25: Chapter 25 Booking a Room

Gu Han held the signed application form and, without a moment's delay, directly called his homeroom teacher, Teacher Qin Lin.

Not long after, a hovercar pulled up to the side of the road.

The window rolled down, revealing Teacher Qin Lin's exquisite face.

She wasn't wearing her usual stiff professional attire today; instead, she had changed into a casual, form-fitting knit sweater paired with high-waisted jeans. Her shoulder-length hair fell loosely over her shoulders, stripping away some of her teacherly authority.

"Didn't you say your parents definitely wouldn't agree and wouldn't sign so quickly?" Teacher Qin Lin rolled her eyes at him, annoyed. "I was already off the clock, and now I'm being dragged out to work overtime just to accompany you to awaken your Divine Kingdom Core. Do I not get a life?"

Gu Han opened the passenger door, sat down, and scratched his head. "I didn't expect things to go so smoothly either. Time is money, so I'm really sorry to trouble you, Teacher Qin. After we finish, I'll treat you to a meal."

"At least you have a conscience, kid." Teacher Qin Lin stepped on the accelerator, and the hovercar lifted into the air, speeding towards Jiangcheng City.

A faint, pleasant scent of perfume filled the cabin.

Gu Han turned his head, pretending to examine the hovercar's controls, but he could just catch glimpses of Teacher Qin Lin's fair neck and delicate collarbone, illuminated intermittently by the passing streetlights.

Teacher Qin Lin noticed his gaze. Keeping her eyes on the road, she remarked, "What are you looking at? Never seen a teacher off the clock before?"

"I really haven't. You look younger in casual clothes." Gu Han felt a bit awkward.

"Is my professional attire that old-fashioned?" Teacher Qin Lin huffed, though her ears flushed slightly, and she pressed harder on the accelerator.

The two arrived at the Jiangcheng City Police Security Bureau once again.

Awakening a Divine Kingdom Core is a high-level project strictly controlled by the authorities. Every Awakened must be registered at the Police Security Bureau's Awakening Center to prevent anyone from using the power of the Core to cause destruction in the real world.

Principal Zhang Anhai had clearly already made arrangements, so the entire process went smoothly.

The staff member in charge of registration glanced at Gu Han's file and frowned slightly. "A C-Rank Divine Kingdom? Student, are you sure you want to awaken the Core? This isn't a game. If a Divine Lord's Core is damaged, the consequences are unimaginable."

"I'm sure." Gu Han handed over the application form.

The staff member shook his head, stopped trying to persuade him, and initiated the awakening procedure.

Gu Han lay down inside a futuristic, silver-white awakening pod. The hatch closed, and a soft blue light enveloped his entire body.

There was no intense pain as he had imagined, only a strange sensation of weightlessness. Gu Han felt his consciousness being lifted infinitely high, looking down at his massive, 700,000-square-meter Divine Kingdom.

In the center of the Divine Kingdom, a glowing seed broke through the soil and rapidly grew into an illusory tree of light, its roots digging deep into every inch of the Divine Kingdom's land. The space of the entire Divine Kingdom seemed to become more stable.

Gu Han clenched his fist, clearly feeling an unprecedented power surging within his body, and he could control everything in his Divine Kingdom as easily as moving his own arm.

The hatch opened, and Gu Han sat up.

The staff member nearby handed him a brand-new black metal card, his attitude much more respectful than before.

"Student Gu Han, this is your new identification card. Your career path has been registered as: War God."

Gu Han took the card; it was printed with his photo and basic information, with a gold-stamped crossed sword and shield emblem in the bottom right corner.

Walking out of the Awakening Center, night had completely fallen.

"Congratulations." Teacher Qin Lin leaned against the car door, looking at him with a smile. "From today on, you are a true War God."

"Same to you, same to you." Gu Han fiddled with his new ID card, in a great mood. "Let's head back quickly. I'm in a rush to go back and arrange my Divine Kingdom."

Teacher Qin Lin's smile froze on her face, and then, annoyed, she stood on her tiptoes and grabbed Gu Han by the back of his collar.

"Wait, is this how you repay me?" She walked up to Gu Han in a few steps. "What about the meal you promised? Even though I'm your homeroom teacher, I'm only seven or eight years older than you. You busy person, you don't even have time to eat a meal with me?"

The two were very close, and the pleasant scent from Teacher Qin Lin drifted straight into Gu Han's nose. She looked up slightly, her cheeks puffed out in anger, losing some of her teacherly air and looking more like a spoiled young girl.

