"Senior, please cooperate with us."
Two Operations Department members interrupted him and easily hauled him away, one on either side. They had come specifically to prevent this sort of situation. Although Tan Junhao was a third-year summer entrant, his actual strength was nowhere near that of the second-year Operations Department members.
Every academy's Operations Department represented the pinnacle of its combat strength.
The disciplinary action against Tan Junhao and the others caused quite a stir within the student council, and Song Zhi received messages from quite a few people.
He might be the council president, but removing members from their posts without discussion would have plenty of negative repercussions. The children of financial conglomerates were the student council's core base, not to mention that he had done it to win over a genius from the slums.
Yet Song Zhi remained unmoved by this resistance and sent out another order.
"The HR department shouldn't send anyone else to approach Wen Jing about signing a contract. Once I return from the exchange, I'll go sign her myself!"
Wen Jing followed Dean Bai out and naturally hitched another free ride on the campus maglev.
On the way, she found a moment to check her current results-
[Credits: 78] [Class rank: 1] [Year rank: 2785 (11741)]
Last time, she had ranked somewhere below six thousand in her year. This time, she had shot up four thousand places, reaching the ranks of the spring and summer entrants. If she worked a little harder before next month's course results were tallied, moving into one of the big villas for the year's top ten would be within reach!
The top three students in each class received monthly rewards of 15, 8, and 5 points respectively. For Wen Jing, that meant a guaranteed 15 points every month-another gain.
Once those guaranteed 15 points came through, she could buy the Energy-Shaping Weapon combat technique course...
While Wen Jing was making plans in her head, the maglev stopped.
Coming back to her senses, she saw their destination, and the excitement on her face froze. "Dean, weren't we going to the academy treasury?"
Wasn't this Xie Ming's research institute, which she had visited before?!
"That's right. This is the academy treasury!" Dean Bai looked as though this were perfectly obvious. She chuckled at Wen Jing and said teasingly, "All the academy's most valuable Ancient Wilderness materials are here, and our academy's second-strongest expert guards them."
The second-strongest expert? Xie Ming, who looked entirely like a desk worker, was actually that strong?
Surprised, Wen Jing obligingly asked in astonishment, "Then the strongest is..."
Sure enough, Dean Bai wore the expression of someone who had been waiting for this. She pointed a thumb at herself. "Your dean, of course!"
Chatting and laughing, the two entered the research institute.
Then, in the lobby, they saw Xie Ming, "Ocher Soil's second-strongest expert," who seemed to have been waiting there already.
As an instructor on campus, Xie Ming had naturally received the notification long ago. Seeing them now, he looked Wen Jing up and down as though getting to know her all over again.
Then he turned to Dean Bai. "80 points?"
Dean Bai said nothing.
"100 points?"
Dean Bai played with her fingers.
Defeated, Xie Ming turned away with a gloomy expression. "Let's go."
At this, Wen Jing couldn't help giving Dean Bai a questioning look.
Dean Bai said lightly, "Just a miser's dying fantasy~"
Wen Jing: "..."
Still, recalling her past haggling with Xie Ming and how he had recruited her to scam research funding, she wasn't particularly surprised.
Then Wen Jing's eyes shifted, gleaming with greed.
Wait, did that mean the miser... er, Instructor Xie Ming was acting this way because the reward she could get this time was worth over 100 points? That meant over ten million credits. Wasn't that worth more than her life (dark joke)?
The academy treasury didn't actually refer to the research institute's materials storage. This time, they took a different route from before, heading underground together.
After entering the elevator, Wen Jing keenly sensed some indescribable energy medium in the surrounding air. If she had to describe it, it resembled a deployed energy shield, but its complexity was far beyond anything an energy shield could match.
"You sensed it?" Dean Bai said beside her. "The treasury has energy defenses. Awakened without permission can't force their way in, and even someone returning from the Ancient Wilderness won't appear here."
Wen Jing nodded, unsurprised. Naturally, a restricted academy facility wouldn't rely solely on keeping registration points separate. There were bound to be other protective measures.
Their destination was a heavily fortified vault. After both Dean Bai and Xie Ming passed energy verification, the heavy door slowly opened before Wen Jing-
"Wow..."
For a moment, auspicious light shone and trails of blessed radiance streamed forth.
All sorts of Ancient Wilderness treasures appeared before the three of them. Even through the display cases that sealed them away, their extraordinary nature was apparent.
Dazzled, Wen Jing swept her gaze around, hardly knowing where to look. She could barely find anything she recognized, but her intuition told her that even the lowest-grade items here were probably on the same level as the purple fruit.
"We agreed beforehand: she can only take something from the outermost ring. She can't use the things farther in at her current stage anyway. They'd only be dangerous." Xie Ming spoke to Dean Bai in a miser's voice.
