Back then, Lin Yi had belonged to the War Faction, fighting on the front lines against the Abyssal Beasts.
The War Faction...
A cold, mocking smile touched Lin Yi's lips.
Even as they built a defensive line with their own flesh and blood, infighting and obstruction behind the lines had never ceased. Any chance of wiping out the Abyssal Beasts had been squandered.
Only when the Purple Gold Star Union's envoy descended with a cold verdict did the leadership finally understand...
This was neither the "overlap of alternate dimensions" nor the "experiment by Higher Dimensional Life" they had imagined. It was an assessment that would decide their civilization's future.
The price was Blue Star's disgraceful designation as a "Resource Star."
Once Blue Star Civilization entered the wider universe and gained access to the Pan-Spirit Alliance Virtual Universe Network, its indignant leaders immediately looked up everything they could about the Civilization Advancement Assessment.
Lin Yi still remembered its merciless rules.
If the civilization was destroyed or the Abyssal Beasts were exterminated, the assessment ended early. If the struggle remained deadlocked, it ended after a thousand years.
At its conclusion, the emerging civilization received a Civilization Rating, while each surviving individual received a personal rating.
Personal ratings were based on the number and level of Abyssal Beasts killed during the Assessment Period, along with performance in certain events. They ran from level 1 to level 9.
That rating directly determined each person's resource allotment and degree of access after the assessment.
The Civilization Rating was likewise divided into nine levels, based on the length of the Assessment Period, overall performance, the proportion of the population that survived, technological potential unlocked, the will to resist, and other factors.
It determined the civilization's initial standing, resource allocation, and room for future development once it was incorporated into Human Race territory.
In his previous life, Blue Star Civilization had ultimately scored only a little over six million points, earning a level 2 overall Civilization Rating.
As a result, once Blue Star came under the jurisdiction of the Purple Gold Star Union, which governed its star region, it was designated a bottom-tier "Resource Star."
But Blue Star lay in a Source Energy Barren Zone. Most equipment required Source Energy Crystals to operate.
Human labor, containing only trace amounts of source energy, became the preferred option.
After all, the Purple Gold Star Union was hardly going to build source-energy infrastructure for a level 2 civilization.
Countless of his people were forced into Grassroots Material Refining Factories, where they performed the same labor day after day for meager pay.
He knew none of that had happened in this life. Even so, as the memories surged back, Lin Yi pressed his lips together.
And what of his own fate?
The long, grueling journey of his previous life weighed heavily on his memory.
In the ruins at the beginning of the assessment, he had fought a stranger to the death over a single low-grade Spirit Shine Crystal and had nearly been buried beneath a collapsing floor.
In a dark corner of a shelter, he had studied the basic cultivation method obtained from the crystal by a faint light, desperate to learn. He had felt his way onto the path of cultivation, every step fraught with danger and endless loneliness.
For a scrap of scarce resources, he had crossed the ruins of old cities filled with unknown dangers and brushed against death countless times.
By then, his friends and family had long since been released from that apocalypse. He alone had trudged on through the dark...
Through grit and courage tempered on the edge of death, he had endured more than seven hundred years and reached Star Core level. He had remained on the front lines against the Abyssal Beasts and ultimately earned a level 4 personal rating. That had qualified him for the outermost ranks of the Galactic Mercenary Alliance, allowing him to leave Blue Star and enter the wider universe.
But it had only been the most basic admission ticket to the vast sea of stars. His starting point was low, and resources were scarce.
Even when he later managed to reach the Star Vortex realm, that power had come too late and amounted to too little.
He had not even lived to see a chance to return and change Blue Star's fate. Because of a trivial "chance encounter," an elder of the lofty Ziles Family had erased him as casually as brushing away a speck of dust.
"Heh... Ziles..."
Lin Yi closed his eyes and drew a deep breath, then slowly let it out. When he opened them again, all that remained was the outward calm of someone his age.
He looked out the window. The sun was still bright, the cicadas still shrill, and the children playing downstairs were still full of life.
Yet to him, an invisible shadow seemed to have fallen over that heartwarming scene.
In one week, an avatar of an Eternal Divinity would descend into the space beyond Blue Star and begin the Civilization Advancement Assessment.
Lin Yi knew that for a native of an emerging civilization, there was only one way to change his fate and that of his homeworld: earn a high rating.
And to earn a high personal rating, he would have to display astonishing talent.
Terrifying combat instincts, extraordinary cultivation speed, remarkable insight into the rules...
With the foundation I built at Star Vortex level, passing myself off as a Blue Star genius will be easy...
Lin Yi considered it carefully.
Even if someone later discovers that this "genius" has run out of talent after reaching the Star Vortex realm... I'll already have the rewards and resources. Plenty of Human Race geniuses fade into obscurity. One more won't matter.
But...
There's one thing I need to watch out for.
Lin Yi frowned, examining a rule he had noticed while sorting through his memories.
[If the deity overseeing the assessment identifies a promising candidate with the potential to earn a level 7 personal rating or higher, they receive an additional reward!]
When he had seen that rule in his previous life, he had only looked at the rewards for high ratings and sighed over what might have been.
Now he was secretly grateful he had once read up on them.
For that cold rule would become a sword hanging over his head.
What did it mean?
Clearly, a deity had every reason to pay attention to individuals who showed exceptional performance and potential.
A Star Domain level cultivator's Rule Domain, a World Derivation level cultivator's Internal World, and an Eternal Divine level cultivator's Micro Universe—commonly called a Divine Kingdom—were the renowned hallmarks of their respective levels.
They were also the three levels most widely discussed on the Pan-Spirit Alliance Virtual Universe Network, with abilities familiar to almost everyone.
After all, Star Core and Star Vortex levels were too low to draw much interest; cultivators at those levels were everywhere. Above Eternal Divine level, information grew sensitive out of deference to the Venerable Ones, and little of it appeared on the Virtual Network.
And throughout the civilization's assessment, all of Blue Star would be enveloped by the deity's Divine Kingdom Projection.
Lin Yi suspected that if he earned a rating above level 7, he would likely draw the deity's attention.
From the moment the Divine Kingdom Projection covered Blue Star, the deity could Rewind and examine anything that happened during the assessment whenever they wished.
He was supposed to be an ordinary Blue Star teenager, fresh out of high school, who had never encountered any supernatural power. If he suddenly showed extraordinary killing efficiency and appeared to know the Abyssal Beasts' types, habits, weaknesses, and even movements in advance...
Would any of that make sense for an ordinary teenager?
Long years spent struggling between life and death had carved caution into his soul.
He had no idea how the Human Race leadership—or the deity overseeing the assessment—would treat a genius who seemed so "abnormal."
Would they be overjoyed and devote themselves to nurturing him?
Or would some concern for safety, or simple curiosity, drive them to investigate him more deeply and bring him under control...
He did not know how much abnormality the Human Race leadership would tolerate.
He dared not gamble.
Entrusting his fate to the "goodwill" or "rules" of an unknown power would be foolish.
Fortunately, a Divine Spirit Avatar could only Rewind events as far back as the moment its Divine Kingdom Projection covered Blue Star. Otherwise, the Ancient Jade turning to ash alone would have exposed him.
After a moment's thought, Lin Yi made up his mind.
Whether or not the Divine Spirit Avatar uses Rewind to look back, from this moment on, I have to be Lin Yi, the high school graduate, through and through.
I have to make myself look like a homegrown Blue Star genius whose astonishing potential emerged amid an apocalyptic disaster—someone with extraordinary insight and an unbreakable will.
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