After Zhao Tianze left, the classroom's eyes remained on Lin Yuan.
Some looked sympathetic.
Some shook their heads.
Others thought he was out of his mind.
An F- wasteland start. A five-thousand-point loan limit. Gray Goblin kin.
With those three labels together, never mind competing for the academy's top ten. Surviving the first wave of monster projections was far from certain.
Lin Yuan offered no explanation.
Explaining was for the weak.
Once the rankings came out, plenty of people would shut their mouths on their own.
Fatty Wang leaned closer and lowered his voice. "Yuan, that was brutal. Felt great to hear, but that bastard Zhao Tianze is definitely going to hold a grudge."
"Let him."
Lin Yuan's tone was calm.
Fatty's mouth twitched. "You sound just like those hardcases on the forum who say, 'I'm already bankrupt. What am I supposed to be afraid of, debt collectors?'"
Lin Yuan glanced at him. "How much was your loan?"
"Eighty thousand."
Fatty sighed. Much of the excitement had faded from his plump face.
"Dad sent me another hundred and twenty thousand. Two hundred thousand total. Enough for a few Reproduction Cards and a fence around the pigs. Question is, will that keep out Abyssal monsters?"
After two seconds of silence, he added, "I'm starting to think I'm not raising kin. I'm raising a buffet."
Lin Yuan couldn't help laughing.
Just then, class monitor Li Xiuqi stood and approached the lectern.
Li Xiuqi possessed the B-rank Divine Domain [Bountiful Oasis]. Both his parents were high-ranking Demigods in Jiangcheng. He was a textbook member of the elite.
When he spoke, his voice was gentle and his smile warm.
"Don't lose heart, everyone. Federal assessments may be harsh, but there are always solutions." His gaze swept over several commoner students with E- and F-rank Divine Domains.
"My oasis domain has just finished forging a batch of basic refined iron armor. As you know, my Half-Elf Archers don't need heavy armor."
He paused, then extended an olive branch. "If anyone is willing to sign a Vassal Contract with me, I'll lend that armor to your kin free of charge for the assessment."
"We'll split our points seventy-thirty. Seventy for me, thirty for you."
Compared with Zhao Tianze's condescending charity, Li Xiuqi seemed positively kind and approachable.
Several miserable commoner students exchanged conflicted looks.
After a moment, one boy gritted his teeth and stood. "I'll sign, Monitor! My slimes can't withstand a single blow from an Abyssal monster. Armor might at least keep them alive a few seconds longer."
With someone taking the lead, two more commoner students rose and approached Li Xiuqi.
Lin Yuan watched coldly.
Boiling a frog slowly.
The essential principle of a Vassal Contract was binding the subordinate domain's law nodes to those of the master domain.
In a crisis, the master could forcibly conscript the vassal domain's kin and send them to their deaths.
It could even draw directly on the vassal domain's origin power to repair itself.
Seventy-thirty?
Once they put on that refined iron armor, these commoners' kin would become meat shields for Li Xiuqi's Half-Elf Archers.
The time monsters spent tearing those shields apart would let the half-elves safely rain attacks from the rear.
His classmates had signed themselves up as cannon fodder in advance.
But Lin Yuan didn't speak to stop them.
Against the laws of survival, dignity was worth nothing.
He stopped watching. With a thought, he left the virtual campus.
Back in his dim bedroom, he opened the [Starfire Defense Student Loan] interface.
The five-thousand-point limit sat on the screen.
Without hesitation, Lin Yuan signed the agreement.
Even a mosquito's leg was meat. Besides, this was an interest-free loan backed by the federal military.
Free money was free money.
The five thousand points arrived.
Added to his black-market earnings from the Wasteland Toxin Crystals, his balance now stood at 33,450 points.
For a commoner student, it was an unimaginable fortune.
Lin Yuan opened the Pantheon Trading Network and plunged into the black-market section.
The Divine Domain Defense Simulation was looming.
Conventional training no longer had time to improve his Petrified Goblins' combat strength substantially.
He needed an efficient building that could automate his followers' mutations without constant micromanagement.
He entered "building blueprint" in the search bar.
Opening advanced filters, he selected a series of tags: extremely dangerous, Abyssal contamination, extremely high fatality rate, unsold contraband.
He scanned the listings rapidly.
Finally, his gaze stopped on a damaged parchment scroll in a corner of the page, radiating a dim dark-red glow.
[Bronze-Grade Prohibited Building: Abyssal Blood Pool (Remains)].
