While he was mulling it over, Wen Jing had already turned to leave.
Wherever she went, the crowd around her automatically parted to make way.
She had only taken a few steps when the tall, brawny boy's voice rang out behind her, suddenly filled with an inexplicable resolve:
"My potential is D-rank. You're just an F-rank, throwing your weight around with the strength you had before awakening..."
"That's right, I can't beat you now, but before long, my strength will definitely far surpass yours!"
"It won't take long... half a year! The freshman league tournament in half a year!"
That was right. With a gap of two ranks in potential, half a year would definitely be enough to leave her far behind.
The more he spoke, the more confident he became, his back straightening as his earlier dejection vanished. Looking at that aloof, slender figure from behind, he declared spiritedly:
"Wen Jing, at the tournament... I, ■■■, will be waiting to settle this with you!"
Amid the parted crowd, Wen Jing hesitated slightly, but did not stop walking.
A background extra had actually made an "X-year promise," just like a protagonist. Could this boy become so terrifying in the future?
Unfortunately, having been thoroughly steeped in the traditions of the School District Planet, her brain automatically filtered out the names of challengers whose combat power was too low.
The freshman league tournament-she remembered that. Maybe his name would show up then.
After this incident, the cold and aloof emperor of the School District Planet temporarily ascended the throne aboard the spaceship. For the rest of the voyage, no one entertained the thought of provoking Wen Jing again.
Losing would be a massive humiliation, while winning would earn them little prestige. Besides... they really could not beat her.
■■■, meanwhile, was like a hot-blooded
shonen manga
protagonist, heading to the activity area's training grounds every day.
This set off another butterfly effect. Seeing him, the freshmen from the School District Planet, long accustomed to the grind, felt as though ants were crawling all over them. Unable to enjoy this precious post-exam vacation at all, they joined in the training, leaving the training grounds packed all day.
The ship's training grounds were military-grade. Besides all kinds of basic training, they offered powerful magnetic disruption fields and antigravity fields, training environments unavailable on the School District Planet. These were particularly popular; anyone without sufficient strength could not secure a spot.
Of course, wherever Wen Jing went, there was always a place for her.
After another extra evening session, she left the antigravity chamber, her gaze sweeping over the floor-length mirror beside it.
The girl in the mirror wore a tank top and sweatpants, her waist high and her legs long. Beneath her cropped tank top, her abs were faintly visible without any deliberate flexing. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, and sweat slid down her jawline.
When she had seen figures like this while scrolling through videos in her past life, she had not dared imagine how amazing it would feel to have one herself. In this life, she knew.
After admiring her incredible figure with satisfaction, she could not help looking around to show off-
Only to find that the training grounds were still packed at midnight, young people pouring sweat, all those envious gazes focused on a few muscleheads with pointy heads.
Anyone who could not appreciate lean muscle had no taste!
Wen Jing left indignantly, stopping briefly as she passed through the central lounge.
The public display showed less than two days until they reached their first stop, Ochre Soil Star.
Ochre Soil Academy... I wonder what sort of place it is. While lost in thought, she suddenly shivered, struck by a subtle feeling she could not describe.
Wen Jing frowned and quickly scanned her surroundings, but found nothing unusual.
Was I imagining it?
The very next moment, just as she stepped forward to return to her room, an urgent alarm suddenly blared throughout the freshmen's cabin, red warning lights flashing incessantly.
"All freshmen, assemble in Cabin One immediately! Immediately!"
Chapter 6
"All freshmen, assemble in Cabin One immediately! Immediately!"
The alarm resounded through the entire cabin like a thunderclap.
The freshmen from the School District Planet did not recognize it yet, but the financial conglomerate scions immediately identified Captain Tainuo's voice.
This chief examiner had appeared only once, when they assembled after the unified examination, and had not shown himself to the freshmen during the journey. But no one dared take such an obviously serious situation lightly.
Bewilderment and unease filled every face. Dormitory doors opened one after another, while those still in the activity area followed the directions toward Cabin One.
The surrounding lights had turned entirely red, signaling danger.
"Ah-!"
Suddenly, amid the confused footsteps, someone screamed, only for the sound to cut off abruptly.
Everyone looked toward the sound and saw, to their horror, a circular black hole in the ground at that spot. A hand reaching desperately out was being swallowed by the black at incredible speed, disappearing completely in the blink of an eye.
Not only that, but those nearby felt a powerful suction and hastily scrambled away.
Before this commotion subsided, cries of alarm erupted throughout the passageway.
Across the floor, ceiling, and walls... black holes capable of swallowing people appeared soundlessly, one after another. The superalloy hull did nothing to stop them. This was distortion on the spatial level.
