I Only Wanted A Class In The Apocalypse-Chapter 1843: Achievement Goal Board

"If you are going to put my value under a microscope, then it’s only fair that I raise the stakes on the table once I prove my worth, right?"

Moth let out a long, inward sigh. He realised then why Hye was so amused by the response from the Hescos’ high command. The elders thought they were being cautious by demanding a trial, but they didn’t realise who they were dealing with.

Hye had asked for an inch, and they had just handed him the perfect stage to seize a mile.

Moth didn’t hurry to respond. He stood there, eyes glazed with the tell-tale shimmer of high-level mental communication, clearly deep in discussion with other Hescos’ higher-ups. Hye didn’t hurry to say anything else either. He stood with the patience of a predator, knowing that in a negotiation of this scale, the first one to blink usually lost the most ground.

"You know, many share your enthusiasm," Moth said suddenly after several minutes of silence. His voice was cold, professional, but held a trace of scepticism. "But the question is, when can you go to the outer battlefield to prove yourself?"

"That’s not the right question," Hye countered immediately.

He had a gut feeling that if he simply said, ’Let’s go,’ the Hescos would have him bagged, tagged, and dropped into the meat grinder of the outer battlefield within the hour. He wasn’t about to be their disposable pawn. "The question should be on what basis the assessment will be conducted."

"What else? Someone will supervise your performance and assess it..."

"That’s why I said this is the most important question right now," Hye interrupted, cutting Moth off before he could solidify the terms. "I won’t let myself, my future trade deals, and my future kingdom’s fate be left to someone’s subjective impression or a vague assessment of my performance. I need hard data."

Moth was taken aback. He blinked, looking at the human in front of him with a new level of scrutiny. He hadn’t expected Hye to be so strictly attentive to the granular details of the contract. "You know that person won’t just assess you by giving a random score, and that’s it," Moth argued, trying to regain his footing. "We’ll also review your achievements and make sure to assess the value you bring properly."

"Not enough," Hye said, pausing. He looked at Moth with an intensity that signalled he knew exactly what he wanted. He wasn’t going to settle for "trust us."

"Why not spare both of us the trouble and just tell me what you have in your mind then?" Moth asked, realising that directness was the only way through Hye’s mental defences. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"I was thinking of having an achievement goal board," Hye proposed. "Something systematic. Points we agree on beforehand, milestones to achieve—a clear, objective framework."

"Hmm, it looks like a thing we never thought of before," Moth murmured. He seemed genuinely interested in the concept, his analytical mind already turning the idea over. "But as I said, we never tried this before, so..."

"Ah, it’s alright, it’s not rocket science," Hye laughed, though his eyes remained sharp. "You just look at the big milestones and goals any force can achieve in the outer battlefield, and then you set different point values for them. Of course, the final count will determine the value of my help, based on known assessment parameters... It’s easy, right?"

"Yeah..." Moth’s tone didn’t match his words. He sounded hesitant. "I’ll send what you said over and let’s wait and see what they’ll decide." He couldn’t promise anything more, and Hye didn’t feel alarmed. He had planted the seed.

"But why don’t you share with me more of your insights about this assessment?" Moth decided to keep the conversation flowing while waiting for the higher-ups to respond. "I’m very curious about this scoring system you’re proposing."

"It’s a very simple assessment method. Why do you seem so surprised about it?" Hye asked. He was genuinely confused by Moth’s reaction. To him, this was basic management; to a race like the Hescos, it seemed revolutionary.

"I know it’s a simple way to assess it, but you can tell there are lots of variations and possibilities, which makes it no less than a nightmare to calibrate!" Moth explained.

Hye realised Moth was telling the truth. It was almost unbelievable that a mighty race like the Hescos had never thought of a formalised point-based milestone system. Perhaps they relied too much on raw power and simple hierarchy to care about nuanced metrics.

"There is always a first time for anything, right?" Hye paused, then added, "I lack knowledge about the outer battlefield, so why don’t you walk me through and give me an introduction so I may be of help?"

"Speaking as if you’ve never been there before? Nice joke," Moth replied with a smirk. He was still convinced that Hye was a veteran of that place, merely playing a role to hide his past adventures.

"You still don’t believe me," Hye sighed, knowing he couldn’t convince the Hescos official otherwise. "So why don’t you just play along with me?"

"Fine," Moth said. "I’ll act as if you’ve never set foot there. Why don’t we start with the known map of that small universe?"

"It’s a universe?" Hye was genuinely surprised. He had expected something different. "I thought it was a flat land, like a gigantic planet."

"You... are acting very well so far," Moth said, shaking his head at Hye’s "feigned" ignorance. "But that’s not true... or at least, not entirely true. Look, I’ll show you the latest map of that universe..."

Moth struggled to explain the impossible physics of the outer battlefield. To him, the difficulty lay in simplifying the cosmic architecture for a human who was—at least in Moth’s mind—putting on a world-class performance of ignorance.

Moth reached into his suit and produced a gadget, a metallic ball with a hollowed centre. It hummed to life, emitting a cold blue ray of light that slowly coalesced into a rotating three-dimensional projection.