Chapter Summaries

Wen Jing, the top-ranked student on School District Planet, left class for her cafeteria job three days before the unified awakening exam. Her classmates and teachers treated her extraordinary academic and physical performance as expected, while her hidden skill-point panel remained unexplained as she began cooking with superhuman strength.

• Wang An caught Thirty-Seven dozing during self-study and made him recite the theory of parallel universes and explain Awakeners.
• Wang An reminded the class that the unified awakening exam was three days away and only the top five percent qualified for free awakening.
• Wen Jing received a message and left class for her part-time job, with Wang An readily granting permission because she ranked first among all seniors.
• Wen Jing arrived at the school cafeteria, where a cook had prepared thawed ingredients as she had requested.
• Wen Jing tossed a wok weighing over three hundred kilograms with ease while the cafeteria cooks watched.

Wen Jing earned money and a skill point from her cafeteria job while preparing for the unified awakening examination, where she scored 100 on the academic test. As the martial examination continued, an already-awakened group of privileged youths mocked the examinees before noticing Wen Jing’s long hair.

• Wen Jing finished cooking with wok hei flavoring, earned 150 credits, and gained a skill point for mastering molecular gastronomy.
• Wen Jing reviewed her attributes and awaited the unified awakening examination, hoping to become an Awakened despite her five-million-credit debt.
• Officer Tainuo arrived at the Unified Awakening Center with a military delegation and more than twenty privileged youths who were headed to academies.
• Wen Jing completed the academic examination and received an overall score of 100.
• He Fei bragged about earning full marks on the martial test, but a girl rebuked him for comparing himself to examinees before the group spotted Wen Jing’s long hair.

Wen Jing dominated the martial arts exam, earning perfect basic and unarmed combat scores before defeating ten armed robots in 52 seconds. Her full abilities stunned the examiners, and Tainuo called her a true genius.

• Wen Jing earned full marks in strength, speed, and reaction tests during the basic assessment.
• Wen Jing defeated the unarmed combat robots in three minutes and thirty seconds, using every basic combat technique and her ponytail as a weapon.
• Tainuo awarded Wen Jing five bonus points for her exceptional combat performance and mastery of the techniques.
• Wen Jing launched the weapons rack into the air and defeated the armed robots with a sequence of different weapons in 52 seconds.
• Wen Jing's full strength stunned the examiners, and Tainuo called her a true genius.

Wen Jing earned a perfect score on the Unified Awakening Examination and entered the Ancient Wilderness, but the awakening test rated her potential F-rank and identified her as an unknown insect species. Her attribute panel revealed that her Wilderness Body’s species level had no upper limit, leaving her to consider what that meant.

• Wen Jing completed the examination with 1,010 points, the highest possible score, and qualified for awakening.
• Tainuo opened the sealed cases and began the awakening process for the candidates who passed.
• Wen Jing felt a mysterious passage appear in her consciousness as her pod entered the energy field.
• Wen Jing awakened successfully, and the device identified her Wilderness Body as F-rank and her species as an unknown insect family.
• Luosi and the other consortium heirs dismissed Wen Jing after seeing her low rating, while she examined her attribute panel.
• Wen Jing found that her Wilderness Body’s insect species level was listed as 0.01/∞.

Wen Jing boarded the warship bound for Awakener academy after learning that her Wilderness Body could only receive skill points in the Ancient Wilderness. Though she had ranked first in the unified exam, her grade F potential left her with an acceptance letter from Ochre Soil Academy, and she entered the new student area as other students mocked her status.

• Wen Jing discovered that her Wilderness Body panel was read-only outside the Ancient Wilderness and knew she would need training before exploring it.
• The awakened students boarded the warship, where Wen Jing received her only acceptance letter from Ochre Soil Academy and ignored Gaia’s congratulatory message.
• New students fought over dorm rooms, but three prominent students withdrew when they recognized Wen Jing and let her claim a room.
• Plutocrat scions learned that Wen Jing’s potential was grade F despite her top exam rank, and the joke about the “slum genius” spread around the ship.
• Wen Jing planned to prioritize survival and earning skill points, then left her room when dinner approached and spotted the food carts.

Wen Jing fought off a scion who attacked her in the dining area, shocking the new students aboard the ship with her strength. She left the boy publicly unable to threaten her without risking his own reputation.

