Both the military and the Academy asked for a copy of the code that Roux took. From the looks of it, it seemed that Linus's deciphered message was correct — so why did Roux insist on taking the original code?
The gears in their heads turned incessantly as they tried to decipher what the infamous pirate was planning.
He was too mysterious. His mother planet had long been destroyed, so there was no information about his background available in the Empire's archives. His power, coupled with the lack of information about him, made him a dangerous opponent to the Empire.
But all of this had little to do with the new students.
Five days passed in the blink of an eye. The other batches of new recruits from all the other planets finally finished their entrance tests and arrived at Topia, tired and haggard.
But to their surprise, they didn't even get a chance to appreciate the Academy's scenery before they were called to the auditorium to attend the entrance ceremony.
They were shocked speechless. Had Solaris always been this cold and heartless?
Many of them were so hungry that their stomachs were growling in protest. The Academy only gave them two days' worth of nutrition packs. Now that they had finally finished the brutal entrance tests, they weren't even allowed to take a break and eat?
The Academy was merciless!
Even though the announcement was met with groans of protest, the students still complied. On the way to the auditorium, the new recruits were struck dumb when they overheard their seniors gossiping about them.
"Even though I know that all new recruits look like refugees when they first get here, after seeing the other new recruits that arrived several days earlier, why do I think that these guys look especially bad?"
"To be honest, they do look a bit dirty and worn out. But they're still young — a bit of fatigue is nothing that a shower can't fix."
"Did any one of them catch your eye?"
"All of my attention's been taken up by those new recruits from Sirius, there's no room for anyone else. It's so unfortunate that none of the guys in our year are as charming as the new arrivals."
The people of the Empire held great respect for heroes. This was especially true among the Solaris students. Team Reverie's bravery on Planet Vagor had been spread far and wide by the students that the team had saved. Before they had officially entered the school, this team of new recruits had already caught an intergalactic pirate. What's more, they managed to come out of the ordeal completely unscathed while the pirate had to be carried off on a stretcher. Just the sound of it was exciting and admirable.
Maybe to the Combat Department students, this wasn't that impressive, but for the rest of the seniors, Astra and his team were definitely more than impressive.
They had no training, no experience, and on top of that they had encountered a pirate leader. Any normal person would've been scared shitless by the situation.
More importantly, all five members of Reverie were really hot, and they were all single.
Meanwhile, the topic of the students' heated discussion wasn't actually having such a great time.
Only a few people knew of Roux's appearance on school grounds last night. Both the school and the military put a tight damper on the information, for the sake of avoiding mass panic.
But still, no one knew what Roux was up to, so to prevent him from harming the students, Astra and the rest of the team were placed under heavy supervision, to the point that they were fully protected 24 hours a day.
They all felt quite helpless to the situation. They were a group of adventurous teenagers that dreamed of taking down bad guys and becoming famous. How could the school just treat them like a bunch of newborn babies?
The five of them came to a silent agreement. Before they went to the auditorium, all of them went to find their now-familiar supervisor from Sirius, Marten.
They didn't waste any time. "Professor Marten, after the ceremony, can we start taking on missions?"
The supervisor was very shocked. " You want to sign up for missions now? But your classes haven't even started."
They had all gathered some information about the type of courses they'd be taking at Solaris. All of it was just going to be theory, the combat practice came afterwards. As for the spiritual energy courses, all the teacher could do was give them advice and suggestions. The professors' teachings on the use and development of spiritual energy would only be helpful after the students figured out how to materialize their spiritual energy.
In all honesty, none of it could match up the effect of practical experience.
Although to be fair, theory also had its own uses, especially the leadership and psychology courses they were going to take later on.
"We've already discussed it," Linus argued. "We'll come back before the required courses start."
The other courses — such as etiquette, the origin of spiritual power, and the different races of sentient beings — were all not as important. It didn't matter if the team skipped out on these electives.
