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At the same time, he used his brain-computer to retrieve this student's background and project it onto his retinas.

After seeing that Wen Jing had been born in a population factory, Tainuo froze briefly. Then his gaze grew fervent, and he became even more optimistic about her future.

Golden light shone again as the chief examiner used his authority to award bonus points once more.

Martial studies - practical weapons combat score: 405 (+5 examiner bonus)

With that, Wen Jing had completed every subject in the examination, bringing her total to a terrifying 1,010 points-the highest score attainable in the Unified Awakening Examination.

Seeing the bonus points in the examination room, Wen Jing smiled in satisfaction and walked out.

The examiners continued on as well, but as they watched the other candidates perform, they could not help becoming distracted.

Finally, more than half an hour later, all the candidates had completed the martial studies examination.

In less than a second, the central computer finished tallying the scores, ranking the candidates, setting the cutoff, and publishing the list of students who had qualified for awakening.

The Unified Awakening Examination was held four times each year. Students' birth dates determined whether they took the spring, summer, autumn, or winter examination. This session was the "winter examination."

Because of the university academic calendar, relatively few students took the winter examination. Even so, over three hundred thousand candidates on the School District Planet participated, and only the top fifteen thousand or so ultimately qualified for awakening.

"Yes! I passed!"

"One point! I was just one point short-!!!"

For a moment, the waiting hall erupted with all kinds of voices. Some cheered and jumped for joy; others burst into tears.

The examination center's medical teams and security personnel sprang into practiced action, stopping students who had broken down from killing themselves.

The Unified Awakening Examination had only one cutoff. Those who passed qualified for a free awakening, while those who failed were eliminated for good. There was no repeating a year, no starting over. Ordinary people had only this one chance in their entire lives.

Even more people had already been sent away during the School District Planet's bottom-ranking elimination examinations held at the end of every semester.

It was so brutal because data gathered since the emergence of awakened individuals showed that the greater the talent someone displayed before awakening, the more likely they were to become an awakened individual with powerful potential.

With awakening resources in short supply, the Federation's entire education system naturally revolved around producing the strongest awakened individuals with the fewest resources.

Even so, throughout history, the success rate among candidates who qualified for awakening had only fluctuated between 10% and 20%.

At last, this crucial moment arrived. Like the other candidates who had qualified for awakening, Wen Jing entered the priority passage with excitement and apprehension.

Chief Examiner Tainuo dismissed the others. Accompanied by four personal guards, he submitted his blood, iris, and energy to a device for triple verification, then watched as ten silver-white sealed cases were opened.

Each case contained a regular dodecahedral crystal. Something like a fluid seemed to exist inside, constantly shifting in shape and color.

The sealed cases alone cost a million credits each, while every crystal inside was worth over ten billion-a priceless treasure that money couldn't buy.

The crystals were sent into a special passage. The entire awakening center trembled slightly as the space station's most central and complex energy decomposition device activated.

At the same time, the candidates who had qualified for awakening entered oval awakening pods one after another, then traveled along magnetic levitation tracks into the fully activated energy field.

"Not awakened."

"Not awakened."

"Awakened... name: XXX, Wilderness Body rating: D, species..."

"..."

The energy field could accommodate one hundred awakening pods at a time. Only a dozen or so of them lit up.

After each batch spent ten seconds inside, the next batch immediately took its turn. All ten thousand-plus students could complete their awakening within twenty minutes.

In just a few minutes, more than ten batches of students had passed through, and Wen Jing's turn arrived.

The instant she felt her awakening pod stop, she could not help clenching her fists.

One second, two seconds, three seconds...

At first, she felt nothing special. Then, at some sudden moment-seemingly the very last instant before the ten seconds ended-a subtle sensation washed over her.

It was as though her skull had been lifted open and a cool breeze had blown in.

Wen Jing could feel a mysterious, unknown passage appearing in her consciousness, like a strange illusion that would never disappear. Somehow, she had a powerful premonition that she could enter it whenever she wished.

Without a doubt, that was the entrance to the Ancient Wilderness...

Tainuo and the others who had overseen the examination were already standing before the observation window, closely watching the awakening results.

"Before eighteen, look at scores; after eighteen, look at potential." It was a widely circulated saying in this world.

Whether someone could awaken was the threshold that set them apart from ordinary people. Their potential after awakening was the threshold that distinguished awakened individuals from one another.

From the moment the awakening process began, all their attention had been focused on Wen Jing. Some looked even more nervous than she did.

-The talent this person had displayed in the examination was simply too terrifying!

