On the lecture platform, Wu Shangfeng closed the datapad in his hands.
"The tally is complete."
His voice echoed in the silent Martial Arts Room. "All the necessary rules have been explained."
Wu Shangfeng glanced at the digital clock on the wall.
"It is now ten in the morning. You have four hours until the first class at two in the afternoon. You're free to do as you please during this time."
"Go get acquainted with your dorms, meet the comrades you'll be with for the next few years, or go explore the school you fought so hard to get into. Reassemble here at two o'clock sharp. Dismissed."
After speaking, Wu Shangfeng turned and walked out of the classroom without the slightest hesitation.
The oppressive atmosphere in the classroom was instantly shattered.
Students stood up in twos and threes. Some excitedly discussed their future classes, while others eagerly paired up and headed toward the dormitories.
Qin Feng gave a slight nod and pulled up the campus map on his terminal.
A three-dimensional panoramic view of the campus was projected into the air in front of him.
He quickly located the position of Building 18 in Sector F, planned the most convenient route, and then got up and left the classroom.
The dormitory area was located on the east side of campus. The environment was quiet and secluded, with rows of modern-looking dorm buildings nestled between green trees and artificial lakes.
Following the map's directions, Qin Feng quickly found Building 18.
He took an anti-gravity elevator to the fourth floor and arrived at the door of Room 402.
He lightly swiped his student card on the access control system.
[Identity verification successful. Welcome home, Student Qin Feng.]
A soft electronic voice sounded as the alloy door slid silently inward.
Qin Feng walked into the dorm, and the sight before him was a little unexpected.
This wasn't the crowded communal dorm he had imagined, but a rather spacious apartment.
A common living room of about fifty square meters was furnished with a comfortable sofa and coffee table. An entire wall was a massive floor-to-ceiling window, offering a serene view of the dormitory area's lake.
Around the living room were four closed doors, each labeled with the letters A, B, C, and D.
At this moment, two people were already sitting on the sofa in the living room.
One of them was a chubby kid.
He looked to be about the same age as Qin Feng, with a round face, black-framed glasses, and a loose-fitting tracksuit. He was holding a datapad, engrossed in whatever he was reading.
He was sunk into the soft sofa, looking endearingly plump and cheerful.
The other person, however, made Qin Feng's gaze sharpen slightly.
It was Shi Potian.
The one who had ranked in the top one hundred on all of Planet Qiming in the high school entrance exams, whose life force index was close to 10 even before enrolling—the acknowledged strongest in their class.
He was dressed in an immaculate white training uniform, sitting cross-legged on the other side of the sofa with his eyes closed in rest.
His posture was ramrod straight and his aura was restrained, but even at rest, he exuded a sharp, proud air that warned others to keep their distance.
Hearing the door open, both of them looked up at the same time.
The chubby kid was the first to stand up, a warm and cheerful smile on his face.
"Hey! New roommate? Hello, hello! I'm Qian Duoduo, assigned to Room C. And you?"
"Qin Feng. Room D."
Qin Feng responded.
"Qin Feng?"
Qian Duoduo scratched his head, seemingly trying to recall the class roster. "Oh, oh, I remember now! Welcome, welcome!"
He familiarly patted the sofa next to him. "Sit, sit, don't be a stranger."
On the other side, Shi Potian also opened his eyes.
His gaze rested on Qin Feng for a moment. He just gave a slight nod as a greeting before closing his eyes again to continue his Meditation.
His pride was obvious, but he showed no hostility or contempt—just the natural reserve of a top-tier genius.
Qin Feng walked to the door of Room D and swiped it open with his student card.
The room wasn't large, about twenty square meters, but the layout was very practical.
A bed, a desk, a wardrobe, and a private bathroom.
Small but perfectly formed.
He put down his simple bag and came back out.
"Huh? Is no one in Room B?"
Qian Duoduo asked curiously when he saw Qin Feng.
"An upperclassman told me that our dorm only has three people for now."
Qin Feng replied.
"Three people?"
Qian Duoduo paused for a second, then his eyes lit up. He slapped his thigh in excitement. "Hey, that's great! With an empty room, we can use it as a storage room for junk and stuff. Perfect!"
Once he started talking, it was hard for him to stop.
"To be honest, the living conditions for a D-level contract are way better than I expected. A private room with its own bathroom... not bad at all. I thought we'd be stuck with bunk beds."
He clicked his tongue, a look of longing on his face.
"Still, it can't compare to the C-level contracts. I heard from my cousin that as soon as you upgrade to a C-level contract, you can immediately apply for a transfer to a better dorm building. Over there, not only do you get a private studio apartment, but each floor is also equipped with a public, multi-functional martial arts training room. It's got everything—Gravity Rooms, reflex testers, Spiritual Energy Sensors, you name it. And it's open 24/7, no merit points required!"
"And if you can get a B-level contract,"
Qian Duoduo's voice dropped to a whisper, tinged with a sense of mystery. "That's even more amazing. They assign you a whole detached villa with a private Martial Arts Room! Plus, you get a one-on-one guidance session with a designated master instructor every month! We're talking about the real powerhouses of the school!"
He spoke with animated excitement, while Shi Potian, off to the side, remained with his eyes closed in rest, as if everything around him was of no concern.
Qin Feng, however, listened quietly, committing all this useful information to memory.
"Oh, right, I haven't asked yet."
Qian Duoduo looked at Qin Feng. "Bro, how were your entrance exam scores? What was your rank?"
Before Qin Feng could answer, he turned to Shi Potian.
"Brother Shi, no need to even ask you. The whole school's been talking about it—you're a top-100 big shot. You don't mind if I call you Brother Shi, right?"
Shi Potian slowly opened his eyes, glanced at him, and gave a soft "Mm," in tacit agreement.
