The Era of Gods

Neither its beginning nor its end was expected by anyone.

The homeroom teacher hadn’t warned him beforehand, but he felt it was right not to warn him; being caught off-guard like this would make him more cautious in the future.

Following the opening ceremony, the school term officially began. Everyone prepared eagerly for their first college lesson as the ceremony had touched on some matters and regulations for this new chapter.

The next day, Lin Xiao prepared to leave early. As he opened the door, he saw a young man in a black overcoat standing there, sucking on a… lollipop? The man twiddled a fifth level Magic Cube in his hand, and upon hearing the door open, snapped it together, looked up, and said,

“Lin Xiao, I am from the Falling Star Society’s recruitment staff. You have entered our society’s shortlist for consideration. As per our guidelines, we shall evaluate you during your first major class of college before deciding whether to invite you to join our society.”

After speaking, the man, without waiting for a reply, started twisting his Magic Cube again and strode away, leaving Lin Xiao momentarily stunned.

“Falling Star Society?”

He quickly tapped his wristband, summoning a holographic screen to search, and swiftly the information on the Falling Star Society appeared before him.

“Falling Star Society: a six-star society, established two hundred thousand years ago. Is this the ancient society Shen Yuexin talked about?”

At that moment, he noticed two new messages that had just been sent minutes ago. He opened them one by one, a strange expression crossing his face.

The messages were from two societies named Demon Night and Pillar Sky. After checking, both were renowned top-tier societies within Lustrous University. The content of the messages was nearly identical, basically saying – kid, our society has set its sights on you, but we need to evaluate you before deciding to recruit you, and this will be done based on your performance in the first major class of your college stage.

If it were one society with such a requirement, he may have felt annoyed, but since all societies were like this, then it was the established norm.

Of course, in the end, it was all because they weren’t very optimistic about him. His background was simply too poor; if it had been a bit better, or if they knew of his identity as the son of Gaia, there would be no such evaluation period.

At least that wasn’t the case for his girlfriend who joined one of the top women’s societies before school even started, without any evaluation period.

Though slightly irked, Lin Xiao wouldn’t sulk or refuse to join a society over this. Rules were rules, and without the unrivaled strength to break them, he had to follow them scrupulously.

Rubbing his forehead, he put these thoughts aside for the moment and went to pick up his girlfriend from next door.

Similar to their time in high school, the classroom for Class 17 of freshman year was also located inside a Mage Tower, though far more spacious on the inside.

When they arrived, many students were already there, chatting in groups outside the classroom since it wasn’t time for class yet.

Glancing around, he noticed that the class was quite large, numbering over a hundred students. There were few familiar faces; most of his high school classmates were gone, and the few that remained were mere acquaintances.

“It seems not many have faith in her, eh!”

People are pragmatic; although Jin Sisi was promoted to college level, she lacked connections and resources compared to other homeroom teachers, so most former classmates didn’t see much potential in her and had switched to other classes.

Shaking his head, he and Shen Yuexin went ahead and entered. The classroom was essentially the same as in their middle school days, an immense space several kilometers in length and width, where each student had a floating platform suspended in the air. He and his girlfriend casually chose one near the entrance to stand on.

These floating platforms were also crudely categorized into four materials: Black Iron, Bronze, Silver, and Gold, as well as Crystal.

To quote the homeroom teacher, everyone starts on Black Iron, then at the end of each major class, scores are given to determine promotion or demotion.

To put it simply, there’s a major class every three months. You’re either promoted or demoted, and in theory, it would take at least four major classes to reach a seat on the Crystal Throne.

Different seats came with different benefits. For a Bronze Seat, the monthly reward was ten units of Godforce Crystals; for a Silver Seat, fifty units a month; for a Gold Seat, two hundred units a month; and for the Crystal Throne, a thousand units a month.

True to a Super Academy like Radiance, the rewards were just as blunt and straightforward.

With money, you could buy whatever you wanted, making this one of the most practical rewards for someone like Lin Xiao, from an average background.

If he could secure a spot on the Crystal Throne, combined with a scholarship and a little extra help from the homeroom teacher, it would add up to a significant amount of reward.

Scholarships were divided into three levels. The basic level offered two hundred units of Godforce Crystals a month, equivalent to a Gold Seat, but scholarships came with more than just Godforce Crystals—they also included a Golden Mythical Quality six-star Card.

Yes, once they ascended to demigods, they could use six-star Cards.

Speaking of which, it’s necessary to explain the classification of Cards above five stars.

Divine Beings could use Cards ranging from one to five stars, but Demigods had a different system. They could only use six-star Cards.

Or to put it another way, everyone could use up to five-star Cards, but six-star Cards required one to be at least a Demigod to use, and Demigods could only use six-star and below. The seven-star Cards were reserved for True Gods.

Therefore, six-star cards are known as Demigod cards, while seven stars and above are referred to as True God cards.

The classification of six-star cards is the same as five-star cards, ranging from the most basic to Golden Mythical Quality, and further up are the ancient crystal cards, which are also divided into four types: basic, fine, precious miracle cards, and Supermodel Cards.

