Golden Finger Activated

"Hiss."

With a faint hiss of pressurized air, the door of the white Divine Domain Login Pod opened, and a Light Blue Calming Mist poured out, revealing Lin Xiao as he opened his eyes.

He reached up and removed the Transparent Crystal Ring from around his head, rubbed his brow, and carefully placed the ring into its designated storage slot inside the pod.

This was an auxiliary device specially designed to stabilize the mind and buffer mental strain. Aside from allowing him to connect to the Divine Domain located in Subspace, its main purpose was to ease the Perceptual Disorder caused by the Over a Hundred Times Time Flow between the Main World and Subspace, while also steadying his mind so that new Players like him, who had only just opened up their Divine Domains, would not lose themselves in the illusions produced by Divine Power.

After all, Newborn Divine Lifeforms like him had once been ordinary people. Having only just come into contact with Divine Power and Divinity, they could easily lose themselves in the immense power brought by Divine Power without this aid.

When the Human Federation first discovered the God-Sealing Game, such comprehensive auxiliary facilities did not yet exist. Back then, people were often heard of being influenced by Divinity and Divine Power, undergoing drastic personality changes. Some whose wills were not firm enough were even directly enslaved by the power of Divinity.

Lin Xiao had transmigrated at a good time. By now, humanity had spent tens of thousands of years exploring and developing. They had long since created stable Divine Domain Login Pods, and human civilization had firmly established itself in the Chaotic Void Sea. The clan boasted countless powerful experts, with tens of millions of Deities dominating the many Crystal Wall Systems within the Chaotic Void Sea and occupying countless planes and even Crystal Wall Systems.

Having transmigrated and been reborn into the best era of this glorious high-fantasy civilization, Lin Xiao was quite satisfied.

He was also quite satisfied with the family he had been reborn into. His parents were alive, and he was an only child with no siblings. Though the family had many branches and some internal conflicts, it was generally harmonious, without too much messy nonsense.

After all, the family's true god Old Ancestor, who had already Ignited Divine Fire, was still alive. Deities had infinite lifespans; before the Old Ancestor died, the descendants had no hopes to speak of. Even if they wanted to fight for something, they had no way to do so.

After stepping out of the Divine Domain Login Pod, he casually washed his face. Then he heard a "ding" notification from the pod. Wiping his face, he walked over, lightly tapped a button with his finger, and a light screen popped into existence before him, displaying:

Dongning City Fifth Middle School, Class Three of First Year High School, report card for the thirty-eighth major lesson of this semester, as follows—

Student: Lin Xiao:

Personal performance: 6.2 points.

Kinfolk performance: 4.4 points.

Overall score: 5.5 points.

Overall evaluation: Good-.

Class rank: 25.

Year rank: 252.

Class Teacher's remarks: Personal combat performance is above average. Kinfolk performance is failing.

The report card was quite formulaic. Lin Xiao glanced at it and shrugged. He had already known this would happen. The Kinfolk he had chosen really were a bit lousy.

He had known it half a year ago, when he had first opened up his Divine Domain, but there had been nothing he could do.

No matter who it was, their initial Kinfolk could only be Low-level Races. A newcomer's Divinity could not bear powerful races. Only after growing stronger in the future could one switch to more powerful races.

The reason he had chosen Murlocs was because his Divine Domain was entirely water. Murlocs had an advantage in water.

When he had first opened his Divine Domain, there had only been fifty Murlocs. Now, after more than half a year—equivalent to over two hundred years in the Divine Domain at the rate of one day in the Main World to one year in the Divine Domain—the Murlocs, with lifespans of around twenty years and the ability to breed every two or three years, had somehow only increased to one hundred and seven. Their total growth rate over two hundred years was merely one hundred percent. What a scam.

The main reason was that Murlocs were too weak. Although all students' initial races were weak, Murlocs were among the very weakest.

With their feeble strength, coupled with the combat losses from the weekly major lessons, and with him unable to obtain any Cards that accelerated reproduction, after half a year they were still in this pathetic state.

What left him powerless to complain was that, with this performance, he was actually still in the middle tier of the class. Among fifty students, he ranked twenty-fifth. There were ten classes and five hundred students in the year, yet his rank had remained around two hundred and fifty for half a year, remarkably stable.

Grinding his teeth, Lin Xiao closed the panel and opened the next message.

It was also from the Class Teacher, a mass notification:

"Prepare for the Placement Test next Monday. This will be the final Placement Test of the semester, followed by the final exam and then class assignments. Everyone knows what that means. This is your final opportunity, so please prepare yourselves well during this last month."

The Placement Test was held once a month. Usually, the Class Teacher would prepare various monster Cards and release certain difficult monsters to invade the students' Divine Domains. It was similar to the major lesson just now, except the monsters would be stronger or more numerous.

The Placement Test carried a certain degree of danger. A moment of carelessness could result in devastating losses among the Kinfolk in one's Divine Domain, thereby affecting its development.

But correspondingly, it was a good opportunity for certain outstanding students. Since students' advancement rates affected the teachers' performance evaluations, teachers would usually give all sorts of rewards to students who performed well in major lessons. The same applied to the Placement Test.