Those arrogant young consortium heirs privately wondered: it would be one thing if Wen Jing failed to awaken, but if she succeeded, could she also have A-rank potential?

What did A-rank potential mean? The Federation's star system had a population of over ten billion, yet even that could not guarantee one would appear every year.

At present, the entire Federation had only forty-three A-rank awakened individuals, all powerful figures in high positions!

Although an awakened individual's path of advancement was fraught with danger, and A-rank potential did not mean they could truly grow to A-rank, it undoubtedly meant admission to the foremost institution, Mystic Radiance Academy, greater attention, and a greater allocation of resources...

At that thought, quite a few people glanced toward the blond young man surrounded at the center.

Wen Jing's awakening pod was being sent into the energy field, yet his expression remained indifferent, as aloof as ever. He appeared entirely unconcerned about her awakening results.

His name was Luosi, and he was an awakened individual with A-rank potential.

Luosi had been born into a collateral branch of the Sanctuary Consortium. After his potential was assessed as A-rank, he had immediately been designated the next family head.

That's right. Even if someone poor like Wen Jing really has A-rank potential, she'd only be worth taking seriously and recruiting. How could she compare to Luosi? they thought.

Yet a few seconds later, when Wen Jing's awakening pod lit up with the glow that signified a successful awakening, everyone's eyes were fixed on the window.

No one noticed that Luosi's perpetually cold, indifferent expression finally cracked at that moment.

He instinctively pressed his thin lips together, tension in his eyes.

Because he knew more than the others did: Wen Jing was stronger than he had been before awakening. In fact... considerably stronger.

With talent like that, it would be one thing if she failed to awaken. But once she succeeded, there was a very high chance she would be A-rank, making her a formidable competitor in his year at Mystic Radiance Academy.

More importantly, there was another possibility he was unwilling to speculate about...

The legendary S-rank, of which only six had ever appeared in the Federation's history...

Finally, the information produced by the device appeared on the observation window.

Name: Wen Jing

Wilderness Body rating: F

Species: unknown insect family

Recommended career path: vanguard combat personnel

...

The silence in the observation room was deafening.

Only when Wen Jing emerged from her awakening pod in a daze did a buzz of laughter and conversation rise among the consortium heirs. It carried a trace of barely perceptible relief and relaxation as it spread, growing louder.

Tainuo, who had been full of anticipation, withdrew his gaze in disappointment. Beside him, the principal of First High School flushed red, then pale, opening his mouth without managing to say anything.

Those with great talent before awakening were very likely to have high potential as well, but the data was not absolute. Leaving aside the mysterious and unknown Ancient Wilderness, humanity's understanding of awakened individuals could hardly be called thorough.

However, the technology for detecting Wilderness Body energy was already very mature. There had never been a recorded error.

Who could have imagined that the genius who had filled them with nervous anticipation just a moment ago would awaken with the lowest possible potential, F-rank? The most numerous, mediocre, and weak of all awakened individuals!

"Boring."

Luosi exhaled expressionlessly, turned, and left.

Several others also lost interest and chose to follow him back to the spaceship.

"F-rank potential is the most common among awakened individuals, after all, so it's the most likely draw. Makes sense."

"Then doesn't that mean that even when her Wilderness Body compatibility reaches 100%, her strength will only be F-rank at most?"

"Exactly. Hardly any different from now. Feels like going to an academy or not would make no difference..."

The young people who stayed continued to center their conversation on this freshly minted laughingstock, but no one paid any attention to the person herself anymore.

In an unnoticed corner.

After completing her awakening, the first thing Wen Jing instinctively did was not wait for the device's test results, but look at the attribute panel in her consciousness.

She immediately tried adding points to her species level, which had reached its cap.

...It did not work.

Instead, the panel briefly blurred, then changed from a single page into two side by side. Entirely new attribute information appeared on the additional page.

She immediately realized that these should be the attributes of her "Wilderness Body," which existed in the Ancient Wilderness after her awakening.

Listening to the announcement of her F-rank potential, she read through them one by one from top to bottom.

Life: 0.01, strength: 0.01, speed: 0.01, spirit: 0.01...

With those uniform attributes sitting two places past the decimal point, it really was F-rank. The central computer's assessment had not looked down on her merely for being young and poor.

Then she saw the final entry in her Wilderness Body attributes-

Species level (insect): 0.01/∞

While the onlookers thought her daze came from defeat, her consciousness was actually occupied and shaken by the meaning represented by the mathematical symbol "∞."

All kinds of thoughts and inspirations collided in Wen Jing's mind.