• Luosi saw Wen Jing eating at the favored tables, said he no longer felt like eating, and left with his group.
• A scion insulted Wen Jing and tried to shove her head into her plate, but she knocked his hand away.
• Wen Jing finished her meal, challenged the scion, and threw him onto the ship’s metal floor before anyone could intervene.
• The other scions realized Wen Jing was far stronger than they had expected, while the School District Planet students treated the fight as unsurprising.
• When the beaten boy threatened revenge, Wen Jing mocked him for running to his parents, and he denied that he would.
• The boy realized that using his family’s influence after publicly denying he would do so would cost him face and make him a suspect if Wen Jing were later harmed.

Wen Jing and the freshmen faced a spatial attack by the Empire aboard the Set Sail, forcing them to flee to Cabin One. Captain Tainuo announced that he would teach them algorithms before sending them into the Ancient Wilderness, and Wen Jing warned that it was nighttime there.

• After Wen Jing left the training grounds, spatial black holes appeared throughout the ship, swallowing some freshmen as everyone rushed toward Cabin One.
• Wen Jing dodged a black hole and reached the control room, where Tainuo and his guards maintained a defensive barrier.
• Tainuo told the assembled freshmen that the Empire was raiding the ship to abduct them.
• Tainuo announced that he would use Mental Imprinting to teach the freshmen algorithms, after which they would enter the Ancient Wilderness.
• Wen Jing pointed out that it was nighttime in the Ancient Wilderness, when danger was far greater.

Tainuo warned the freshmen about the Empire, taught them a return algorithm, and sent them into the Ancient Wilderness. Wen Jing discovered her tiny eyeless insect body and narrowly survived a wolf-like creature’s attack, leaving her aware that nearly everything around her posed a deadly threat.

• Tainuo told the freshmen that the Empire trained captured awakened individuals but made them dependent on alien nobles, then urged them to enter the Ancient Wilderness and use his algorithm to return.
• Tainuo gave the students the Military Algorithm Type II Lite Edition and sent more than a thousand freshmen into the Ancient Wilderness.
• Wen Jing learned that her wilderness body was a tiny, eyeless insect with heat-sensitive pits, chemical-sensing bristles, and vibration-sensitive legs.
• Wen Jing’s danger sense warned her as a wolf-like creature approached, and she instinctively sprang aside to avoid being crushed.
• The wolf-like creature killed and devoured a strange bird, while its passage swept Wen Jing into the air and battered her across the ground.
• Wen Jing survived with her exoskeleton intact and realized that any creature larger than her could be dangerous.

Wen Jing spent all 346 of her skill points to evolve her insect body, gaining Gravity Silk and Gravity Silk Cocoon, which let her travel by gravitational fields and prepare a safer, more precise return to the material universe. She wrapped herself and a small stone in silk and began returning through the passage, hoping to bring the stone back as cargo.

• Wen Jing reasoned that her insect body had no fixed evolutionary limit and specified safe anchoring, protection from interruption, and the ability to carry extra matter as her evolutionary needs.
• The panel spent all 346 of Wen Jing’s points and evolved her springtail into a Gravity Silk Gland I, granting Gravity Silk and Gravity Silk Cocoon.
• Wen Jing discovered that she could guide Gravity Silk along gravitational fields and pull herself quickly toward a chosen mass without crashing into it.
• Wen Jing used Gravity Silk to cocoon herself and a nearby stone, intending to use the cocoon to locate a safe return point and carry the stone back.
• Wen Jing reached for the passage in her consciousness as chaos unfolded before her.

Wen Jing struggled to return from the Ancient Wilderness while trapped in a cocoon that a Shadow Wolf swallowed. As Dean Bai delayed the spaceship's departure to give missing students more time, Wen Jing remained in mortal danger inside the beast.

• Tainuo and Dean Bai killed an Empire attacker in space, then rescued the spaceship's surviving passengers and found 195 people missing in the Ancient Wilderness, including Wen Jing.
• A Shadow Wolf found Wen Jing's cocoon just as she was nearing a return point, then swallowed it.
• As the Shadow Wolf's corrosive saliva dissolved her cocoon, Wen Jing continued calculating her return route and attached Gravity Silk to the beast's esophagus.
• Dean Bai refused to let the spaceship leave while students might still return, arguing with Tainuo over the missing students and the injured passengers.
• Dean Bai agreed to wait ten more minutes before the spaceship departed.

Wen Jing returned from the Ancient Wilderness alive with a small stone, shocking Dean Bai and Tainuo, and later discovered her attributes had increased after her first excursion. After the spaceship reached Ochre Soil Star, the injured students were taken for treatment while Wen Jing carried a mysterious black-marked stone.

