132: Chapter 132 Two Thousand Points

Outside the Simulation Tower, the training area was silent for a full three seconds.

Then, it exploded.

"He passed the ninth floor?!"

"No way... is this guy a total beast? He actually passed the ninth floor?"

The roar of the crowd rose in waves, and everyone craned their necks to stare at the massive ranking light screen, their eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

Zhang Zhenheng stood in front of the control console, his fingers hovering over the light screen, unable to bring them down for a long time.

His expression was complex.

The old man had lived for so many years and had spent decades at Navigator Academy; what kind of genius hadn't he seen?

To be able to reach this standard just one month after entering the selection... he had truly never heard of such a thing.

The data on the ranking light screen was still refreshing.

Lu Cheng, ninth floor, time elapsed: 8 minutes and 14 seconds.

When this number lit up, Gu Yu's entire face turned green at the edge of the training area.

His own record was also the ninth floor.

And what was his score back then?

16 minutes and 42 seconds—twice as slow as Lu Cheng...

That meant...

Even if he used his full strength, he couldn't beat this freshman.

A peak Meridian Opening Realm couldn't beat someone in the Source Gathering Realm.

Impossible.

Absolutely impossible.

Gu Yu's breathing became heavy and ragged.

He let go of the railing, turned around, and strode toward the control console.

His footsteps were heavy and hurried, the soles of his boots striking the alloy floor of the training area with a dull thudding sound.

"Teacher."

He walked up to Zhang Zhenheng, his voice very low, yet the surrounding teaching assistants could still detect the suppressed anger beneath his tone.

"I still feel like there's a problem with this." Gu Yu stared at Zhang Zhenheng, enunciating each word, "I would like to request to review the surveillance footage from inside the Simulation Tower."

Before Zhang Zhenheng could speak, a female voice rang out from the side.

"Since when are Navigator Academy students allowed to access the Simulation Tower's surveillance footage?"

The voice wasn't loud, and the tone wasn't heavy.

Yet, that chill made the air at the edge of the training area feel several degrees heavier.

Everyone turned their heads in unison.

Mei Wushuang was standing at the entrance of the training area, though no one knew when she had arrived.

She was wearing a dark blue uniform robe, the hem embroidered with the gear emblem of the Mechanical Institute, and her silver-blue hair was tied in a simple ponytail at the back of her head.

Her expression was calm, betraying no joy or anger.

Yet, when those pale eyes swept over them, the surrounding students and teaching assistants all instinctively stood up straight.

"Dean Mei..."

"Hello, Dean."

Mei Wushuang ignored those voices.

Her gaze landed on Gu Yu, pressing down so hard that the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

"Since the school was founded, the Simulation Tower has never had any issues." Mei Wushuang's voice was unhurried, every word driving into Gu Yu's ears like a nail,

"What?"

She tilted her head slightly.

"Are you questioning the school?"

Upon hearing this, cold sweat broke out on Gu Yu instantly.

He could feel the fabric on his back being soaked through with sweat, clinging to his skin, wet and cold.

"This student wouldn't dare..."

Gu Yu lowered his head, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down.

His lips moved for a long time before he managed to squeeze out the rest of the sentence from his throat.

"I was just slightly concerned..."

As he said this, his gaze was fixed firmly on the alloy floor in front of his toes, not daring to look up.

She hadn't even released her aura as a peak War King Realm expert, yet the pressure brought by those few words from Mei Wushuang was enough to soak his back.

Mei Wushuang withdrew her gaze.

She didn't look at Gu Yu again, turning her head instead toward the Simulation Tower.

This little guy had certainly given her quite a shock.

Defeating five peak Hua Hai Realm entities while in the Source Gathering Realm... it could at least be called unprecedented.

The further one progressed, the more obvious the gap between realms became.

Between the Source Gathering Realm and the Hua Hai Realm lay two entire major realms.

Meridian Opening, Sea Transformation—each step was a qualitative leap.

Any single peak Hua Hai Realm Psionic Bone Demon was enough to wipe out an entire Meridian Opening Realm squad.

Yet Lu Cheng had taken out five of them all by himself.

A faint smile flashed in the depths of Mei Wushuang's eyes.

Even Lu Changfeng hadn't been able to do what Lu Cheng had done back then.

Back when that guy was in the Source Gathering Realm, his highest record was defeating an early-stage Hua Hai Realm expert by skipping a realm.

That was already absurd enough to shake the entire Imperial Capital's martial arts circle three times over.

But this kid of his was something else—he had even surpassed his old man...

Mei Wushuang pulled back her thoughts, her gaze falling once again on Gu Yu.

Gu Yu was still standing there with his head lowered, his body stiff and motionless.

"You can dispense with such concerns." Mei Wushuang's voice returned to its previous indifferent tone.

"Since you are still in the academy, you are one of our own.

I hope that next time you speak, you will think before answering."

The academy was the academy, after all.

Students of Navigator Academy were highly likely to be poached by other factions after graduation.

The various major families of the Imperial Capital, the war zone legions, and even the central government's special duty agencies were all eyeing this batch of graduates every year.

The Gu family was not considered a major clan in the Imperial Capital.

Gu Yu had been able to reach where he was today by relying on his own talent and the tilt of the academy's resources toward him.

Mei Wushuang knew that he desperately needed these offers to help the Gu family advance further.

Therefore, that statement just now was both a reminder and a warning to him: don't let yourself be used as a pawn.

"This student... understands." Gu Yu nodded.

The day after Qin Zhaoye died, the Qin Family came knocking.

