Not Worth the Cost

"First place among the freshmen in Coefficient Score? Is there a reward?" Xia Yao asked, puzzled.

"First place gets one million Star Coins," Fang Yu said. "The top ten get 300,000."

"One million?" Xia Yao's eyes widened. "Damn, the school is really generous to you guys. My annual cultivation funding is only 300,000. I have to earn everything else myself."

"Then again, that makes sense."

"You spent your first three years studying at martial arts colleges, yet you were directly promoted to elite students. You clearly have a lot of potential, so it's normal to give you some extra compensation." Xia Yao thought for a moment. "In that case, Fan Xing has too much of an advantage. It'll be really hard for you to surpass his Coefficient Score."

"His life level is much higher, so he should still be stronger than you overall. You're tied with him now because the ferocious beasts in the safe zone are level 20 at most," Xia Yao said. "Once they reach the wilderness zone, the ferocious beasts his team hunts will definitely be much stronger."

Fang Yu nodded.

He had just been wondering why, despite killing ferocious beasts so diligently, his Coefficient Score had never surpassed Fan Xing's. After Xia Yao's explanation, he finally understood that Fan Xing's life level was so much higher.

"Of course, don't be discouraged. It's not as though you have no chance at all."

Xia Yao smiled again. "If he follows the Earth Team to hunt powerful ferocious beasts, he could easily hold them back."

"Civilization Points are automatically distributed according to each participating member's contribution to the hunt. If his contribution is too small, he might not earn points as efficiently as you," Xia Yao said. "After all, you're unquestionably the main force on our team."

Fang Yu smiled, understanding that she was trying to comfort him.

Still, Fang Yu had thought it through.

He only had to do his best to compete for the freshman ranking. What mattered was working hard to cultivate and hone himself. He couldn't put the cart before the horse.

"Do you want to keep hunting?" Xia Yao asked.

"Forget it."

"After my Coefficient Score reached 1.1, my Civilization Points barely increased." Fang Yu shook his head. "I'm afraid that even if I killed another hundred ferocious beasts, my Coefficient Score still wouldn't reach 1.2."

"Let's go back, rest, and then cultivate."

In this kind of trial, the ferocious beasts were generally much weaker than Fang Yu, so fighting them did little to hone his saber techniques or movement techniques. If Fang Yu wanted to improve his strength quickly, he would mainly have to rely on practicing his fist techniques.

"Sure."

"Just by killing ferocious beasts in the safe zone, your Coefficient Score can only reach 1.2 at most, and you'd have to kill an astonishing number of them." Xia Yao shrugged. "Over the past two days, freshmen from several Xia Nation universities have just arrived at the training base, so there are still quite a few ferocious beasts accumulated in the safe zone. As time goes on, their numbers will drop sharply, and they'll only get harder to find."

"That's why veteran students like us can't be bothered coming here."

"We might as well go back, rest up, and wait to enter the wilderness zone."

Meanwhile, aboard the aircraft carrying Fan Xing.

"Fan Xing, was that the Fang Yu you mentioned, the one right on your heels in the rankings?" asked another young man beside him, who had a cold demeanor.

"Yeah." The smile had vanished from Fan Xing's face. He frowned slightly. "I was killing them extremely quickly. I thought I'd be far ahead, but I didn't expect his Coefficient Score to reach 1.1 so quickly too."

"Don't worry too much about it."

"Once we enter the wilderness zone, with the captain's help, your Coefficient Score will rise quickly, and you'll naturally leave him far behind." The cold young man shook his head. "But although the captain agreed to let you join the team, you'll still have to work harder if you want the others to accept you."

"I understand." Fan Xing nodded, but sneered inwardly.

The cold young man seemed concerned about him, but the conversation kept turning, deliberately or not, toward the captain. How could Fan Xing possibly reveal his relationship with the captain?

Fan Xing knew very well that most of the team resented his presence.

After all the trouble I went through to awaken a lower-rank star at college and then evolve it into a Mid-Rank Star Aspect, what I need to do is take first place among the freshmen, Fan Xing thought. I can't let my big brother down.

