292: First, bribe the younger sister

Just as Zhong Huai was laughing his heart out, feeling like he had reached the peak of his life, Qin Zhan suddenly threw out another sentence.

"But, have you considered..."

"Pfft..."

Zhong Huai's laughter was cut off abruptly, as if someone had grabbed him by the throat.

The air froze instantly.

"What if Lin Yu... actually crosses that little hurdle you set for him?"

Qin Zhan ignored his face, which had instantly shifted from ecstasy to a look of constipation, and continued on his own; his logic was clear and direct.

"Are we still just going to give him a passing grade?"

"A 288-star assessment was passed, yet he only gets a 'pass' in the end. If word gets out, how would that look? Does our Fangs not care about its reputation anymore?"

"But if we give him a high score based on a small hurdle we set on a whim, wouldn't that be too much of a joke? It wouldn't match the difficulty of a 288-star assessment at all."

Zhong Huai wanted to laugh it off and say something like, "There aren't that many 'ifs'; how could a pampered little boss like him possibly pass?" to gloss over the matter.

But then he saw Qin Zhan's profile.

The captain was truly and seriously contemplating this problem.

He wasn't looking for trouble, nor was he applying pressure.

He was simply fulfilling his duty as an examiner and a soldier.

Once he took on a task, he would put his heart and soul into it to do his best.

Even if this was just a "College Entrance Examination" that, in his view, had an absurd origin and had already become a joke.

The bit of flippancy and playfulness in Zhong Huai's heart instantly vanished.

He wiped the smile from his face and slowly stood up straight.

In front of Qin Zhan, he could joke around and be cynical.

But when Qin Zhan got serious, he also had to show his most professional side.

"Boss, I didn't think it through."

Zhong Huai took a deep breath, and his mind began to race.

He no longer treated Lin Yu as a "lucky little boss," but as a real candidate who needed to be evaluated.

"Since it's an exam, there has to be a difficulty curve."

Zhong Huai made a few gestures in the air, bringing up several virtual screens where complex flowcharts and data models began to appear.

"We can set an entry-level test, code-named 'Stepping Stone.' That's the 'little hurdle' I mentioned, mainly to evaluate his basic qualities, combat instincts, and adaptability."

He pointed to a module on the screen.

"If he can't even handle the 'Stepping Stone,' then perfect—the assessment fails, everyone's happy, we've done our job, and he can go back home to continue being his little boss."

"But if..." Zhong Huai's eyes lit up as he found the key to the problem, "What if he passes?"

"Then we'll ramp up the difficulty! We'll enter the second phase, code-named 'Mountain Path'!"

"If he passes the second phase, there's a third phase: 'Cloud Ladder'! One link after another, with the difficulty increasing layer by layer! We have so many training subjects in 'Fangs,' from the 'Purgatory Ten' to 'Island Survival.' Just picking a few at random would be enough to give him a run for his money!"

Qin Zhan listened quietly without interrupting him.

The more Zhong Huai spoke, the more excited he became, and his thoughts grew clearer. His fingers tapped continuously on the screen, pulling up training programs that had once made countless elite special forces soldiers wail in agony.

"We won't preset where his limit is. How far he can go, let the data speak for itself!"

"If he really manages to overcome every obstacle and pass all the standard subjects we set..."

Zhong Huai stopped there. He turned off all the screens, turned to face Qin Zhan, and said word for word.

"Then I won't take my vacation."

"I'll personally lead the team and take him with us to the Abyss Domain."

"We'll treat this mission as his final and most realistic testing ground!"

"If he can prove his value in actual combat within the Abyss Domain and gain the recognition of all of us..."

Zhong Huai spread his hands, his face filled with the excitement and fervor of someone who had found the ultimate answer.

"Then forget a high score—if he wants a perfect score, I'll give it to him!"

"No matter how high the difficulty, it's still an exam at its core. Exams are for selecting talent, not for using some broken system to stifle a true genius to death!"

"The man has already proven himself to be a talent through his actions. We have no reason to block his path just because of some nonsense rule."

Zhong Huai and Qin Zhan looked at each other.

In the training room, only the humming of the equipment remained.

Qin Zhan remained silent for a long time.

He looked at his subordinate, who was gesturing wildly and talking excitedly.

This guy, who usually seemed flippant and unreliable, always managed to come up with the most dependable plans at critical moments.

After a long while, Qin Zhan slowly nodded.

"This idea of yours..."

"...is more thorough than mine."

He admitted it.

A simple acknowledgment, yet it made Zhong Huai feel even better than a vacation.

"Of course!" Zhong Huai immediately became smug again, his ego practically soaring to the heavens. "Look who I am!"

Qin Zhan ignored his antics and turned back to the massive tactical board.

"Then let's do it that way."

Qin Zhan's voice regained its usual steadiness and decisiveness.

"Draw up your plan. It needs to be detailed, feasible, and... worthy of the number '288-star'."

Zhong Huai snapped to attention. The playful grin on his face vanished instantly, replaced by absolute focus and rigor.

"Yes, Boss!"

He turned and walked to his workstation, his fingers flying across the virtual keyboard as countless streams of data converged into a river before him.

"I'll make sure everything is arranged perfectly for him..."

Zhong Huai's voice came from amidst the data streams, carrying a hint of imperceptible excitement and fighting spirit.

"This time, it'll be truly, perfectly arranged."

...At the Insect Dwelling, Lin Yu was eating the breakfast he had just brought back with Lin Yao.

He had many things to arrange today. To prevent his sister from continuing to grumble in the evening, Lin Yu decided to bribe her with delicious food first.

A huge dining table had been forced into the already small room.

If the rooms in the Insect Dwelling didn't have customizable extended space, they probably wouldn't have been able to fit this table or the dazzling array of food on it.

Crab roe soup dumplings, crystal shrimp dumplings, lotus leaf sticky rice chicken, golden custard buns, and two huge, freshly fried dough sticks paired with two large bowls of freshly ground sweet soy milk.

These were just the tip of the iceberg.

The entire table was almost piled high with over a hundred different breakfast containers, steaming hot and fragrant, like a small food expo.

Lin Yao's eyes couldn't hold anything else.

With a sticky rice chicken in her left hand and a soup dumpling in her right, her mouth was stuffed full, making her look like a hamster working hard to store food for the winter.

She was eating with pure satisfaction.

One of the benefits of awakening a top-tier class was that the body's energy conversion efficiency reached an unbelievable level.

Not to mention this little bit of food, even if she swallowed the entire table, it would only be a small supplement to her daily consumption.

Getting fat? Getting sick? Non-existent.

Just eat!

Lin Yu didn't move his chopsticks much; he just held his soy milk and watched quietly.

He remembered everything Lin Yao loved to eat.

But there were simply too many things this gluttonous girl loved to eat.

Seeing his sister eating with such abandonment and happiness, Lin Yu felt a sense of fulfillment deep within his heart.

This made him feel more comfortable than earning trillions.

Wasn't the point of all that money so she could be like this—carefree and able to eat whatever she wanted?