• Wen Jing appeared in the control room, stopped a medical robot from injecting her, and revealed that she had brought back a small stone from the Ancient Wilderness.
• Dean Bai kept the spaceship in the area for another twenty minutes, but no other student returned.
• Wen Jing reviewed her increased attributes and concluded that her compatibility had improved, while her Gravity Silk ability remained but was depleted.
• Wen Jing noticed an unknown black substance beside a mark on the stone sealed in aether medium.
• The spaceship landed at Ochre Soil Academy on Ochre Soil Star, where medical personnel took the injured students away for treatment.

Wen Jing sold residue from an Ancient Wilderness stone to Ochre Soil Academy’s research institute, where it was identified as the digestive fluid of a Shadow Creature and earned her twenty points. As she headed to the free dormitory district, Lu Cheng and Wei He discussed whether the Empire raid would affect their plans to prank the incoming students.

• Wen Jing asked Dean Bai where she could sell the stone’s residue, and Dean Bai took her to the academy’s research institute.
• Old Xie analyzed the residue and identified it as likely digestive fluid from a Shadow Creature.
• Dean Bai argued with Old Xie until he awarded Wen Jing twenty points for the sample.
• Wen Jing learned about the academy’s housing options, discovered the maglev would charge her, and set off on foot for the free dormitory district.
• Lu Cheng and Wei He discussed the incoming freshmen and resolved to continue their intake’s welcome-party prank tradition despite the raid.

Wen Jing arrived at Ochre Soil Academy, received her dorm room and smart terminal, and learned that academic credits came from compatibility and courses while many electives cost points. Her enrollment also stirred resentment among new students who remembered her as an untouchable genius, especially Lu Cheng, who resolved to defeat her.

• Lu Cheng recognized Wen Jing as she ran past and told Wei He that her F-rank potential matched his.
• Wei He confirmed Wen Jing had enrolled at Ochre Soil Academy, and Lu Cheng decided to break free of his resentment by defeating her.
• Wen Jing received a single dorm room and was told her smart terminal would be delivered there.
• A drone delivered Wen Jing’s smart terminal and academy uniform, and the terminal displayed her F-rank status, 620 credits, and 20 points.
• Wen Jing read the student handbook and learned how academic credits were earned and that elective courses had to be purchased with points.

Wen Jing entered the Trial Tower to earn academic credits and tested her combat ability against its first-floor gatekeeper. She learned to read the opponent’s energy-formed weapons and launched a close-range attack, but the fight remained unresolved.

• Wen Jing discovered that Trial Tower challenges awarded academic credits and decided to try one.
• Wen Jing reached the Trial Tower Center, entered the virtual reality equipment, and faced the first-floor gatekeeper with a 1× multiplier.
• Wen Jing dodged the gatekeeper’s energy weapons and realized it could shape its energy into shields and blades.
• Wen Jing fought through nearly a hundred exchanges, observed the gatekeeper’s weapon-changing patterns, and gained a combat-skill proficiency bar.
• Wen Jing spent nearly all her energy to close the distance, took a wound beneath her left ribs, and concentrated her remaining power into her right fist.

Wen Jing cleared the Trial Tower’s first floor without using Gravity Silk, then rejected a Student Union appointment and received the academy’s required Ancient Wilderness exploration mission. The Student Union planned to judge her at the upcoming welcome party, while Wen Jing examined the academy’s exploration activities.

• Wen Jing defeated the first-floor guardian in 8 minutes and 34 seconds, earned a D rating and five credits, and declined to challenge the next floor.
• Students found Wen Jing’s result in the rankings and debated whether her performance was impressive or disappointing.
• Tan Junhao appointed Wen Jing as a third-grade Student Union staffer, but Wen Jing replied, “Unsubscribe.”
• Tan Junhao stopped his cousin from confronting Wen Jing and said they would see what she was made of at the welcome party.
• Wen Jing learned that students had to complete at least three Ancient Wilderness explorations each semester and checked the academy’s Activities Center for missions.

Wen Jing attended Louisa’s Energy Amplification Method elective and quickly learned the technique through her Proficiency Panel. As class ended, she stepped forward to test her progress on the apparatus.