An uproar swept through the crowd. They finally understood why the alarm had been so urgent.
"Aaah, who pushed me..."
"Move!"
There was no time to consider why these black holes had appeared. Everyone raced for Cabin One as the announcement had instructed, their lives on the line.
Tap!
In mid-sprint, Wen Jing abruptly twisted aside, narrowly avoiding a black hole that had suddenly appeared in front of her.
Even so, the suction from within the black hole still checked her speed.
At a time like this, running fast enough was not all that mattered. Observation and reflexes were even more important.
Though everyone gave it their all, some were still unlucky enough to be caught.
In the crisis, someone had a flash of inspiration and vanished on the spot before the black hole could swallow them.
"That's right! We can hide in the Ancient Wilderness!" Someone nearby caught on at the sight.
"But haven't we not learned any algorithms yet..." The speaker cut off halfway through.
The rich could pay for their own awakening, and naturally could pay for algorithms too. Only the freshmen from the School District Planet had to wait until enrollment to learn an algorithm.
At a deadly moment like this, the difference resources made was the difference between having a safety net and having none.
Those who had already mastered an algorithm relaxed slightly. Those who had not could only keep desperately pushing forward.
At last, the open doors of Cabin One appeared before them.
This was the ship's innermost control room, surrounded by a spherical energy barrier, with many uniformed figures visible inside.
"Whew..."
Stepping through the barrier, Wen Jing exhaled. The freshmen around her likewise wore the expressions of people who had narrowly escaped death.
They had certainly not been slow, but at least one in ten had still fallen into a black hole or entered the Ancient Wilderness in desperation.
The entire warship now resembled a leaf infested with pests, its hull densely riddled with black holes. Only this area remained intact.
Tainuo and his four guards stood at the very center of the spherical defensive barrier. Though the freshmen present had yet to master their own abilities, they all possessed energy perception and knew that he and his guards were sustaining it with their energy.
"Officer, what exactly is happening?"
"What are those black holes?"
The barrage of questions had barely begun when Tainuo interrupted. "An Empire raid. Their objective is to abduct you."
"Abduct us?"
At this answer, all the information about the Empire that a student from the School District Planet could learn automatically surfaced in Wen Jing's mind.
Federation textbooks contained little knowledge of politics or history. Their description of the Empire went no further than "a human civilization located in another star system and hostile to the Federation, with a political system and ideology vastly different from those of the Federation."
The students from the School District Planet knew about as much as she did. But judging by the expressions of the conglomerate scions around her, they clearly knew more. They all wore looks of "How could we be this unlucky?"
...Wait, a hostile civilization is raiding inside our star system? Is the Federation done for?
The thought had barely occurred to Wen Jing before she quickly rejected it—perhaps they could accomplish this because the Awakened's abilities were simply too broken.
Looking at those black holes bypassing every physical defense, she could fully understand why this interstellar civilization had not developed much mecha technology. It simply was not cost-effective.
They could painstakingly climb the tech tree and build high-energy weapons and personal mechas, only for an Awakened with something like a spatial ability to render them completely useless.
Only the Awakened could counter the Awakened.
Just as those "black holes" currently treated the ship's defenses as nonexistent, while only the barrier Tainuo had released could resist them.
With the situation urgent, he offered no further explanation and went straight to the point:
"We are now entering emergency combat readiness. As captain of the Set Sail, under Article 128 of the contingency plan's emergency provisions, I will use the secret technique 'Mental Imprinting' to teach you a set of algorithms."
"After that, everyone will enter the Ancient Wilderness."
At this, quite a few people present widened their eyes, never expecting that the final solution would still be to enter the Ancient Wilderness. Others showed little surprise.
Wen Jing belonged to the latter group, but she looked at Tainuo and spoke. "Officer, it's nighttime in the Ancient Wilderness right now."
The Federation, including the School District Planet, had four habitable planets in total. Their orbits differed, so naturally their days and nights differed too, but their schedules all followed a twenty-four-hour system, because they used Ancient Wilderness time.
In the Ancient Wilderness's day-night cycle, if the danger during daylight was one, the danger at night was over ten, with no upper limit. This, too, was explicitly written on the first page of their textbooks.
Tainuo's piercing gaze turned toward the person bold enough to speak, then paused slightly. He had clearly recognized Wen Jing.
Facing the oppressive gaze of a C-rank Awakened, she remained composed, her expression openly questioning.
Unlike most students from the School District Planet, who lived inside information cocoons, Wen Jing had an extra lifetime of memories. Even without exposure to the relevant knowledge, she possessed political instincts.