The Five Great Academies

The Star River Federation spans sixty-two light-years, encompassing four major administrative regions with a total population in the hundreds of billions.

Within the Federation's territory stand five A-grade academies—

Capital Star of the First Administrative Region – "Federation Dawn Military Academy"

Capital Star of the First Administrative Region – "Bonar United Academy"

Xuanming Star of the Second Administrative Region – "Pulan Military Academy"

Linguang Star of the Third Administrative Region – "Taoyun Academy"

Landu Star of the Fourth Administrative Region – "Dingchuan Academy"

These five top-tier academies! They are the cradle of the Federation's talent, the golden starting point for a meteoric rise, and the highest institutions of learning within the Federation's vast territory. Every year during the enrollment season, tens of millions of eligible individuals from the entire local star system apply.

The Five Great Academies jointly stipulate that all applicants must be no older than twenty years of age!

This single requirement filters out so much talent! Every year when the academies are on break, they rush to various planets to scout for outstanding prospective talents. The Federation stipulates that A-grade academies have priority selection rights. Every year before enrollment, this draws countless silent curses from other academies; the top students are always picked first, how are other institutions supposed to survive?

In any case, these Five Great Academies don't worry at all; there are plenty of people applying.

Glory! Privilege!

Getting into one of the Five Great A-grade Academies is the dream of countless young people!

Each administrative region sets up examination centers on several major planets, so every examination season, tens of thousands of young people gather on these planets.

Federation Calendar, June 10th, Examination Day!

Landu Star Spaceport.

He glanced at the antique mechanical wristwatch on his hand, "Federation Calendar, May 10th, 10:57."

A bald middle-aged man in a blue-green uniform looked up and pouted, "Those damn higher-ups are sending me to that godforsaken place. The people recruited from there every year are at the bottom of the academy! This is the last year of the three-year evaluation, and they're assigning me there. It's a miracle if I can pick out an eagle from a bunch of weaklings. They're deliberately trying to screw with me! Damn it, if I find out who did this, hmph!"

His thick wrist joints strained the cuffs of his blue-green uniform tightly. Four small embroidered characters were neatly lined up—Dingchuan Academy.

He threw a fierce punch into the air, the resulting gust of wind flattening the skirt of the lady in front of him. Fortunately, they hadn't boarded the interstellar travel ship yet, otherwise, he would definitely be sent back off the ship.

Dingchuan Academy Combat Instructor on Landu Star – Ruan Xiongfeng! A retired commander of the Federation's 114th Ace Infantry Regiment, thirty-seven years old, a martial arts master with a Physical Standard of level twenty-five and a Spirit Lock of level two!

Physical Standard level twenty-five!

In the Federation's Physical Standard, level 6 has an instantaneous explosive punch force and body endurance of 75kg. Then, it's 150kg, 250kg, 400kg, 600kg, 850kg corresponding to levels 7 to 11. After that, the standard increases by 50kg for each level up, and level 25 has a baseline of 9600kg. This is an existence that everyone in the entire Federation looks up to.

Since strength doesn't necessarily correspond to endurance, a person with level fifteen strength might only have level ten endurance, so their Physical Standard is only level ten.

However, a Physical Standard of level twenty-five means that both instantaneous explosive force and body endurance reach 9600kg! This means that when his physical strength is fully unleashed, a single punch is equivalent to an impact force of over 9 tons!! It also means he can withstand this impact force of over 9 tons!!

The crowd waiting in line for inspection only cast respectful glances at the blue-green uniform. They had no idea that a prehistoric beast in human skin was waiting in line for ticketing.

He was teaching perfectly fine and hadn't offended anyone since coming to this school. But today, he received an order from the academy's higher-ups to go to Zicui Star, 8.2 light-years away from Landu Star, to be in charge of enrollment. The other academy staff had already departed, and he was the overall person in charge for Zicui Star, allowed to arrange his own travel method.

Arrange his own travel method, my foot! They notified him today and made him leave today! What kind of nonsense is this! This man, who had experienced countless battles of blood and fire, grumbled as he raised his hands for inspection. When the people around saw it was a Dingchuan Academy teacher's uniform, they turned their heads back.

After passing security and entering the waiting area, there were still twenty minutes before entering the cryogenic sleep pod.

Ruan Xiongfeng tossed the bundle he was carrying behind him and leaned back against it. His broad palm rubbed his shiny bald head as he grinned, causing the people around him to quickly move away.

Before coming, he had looked into this Zicui Star. It was on the edge of the Fourth Administrative Region, and the candidates from nearby areas should all converge here.

"What kind of talent could there be! The higher-ups of this damn academy are full of crap. Those impoverished places have long proven through history that they can't produce real talent. Every year, in the academic performance statistics for each department, half of the bottom hundred come from the fringe areas! And that includes this Zicui Star! How utterly unlucky!"

"Anyway, I don't understand anything else. The academy arranges it themselves. I'm just in charge of the infantry specialization. I'll just treat this as recruiting cannon fodder."

"Oh right, that special recruitment for the Army Reserve must be interesting. They only gave ten spots. Seven or eight nearby planets only got ten spots, hehe, interesting. I like this kind of interesting stuff."

A-grade academies have a partnership with the Federation military. Besides the military assessment day on September 17th each year, there are also some special quotas. These quotas are handled by the A-grade academies in each administrative region during their recruitment. In addition to meeting the age requirement of no older than twenty, candidates also need a Physical Standard above level 15. Then, the final 100 are selected through preliminary rounds! Each A-grade academy only has 100 spots. These will be considered quasi-elite talents for the military's reserve training. During this period, 90 people will be eliminated. These individuals can choose to participate in internal academy exams to change majors or leave the school. Ultimately, only 10 people will remain upon graduation. Four major administrative regions, the entire Federation... fifty people!

This difficulty is a thousand times, even ten thousand times, higher than taking the direct exam! But if they can endure for four years without being eliminated, what awaits them in the end is honor! Graduating with the rank of Major! Becoming officers in various code-named special forces teams!

One in ten million...

Some geniuses firmly believe they are different from ordinary people, and some with outstanding achievements want to prove their extraordinary nature by obtaining this spot again, often ending up with their heads battered and bruised.

This examination doesn't require academic scores, nor does it require vast knowledge. It only requires proving one thing: you are stronger than everyone else, and you can stand until the end. That's enough!

I'm counting on this to select some talent for me, but the academy divided it into ten areas. I estimate that the area I'm in will still be at the bottom compared to the others! Damn it, just thinking about it makes me angry!

The flesh on his face twitched a few times. Ruan Xiongfeng realized that no matter how he calculated it, he was getting angry. He went directly into the spaceship, found a hibernation pod, and lay down. Out of sight, out of mind!!

The spaceship slowly started and began sailing towards the space jump point. A pleasant female voice played on a loop inside the spaceship: "Good afternoon, dear passengers. Interstellar travel is about to begin. Please enter the hibernation pods on time within five minutes. The destination of this voyage is Zicui Star, a total distance of 8.2 light-years, taking seven Federation days. We wish you a pleasant journey."

This spaceship, unknown to anyone, carrying the dreams of young people from several fringe planets for higher education, slowly started and accelerated until it disappeared into the vast starry sky.

One month later, the Star River Federation Academy entrance examination is about to fully arrive!

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(PS: An extra chapter for Alliance Leader Bai Yiduo!

Thanks to book friend Ten Billion Light Years for the reward, and thanks to book friend Dr. Xu Loves Sweets for the reward.)