Chapter 13 - Exam

It was just past noon, and the sun was high in the sky as Han Wu entered his new classroom. He sat at his desk when Qin Shuang approached him. He didn’t notice that she had been waiting for him for quite some time.

She didn’t greet him. Instead, she grumbled away, looking stern and yet could not stop herself from pouting. “Have you reconsidered becoming my slave?”

Han Wu was speechless.

Why is she so persistent in turning me into her slave?

“Qin Shuang, I’m no longer weak. I finally have the power to protect myself. Stop trying to enslave me!” Han Wu snapped back.

Qin Shuang didn’t give up. “You are immature if you still don’t understand why I am doing this for you. Do you have any backing or resources? You don’t have any. Do you think you can become better than the others just by having more locusts? You are naive. While you are talented in nurturing your locusts, you have to understand that they are inherently weak. Your dwarves are amazing, but unfortunately they aren’t your core race...”

She droned on and on but Han Wu ignored her words.

“I understand, but I won’t become your slave. By the time the exam is over, you will know why,” Han Wu replied simply before entering the landing pod and waited for the exam to start.

Qin Shuang felt that her efforts were for naught and left angrily.

Zhang Xiaolong saw his goddess turned down by Han Wu and was even more furious.

Han Wu, I will make sure that you disappear from her sight forever!

Tian Wen, their homeroom teacher, soon entered the classroom. He projected his Demigod visage onto the interface of the students’ landing pods and proceeded to give a brief explanation of the upcoming test.

“The major exam this time is organized by the school and will directly affect the allocation of resources for each class. This is an important exam so I hope that every student here will do their best for the sake of their future. I will naturally reward those who perform exceptionally. I have a lot of resources on my hands like Sacred Objects, divine realm pieces, fragments of cores, and armies. Try to pry them from my hands with your results.”

The students were buzzing with excitement after hearing that.

“I will now send out the rules for this exam. Please read them carefully.” Tian Wen sent out the rules to the interface of every student’s landing pod.

Han Wu read through for a few minutes and gained a rough understanding of what was going to happen.

The test would be similar to those of previous years. It would be split into two different stages. The first stage would be the qualifiers while the second stage would be for the rankings.

The qualifiers were simple. Every student would receive the same level of difficulty. Those who passed would obtain one point for the class, while those who didn't would be expelled. It was harsh but necessary. For the Divine Civilization to continue thriving, it had to weed out the weak and support the strong. Only the strong would obtain more resources, while the weak would be cast aside.

Only students who passed the qualifiers would have the right to continue their studies. They could then assess their units before choosing to stop the exam or continue.

Those who chose not to continue would not be placed onto the ranking board, but those who proceeded to the next stage and succeeded would earn the right to have their name etched onto the ranking board.

This would then be the basis of the second stage, the ranked exams. The ranked exams required the students to face an infinite wave of enemies. Those who passed a stage would earn a point for their class, increasing their ranking as well.

The top three classes would be calculated based on the ranking board itself. The school would then give out resources and rewards to the students on the ranking board.

Han Wu checked the rewards at the end of the document and grew excited.

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

[Students with their names on the ranking board: A random resource card]

[Top 100: A piece of divine realm terrain worth 100 Divine Points. Type of terrain is up to the student]

[Top 50: One Sacred Object]

[Top 30: Increased Growth Card. Increases the reproduction rate of units by 5 times for a duration of 10 divine realm years]

[Top 20: Rank 1 Building: Temple. Activates a Rank 1 skill, Low-tier Divine Light. Increases healing speed of injured units within a hundred meter radius of the building]

[Top 10: One Divine weapon of choice worth 100,000 Divine Points]

[Top 5: One Unique Seed. Ascends a single Elite life form to Unique]

[Top 3: Core level+1]

[Top 1: One Divine Essence]

The prize for first place was enough to turn a student into a billionaire!

More importantly, Tian Wen hadn’t yet told them what his reward would be in case one of his students placed first.

I must go all out for the reward!

Han Wu thought excitedly.

The exam started ten minutes later.

Han Wu transformed into a ray of light as he shot past the void. However he didn't emerge in his divine realm this time.

The other students also shifted into human-shaped lights, moved towards a golden spinning wheel, and quickly surrounded it. Han Wu looked around and counted roughly seven hundred students. He could also sense the presence of his homeroom teacher, Tian Wen, as well as the head of student affairs, Xu Mei, inside the golden wheel.

Han Wu was certain that the other homeroom teachers were inside the golden wheel too. Not only were they responsible for ensuring the smooth process of the exam but they were also present to ensure that none of the students cheat.

Just as everyone was fully gathered around the golden spinning wheel, a mechanical voice rang out. “The first qualifying stage for the exam will soon start. Students, please brace yourselves.”

Many of the students were worried because they didn’t want to get expelled. Even the top ten students of each class were worried.

“Countdown. Three, two, one, zero!”

Han Wu was instantly transported back to his divine realm.

He immediately noticed a massive one-way gate at the edge of his divine realm and could sense a sinister aura drifting from the gate.

He quickly rallied his units for battle. Soon, he heard noises coming from the other side of the gate. The noises were faint at first but grew louder and louder until something finally came through it.

A horde of fleshy demonic beasts walked out from the gate, shocking Han Wu almost to the point of fainting.

This is just the qualifier! Are they nuts?

Han Wu had seen those creatures before. Those demons, called Flesh Golems, were from the Demonic Civilization.Though they were Common life forms, they had the combat abilities of Elite life forms. More importantly, their thick skin and tough muscles were extremely resistant to attacks. They were recognized as high-quality fodder.

Thankfully they had one big flaw: they were very slow. Han Wu was confident that he could completely destroy them.

He commanded 50,000 Magma Locusts to explode on contact with the Flesh Golems.

In an instant, the terrain around the Flesh Golems was transformed into a field of lava. All 10,000 Flesh Golems had to suffer the intense heat as they waded through the lava. Unfortunately, they were slow, and a swarm of Bomber Locusts were harassing them in the sky above.

A lot of the Flesh Golems died on the field of lava. Surprisingly, a fragrant aroma wafted from their searing flesh as they continued to sizzle on the lava. Han Wu noticed the pleasant scent and ordered some Scorching Dwarves to drag some of the dead Flesh Golems back to feed his Common locusts.

Han Wu was surprised to discover that his locusts could digest the corpses and even benefit from the cooked Flesh Golems’ nutrients. He immediately had a brilliant idea.

He quickly swapped the two Rank 1 Sacred Objects from the Core with the Rank 2 Sacred Object, Law of Gluttony, from his Hive.

After being affected by the Law of Gluttony, his locusts were overcome by an insatiable hunger, rapidly consuming every organic matter within the divine realm, including the Flesh Golem corpses.The locusts engorged themselves, with many of them growing and evolving into Elite life forms.

Han Wu chuckled with pleasure. He had 10,000 cooked Flesh Golems prepared for his locusts and he managed to obtain 5 million Elite locusts within five hours. He decided to call them the Glutton Locusts.

He was ecstatic.

This isn’t a test, it’s a feast! I hope the stages after this would be similar!

He quickly used Increased Growth to accelerate the reproduction of his locusts.