The person who came was a manager from the Qin Family's second branch, bringing three War General Realm guards with him.

However, facing the death-match agreement that Qin Zhaoye had signed himself, the Qin Family could not easily make a move openly.

Although the Qin Family was powerful, the title of Navigator Academy as the nation's number one academy was not just for show.

Unless that legendary Saint Realm expert from their family stepped in... not to mention the Saint Realm principal, the Qin Family couldn't even handle the three deans of the academy.

What's more, students of Navigator Academy were basically leaders in their respective fields after graduation.

In politics, the military, business, and scientific research, Navigator alumni were everywhere.

If the Qin Family wanted to move against the academy, what they had to weigh was not just the weight of one school, but the weight of the entire alumni network.

Therefore, they had to drop it for the time being.

But it was impossible to just let it go like this.

Qin Zhaoye was a direct descendant of the Qin Family, and he had died in the academy.

Regardless of how the agreement was written, where would the Qin Family's face be?

The best way was to find students or teachers within the academy to figure out a way to interfere.

Gu Yu clenched his teeth tighter.

He knew he had been impulsive today... he had originally thought it was just a student, so he had been a bit too eager for quick success...

At the entrance of the Simulation Tower, the teleportation light gate tore open.

Xia Xi rushed over first.

When Lu Cheng walked out of the light gate, three puncture wounds on his left shoulder, right rib, and abdomen were still oozing blood.

Xia Xi caught him, pulled a high-grade recovery potion from the potion pouch at her waist, bit the stopper off, and poured it into Lu Cheng's mouth.

"You guy... it's just clearing the tower... you don't have to risk your life like this..."

Xia Xi's voice was trembling a little.

Lu Cheng swallowed the potion, a low grunt escaping his throat.

The light filaments of Holy Radiance Regeneration were slowly weaving around the edges of the wounds, and with the aid of the potion, the repair speed was significantly accelerated.

The dark purple residual light from the Psionic corrosion was fading away bit by bit under the dual effects of the holy light and the potion.

"I'm not going to die."

Lu Cheng's voice was a bit hoarse, but his tone was still that devil-may-care attitude.

He turned his head to look at Xia Xi's expression and pulled his lips into a smile.

"You don't know what kind of looks everyone was giving you just now." Xia Xi lowered her voice, supporting him as she walked out, while gesturing with her chin toward the training area,

"You scared them all to death.

If you go out now, I reckon everyone will look at you like you're a monster."

"Isn't this to protect our villa?"

Lu Cheng chuckled, mustered his strength, and called out toward Zhang Zhenheng.

"Instructor Zhang!"

His voice dragged out a long tail in the sky above the training area; his breath wasn't very strong, but the penetrating power was still there.

"How many points does this count for?"

Zhang Zhenheng stood in front of the control console, stunned by the question.

It really put him in a difficult spot.

He really hadn't expected that an age-appropriate student could reach the ninth floor within the first month of school.

Zhang Zhenheng was silent for two seconds, then reached out to bring up the point management interface on the control console.

The old man stared at the light screen for a while before looking up and speaking.

"To tell you the truth, I didn't expect that an eligible freshman could reach the ninth floor in the first month of school.

This is the first time it has ever happened at Navigator Academy; you have created the tower-climbing record for selection students in history."

His voice wasn't loud, but everyone present could hear him clearly.

The training area quieted down.

"Let's do this." Zhang Zhenheng's finger swiped across the light screen,

"We agreed on one thousand points for the eighth floor.

For the ninth floor, we'll double it again—two thousand points. Can you accept that?"

The surrounding students exploded instantly.

"Two thousand points?!"

"Wait, what was the score for first place last year?"

"I remember it was just over fifteen hundred and that was already first place..."

"Holy crap, Lu Cheng's two thousand points directly beat last year's first place by over five hundred points!"

"The first place of this batch, barring any accidents, will be him."

The buzzing sound spread throughout the crowd.

The eyes of many freshmen had already changed from the initial shock to numbness.

When the gap was large enough, even jealousy became superfluous.

"Fine, then let's count it as two thousand points."

Lu Cheng agreed to Zhang Zhenheng's arrangement.

He raised his hand in acknowledgement, then was half-supported and half-carried by Xia Xi into the infirmary.

The automatic door of the infirmary closed behind him, cutting off all the noise outside.

In the training area, Su Wan walked out from the entrance of the Simulation Tower, arriving late.

Her score light screen refreshed on the tower body.

Seventh floor cleared, time elapsed 13 minutes and 03 seconds, 300 points.

Clearing the seventh floor in just over ten minutes was also a standout achievement among the freshmen...

yet when her ranking light screen popped up, not a single person looked her way.

Everyone's gaze was still fixed on that dark red halo on the ninth floor.

Su Wan looked up at the ranking light screen; Lu Cheng had cleared the ninth floor...

"This guy."

He was indeed worthy of being the man chosen by the system.

She suspected that the crappy system was just messing with her.

Su Wan took a deep breath and withdrew her gaze from the ranking light screen.

She had only just begun cultivating her Soul Map.

After reaching the minor success stage, she would find almost no opponents before reaching the War General Realm.

But cultivating the Soul Map was incredibly difficult.

After her rebirth, she had only recovered a tiny fraction of her soul power.

To cultivate the Soul Map to the minor success stage, it would take at least some time.

By then...

The commotion in the training area continued.

The data on the ranking light screen refreshed over and over again, and the names of the freshmen rose and fell on the leaderboard, but the top position, from the moment Lu Cheng's name was hung there, never moved again.