Unexpected Person

"Still... got a loan..." Xi Ye stared speechlessly at the one hundred billion balance in his account, his head spinning. Even now, he still hadn't recovered from being conned by his beautiful teacher.

In the past, he had always despised his father for being so easily conned. Every time his father made up his mind to drop Xi Ye out of school, the moment he arrived at school, the teacher would talk him into paying the next hundred years of tuition in advance. Later, when the family had become so poor that even the mines had been sold off, the old man had still been conned into borrowing tens of billions. In the end, amid everyone's complaints, he had been driven from the position of clan head. Xi Ye had no idea whether he had paid it all back yet.

Should he go back and visit his father?

Thinking of the hundred billion God Coins in his balance, Xi Ye immediately felt much more confident. But then he remembered that the money seemed to be a loan, which he would have to repay later, and his confidence wilted again.

Three-point-five percent interest. Damn, he'd really dared to take out that loan!!

He finally understood what his father had gone through back then. His teacher truly was an experienced old saleswoman who had lived for tens of thousands of epochs. He wondered how many other unlucky fools she had ruined besides him.

Now that he had money, he naturally had to purchase supplies. Since he had borrowed so much, he might as well play the tycoon for once and buy to his heart's content!

He decided to go on a lavish shopping spree at the Federation's largest shopping planet. Thus, he booked a luxurious Interstellar Train and extravagantly reserved business-class seats for himself and several followers. The tickets alone cost more than five hundred God Coins—enough to cover his living expenses for an entire year in the past!

Spending borrowed money really didn't hurt at all!

On the Interstellar Train, several players stared wide-eyed at everything around them. The train was built from Dragon Steel, giving off a ferocious, imposing presence from the outside, like a colossal steel dragon. Inside, however, it was extravagantly luxurious. The floors were paved with the Jade Bone of Star Sea Giant Whales, carved with patterns by top elven artists, decorated with Phoenix Crystal, and dotted with Hai Lan Star Grass that cost eight thousand God Coins per plant. It was comparable to an ancient elven imperial palace.

The business-class seats were all seamlessly stitched from the genuine hides of star beasts above rank twelve. Each seat was equipped with the newest Dream Crystal touchscreen. Not only did it feel incredibly lifelike, it also had a massaging effect on the eyes.

Although the players had no idea what any of it was worth, they could still feel the overwhelming air of luxury. None of them came from poor families, especially the descendant of Grandpa Lu. After Grandpa Lu had been blacklisted, he had opened several cafés, and his cappuccinos had sold like hotcakes. After several generations of accumulation, the family could be considered middle class in the D Planet Federation. As a standard wealthy second-generation descendant, he had eaten at Michelin-starred restaurants, stayed in presidential suites, and could afford Thunder Warrior. Yet at that moment, he sat trembling in his chair, his expression as restrained as that of a poor man from ancient times entering an imperial palace.

In secret, he used the game's built-in intelligence to take screenshots of everything he had seen over the past few days, planning to make a post and sing the game's praises when he got back!!

Xi Ye, meanwhile, lay comfortably in the leather seat. He leisurely tapped open the Dream Crystal screen, linked it to his Federation account, and opened the Celestial God Group for his graduating class.

The screen showed more than a million unread messages. Xi Ye curled his lip and complained, "Are these guys really that idle?"

Before he had found the Milky Way Galaxy, he had been the most diligent group scroller during his ten thousand years aboard the spaceship. Now that he had turned his life around and gotten on the right track, looking at those active people in the group filled him with a sense of superiority. A bunch of losers!

In any student group, the true big shots generally spoke very little. Now that he was a man carrying a hundred-billion-God-Coin loan, he naturally wouldn't chatter away in the group like he used to. But he still had to lurk. Otherwise, how would he know whether these losers were living worse than he was?

