At the space base, on the ninth floor of a uniquely designed building, Teacher Li sat inside a spacious office, browsing the data displayed on his phone.
"Teacher Li."
"We just received a data alert," the robot standing beside him suddenly said. "On the overall rankings, an elite student's data has been shielded. At the same time, an Earth Academy student suffered two consecutive drops in coefficient score, totaling a deduction of 0.2."
"Data shielded? Coefficient score dropped by 0.2?" Teacher Li's eyelids twitched.
Data from the Primordial Star was classified at an extreme level, completely inaccessible to ordinary people. Even Huguang Martial University could only obtain a small portion of a student's data during their school years—such as changes in their tier and coefficient score.
This was the basis for the changes on the student rankings.
As for how many Primordial Points a student gained from selling spoils of war, the university had no right to know. The banking channels used to sell Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures were run through the Blue Moon Alliance, which was the only entity able to keep tabs on those transactions.
A data shielding usually meant only one thing: the student had died.
And a drop in coefficient score usually occurred under only one condition: causing the direct or indirect death of a fellow Blue Moon civilization warrior.
"Who are they? Transfer their detailed data changes to my terminal immediately," Teacher Li commanded at once.
"Understood," the robot responded.
Soon, the data of two individuals appeared on his monitor.
"Gu Ming, senior, Elite Contract, Life Level 25.4, coefficient score 1.8, affiliated with the Black Ice Squad... Data temporarily shielded. Shielding timestamp: New Calendar Year 60, September 8, 8:04 AM."
"Xia Tao, senior, Earth Contract, Life Level 28.9, coefficient score 2.2 (previously 2.4), affiliated with the Black Ice Squad... New Calendar Year 60, September 8, 8:03 AM, coefficient score decreased by 0.1... 8:04 AM, coefficient score decreased by 0.1."
Two sets of records.
Cross-referenced with each other.
"The Black Ice Squad?"
"Xia Tao?" A flicker of surprise crossed Teacher Li's eyes. He had been waiting for the Black Ice Squad to return to base so he could separate, detain, and question them.
He had never expected that something would happen to this squad before they even made it back.
"From the same squad, one dead while the other gets their coefficient score docked at the exact same time?" Countless thoughts raced through Teacher Li's mind. *Did Xia Tao kill Gu Ming? No, in squad infighting, if he directly killed a teammate, Xia Tao's coefficient score would have dropped to at least 1.5, or even reset entirely to 1.0.*
According to the rules of the Primordial Star, if civilization warriors from the same civilization camp fought and killed one another, they would lose Primordial Points and have their coefficient scores reduced, though the penalty was not excessively harsh. If someone caused death indirectly, the impact was even milder.
This was one of the reasons behind the infighting among many civilization warriors: the penalty was relatively light, so whenever the profits were large enough, warriors might turn on one another.
However!
When it came to members of the same squad, even causing a teammate's death indirectly led to heavy deductions of Primordial Points and coefficient scores. If one directly committed murder, it resulted in at least a tier demotion.
Because of this, while squad members might fall out over treasure, outright murder was exceedingly rare. The cost was simply too great.
*Moreover, Xia Tao's coefficient score dropped by 0.1 first... Another civilian martial artist likely died because of him,* Teacher Li deduced quickly. *Then another 0.1 was deducted right after. Most likely, he indirectly caused Gu Ming's death.*
*Did they get into another clash with a squad of civilian martial artists?* Teacher Li considered the possibility and thought, *Did they kick an iron plate this time? They really know how to cause trouble for me.*
He had developed quite a distaste for the Black Ice Squad.
They had barely produced any commendable results, yet they caused a never-ending string of headaches.
*I don't know how the Xia family produced such a bastard,* Teacher Li muttered inwardly, nursing a growing headache. *Another elite student dead. The report is going to be even harder to write.*
In actual combat, casualties were permitted.
However, if too many died or suffered injuries, the escort teacher would face punishment as well. Furthermore, regular students, elite students, and Earth Academy students carried vastly different levels of importance.
The death of a single elite student was far more serious than the deaths of two or three regular students.
Up to this point in the combat exercise, including Gu Ming, over eighty senior students had already died, six of whom were elite students.
*Fortunately, not a single Earth Academy student has died yet,* Teacher Li thought, feeling a wave of relief.
*I'll wait until the Black Ice Squad returns and interrogate them together about what happened.*
Suddenly...
"Hm?" Teacher Li's eyes widened, his gaze falling onto an auxiliary screen.
His workstation had multiple displays. Rankings like the Freshmen Rankings and the overall score rankings each occupied their own monitor. And right now, on the Freshmen Rankings...
Fang Yu, ranked first, had seen his coefficient score jump to 1.9.
Fan Xing, ranked second, remained at 1.5.
Yan Hezhou, ranked third, sat at merely 1.4.
It was fair to say that Fang Yu had practically locked down first place among the freshmen.
"A coefficient score of 1.9? How is that possible?" Teacher Li could hardly believe his eyes. "Didn't his score just hit 1.6 yesterday? How could it climb so quickly?"
He immediately pulled up Fang Yu's score history.
"At 8:05 AM, his score shifted twice in rapid succession, climbing straight from 1.6 to 1.9?" Teacher Li's heart skipped a beat. Why did this timing align so closely with the incident involving the Black Ice Squad?
Was it merely a coincidence?
Or was there a connection?