He had gotten into the Earth Team through his big brother's connections.

After spending half an hour returning to the base from the edge of the safe zone, Xia Yao carried a large bag of spoils and led Fang Yu to the goods sales center in the middle of the base.

It was spacious inside.

There were dozens of passageways in the hall, and people could be seen carrying their spoils along them into individual rooms. There weren't many people at the moment, so there was no need to queue.

"If you have natural treasures, such as herbs, ores, or spirit marrow, you can sell them to the base or take them back to Blue Star and find a way to sell them yourself," Xia Yao explained. "But any spoils cut from ferocious beasts must be sold to the base."

"You're absolutely forbidden from secretly taking them back to Blue Star. If you're caught, you'll be severely punished," Xia Yao said.

Fang Yu nodded without asking why.

There were many seemingly unreasonable rules on Primordial Star.

Soon.

The two entered an appraisal room, where there were again three humanoid simulation robots. They skillfully took the items out of Xia Yao's backpack, appraising and putting them away one by one.

Just a few minutes later.

"The total sale price of all goods is 7,800 Star Coins," said the robot with a badge on its chest in an icy voice. "Would you like to receive Star Coins or exchange them for Primal Points?"

"If exchanged for Primal Points, you will receive 1.56 Primal Points."

"Primal Points," Xia Yao said at once. She pointed at Fang Yu. "Transfer them all to him."

Soon.

Fang Yu's account had gained 1.56 Primal Points.

The two quickly left the goods sales center.

"I worked for so long and killed dozens of ferocious beasts, and this is all I got in Primal Points?" Fang Yu couldn't help saying. "It barely even covers the wear on my weapon."

Fighting ferocious beasts meant risking one's life.

Weapons, combat suits, combat boots, and the like also suffered wear and tear. When sold back later, they would fetch considerably less than their purchase price.

"Now do you understand why veteran students like us would rather rest for a few more days than hunt low-level ferocious beasts in the safe zone?" Xia Yao shrugged. "The rewards aren't proportional to the effort."

"Only freshmen kill more of them for practical combat training."

"From another perspective."

"This is also a way for the Starry Sky Base to encourage us to go to the wilderness zone," Xia Yao said with a sigh. "The spoils from ferocious beasts above level 20 fetch much higher prices. If you're lucky, you can even get some natural treasures... That's the fastest way to make money."

"Make money just by killing ferocious beasts? You won't get rich in a lifetime." Xia Yao shook her head. "The main reason to kill ferocious beasts is to earn Primal Points."

"How many Primal Points did you get in total?"

Fang Yu checked the personal information on his star ring:

Civilization Warrior: Fang Yu

Rank: Tier 1 (1.1)

Affiliated civilization: Blue Moon

Current base: Iron Wall (Sub-base No. 12)

Primal Points: 98.76

Remaining Primal Point loan allowance: 100

"I got 2.2 Primal Points directly from killing those ferocious beasts. With the 1.56 I just got, that's 3.76 points in total," Fang Yu said.

"That's right."

"Primal Points can only be obtained by killing ferocious beasts and selling their spoils. Natural treasures you find can only be sold for Star Coins," Xia Yao said. "So when we sell ferocious beast spoils, we usually choose to receive Primal Points."

"Primal Points are important if you want to venture on Primordial Star long-term... Exchanging Star Coins directly for Primal Points is far too expensive."

Fang Yu nodded.

Without killing ferocious beasts, it took 10,000 Star Coins to exchange for one point. Compared with the true value of Primal Points, it really wasn't worth it.

"Xia Yao, actually, there's something I've always been curious about."

Fang Yu hesitated slightly. "When I kill ferocious beasts, the Primal Points and rank displayed on my communication star ring change in real time... How does the Starry Sky Base verify it?"

"In the future, if we form a team and kill a ferocious beast together, how will it determine how much each of us contributed?"

This was the question that puzzled Fang Yu most.