First Assessment, Magic Sea Academy's Distress

A few days passed in the blink of an eye.

On a certain subspace route, the Eternal Truth Fleet advanced at a leisurely pace.

Qingyang, who had fully adapted to the T8 (Perfect) Mental Threshold, opened his Star Net panel. His current Mental Threshold was sufficient to Datafy ten high-end ships!

He could even control two Chichen Type Battleships of that caliber!

The most crucial thing right now was how to gather resources. Even with around 100,000 Star Points, it was only enough for two Chichen Type Battleships.

Apart from the extra Long-range Type Cruiser, the deficit for the remaining warships was still significant.

He was still seven warships short of the full complement of fifteen!

Of course, if he didn't pursue high-end warships and settled for mid-tier and standard ones, controlling forty to fifty ships wouldn't be difficult.

Qingyang naturally wouldn't do something so foolish, sacrificing the essential for the trivial.

In the Starfleet, if you have the means, the higher the quality, the better.

Quantity wasn't that useful. While the T7 Fleet had a minimum of 100 ships, at least 20 of them had to be T7 warships.

Even a standard T7 Assault Ship had a Mental Threshold capacity similar to a T8 high-tier Cruiser.

He took out the purple crystal bead.

"Can a purple-quality Star Crystal upgrade a purple Star Weapon from zero stars to one star?"

After a moment's thought, Qingyang directly used the Star Crystal.

[Confirming use of Star Crystal x1 (Purple) on Star Cover Phase]

Compared to assault units, enhancing the Starfleet's capabilities was the way to go.

While Datafying crew members was powerful, it was ultimately an individual enhancement.

"Confirm."

[Star Weapon: Star Cover Phase] [Quality: Purple (One Star)] [Basic Effect: Fleet's detection range +25%, precision +25%, fleet stealth effect +20%] [Additional Effect: When hostile units appear within detection range, the star map will display a red dot] [Note: Detection equipment energy consumption will increase by 10%, T6 and above level fleets will receive a discount on the effect (One Star)]

Qingyang was pleasantly surprised. The detection range and precision had increased by 5%, which was a basic enhancement.

The most important thing was the 20% increase in stealth effect; this was a significant upgrade.

It would be very useful at critical moments.

Closing the panel, Qingyang suddenly received a notification from his Star Net assistant.

"Received a large number of emails in the Star Net mailbox?"

Qingyang then remembered that after the first Dimensional World achievement evaluation, the Commander Academy would determine admission based on overall performance.

Entering the Star Net, Qingyang felt a slight nervousness and anticipation for some reason.

Perhaps it was an instinctual reaction from his past life?

Taking a deep breath, he said, "Open the mailbox and sort the Commander Academy invitation emails by priority!"

[Authorized to read emails, sorting in progress] [Tier 1 - Kyushu Republic: Magic Sea Commander Academy, Shangjin Commander Academy] [Note: As the Commander's Soul Meridian belongs to the Kyushu Soul Meridian, Tier 1 displays Kyushu Republic Commander Academies first] [Tier 2]

Without looking at the other tiers, Qingyang stared blankly at the Kyushu Republic and the accompanying remarks.

He recognized each character, but together they were so difficult to comprehend!

However, one thing was certain: he seemed to have been classified as a Kyushu person by the Kyushu Republic?

Could it be related to his Soul Meridian?

"Assistant, what is a Soul Meridian?" He hadn't studied it, so he asked when he didn't understand.

[Similar to bloodline, it is the essence of the soul. If both parents possess the same Soul Meridian, the offspring will also have the same Soul Meridian.] [If one has previously possessed a Soul Meridian, the one who nurtured it must have the same Soul Meridian.]

"..."

Qingyang suddenly thought of many things. The Kyushu Soul Meridian, did it originate from his parents, or from his past life?

"Forget it, I won't think about it. Regardless, it won't affect me now. I choose Magic Sea Commander Academy!"

Shaking his head, Qingyang brought his attention back.