• Wen Jing left after seeing that the available activity-center missions were beyond her capabilities and headed to her reserved elective.
• At the training ground, students speculated about Wen Jing’s background and questioned how she had paid for the course before instructor Louisa began teaching.
• Louisa explained the Energy Amplification Method and guided the students through a breathing exercise to help them control their energy.
• Wen Jing experimented with directing and vibrating her energy, gained an insight, and reached 20% proficiency in the technique.
• Louisa tested students on the apparatus, and one student failed and was punched into a wall when he tried to block her strike.
• Wen Jing approached the apparatus to test herself, and Louisa instructed her to strike it with her palm.

Wen Jing impressed her classmates and Instructor Louisa by mastering energy amplification unusually quickly, then sought a restaurant job to develop her cooking skills and earn skill points. After passing a knife-skills trial, she was hired and shown a piece of Wilderness Beast meat that stirred an unfamiliar hunger in her.

• Wen Jing activated the energy amplification device at 150%, shocking the class and earning Instructor Louisa's attention.
• Wen Jing continued studying the Energy Amplification Method and complained that her loan manager had stopped hinting at loan forgiveness after learning her Wilderness Body was F-rank.
• Wen Jing applied for a chef position at the Deep Space Vortex restaurant, explaining that she wanted to learn to cook nonsynthetic ingredients.
• Wen Jing carved a radish flower on her first try, mastered knife skills, and was hired by the restaurant manager.
• The restaurant manager and Master Zhang revealed a piece of Wilderness Beast meat, and Wen Jing sensed its energy and felt hungry.

Wen Jing decided to evolve her digestive system after seeing rare Wilderness Beast meat, then learned that the autumn class planned to intimidate freshmen at the welcome party. She told Yu Yang and the other students they would have to win, but class began before she could discuss a plan, and she discovered that Old Xie was their instructor.

• Wen Jing negotiated part-time pay at the restaurant and decided to make stronger digestion the goal of her next stage of evolution.
• Wen Jing arrived at her first compulsory Introduction to the Ancient Wilderness class and greeted Yu Yang, who asked whether she would attend the welcome party.
• Yu Yang and nearby students told Wen Jing that the autumn class traditionally subjected freshmen to humiliating ordeals at the party, while the student council had enough influence to punish anyone who refused to attend.
• Wen Jing argued that they should win rather than submit, but class began before the students could respond.
• Old Xie introduced himself as Xie Ming, the instructor, and recognized Wen Jing in the classroom.

Xie Ming taught Wen Jing's class that the Ancient Wilderness could not be accurately recorded, then recruited Wen Jing for a research project suited to her insect wilderness body. Wen Jing agreed to attend the welcome party with five F-rank classmates, and they arrived to find student-council members serving guests in bodysuits as part of an assessment.

• Xie Ming demonstrated that memory imprints of the Ancient Wilderness produced chaotic images and explained that its writing, totems, and other features could not be accurately recorded or brought back.
• Xie Ming offered Wen Jing a research role because her insect wilderness body met his requirements, and Wen Jing accepted for one point of payment.
• Yu Yang and five other F-rank students asked Wen Jing to attend the welcome party with them, and she agreed.
• Wen Jing and the six students arrived at the academy's luxurious activity center for the welcome party.
• Two E-rank classmates in bodysuits told them that serving at the event was their student-council assessment, making the group worry that the freshmen would face an even harsher ordeal.
• Wen Jing led the group into the bustling event hall, where guests enjoyed games, food, and a performance by entertainment robots.

At the welcome party, Wen Jing defeated Lu Cheng in one move and refused to let the autumn intake use Yu Yang and the other freshmen to pressure her. The standoff grew into a confrontation between the intakes, and Kevin prepared to fight Wen Jing, confident his higher compatibility gave him the advantage.

• Tan Wenshan revealed the seniors’ welcome-party test: freshmen who failed or gave up had to swim through a pool filled with simulated vomit, and several students jumped in only to become trapped.
• Wen Jing challenged the autumn intake to send someone forward, and Lu Cheng volunteered, expecting to defeat her.
• Wen Jing knocked Lu Cheng into the pool with a single move, leaving the gathered students stunned and Tan Wenshan unwilling to recruit him.
• When Tan Wenshan threatened Yu Yang and the other five freshmen, Wen Jing told the autumn intake they had six chances to challenge her.
• The winter intake students gathered behind Wen Jing as the party quieted and the confrontation escalated between the freshmen and seniors.
• Kevin said his compatibility was about five percent and prepared to face Wen Jing, while the autumn intake expected his superior stats and fighting skills to prevail.