Galactic Task Force

Sera arrived at the university, then went straight to the examinations and assessment office. 

" Hello ! I am in need of a mutant plant identification for the first rank honor. " Sera told the receptionist. 

" Please wait ! " The receptionist pressed a few keys. 

" Please go to the conference room at two hundred and thirty four. Do you have the mutant plant sample with yourself ? " The girl asked. 

" Yes. " Sera answered. 

" A panel will be there shortly. Good luck. " the girl said. 

Sera went to the conference hall in no time. Sera sat in the front row of the conference hall, and waited nervously. 

In Interstellar Odyssey, there are multiple paths. First, the free player path, which was that Sera fails her examination. Then, she accepts the remedial students boot camp, which is getting to level ten using combat. Player goes to a desert planet without even a single drop of water. You will kill various desert beasts, most of which are deadly, and need only one single touch to kill you. It takes more than two years for a combatant to reach level ten through this route, only because respawn of Odyssey does not reduce experience. 

Second is to buy the mutant plant available in the stores. Insist like she is doing currently that she deserves to graduate. This is penny pincher player's path. Once you get the hunter ID, you go to Aqua, the nebula in which you collect seeds, by completing various quests. 

Then, there's the ultimate rich girl's path, which is a secret black market card. You receive the card, go to the black market, and buy any item. Then take out the item to brag in the classroom. Then, the instructor automatically gives you full marks in the test. In this case, you go to a different part of aqua, full of mutated plants. You will advance to three years in the timeline, facing only the easy to kill monsters in exclusive training grounds, advance to level ten at express speed, then go to the collection of seeds. 

The key point is that no matter whether her team mates put beast kills on her tab or not, Sera fails the conventional exam. She must get this mutant plant path or black market path to succeed. 

Here comes the pinch. 

No matter which direction she chooses, she has a long path to travel. Sera wished to go to none of those places. On top of that, Sera Dustwood is not just trying to graduate, she is trying to graduate with ' Honor of summa cum laude. She's not doing this to go to aqua and collect seeds, but she is doing this to be able to become a legal adult before her coming of age. 

She has a plan for after graduation. 

What she wants to go to is the " Junkyard " mentioned in a unique quest received by the first person who gets the mutant plant. 

Why does she want to do this ? 

Because at some point, due to strange space phenomena, Junkyard gets trapped within a barrier like a space membrane. Things outside can come in, but no living beings could go in after the barrier had been formed. Communication could happen just fine. 

Notably, this is the next hunting ground mentioned in the Odyssey. What does it mean she is going there three years early ? It means all the high level rare drops are hers to take. 

This barrier stays there for three years, which is exactly the amount of time needed for Sera to reach the undeniable majority. In that time, as long as she exposes her location, her father's power in Dustwood will be gone. 

While she could be deemed an adult in a year, a legal adult in her home planet does not mean a legal adult on every planet she owns assets in. For that, she needs to be declared an adult by the Galactic consortium. Life time achievement from taskforce accomplishes that. 

The 'Gigantia' is enough to get her that envied 'Summa cum laude ' on her graduation certificate. 

So, far too much is riding on getting this task accomplished successfully. She needs to finish doing this while her father was entangled in removal of all of his employees from the Dustwood company. 

" Sera Dustwood ! " The panel of botanists who entered through the door called her out. 

" Present. " 

" Please place the botanical specimen you want to be evaluated in the stabilizing medium " a table with a small glass tank filled with gel-like substance drove itself from the botanists to Sera. 

Sera placed the mutant plant inside the stabilizing medium, including some of the surrounding soil, and shovel used to dig the plant, 

" Please step forward onto the Full nerve spectrum polygraph " the grading officer called out. Pushing forward a giant hotel luggage trolley like thing. It was pure white, like the iPhone's white, and four pillars extended, not in the curved shape of luggage trolley, but straight line shaped curved pillars. There was no connecting dome. 

Sera stepped onto the circle inside the luggage trolley. 

" Sera Dustwood, Do you swear that you have spotted and acquired this mutant plant entirely with your ability ? " The grading officer asked her. 

' This dirty bastard ! " Sera swore inside her head. 

This looks like a very standard question, but it asks her if she got it with her ability. Sure, the system,and the planters tools and even the robotic help are considered external help. Hells, if the students did not help killing starbeasts outside her mecha, she would not have obtained this plant specimen at all. Discarding them is something she identifies as a lie, and most galactic students are taught to do so. So, they say no, I had help, then, the detailed interview goes on, with how, why, what ability, where she will have no choice but to reveal her energy transfer ability. 

Then, she would be shunned socially, financially and even career wise. 

She would have no choice but to become an empty headed heiress. 

Sera stayed silent. 

The grading officer looked at her. 

Once she stepped on the truth detecting platform, she could not step down without receiving a demerit. If she receives a demerit before she gets the honor, then she will become unqualified to receive any military honor. 

What to do ? … what to do ? .. Then a light bulb went off in sera's head. She should just declare the problems, like she does at customs. 

" Except for the help that is allowed during examinations, including the help from the planting tool kit, my robot friend, and from my classmates who hunted the star beasts attacking my mech unit, I only used my own abilities to retrieve this plant from the ground. " Sera answered. 

" Tweeeeeeeng. " The device chimed. 

" Sera Dustwood was confirmed to be telling the truth. " 

" Grading inspection complete. "

The plant was put in front of a monitor like thing, full of videos and flash lights. 

God knows how many different kinds of cameras existed there. 

All the same, with those cameras, they measured all sorts of data on the mutant plant, recorded its information in all universities universal database. 

" Mutant plant specimen F-0892389 *** has been confirmed as a qualified specimen, with a length of four meters or above, with at least one unknown trait. " The botanist in the middle announced. 

The moment he said that the blue light on the monitor device flashed, blinding the botanist who just rushed through the doors. 

He slid on the smooth polished wood, and fell back on his butt. 

" Oh. You .. YOu u… Why didn't you wait for me ? " The man could only cry childishly. 

" With all due respect, What are you that we have to wait for you? " One of the senior botanists asked, looking down one thousand percent. 

The botanist on the floor shriveled into himself. 

Sera, who was watching this exchange, couldn't help but feel a sense of thrill. She just one upped a level hundred boss as a level zero newbie. 

To give context to this entire scenario, 'Gigantia' is a mutant plant rated at calamity level. Bringing in a sample is enough to receive a lifetime achievement from the Galactic task force. When this achievement is given, she will also become a legal adult in the galaxy, i.e. an adult in every planet. Allowing all inheritance procedures to be completed at lighting speed. 

What could the bribed botanist have done had he come earlier ? He could have argued that this is a known sample, citing any number of similar plants, of which, a lot exist. She would be awarded a sample collection achievement, and pass the current year. The sample that she has collected would have to go seven places, each trying to identify it. Then, it will join the queue of samples waiting for genome decoding. this process can take anywhere from one to seven years. After these seven years, she would get the lifetime achievement from the task force.

Day lilies will be cold by then. 

Instead, what Sera did right now is certifying that the plant did not exist in the mutant plant directory with a paid test, as such, could be directly submitted to the taskforce. The sample is returned to her. Now, how fast she gets to the galactic task force station is how fast she would get this lifetime achievement award. It's that simple and fast. Moreover, once the sample is accepted and packed, not even a president could intervene in opening it again. 

Had she been a minute late, the bribed botanist would have made it to the panel, then he would have screwed over this process making her spend years waiting for the result. 

Despite the thousand pitt falls she had dug in the generals' way, the general's scrooge still managed to get here almost on time. 

The professors walked out of the room, not paying any attention to the fallen botanist. 

Sera is last to leave.