The difference between six-star and five-star cards is not in quality, but in the increase in quantity.

For example, a five-star card of basic quality—a flock of sheep—could summon 500 sheep, half male and half female, in one go.

If you improve the quality of the card, what mainly improves is the quality of the sheep, for example, basic sheep becoming strong adult sheep. If the quality reaches a certain level, you might see sheep with special bloodlines, such as Warcraft sheep.

But if you replace a five-star card of basic quality with a six-star card of basic quality, you could summon 5000 sheep, half male and half female, in one go, which is a qualitative increase in quantity.

Speaking of which, Lin Xiao hasn’t loaded various cards for a long time, mainly because his strength is now too great, and general cards are not of much use to him. Even ancient quality cards are useless if they do not fit the situation in the Divine Realm. At present, he has left many loading slots vacant for nearly a year, usually exchanging some for Breeding Cards or simply keeping them empty.

However, now that he has entered college, he can load six-star Demigod cards, and compared to the five-star cards with qualitative enhancements, the six-star cards could be of great use to him and might be loaded in large quantities.

Many elite seniors share his situation, scarcely loading any cards during their high school years, all reserving slots for the more formidable Demigod cards upon progressing to demigod status.

The reward for the second-tier high scholarship is one thousand Godforce Crystals every month and three six-star Golden Mythical Quality cards, with only three spots available for the entire year group.

The reward for the third-tier super scholarship is ten thousand units of Godforce Crystals every month, as well as one six-star Ancient Quality Card, with only one spot available for the entire year group.

To obtain a scholarship higher than the second tier, merely being individually outstanding is not enough; one’s class must also rank among the top three in overall performance for the entire year group.

Lin Xiao felt that this rule seemed somewhat targeted at him. He was confident in his own performance and grades, but raising the entire class’s rank was another matter.

Nevertheless, a basic scholarship was still within reach, and even if his class ranked last, there would be five basic scholarship spots available—he was certain to secure one. Together with seizing a diamond throne, the rewards would be substantial.

Before long, the bell signaling the start of class rang out, and three golden lights descended from the sky, revealing two familiar figures: Jin Sisi and the former counselor Zhu Hong, who seemed to have a master-servant relationship with her and had also transferred over from the high school division.

As for the other teaching assistant, he was a middle-aged man from the college division. He introduced himself as Yuan Xi, a Mage at the Fifth Level with Weak Divine Power.

Just like the first class in high school, Jin Sisi continued to wear her thick armor, hiding her extremely beautiful appearance. If one hadn’t seen her with their own eyes, nobody would know that beneath the four-meter-tall massive armor was a stunning beauty with a fiery figure.

The routine self-introduction was handled quickly and efficiently by Jin Sisi, who typically got straight to the point:

“Today is the first class for all students after entering college. In keeping with Lustrous University’s tradition, we will conduct the first and most important large class today, which will determine your treatment for this semester, the ten scholarship spots, as well as the school and many top societies’ assessment of you. I hope everyone will take it seriously.”

At this point, all the students were listening intently, including those from wealthy families.

Even though they had the support of their clans, that support was not unlimited. The university would relax restrictions during this stage, but not eliminate them completely.

The resources awarded by the school might not match what their families could provide, but it was still a substantial income that nobody would consider too much. Hence, it was certainly worth competing for.

Moreover, the scholarship spots also represented one’s standing within the year group. Even if the rewards didn’t matter, one would compete for the sake of that status.

“This large class will require you to gather at the Outpost Base in the MK-204 Crystal Wall System within two days. All nineteen classes of the year group will go there. Although it’s not a direct competition, your performance will still affect your scores and more directly determine the allocation of seats. Take it seriously.”

After finishing the statement, she changed the subject:

“As for the ten scholarship spots that everyone is concerned about, the decision has been made. Counselor Zhu Hong, Assistant Yuan Xi, and I have decided that our class will reserve two spots for me, one for each assistant to support their favored students, and the remaining six spots will reward other outstanding students. The decision will be made after this large class, so I hope everyone will take it seriously.”

“Class dismissed!”

With that, she turned and transformed into a beam of golden light, soaring into the sky.

Zhu Hong and Assistant Yuan Xi didn’t say much and followed her departure. This was their first meeting with the students, and they weren’t familiar with most of them. Plus, the scholarship spots they held were largely predetermined, and they couldn’t make promises to the students just yet.

Once the teacher left, the students began to whisper among themselves.

With so many people in the class, there were always some who knew each other, and some had specifically inquired about their classmates’ backgrounds. Many had a thorough understanding of every classmate.

It is worth mentioning that Leng Wuyun, who had a conflict with Lin Xiao before, was also in the same class. It’s unclear if he had secretly learned Lin Xiao’s identity, but now he didn’t dare to look over, turning his gaze elsewhere instead.

On the first day of school, everyone was relatively restrained, and there were no challenges.

After sitting for a while, Lin Xiao gestured to his girlfriend and, holding her hand, they left under the envious gazes of the others.