Ding!
The virtual classroom bell rang right on time.
The clamor of senior Class Two vanished in a single second.
Space twisted above the lectern.
A middle-aged man in a black military uniform appeared from thin air, his left sleeve hanging empty.
He wore a buzz cut. A vicious scar ran from the corner of his eye to his chin.
Their homeroom teacher, Lei Yan. A rank 5 Demigod.
Under this world's divine hierarchy, an eighteen-year-old who awakened a Divine Domain was merely a Divine Being in the Awakening Stage.
Above that came Demigods, whose Divine Domains had expanded and whose kin had advanced.
There were nine ranks of Demigod. Each rank transformed the laws within the Divine Domain.
Lei Yan braced his remaining arm against the lectern and swept his gaze across the neatly arranged virtual seats.
He wasn't deliberately releasing his Demigod presence. Even so, several students in the front row unconsciously held their breath.
"Yesterday's awakening ceremony is over. A few of you posted some impressive numbers." His voice was low and rough.
"Your families poured in tens of millions of faith points, pushed your starting kin up to Bronze grade, and gave you near-perfect domain environments. You started ten years ahead of everyone else."
Several top students straightened.
They tried to suppress their smiles, but the superiority in their eyes was impossible to hide.
In a world of gods, the power of money was a talent in its own right.
Lei Yan noticed every tiny expression.
He suddenly gave a cold laugh.
"Feeling proud? Think that because you have a Divine Domain and can feed a few thousand followers, you can sit back and live as the upper class?"
He straightened, tapping the desktop. "Do you think being a god is a farming simulator? Harvest some crops, listen to a few prayers, then lie around a mansion counting faith points?"
The temperature in the classroom seemed to plunge.
Without another wasted word, Lei Yan swept his hand outward.
A holographic screen unfolded in place of the blackboard.
Unedited footage began to play.
The background was the boundless sea of stars.
At its center floated an enormous planet.
A True God's [Divine Kingdom].
It was common knowledge that only a True God who had grasped a trace of cosmic law and condensed a [Divine Spark] deep within their soul could fully materialize an illusory Divine Domain and elevate it into a Divine Kingdom.
Within the kingdom lay magnificent mountains and rivers. Countless white-winged angels patrolled its skies.
Then, in the next instant, the crystal-wall system at the edge of that starry expanse shattered.
Gray-black mist surged through like a tsunami.
Hundreds of millions of mountain-sized Abyssal insects crawled out of the rift.
A towering projection of a True God, thirty kilometers tall, rose from the kingdom's center.
He wielded a spear of lightning, destroying hundreds of thousands of insects with every sweep.
But behind the swarm, a gigantic black claw covered in compound eyes reached out of the void.
Ignoring the lightning, it closed around the projection's head.
And squeezed.
The True God's projection shattered. Golden divine blood drenched the stars.
Within little more than ten seconds, the swarm engulfed the kingdom and devoured it completely.
The projection split. Surveillance footage appeared on the right.
Inside a frontline fortress of the Human Starsea Alliance, a middle-aged man in a senior officer's uniform sat at a command console.
At the exact moment the True God's projection was crushed in the recording, the officer's body began to convulse violently.
Bang!
His body exploded. Flesh and blood sprayed in every direction, covering the command room walls.
The recording ended. The projection vanished.
Deathly silence filled the virtual classroom.
Several girls covered their mouths, their faces bloodless as they suppressed dry heaves.
The top students who had been so pleased with themselves moments before slumped in their chairs, their legs weak.
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The world's brutal foundation had been laid bare before these eighteen-year-olds.
"Did you see that?"
Lei Yan leaned against the lectern, his gaze sharp as a blade.
"That was the fate of a Lesser True God. You're not even Demigods. In the eyes of an Abyssal monster, you don't qualify as a snack."
"Nothing has changed. This place has always been a meat grinder."
His voice echoed through the room.
"Stop treating your Divine Domains like sheep pens! The Abyssal rifts grow wider every day. People die at the front every day! Remember this: we're gods, but we're soldiers first!"
He turned and used his remaining arm to write two words on the holographic blackboard: War Faith.
"Why do federal universities only value combat-oriented divine roles when recruiting? Why are gods focused on daily living and logistics never allowed into the core?"
"Because when Abyssal monsters break through the defenses and enter reality, those gods' fragile bodies can't withstand a single swipe of a claw!"
"The ordinary faith points your followers produce through daily prayers are useful only for trading and keeping your Divine Domains running."
"Only when your kin continually fight, bleed, and face life and death within your Divine Domains will their frenzied emotions produce [War Faith]."
"And that faith is what feeds back into your real-world bodies most powerfully, giving you the strength to move mountains and fill seas!"
In a back corner, Lin Yuan's eyelids twitched. New chapters come out on g.com first.
No wonder he had been able to lift that twenty-five-kilogram solid wood desk one-handed this morning.
His hundred Petrified Goblins had been beating one another half to death on the wasteland to digest the poisonous mushrooms' effects.
They had accidentally triggered the production of War Faith.
"Mr. Lei."
A voice on the verge of tears broke the silence.
A commoner student with the F-rank talent [Plant Growth] stood, trembling slightly.
"What about people like us, who awakened useless talents, or who are destined to handle logistics? Do we just... wait to die?"
The atmosphere became unbearably heavy.
More than half the class lowered their heads.
Resources. Talent. Background. The moment they awakened, those things were already set.
Looking at the student, Lei Yan's cold gaze softened a little.
He was silent for several seconds.
"The nation needs logistics."
His tone remained stiff.
"Fighting at the front requires tremendous quantities of food cards, ore cards, and basic materials."
"Work hard to produce resources and supply the front. The soldiers there will protect you."
"But."
He stressed the word.
"You need to understand something. Entrust your safety to someone else, and your fate will always be in their hands."
The words struck home for many of the commoner students.
A profound sense of helplessness spread through the virtual classroom.
Lin Yuan sat at his desk.
On the surface, he looked just like everyone else, head bowed as if crushed by the cruel reality.
But his eyes were unusually bright.
The image of Old Lin's rusted prosthesis flashed through his mind.
Then Old Lin late at night, drenched in cold sweat from the pain of his shattered Divine Spark, biting down on the corner of his blanket so he wouldn't make a sound.
Old Lin had once been a True God on the front as well. He, too, had entrusted his back to comrades.
Then the line collapsed. Monsters devoured half his Divine Kingdom and shattered his Divine Spark.
He became a cripple who had to count every coin before buying cheap liquor.
His fate, in someone else's hands?
Beneath the desk, Lin Yuan's fists tightened slightly.
Never.