Of course, Lin Xiao had attended more than thirty major lessons since enrolling and had never received a single reward from a teacher. His best result had been nineteenth place in the class, earning him a verbal encouragement from the Class Teacher.

He closed the light screen with a somewhat grave expression. He was not worried about the Placement Test, but about the final exam a month later.

Human Federation high schools used a tiered system. First year of high school was fairly normal, but once students entered second year of high school, the school would reassign classes based on their first year of high school final exam results. That was the distinction between Ordinary Classes, elite classes, and Key Classes.

There was no doubt that elite classes and Key Classes would receive more resource support and better teaching staff.

As for Ordinary Classes, they would naturally just receive casual instruction and were basically left to fend for themselves.

Even though Lin Xiao had a Golden Finger, he attached great importance to this class assignment. He did not want to be placed in an Ordinary Class. Even with a Golden Finger, it would be difficult to get by there.

It was not that his Golden Finger was weak. Rather, if he could enter a Key Class, why would he go to an Ordinary Class?

This was not some fantasy novel where a useless protagonist was mocked at the start, then rose to power with a Golden Finger and crazily slapped everyone in the face.

He was not that idle.

So, for this Placement Test... his consciousness sank into his Sea of Consciousness. At the center of that starry Sea of Consciousness, a crystal Magic Cube emitting a faint glow was turning back and forth without pattern. Somewhere beyond perception, a progress bar had reached its peak.

I hope it finishes loading before the test!

Before the thought had even faded, that unseen progress bar reached the end. Then the ever-turning crystal Magic Cube within the starry Sea of Consciousness erupted with boundless light, like a sun stretching across the stars.

"My Golden Finger has finally activated."

Lin Xiao was nearly moved to tears. He had waited seventeen years. This thing could finally be used.

Immediately, he extended his palm. A speck of white light flew out and rapidly spun above his hand, tracing a Magic Cube formed from threads of light. This was the projection of the Creation Cube.

Well, he did not know what this thing's real name was. He had simply named it the Creation Cube because of its functions.

True to its name, the Magic Cube's functions were as miraculous as creation itself. It could decompose, refine, extract, fuse, and reorganize anything placed inside it, possessing the ability to thoroughly alter the essence of all things in the world.

When Lin Xiao had first obtained the Creation Cube, he had not known how to use it. But after entering the God-Sealing Game and opening up his Divine Domain, he had learned how to make the greatest use of the Creation Cube.

To hell with daydreaming. I have to try it.

How could he bear to wait until next time? He turned and entered his room, opened an Alloy Safe embedded in the wall, and took out three crystal Cards.

These were Cards unique to the God-Sealing Game: one Three-Star Resource Card, one Three-Star Skill Card, and one Two-Star Skill Card. They were all Blank Common Cards.

Three-Star Resource Card—Fertile Black Soil (rare): Instantly transforms an area sixty meters long and sixty meters wide, with a thickness of four meters, into Fertile Black Soil.

Three-Star Skill Card—Thrust (common): Restricted to piercing weapons. Charge at the target at extreme speed, dealing double weapon damage and guaranteed to trigger a piercing effect.

Two-Star Skill Card—Severe Pain (common): Your attacks cause the target to take an additional 15% damage, with a very small chance of triggering a bleeding effect.

The first of these three Cards, the Three-Star Resource Card, had been given to him by his grandfather when he first opened up his Divine Domain. Unfortunately, he had chosen an oceanic Divine Domain, and the Gray Mist Fishmen were not skilled at farming, so this rare Three-Star Resource Card had no use.

One of the other two Skill cards had been given by his grandmother, while the other had been given by a cousin. But he felt it was somewhat wasteful to use them on such a weak race as Murlocs. Moreover, he had known the functions of his Golden Finger early on, so he had planned to save them until it activated, then decompose and fuse the two cards into one more powerful card.

Thus, they had sat in the safe gathering dust until today, when they finally had a use.

He eagerly took out the three Cards. After thinking for a moment, he retrieved a Wrist Wheel made of crystal from the bedside cabinet drawer. He pressed it with his finger, and a light screen opened. After some thought, he tapped and swiped across the light screen, composing a message: "My wise and mighty father, my gentle and lovely mother, your son has recently come to his senses and no longer wishes to work hard. I hope Mother will transfer the New Year money and red envelope money your son has saved with you over the years to your son."

After reading the message, he edited it again, changing "you" to the more respectful form, then signed his name with satisfaction and sent it.

Less than five minutes later, a reply arrived. When he opened it, the light screen emerged from the Wrist Wheel's surface and transformed into a projection of a woman in a light blue starlight gown.

The woman looked seventy or eighty percent similar to Lin Xiao. Gentle and delicate, she looked like a young girl. Gazing at Lin Xiao with a face full of affection, she said softly:

"Xiao'er, have you come to your senses?"

"Yes, I have."

This was Lin Xiao's mother, Jin Yunzhu, a demigod whose Divine Profession was Rainy Season and Growth. This was one of her divine thought projections; her true body was currently in a Plane Cluster within the AX-14 Crystal Wall System, where the family was permanently stationed.

Like all mothers in the world, Jin Yunzhu doted greatly on Lin Xiao, her only son. Every year on his birthday, she would prepare a gift for him.