[Description: An abandoned blood pool extracted from the territory of a lesser Abyssal demon general. Carries Abyssal demonic energy and continuously emits contamination when placed in a Divine Domain. Followers immersed in it undergo extremely violent physical enhancement.]
[Negative Effect: This pool lacks a purification core. Users have a 99% chance of irreversible Abyssal aberration, complete loss of sanity, and transformation into murderous beasts that attack every living thing in sight.]
[Price: 10,000 faith points.]
Beneath the listing, a review appeared in bold red letters. "Don't buy it! Anyone who does is a fucking idiot! My Orcs soaked in it for ten minutes and went completely insane. Tore half my Divine Domain apart! I'll call the ten thousand I wasted on this shit tuition for a life lesson!"
A faint smile touched Lin Yuan's lips.
Putting this thing in a normal domain really was inviting a wolf into one's home.
Abyssal demonic energy would contaminate the soil. Mutated kin would destroy the ecosystem.
But his domain was already a wasteland where not a blade of grass could grow!
The law of the wasteland embraced every extreme form of hostility.
As for that ninety-nine-percent chance of mutation and madness?
Before [Creation Extraction], every negative trait was raw material waiting to be stripped away.
Extract "aberration" and "madness," and all that remained was a pure physical-enhancement machine.
"Buy."
Ten thousand points left his account.
A card slipped through a spatial rift onto his desk.
He had the blood pool. Now he needed materials to start it.
Lin Yuan continued shopping on the black market.
He searched for "bottom-tier Abyssal materials."
For less than a thousand points, he bought a bundle containing two metric tons of "low-grade Abyssal monster bone fragments" and a large quantity of stinking "rotting flesh."
To Lin Yuan, they were perfect fuel for his blood pool.
With his main fighting force's training facility settled, the food chain needed upgrading too.
The existing Ash Spore Mushroom and mutant cockroach system could no longer satisfy the evolved goblins' appetites.
He spent two thousand points on thirty thousand [Mutant Blackrock Mushroom] spores.
These mushrooms were extremely hard and contained trace amounts of subterranean fire toxins. They tasted like chewing pig iron, but could greatly increase a follower's bone density.
Next, he spent five hundred points on a thousand [Ash Worms].
These were bottom-tier Abyssal creatures with no offensive abilities whatsoever.
Timid and light-averse, they reproduced ten times faster than cockroaches.
They fed on the scorched earth's fire toxins and assorted excrement. Their droppings greatly increased the cohesion of wasteland soil.
The ecological chain was richer now.
All that remained was time.
Earlier, accelerating his mushrooms' growth had required straining his mind and burning faith points to communicate with the Divine Domain core and distort time.
That crude method was both mentally exhausting and inefficient.
Now that he had money, there was no need to work himself to death through sleepless nights.
Lin Yuan switched back to the legitimate trading area and searched directly for support cards.
For five thousand points, he acquired a [Low-Tier Time Hourglass Card].
[Effect: Crush this card to forcibly accelerate time within your Divine Domain. Duration: five natural Divine Domain years.]
Five years would be enough for those Petrified Goblins to undergo a complete transformation under the blood pool and wasteland's brutal treatment.
After all that shopping, his account balance was 14,950 points.
He closed the card section and opened special potions.
In the search bar, he entered "stabilize Divine Spark" and "expel Abyssal presence."
The screen shifted, displaying several test tubes emitting a gentle white glow.
[Black Iron-Grade Holy Purification Potion].
[Effect: Temporarily purifies mild Abyssal corruption. Relieves nerve pain, soul burning, and low-grade curses.]
[Price: 14,500 faith points.]
For an ordinary god, it was of little use.
It couldn't purify severe contamination or heal cracks in a Divine Spark.
But it could ease pain.
Lin Yuan pictured Old Lin sitting in the living room at midnight, his mechanical leg set aside, pouring cheap liquor down his throat.
The stubborn old bastard.
Drenched in sweat from the pain, and still able to complain that someone had watered down the booze.
Without the slightest hesitation, Lin Yuan pressed Buy.
White light flashed, and a glass tube filled with milky liquid appeared in his hand.
He tucked the potion safely against his body.
His fortune of more than thirty thousand points was gone. Only a pitiful four hundred and fifty remained.
Yet as he looked at the emptied account, his eyes shone unusually bright.
Money became a resource only when spent.
Left in the account, it was just a string of numbers.