He enlarged the screen and browsed for a while. The general content was as boring as ever. It was either someone boasting about a seventeen-hundred-win streak in Alliance Glory, or someone posting screenshots of consecutive chicken dinners. The more deranged ones even streamed videos demonstrating how to cook specimens...

The records from the past two days were slightly different, though. The discussion seemed to be about the Unified Examination.

Xi Ye suddenly remembered. Wasn't this the time of year for the Federation's large-scale interstellar school entrance examination, held once every ten years?

The topic was somewhat sensitive, because most of the people in the group were failures who had chosen the wrong majors during their college entrance exams. Of course, Xi Ye, who carried a hundred-billion-God-Coin loan, was naturally on a different level from them. Still, he was curious about what kind of past these failures had.

Celestial A-Class Senior Disciple Brother: "Sigh, back when I set off to travel with lofty ambitions, my little brother was still wearing split-crotch pants. Now his great-grandson is taking the Unified Examination, while I haven't even found a female goblin. I've decided that once I find a planet, I'll colonize it like a stud farm. Even if the natives of that planet look uglier than goblins, so be it!!"

Celestial C: "Damn, what if it's a hermaphroditic Cockroach Person?"

Senior Disciple Brother: "Then I'll screw it!"

Everyone: "Awesome, awesome!"

Celestial G: "By the way, have any of you been asked exam questions by your juniors lately? I'm speechless too. We were all top scholars in our respective planetary exams back then, but it's been over twenty thousand years. Who the hell remembers what we learned in high school? Besides, can the current exam questions possibly be the same as those from twenty thousand years ago?"

Celestial B-Class Duanchen Hero: "Exactly! Some time ago, a junior in the family group secretly messaged me asking about the synthesis test-tube sequence for Artificial Blue Phoenix Crystal. After sending me the list of test-tube reagents and materials, he asked whether test tube E connected to F, C connected to D, and what A connected to. How the hell should I remember that? Besides, Blue Phoenix didn't even exist in our time!"

Senior Disciple Brother: "Huh? Artificial Phoenix Crystal synthesis? That's content from Hex Chemistry. It's a subject only required by Clockwork Interstellar University and Piltover Interstellar University for their admissions. You actually know such advanced stuff?"

Duanchen Hero: "Of course I do. My family is a pure-blooded Piltover Family. We've been passing it down for nearly half an epoch. Back then, I was the strongest among my peers in both Hex Mechanical Physics and Hex Organic Chemistry. Several Old Ancestors fought to give me their genes. If I hadn't entered this damn Celestial Group Academy, I might be a cutting-edge scientist earning a million God Coins a year by now. And yet I actually couldn't answer such a low-level question right away!"

Senior Disciple Brother: "I... see. Then how did you reply to your junior?"

"What else could I say?" Duanchen Hero sent a rolling-eyes emoji. "A connects to W, W connects to the outer ring slash, then Ruthless Iron Hand, then A, then A to trigger Bloodlust, followed by Guillotine for a solo kill!!"

Senior Disciple Brother: "..."

Celestial C: "There's nothing wrong with that combo!"

Celestial G: "That depends on whether the opponent has a dash. If they do, you can't take a small step back after W and use the outer ring slash. Otherwise, they'll simply dash away, and your Ruthless Iron Hand won't be able to pull them in."

Xi Ye nearly reflexively argued when he saw that: If you're starting with a basic attack into W, of course you have to activate Ghost and go for a solo kill. How could the opponent possibly get away?

But then he thought about how his net worth was now considerable. How could he possibly discuss such a question with these trash?

Just as he was considering how to make an elegant and distinctive appearance in the chat, a shadow suddenly covered his light screen. Xi Ye froze, frowned, and switched off the screen. Then, in the reflection, he saw an extremely muscular and imposing Thunder Warrior!

That outline... No way... Xi Ye's heart skipped a beat.

"Well, well, having a relaxing time, our family's future star?"

Hearing that familiar mocking voice, Xi Ye knew for certain who it was.

He turned to look, his expression complicated. "Long time no see, Father!"