Ring. These were the spirit stones that he had received from the Lin Family ancestor who had explained everything to him.

Once the spirit stones were on the table, Lin Fan looked at the clerk and asked, "Is everything in order now?"

The clerk was stunned when he saw this, but then he immediately came forward to look over the spirit stones. Not for a single second did he believe that these were real spirit stones because the consequences he would suffer if they were real were much worse than if they were fake.

But no matter how he looked at them, he could tell that these were definitely not fakes, which was definitely the worst case scenario for him.

But then he remembered that there was a straw for him to grasp as the clerk said, "This is enough for you, but there's three of you here, so the total is fifteen spirit stones. If you can't pay that, I suggest that you sign this contract since it's the best way for you. I can even talk to my superior and offer you better terms for this contract."

The tone of the clerk had changed very quickly because he knew what a lower realm expert having spirit stones meant. It meant that this lower realm kid was actually related to one of the upper realm factions, which was why he had these spirit stones.

They had given these spirit stones to him to allow him to easily pass through this and they were probably waiting for him, but if this clerk was able to poach this young genius that had even moved one of the upper realm factions, it would definitely be a great accomplishment on his part.

It was said that great rewards came from great risks and doing this would clearly offend this lower realm expert that was so powerful that he was scouted already, but in reverse to this, if he were to bring him back to the force that he worked for, he would surely be rewarded. He was also confident in his force being able to win this young expert over since they were no weaker than the one that invited him and they had made the first move.

Once that day came, this young expert would even feel gratitude towards him for bringing him to their force.

It was too bad that what happened next shattered this dream once again.

Momonga came forward and with a wave of his hand, another ten stones appeared on the table, stones that looked exactly the same as the ones from before. However, when one looked at them closely, they could tell that these spirit stones had a higher concentration of life energy in them compared to the ones that the Lin Family ancestor had given Lin Fan.

The moment they appeared, the clerk realized that he had been played and he knew that this situation was bad for him.

These people clearly had enough spirit stones to begin with and with how easily they took it out, they were clearly judging him. Now that he had let his greed take over, he had completely offended them.

The only way out for him was to…

The clerk immediately revealed a smile and slapped his stunned subordinates in the back of the head before saying, "Can't you see that our honoured guests haven't even been served tea yet? What kind of idiots are you?"

Then the clerk immediately turned back to Lin Fan and said, "This young master, I'm very sorry for taking up your time. We'll process your entry as soon as possible."

Lin Fan looked at him for a second before waving his hand at them.

The clerk looked like he had just received a pardon for a death sentence as he revealed a look of joy.

The clerk began rushing his staff to get the paperwork finished as soon as possible.

For all three of them to have enough spirit stones, this was clearly a large incident.

Upper realm forces being willing to give spirit stones to bring geniuses up were already rare, but they almost always came alone. However, this time, this group had come in a group of three and they were all able to pay. That meant this must be a special group that an upper realm faction had found and brought up.

This was clearly a hot potato and the sooner it was out of his hands, the better.

In no time at all, Lin Fan was let out into the streets of Harmony City and he had even obtained a map from the clerk before being sent out.