182: How about going to the Abyss Domain?

"You're familiar with this?"

Qin Zhan repeated the two words, devoid of inflection, yet they made Zhong Huai feel a bone-deep suspicion.

"Of course I am!" Zhong Huai straightened his posture, the carefree look vanishing, replaced by the confidence belonging to a "professional."

"Brother Zhan, don't worry. This kind of thing requires absolute meticulousness. We need to make the higher-ups feel we did our utmost, make that kid feel incredibly honored, and ensure outsiders can't find a single flaw."

"Come on, let's first look at this little ancestor's file. Know the enemy and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles without defeat."

Zhong Huai waved his hand, proactively taking on the troublesome task, and pulled Qin Zhan toward the combat command room.

Qin Zhan didn't move.

He merely looked at his teammate—the one with immense backing—with an extremely complicated gaze.

Zhong Huai felt a little creeped out by his scrutiny.

"Bro, why are you looking at me like that? Do I have a spare part stuck to my face?"

"Fourth Brother," Qin Zhan said. "Thank you."

Zhong Huai was stunned for a moment, then immediately reverted to his usual lackadaisical manner and waved his hand.

"Hey, it's no big deal. Besides, Teacher Gao is my teacher too. Even though he only taught me for one semester, he helped cover for me plenty back in the day. This is the first time he has asked for a favor; how could we not handle it perfectly?"

After speaking, he dragged Qin Zhan by the arm toward the command room without further discussion.

The cold metal door slid open.

Zhong Huai expertly walked up to the main console, tapped a few keys on the virtual keyboard, and pulled up the candidate file encrypted and transmitted by the Ministry of Education.

"Let me see who this divine figure is that could make Teacher Gao personally pave the way for him."

An electronic file was projected onto the enormous screen.

It was very simple.

Name: Lin Yu.

Age: 23.

Candidate Number: CE770831.

Other than that, there was nothing else.

No family background, no resume introduction—it was as clean as a blank sheet of paper.

"That's it?" Zhong Huai was surprised. "This background is too clean, isn't it? That shouldn't be right. For a young master of this caliber, shouldn't his resume fill three pages?"

Qin Zhan didn't speak, he just pointed to a line of red remarks specially highlighted at the bottom of the file.

Zhong Huai's gaze shifted over.

[Special Note: This candidate applied for a five-year exam deferral and returned this year to participate in the final combat assessment.]

[Assessment Difficulty Selection: Solo Nine-Star Mission.]

[Comprehensive Difficulty Coefficient Determination: 288-star.]

"..."

The smile on Zhong Huai's face slowly froze.

He leaned closer to the screen, meticulously reading the red remark, word by word.

288-star?

Was he seeing things?

"Brother Zhan, is this... 288?"

"Mm." Qin Zhan's reply was a single word.

The command room fell into a deathly silence.

Zhong Huai paced back and forth around the enormous screen, muttering to himself.

"A five-year deferral... The rules definitely allow it, but who actually does that? Five years! The vegetables would have gone cold long ago."

"Solo Nine-Star Mission... Is he crazy? Is this difficulty level meant for a high school student?"

"And then multiply the two, 288-star... Holy crap."

He couldn't help but curse.

Qin Zhan glanced at him. His own reaction had been similar when he first saw that number.

"Now, do you still think this is simple window dressing?" Qin Zhan asked.

Zhong Huai abruptly stopped pacing, turned around, his eyes shining terrifyingly bright.

No.

What he was thinking now was far beyond simple window dressing.

"Brother Zhan, I was wrong." Zhong Huai's voice contained a strange excitement, even a tremor. "This isn't window dressing; this is god-making!"

Qin Zhan: "?"

"Don't you see it yet?" Zhong Huai excitedly pointed at the screen. "The person behind this is a genius! An ultimate player who manipulated the rules to the extreme!"

"He doesn't want a shortcut at all; he wants to create a god!"

"Why the five-year deferral? It's to max out the difficulty coefficient! To create a difficulty level within the bounds of the rules that is unprecedented and unmatched!"

"288-star! What does that number signify once it appears on the final file? It's a miracle! It's a legend!"

"Who would dare say this kid got in through the back door later? He legitimately completed the 288-star hell assessment—he's a monster! This resume is more terrifying than the combined merits of our entire Fangs squad!"

Zhong Huai grew more agitated the more he spoke, feeling like he had uncovered an earth-shattering secret.

This was no longer just about social maneuvering.

This was art!

It was the ultimate art of manipulating rules, favors, and power!

How immense must the power of the person who could devise this plan and push the Ministry of Education to greenlight it for one individual be?

So immense that Zhong Huai dared not even imagine it.

Listening to Zhong Huai's analysis, Qin Zhan felt his worldview being shattered.

He was a soldier, focused on how to complete missions and defeat enemies.

He had never imagined that an examination could involve so many twists and turns.

"So what do we do?" Qin Zhan's voice was a little dry. "All missions have full recordings. We can't just fabricate things out of thin air."

This was the most practical problem.

Window dressing could be described as staging a play in a safe zone.

But this "god-making" plan was clearly not as simple as acting.

At the 288-star difficulty, without some genuine substance, forget making a god—he would be instantly reduced to a pile of mush.

"Don't rush, don't rush." Zhong Huai's mind raced. He returned to the main console and pulled up the Fangs squad's recent mission list.

Lines of classified mission information scrolled across the screen.

[Decapitate a Third-Tier Lord in the Abyss Domain...]

[Infiltrate behind enemy lines to destroy a teleportation gate...]

[Escort key samples for the 'Tinder' Project...]

Qin Zhan looked at these missions, his brow furrowed tightly.

None of these missions were ones where they could casually shove a high school student into.

Suddenly, Zhong Huai's finger stopped.

He pointed to a seemingly unremarkable mission on the screen.

[Escort the third batch of supplies to Abyss Domain Outpost No. 7.]

"This is the one." Zhong Huai clapped his hands.

"An escort mission?" Qin Zhan was confused. "That's too simple; it can't support the 288-star difficulty."

"No, Brother Zhan, you missed the key point." Zhong Huai smiled mysteriously.

"The key point is the location."

"Abyss Domain."

Qin Zhan understood instantly.

The Abyss Domain!

Once they entered the depths of the Abyss Domain, forget about full recordings; just maintaining uninterrupted communication would be a miracle.

"Are you suggesting..."

"Exactly!" Zhong Huai snapped his fingers. "The mission itself isn't difficult; it's just a delivery job. But it takes place in the Abyss Domain! What does that imply?"

"It means the process is uncontrollable, and the outcome is determined by us!"

"We just need to bring him safely to the destination and bring him back safely. As for what happened in between... isn't that up to us to narrate?"

"Besides, that's the Abyss Domain. Who would dare question the difficulty?"

"As long as we attest to it, this is 288 difficulty, and he completed it!"

Qin Zhan fell silent. He could not deny the feasibility of this plan.