Jules got a basic understanding of the areas where new portals could be present. Still, just knowing the region was not enough.
In his last life, he played the game five times as a group ruler. The entire time he played the game, he only focused on crossing the bare minimum.
Four times he even failed at that, but everything changed with his fifth attempt. When he reached the next stage, it hit him that there was stuff beyond grinding and fighting to save your character.
A kingdom ruler did not have to fight for essence for a long time. Even if they remained logged out of the game for 6 months, they would still meet the essence quota with ease.
In this phase, even the gang stopped forcing a large amount of work on him.
All of that gave him a chance to explore and learn stuff beyond the basics. He read numerous ways a ruler could gain more power over others. But most of that knowledge was wasteful, as it required action from the group ruler stage.
To be true, once he learned these things, he knew it would be almost impossible for him to reach the next stage.
He did not want to face something similar this time—to spend so much time doing similar stuff, only to reach a dead end. This time, his goal was to have at least a higher-grade subclass. He would prefer blue and above; at the lowest, he would choose green; nothing below that.
He knew that with the SS-grade species, this was his best attempt. There was no other trial trick he knew that would ensure the same rank.
If he failed this time, then there was no point in dreaming about getting to the top.
He was clear about this thing, as he had all the theoretical tricks to clear those portals. He read endlessly about the way to challenge these portals and when to challenge them.
The hidden thing about the higher-level portals was that the more time you spent in the game, the tougher these portals became. Right now, only those who were part of the top guilds knew of this, but it got leaked in the 6th year of his last life.
Time spent on the planet was a major factor in the difficulties of the portals.
This was the reason many players started challenging portals in the first months later on. However, to challenge the portals, early players needed to find hidden ones that were not controlled by lawful NPCs.
It was not that easy, and that's why those who failed would waste their first subclass and aim their second subclass for those high-level portals right after they became kingdom-level rulers.
Just becoming kingdom-level massively increased player power in a short amount of time. This offset the balance and gave the player a higher chance to clear the portals.
The problem was that he never learned about how to find these subclasses. He could not just roam the entire region. Nor did he have any time to join the school with blue and green portals.
Now there were two things in the game world he needed to focus on in the first month.
The first was to gather enough strength to beat any kind of portal, as not everyone could beat the portals even with this trick. The second was obviously to find these portals.
To find the portal, the best chance he would have is by making deals with lawless organizations or rebels.
There were many lawless organizations, like pirates in the water and bandits in the mountains and deserts.
Except for them, there were also rebel nobles who wanted to overthrow the royals or revolutionary slaves who wanted to fight the system for freedom.
Only these types of organizations would allow quick access to portals. Most of the lawful organizations would use him as a slave before even allowing him to go anywhere near the portals.
To know about more stuff, he even looked through many other planets that were similar to plant Nex.
After spending hours sitting in the canteen, he placed the phone on the table. His eyes were burning from staring at his phone for so long.
Still, he smiled. At least now he had a bare understanding of planet Nex.
It was enough for a day. He opened his eyes, only to freeze as the canteen was full of people.
He did not even notice when so many came here, as most of them were whispering among themselves.
He looked around and noticed the reason for this silence, as both the vice leader and boss were present in the canteen. Each with a separate group.
Others in the canteen avoid making any noise to attract their attention.
Jules sighed and just plopped over his table, waiting for them to go out of the canteen. There was no way he would move out in front of those guys. That would be the same as inviting them to mess with him.
While he was sitting head-down, someone knocked on the table.
Tak tak!
As he looked up, he saw two old members in front of him. If he was not wrong, these guys were just standing beside those two.
To confirm it, he looked past them, and sure enough, both the vice leader Yusif, and the boss Bruno were staring at him. Not only them, but everyone inside the canteen was staring at him.
He tilted his head and looked straight into the eyes of the two in front, waiting for them to explain.
Both of them frowned at him. He could sense confusion on their faces as they tried to exert dominance by staring at him with wide eyes. Jules was familiar with these tactics, as these guys used to do this when they tried to press someone.
Not wanting to stir trouble, he looked down, and this simple act made them smile. He sighed at the absurdity of how simple-minded a few of these guys were.
Finally, one asked, "Where are you on the planet?"
Without taking much time, he said, "Well, right now I am in the northern region. Up in a village surrounded by mountains covered in thin snow."
Another guy asked in irritation, "Tell me the exact location. The boss wanted to know."
Jules bullshits about his village in a remote area above the Rown kingdom. As he said, he saw them shaking their heads in pity. They said nothing more and walked back to their respective leaders.