*To increase this much in such a short period, he must have killed a large number of high-level fierce beasts, perhaps even a Level 30 beast,* Teacher Li wondered. *But how did he manage that?*
According to his records, Fang Yu's Life Level was still listed as 20.1.
*Even if he awakened an Upper-Rank Star Aspect, only twenty-some days have passed. His Life Level should have reached Level 22 or 23 at most,* Teacher Li thought.
*I'd better touch base with Associate Professor Tang first.*
***
Only a short time had passed, and the senior students could not view the Freshmen Rankings, so not many people noticed the shift in Fang Yu's numbers. After all, the overall leaderboard only showed rankings, and unless there was a change in the top ten or twenty, few students paid attention to someone in the forties or fifties.
For the freshmen, however, it was a completely different story.
"A coefficient score of 1.9?"
"Is this guy really a freshman?"
"Fang Yu is insane!"
The two hundred or so freshmen from various junior colleges noticed almost immediately, and the news exploded across the group.
There was no helping it.
Every student wore a communication star ring, and the rankings appeared the moment it was opened. Even if they had tried to miss it, they couldn't. Every single one of them etched Fang Yu's name into their memory.
***
"Damn!"
"Li Tao, this classmate of yours is an absolute freak! How did his coefficient score shoot up so fast? 1.9? Even our captain, an elite student, is only at 1.6! Did he kill a Level 30 beast?"
"Is he really only Level 20? Has he really not awakened a Star Aspect yet?" Within Li Tao's squad, his teammates were similarly shaken when they learned the news.
"I'm not sure anymore either," Li Tao said with a bitter smile. "At least during the upgrade assessment, that was roughly the strength he showed."
"Unbelievable."
"No wonder people say never to underestimate junior college students." The seniors marveled aloud, though they were mostly just shooting the breeze without feeling anything too deeply.
Only Li Tao felt a pang in his chest.
*Back at Wuling Martial Junior College, I was clearly the student the teachers valued most,* Li Tao thought bitterly. *Even the instructor encouraged me, saying that achieving the Great Accomplishment of Entering the Minute while still in junior college meant I was bound to shine even brighter once I entered university. Back then, Fang Yu was far beneath me...*
Back then, Fang Yu truly had been inferior to him.
*Yet how long has it been?*
*His coefficient score has already reached 1.9, leaving everyone in the dust. Even Fan Xing can't come close to catching him, and Fan Xing is Level 24!* Li Tao murmured inwardly. *And what about me? My score just reached 1.3, and I might not even hit 1.4 before the assessment ends.*
In terms of rank, Li Tao was not doing poorly. He had been steadily improving and had climbed to fourteenth place.
Before the assessment ended, he had a shot at reaching the top ten.
Yet nothing hurt more than comparison—especially when someone who had once lagged behind was now pulling away into the distance, leaving him far in their wake.
***
Inside a private suite in the space base's commercial center.
"Ah, this feels amazing!"
"These androids here are on another level." Wang Mo lay sprawled on a sofa, letting two beautiful androids massage him while muttering under his breath, "Age, ethnicity, measurements, face shape, hairstyle, lips... everything can be customized, and they feel identical to the real thing."
"Too incredible."
"If this tech were brought back to the Blue Star, the streets would be deserted! Who knows how many people would lose their jobs? The marriage rate would probably plummet off a cliff," Wang Mo mused.
Of course, he knew that the services here were absurdly expensive.
He downed another glass of Harmless Wine.
"I'll fool around a bit longer, then head back to cultivate," Wang Mo told himself. "Dad told me to make friends with some capable students, so I can't look too bad myself. At the very least, my rank shouldn't be too low."
Wang Mo understood full well that if he wanted to associate with powerful martial artists, having money was not enough; if he was too weak, people would look down on him regardless.
Glancing casually at his communication star ring, his eyes suddenly bugged out.
He scrambled upright with a start.
"Sir, is something wrong with our service?"
"Sir..." The two lifelike beauties spoke in soft, delicate voices that sent shivers down the spine.
"Back off, don't get in my way." Wang Mo waved them away, staring intently at his communication star ring with shock and disbelief in his eyes. "A coefficient score of 1.9?"
"What the—!"
"My bro... is an absolute monster!"
Unlike many other students, Wang Mo spent his days following a strict routine: cultivating, unwinding in the mall, and hunting low-level beasts in the Safe Zone. Most of his remaining time was spent gathering all sorts of intelligence on the students of Huguang Martial University. On the space base's Primordial Net, there was a vast trove of data and information that was blocked on the Blue Star's network.
In a sense, one of Wang Mo's main purposes in coming to the Primordial Star was to broaden his horizons.
As his father had put it: *"Only by walking on the Primordial Star in person and slaughtering some fierce beasts with your own hands will you truly understand the meaning of being a martial artist and know what you ought to be doing."*
Therefore, Wang Mo understood the significance of a senior freshman achieving a coefficient score of 1.9 far better than ninety-nine percent of the freshmen, and even better than most of the seniors.
"His score hit 1.6 yesterday, and today it broke through to 1.9!" Wang Mo's eyes shone brightly. "My bro almost certainly killed a beast of Level 30 or higher, or wiped out a massive pack of beasts above Level 25."
"He must have awakened his Star Aspect, and it has to be at least a Middle-Rank Star Aspect! Absorbing star force for the first time must have caused his Life Level to skyrocket!"
Chapter 63