Gu Han gave two dry coughs to hide his awkwardness.

He really had been too impatient. She had run out late at night to accompany him to get things done, and it was truly unreasonable to just brush her off right after.

"My bad, my bad!" Gu Han quickly raised his hands in surrender. "Let's go. Barbecue or hot pot? You pick the place, and I'll treat. No hesitation!"

"That's more like it." Teacher Qin Lin huffed, turned, and opened the car door. "Hot pot! I know a place nearby that serves authentic mutant beast meat hot pot. I'm definitely going to make you pay for a big meal today."

The hot pot restaurant was steaming hot.

Teacher Qin Lin ordered a table full of high-level mutant beast meat. As they ate and chatted, she was genuinely curious about how Gu Han had managed to get first place.

Gu Han repeated the same story he had told Colonel Zhong Ran, but Teacher Qin Lin was skeptical because she had the Honey Badger's vital sign monitoring chart; for the second half, the Honey Badger was basically in a recovery state and hadn't participated in the battle at all.

However, everyone had their own secrets, and Teacher Qin Lin didn't intend to pry, though she became increasingly interested in the student before her.

"Now that your Divine Kingdom Core is awakened, what are your plans for the next three months?"

"Seclusion and development." Gu Han was concise. With ten times the time dilation, three months meant nine hundred years inside the Divine Kingdom, which would keep him busy for a while.

Teacher Qin Lin looked at him deeply. "Be careful about the Tang Family. Tang Jichao's cousin, Tang Wuying, is a top-tier sophomore at Jiangcheng University with an SS-Rank Divine Kingdom. He's very strong. If you run into him during the league, concede if you can't win."

"Understood." Gu Han nodded.

Although the professional league format was divided by grade, there were challenge matches between different grades, where upperclassmen would face off against more opponents.

After eating their fill, the two walked out of the hot pot restaurant.

As soon as they stepped out, a gust of wind brought down heavy, bean-sized raindrops that pelted them.

Thunder roared in the sky, and purple lightning tore through the night, the rain instantly turning into a downpour.

"Why did it suddenly start raining so hard?" Gu Han frowned.

Teacher Qin Lin looked down at her vibrating handheld device, her expression changing slightly.

A red emergency notification popped up on the screen:

[Notification from the Jiangcheng City Police Security Bureau: A D-Rank otherworldly battlefield spatial rift has suddenly appeared over the suburbs of Jiangcheng. Due to magnetic field interference, a no-fly zone is in effect across the city. All hovercars are prohibited from traveling. Citizens are requested to remain in safe indoor areas and wait for the clearing operation to be completed.]

Teacher Qin Lin showed the screen to Gu Han and sighed helplessly.

"If I had known, I would have listened to you and gone straight back. I shouldn't have been greedy for this meal. Now look, magnetic interference means the car can't move, and the intercity train is probably suspended too. We can't go back today."

Gu Han looked at the torrential rain and the flashing lightning outside. "What should we do? Just make do in the car for the night?"

"What else can we do? The magnetic field is in chaos, and we can't stay in a hovercar. We'll have to find a place to stay." Teacher Qin Lin gathered the hair that the wind had messed up. "There's a hotel over there. Let's go book a room to get through the night and wait until the magnetic field recovers tomorrow."

The two braved the heavy rain and jogged all the way into a budget hotel at the corner of the street.

Even though they ran fast, Teacher Qin Lin's knit sweater was mostly soaked, clinging tightly to her body and revealing the outline of her undergarments. Gu Han looked like a drowned rat too. She tugged at her clothes awkwardly and urged Gu Han to hurry to the front desk.

The hotel lobby was already crowded with people stranded by the heavy rain, making it noisy and chaotic.

Gu Han managed to squeeze his way to the front desk.

"Could you please book two rooms?"

The receptionist tapped on her keyboard and looked up with an apologetic expression.

"I'm truly sorry, sir. Because of the sudden no-fly order, the guest volume tonight is too high. We only have one king room and one twin room left."

Teacher Qin Lin, who was standing behind Gu Han, heard this and immediately slapped her ID card onto the counter.

"Then I'll take both. What are you standing there for, kid? Get your ID out."

Just as Gu Han handed over his card, the receptionist's expression became troubled.

"I'm sorry, you two. Just a moment ago, the last king room was booked. Now… we only have one twin room left."