Chapter 153 - Enrollment Test

With the portal opened, a steady stream of Tigermen began to enter Han Wu’s divine realm. Han Wu specifically assigned Hu Yong and Hu Chi the role of welcoming the incoming Tigermen.

The disintegration of Hu Hai’s divine realm was inevitable, primarily because it no longer possessed a Core. Han Wu calculated that, given its considerable size, it would take approximately another two centuries for the entire divine realm to completely break apart and vanish.

During this period, Han Wu leveraged Han Wen’s identity, posing as Hu Hai to persuade numerous Tigermen to transfer their devotion to him. This resulted in a daily influx of new worshipers into his divine realm, tremendously increasing the amount of Faith Points he earned.

Han Wu, however, had never for a moment forgotten that his core race was the locusts. After all, regardless of how formidable the Tigermen might become, they were only present to assist him. The only way for him to grow in power was by enhancing the strength of his locusts.

On a daily basis, Han Wu would activate Gene Recombination to nurture a single Locustman Lord. He would also persistently use Controlled Mutation on all his locusts, aiming to improve their overall strength.

One day, after concluding his daily Sacrifice ritual, Han Wu sighed in frustration over the disappointing choices he had been given, despite having offered 100 billion locusts. With a sigh, he reluctantly selected the most valuable option—a 6 Star God weapon—as his reward. Unfortunately, he was unable to wield it yet, since he was still only a Demigod, so he simply stored it away within his vault, where it would probably remain gathering dust for the foreseeable future.

Just as he was about to resume his routine work of applying Controlled Mutation on his locusts, he received a call invitation from Prof. Lina. He swiftly responded, asking, “Professor, is there a problem?”

Her image on the video screen was just as captivating and bewitching as it had ever been. She smiled and said, “Han Wu, after thoroughly reviewing your case, the college has decided to grant you an opportunity for enrollment.”

Han Wu was absolutely thrilled. Becoming an official student at Imperial College meant he could finally examine data on the Chaotic Starfield—a privilege he had eagerly been anticipating.

“Thank you, Professor! This is truly excellent news!” he exclaimed.

“Hold on, don’t get ahead of yourself,” Prof. Lina cautioned. “I said the college has granted you an

opportunity

. The college isn’t simply going to disregard its rules and grant you admission so easily. There were quite a few stubborn old coots who initially rejected your request outright. However, after considerable deliberation and negotiation, they finally consented to your enrollment, but under one condition—you must successfully pass a test designed by them.”

Han Wu’s expression tightened into a frown. He had an unsettling feeling that the test awaiting him would be far from easy.

“Professor, what’s the test about? I simply need to pass, no matter how difficult it might be, right?” he pressed. He was willing to go to any lengths to secure his admission into Imperial College.

“Your test will be quite challenging. You will be sent to a recently discovered foreign civilization for a year to gather intelligence about the place. Should you collect extremely valuable information during that period, the college will officially recognize you as a student and grant you admission.”

“Is the civilization dangerous?”

“Since it is an unknown civilization, we cannot predict how dangerous it might be.”

Han Wu let out a frustrated groan. An unknown civilization was extremely dangerous. This test was nothing less than using him as a mere test subject to gauge the uncharted civilization’s danger level. There was a genuine chance that he could be killed the very moment he arrived on the first day, without even knowing how.

“Han Wu, we genuinely don’t know the true difficulty of this test. It’s your call,” Prof. Lina stated, clearly presenting him with the choice.

After a moment of contemplation, Han Wu gave a firm nod. “My stance hasn’t changed,” he said. “I don’t care how dangerous it is. I will accept this challenge if it means gaining admission to the college.”

A look of curiosity crossed Prof. Lina’s face at his response. “Han Wu, considering your resources, technically, you could train independently for a year and still achieve a strength comparable to that of other students. You can always simply retake the college entrance exam next year. Why take this risk?”

“Someone is waiting for me,” Han Wu replied with a smile.

Prof. Lina immediately thought of Qin Shuang and assumed Han Wu didn’t want to waste a year, hoping to be in the same class as her.

“You youngsters have your own perspectives these days, I suppose,” she remarked. “Han Wu, I’ll relay your decision to them. I wish you the best of luck.” With that, Prof. Lina ended the call.

Within minutes, a message regarding the details of the test was transmitted to Han Wu’s interface. As expected, the message stated that his mission for this test was to explore an unknown civilization.

To ensure he remained completely undetected by the Will of the Civilization, everything linked to his divine realm would be completely sealed off for the entire duration of the test. This implied that Han Wu would be unable to bring along his own units. He would also be deprived of his Divine Powers, ordinary skills, and his Divine Skills.

He would be very vulnerable should he ever encounter danger. Still, this was a mission he absolutely had to do, so he quickly began preparations.

Following a day of much-needed rest, he proceeded to the designated rendezvous point as per the college’s instructions. From there, he boarded a spaceship, beginning his journey towards the edge of the Divine Civilization.

After three days and nights through thousands of wormholes, the spaceship finally reached its destination. On the fourth day, Han Wu finally arrived at the edge of the so-called unknown civilization. He noticed that the outpost bore the number 19853.

The civilization Han Wu needed to explore was currently 2.39 million light years away from his current location. Technically, he could cover that vast distance in six hours if he continued his journey using the spaceship moored at the outpost, which was outfitted with FTL[1] hard drives.

For this mission, however, Imperial College prohibited his use of those spaceships, as absolute clandestineness was paramount. To keep his presence hidden from the Will of the Civilization, they came up with another approach—the asteroid method.

Han Wu would first be dispatched to a location ten light-years from the civilization. There, he would be fitted into a seemingly nondescript asteroid, which would then be directed to enter the civilization’s atmosphere as if by natural means. This particular approach was considered among the most inconspicuous methods available, designed to prevent his detection by the Will of the Civilization.

The method, however, was very unsafe. It was not only susceptible to accidents, but also significantly more deadly, given that Han Wu’s divine realm was currently inaccessible to him. The chilling possibility existed that the asteroid might completely burn away during its atmospheric entry, reducing Han Wu to ashes before he even touched the ground.

Furthermore, there were precedents of asteroid shells being so thick that it was impossible for the individual encased within to break out. Should this happen to Han Wu, he would inevitably face a slow death by starvation while trapped inside.

Additionally, numerous other unforeseen incidents posed a threat to Han Wu’s life, given his severed connection to his divine realm. Yet, even after understanding all the risks involved with this method, Han Wu remained unafraid.

I doubt I can even back out at this point; Imperial College might probably just force me into the asteroid and chuck me towards the civilization anyway. I’d rather just take a proactive stance and, in doing so, leave a good impression on the college.

He found himself enclosed within a hollowed-out space inside a massive asteroid. The small space was stocked with about two days’ worth of food and water, as well as a few magazines to help alleviate any boredom—the ultimate dream of a shut-in. Considering the circumstances, it was, quite frankly, remarkably humane.

Once preparations were complete, a small invisible spaceship dragged Han Wu’s asteroid ten light years away from the civilization, then launched the asteroid in its direction.

Though hidden deep within the asteroid, Han Wu could still sense the tremendous speed at which it was hurtling through space. He had no choice, however. Without his divine realm, he was utterly powerless. He could only pray for a favorable landing spot.

1. Faster-Than-Light ☜