"Hehe."
Qian Duoduo rubbed his hands together. "As for me, my scores were average, middle-of-the-pack. Ranked somewhere over thirty thousand. But my life force index is decent at 4.8; my combat skills are just a bit lacking. What about you, Qin Feng?"
'A 4.8 is only ranked in the thirty thousands?'
Qin Feng was surprised, then answered truthfully, "My life force index during the entrance exams was 1.23, and my rank was sixty-seven thousand."
A flicker of surprise crossed Qian Duoduo's face when he heard this rank.
"Over sixty-seven thousand..."
Shi Potian, who had been silent all this time, opened his eyes again upon hearing Qin Feng's results.
"I can see your body absorbs Spiritual Energy spontaneously, and your pores are all normal. It doesn't seem right that you only had a 1.23 during the entrance exams."
Shi Potian asked softly, "Did you have a health problem before?"
"Yes, I just recovered from a serious illness."
Qin Feng nodded.
"I see."
Shi Potian nodded in understanding.
"If there's anything you don't understand about cultivation in the future, you can ask me," he said.
His meaning was clear. "We're in the same dorm, so we're brothers."
Shi Potian might have seemed cold and aloof, but he was only fifteen or sixteen years old, after all.
"Right, right!"
Qian Duoduo nodded vigorously from the side. "Brother Shi is right! From now on, we're comrades in the same trench! Don't worry, Qin Feng. With me and Brother Shi looking out for you, you'll have no problem with your cultivation. You'll catch up slowly!"
The atmosphere in the dorm was much better than Qin Feng had expected.
One was a warm, cheerful, well-informed, and overly familiar guy.
The other was a responsible, top-tier genius who was cold on the outside but warm on the inside.
"Let's go, let's go, it's almost time to eat. Let's go out for a walk, get familiar with the campus, and then grab a big meal at the cafeteria."
Qian Duoduo sprang up from the sofa and, without taking no for an answer, started pulling Qin Feng and Shi Potian toward the door.
Although Shi Potian was expressionless, he didn't refuse.
The three of them left the dorm building together and strolled along the wide main road of the campus.
"See? This is our school's style."
Qian Duoduo pointed his chubby finger at the surrounding buildings. "Simple, direct, efficient. You won't find a single ornamental garden without a practical purpose. All the roads are straight and wide for the rapid movement of personnel and supplies. All the buildings are massive, sturdy blocks made of the toughest alloys and composite materials, exuding a sense of power. Everything here is designed for one purpose—to improve one's Martial Dao strength."
Qin Feng looked in the direction he was pointing.
It was just as he said. The entire campus layout radiated an air of extreme pragmatism and militaristic style.
Lining both sides of the road were several massive buildings that crouched like colossal black beasts.
"That biggest black cube up ahead is the school's Central Cultivation Hall."
Qian Duoduo explained, "It's divided into over a thousand individual Cultivation Rooms. You've got Gravity Rooms, reflex rooms, Spiritual Energy sensing rooms, virtual combat rooms... you name it. I heard the top-tier Gravity Rooms can even simulate over a hundred times normal gravity."
He clicked his tongue. "But, students on D-level contracts like us don't get to use those nice places for free. We can only use the most basic public training grounds. If you want to get into those individual Cultivation Rooms, you have to spend merit points to rent them."
They continued walking and passed a bustling building with a huge electronic screen constantly scrolling through mission information.
"That's the Mission Hall."
Qian Duoduo pointed. "That's where we'll earn most of our merit points in the future. There are all sorts of missions, from assisting in the school labs to clearing out Star Thieves in the Subspace Network... but we can't take those missions ourselves, only teachers can accept them. So if you get the chance to participate in one, you have to grab it. The merit point rewards are huge."
Qin Feng committed all of this to memory.
Soon, they arrived at the entrance to the cafeteria.
The cafeteria's architectural style was identical to the Cultivation Hall's—another massive, unadorned alloy cube with no superfluous decorations, just cold metal and huge glass curtain walls.
"See? What did I tell you?"
Qian Duoduo laughed and spread his hands. "The architect for our school must have a thing for cubes. Let's go, time to eat."
The three of them entered the cafeteria. The interior space was enormous, large enough to accommodate tens of thousands of people eating at the same time.
Rows upon rows of long stainless steel tables and chairs were arranged neatly, filling the space with the solemn atmosphere of a military barracks.
Using their student cards, they each collected a standard D-level nutritional meal.
On their trays were high-protein synthetic meat, energy rice, and some vitamin-rich vegetables. The meal was well-balanced and the portions were generous.
The three of them found a spot by the window, sat down, and began to eat.
"By the way, about the merit points."
Qian Duoduo spoke indistinctly while stuffing his face. "I heard from my cousin that there are actually a ton of ways to get them."
He swallowed a mouthful of food, held up a finger, and began to list them off.
"The most common way is through exams; you get points based on your rank. Then there are the missions I just mentioned, which are the main source. Also, you can get points for winning internal school challenge matches."
"Besides those, there are other methods. For example, if you achieve a high rank in the Imperial Arena on the Subspace Network, the school will give you a reward. If you represent the school in something like the Interstellar League and place well, the points will come pouring in. You can even get a windfall if you accidentally unlock some hidden school achievement or break a long-standing school record."
"Basically,"
Qian Duoduo concluded, "as long as you want to earn merit points, starting tomorrow, for the next three years, you can be so busy you won't even have time to sleep."
Listening to his explanation, Qin Feng gained a clearer understanding of the high school life that awaited him.
Having a know-it-all roommate like Qian Duoduo would certainly save him a lot of time he would have otherwise spent figuring things out on his own.
After they finished eating, seeing that it was almost time, the three didn't linger any longer. They got up together and headed toward Classroom Building 7 in Sector C.