"Yes, yes, yes!" Dean Bai picked at her ear, then waved expansively at Wen Jing. "Go choose!"
The treasury stretched beyond sight, its depths seemingly shrouded in mist. Even the outermost ring Xie Ming had mentioned held nearly a hundred items.
Wen Jing didn't move. Instead, she stood obediently in place and asked Dean Bai for help. "Dean, what do you think I should take?"
Dean Bai slapped her thigh in "regret" and said to Xie Ming, "Hehe, you saw that! The student asked me herself. My hands are tied!"
Before Xie Ming's eyes could bulge out of their sockets, she pulled Wen Jing over to a row of display cases and pointed to a row of crystalline, six-sided stones.
"The most valuable things in this section are these Empowerment Stones."
Chapter 36
"What are Empowerment Stones?"
Wen Jing examined the Empowerment Stones' shape curiously, feeling that they combined the Ancient Wilderness with technology.
Their technological feel naturally came from their neatly cut cubic shape, while the fluid-like, glowing energy inside was clearly a feature unique to supernatural materials.
Dean Bai thought for a moment and said, "They're technological creations. In essence... they're the Superpower Cores of Awakened who suffered Genetic Collapse."
Genetic Collapse, Superpower Cores...
What she had learned in Introduction to the Ancient Wilderness instantly surfaced in Wen Jing's mind:
If the Awakened feared the dangers of exploring the Ancient Wilderness and went too long without entering it, they could enter a danger period for Genetic Collapse.
The danger period varied in length. Even the shortest lasted over a month, while longer ones could last one or two years.
During that time, an Awakened could suddenly suffer Genetic Collapse at any moment. It might happen on the first day or the last. Its onset was uncontrollable.
And once they entered the danger period, even immediately entering the Ancient Wilderness could no longer end it.
The only countermeasure was to travel back and forth to the Ancient Wilderness intensively during the danger period.
Because Genetic Collapse occurred in the human body, if an Awakened was in the Ancient Wilderness in their Wilderness Body when it struck, the crisis would naturally be averted.
But if the Ancient Wilderness were a safe place to stay, its exploration death rate wouldn't rank above that of Genetic Collapse.
Moreover, during the danger period, one could enter the Ancient Wilderness in daytime to avoid the risk. If one entered at night, it was hard to say which of the two had the higher death rate.
As a result, most Awakened who suffered Genetic Collapse died at night.
After Genetic Collapse, energy lost the restraint of the physical body and went out of control, causing a regional superpower upheaval and creating a hazardous zone. Awakened were needed to control and contain it, a responsibility borne by the academies on each planet.
However, Wen Jing was only in her first year and still counted as a new student, so containment missions were beyond her reach. She wouldn't have a chance of seeing them on the academy's mission board until at least her second year.
At this thought, Wen Jing couldn't help asking, "So containment missions are for recovering Superpower Cores?"
"Ahem! You can't put it that way." Xie Ming cut in from beside her. "Uncontrolled energy affects residents' lives across an entire area and causes major property losses. It absolutely cannot be left alone. This is on the final exam, so make a note of it. Don't write that it's for the Superpower Cores!"
"Understood." Wen Jing immediately marked this knowledge as a key point in her mind.
"That's what you need to write on the exam, but as for its essence..." Dean Bai left it at that and changed tack. "However, the Superpower Cores recovered from containment missions are all berserk. Only after the central AI's black technology guides them and removes the unusable energy can they become the Empowerment Stones you see now."
"Empowerment Stones can only be made from Superpower Cores below C-rank. Current technology can't contain higher-grade energy." She gestured. "All the ones here are F-rank."
Wen Jing nodded and looked eagerly at the Empowerment Stones before her. "So their function is to let people gain new superpowers?"
To her surprise, Dean Bai and Xie Ming both wore strange expressions.
"Well... you can't exactly say they can't."
Wen Jing: "Huh?"
Xie Ming said, "What benefit someone can gain from an Empowerment Stone is unknown until they use it. They might inherit the strength, vitality, a certain skill, or something else from the person who suffered Genetic Collapse. The best-case scenario is what you said: inheriting their superpower."
"If your own superpower is similar to theirs, that probability might increase... hmm, I only said might. There are too few samples to prove it."
"In short, what benefits you get from an Empowerment Stone depends on your luck..."
Wen Jing understood-an Empowerment Stone was a giant mystery box combining attributes, skills, and superpowers. What you drew was entirely down to luck.
"Does the points shop sell these? I don't think I've ever seen them." She wanted to discreetly check the price.
Dean Bai said, "Of course. The all-purpose points shop has everything. It's just that Awakened with different compatibility levels see different shop inventories. You'll be able to see more and more things in the future."