[Confirmed, invitation activated, admission agreement displayed, please sign]

After briefly reviewing the simple agreement, Qingyang signed his name.

Instantly, a brand-new panel appeared on the main interface of his Star Net personal space.

[Commander Academy]

"That's it?" Qingyang blinked in surprise, then realized.

Of course, the Commander Academy was established in the virtual world of the Star Net, not a physical school, so the procedures wouldn't be complicated.

He confirmed the click.

Qingyang immediately appeared in a completely new area.

He was surrounded by an endless, brilliant river of stars, with land beneath his feet stretching as far as the eye could see! Numerous massive islands also floated in the sky above the land.

Countless classical, luxurious buildings stood tall; sci-fi structures in the Chinese style, reaching tens of thousands of meters high, were everywhere. He could even see entire cities situated on various islands, while the remaining areas were covered in fantastical, giant plants.

Qingyang looked around curiously, "Is this the Magic Sea Commander Academy?"

[Welcome, Fifth Era, Class of 7091, new student, to the Academy]

[Please keep your virtual pass safe: 709186868]

[New students, please proceed to the nearest Academy City Hall to authenticate and receive your newcomer rewards]

"Quite auspicious," Qingyang smiled slightly and then flew towards a city not far away.

In the center of the landmass, a colossal city with a diameter comparable to a star, several middle-aged men and women were gathered around a tea table.

A man with a rather sturdy build said helplessly, "How is it? Are there no truly outstanding talents? If not, can we just pick a few students with high overall capabilities to train!"

A woman in traditional Han clothing picked up her teacup. "Including the 86,867 new commanders recruited this term, our academy has less than 600,000 students eligible for the Youth League in a few years. Most of them have purple or red talent.

Gold and purple-gold combined are less than 50,000!

While talent isn't everything, a hardworking Epic talent is stronger than an equally hardworking Gold-tier one. That's a fact.

Besides, which of the 453 young Epic talents from our Magic Sea Academy preparing for the Youth League isn't hardworking?

Picking a few with strong overall capabilities implies they're lucky? It's better to cultivate a few Epic talents with high combat power boosts!

If that doesn't work, we'll provide top-tier starships!"

Another refined-looking man spoke, "Recently, other Kyushu academies have had students with talent surpassing Epic appear. Even Shangjin Academy, which is in a similar situation to us, has a four-ring Epic Commander!

You all know how strong those commanders are who inherit their direct ancestors' fleets, fleets that have been passed down for four generations!

Their talent has been boosted four times! Their enhancements are not much less than those little monsters who surpass Epic.

Furthermore, even if that kid can only Datafy dozens of starships, don't forget that those starships were at least T4 at some point.

Even suppressed to T8, they are still far superior to warships of the same class. Believe it or not, try pitting your top-tier ships like the Shining Moon Type or Beishan Type against his battleships?

Not to mention the various Star Weapon enhancements. Providing top-tier starships is useless."

"To add, among our strongest three new students, aside from one with top-tier Epic talent, the other two are just three-ring inherited commanders."

The last person added with a smile, completely ignoring the stern gazes from the other three.

The woman received a Star Net notification and spoke, "Hmm? A student has entered. Their Epic talent is masked by the Star Net, so we can't detect it."

"Even with a hundred more Epic students, it still won't solve the fact that we're at the bottom in terms of new student quality among the Kyushu peers," the last person continued to add fuel to the fire.

"..."

The Alliance is vast, and geniuses are numerous. It takes hundreds of millions of years for a truly exceptional individual to emerge who can overwhelm all prodigies of their generation.

Therefore, the Alliance Youth League is not divided by rank, but by tiers.

The current problem is that Magic Sea Academy might not even make it into the highest tier!

After a long silence, the four fell into speechless despair.

"Fine, for now, let's increase resources for the students with higher ratings and assign them some training missions. As for the rest, we'll let fate decide."

These two chapters involve some background expansion. Those who find it overwhelming can skip them; the descriptions are not extensive.

--Chapter 23 begins the main storyline.