The supervisor knew this as well. It was best for the students to go out on missions earlier on. "I'll submit your request to the school. But even if you guys were allowed to go on missions, you'd better not let me see you take on anything above level C."
The missions at Solaris were ranked from D to S.
"That's fine." Astra grinned. "Look at us, we're not used to being protected so completely. Plus, it's a good idea to go to another planet at this time. That way, the next time Roux comes to find us, he won't be able to know where we are."
The supervisor laughed. "You guys always have an explanation for everything. Fine, I can help you guys convince the school, but you have to agree to let me be the one to choose a mission for you."
Jiyu, who had been silent up until now, immediately began to shower the supervisor with praises, "Professor Marten, the mission that you select will definitely be a safe and excellent mission."
The supervisor grinned. "That's enough, cadet. Go and prepare for the ceremony — after all, you guys are the most prominent team among the first years, take care to not embarrass yourselves out there today."
"We will."
Since the supervisor brought it up, they should really take the advice and try to look good. The team members put on their uniforms, smoothed out the wrinkles from their clothes, and styled their hair neatly before marching energetically into the auditorium in their newly issued military boots.
When the hungry and dirty new recruits finally jostled their way into their seats, they looked up and saw the five members of Reverie walk on to the center of the stage. Every one of them were tall, in great shape, and handsome to the extreme.
The seated students whispered among themselves, "Who are they? Which department are these seniors from?"
"The past five days in hell made me forget how awesome our school uniforms looked. The Academy is really heartless — did they make them go up on stage just to make us feel bad?"
There was no shortage of envy and jealousy among the guys. "Give me a few days to rest, and I'll look like that as well."
Many pairs of curious eyes stared at the stage. The professor on the side thought that the members of Reverie would be nervous, but who would've thought that they would look so natural standing there, at the center of everyone's attention, smiling brightly as if they were completely at ease being scrutinized by a roomful of people.
The professor nodded to herself. As expected of the team that led an entire group of first years to safety.
After that, it was the professor's turn to catch everyone's attention. She praised and bragged about Reverie, all for the sake of inciting the first years' competitive spirit. When the instructors had praised them openly right after their adventures on Vagor, the five of them had felt a little embarrassed by being at the center of everyone's attention. But now, standing on the stage in front of all the first years, the team felt calm. Their minds were occupied by the sense of anticipation they felt for their next mission. Simon didn't even blush when the applause started.
They were all the same age, so of course there would be some that were jealous of all the attention Reverie was getting. Someone in the crowd muttered, "I heard that the highest spiritual energy score from the three planets that finished early was 1890. Someone from our planet had a spiritual energy of 1930, there's an impressive 40 points of difference between them!"
"Well, it's true. That guy up there isn't number one if you're speaking strictly about spiritual energy." The student beside him looked at him sympathetically. "But you probably didn't know, the number one from Sirius can already manifest his spiritual energy. The supervisor from our planet has already sent us the video of him using spiritual energy to defeat a Fanged Beast."
"What?!" The first student lost his composure completely. "He used his spiritual energy to do what?!"
The second student nodded solemnly and patted the first student on the shoulder. "Can the number one from your planet use their spiritual energy to hunt?"
So awkward. How could he say that the student with a score of 1930 not only didn't know how to hunt with spiritual energy, he also didn't even know how to circulate his spiritual energy. In fact, the number one student spent the last five days just like everybody else, rolling in the dirt and dealing with hunger.
The professor up on the stage told the members of Reverie to go up to the podium and speak. Wen was the first to be called up. He wanted to show off a little bit before a mission was assigned to the team. Wen's voice, bolstered by a small amount of spiritual energy, spread to every corner of the auditorium. To the students sitting below, it was as if Wen was standing right next to them and speaking in their ear. "Hello everyone, our professor over here is exaggerating. I see a lot of talented individuals out here who will stand shoulder to shoulder with our team in the coming years."
! ! !
Spiritual energy!
The auditorium was the size of three entire warships. Recruits from a total of 23 planets were gathered in the auditorium, which meant that there were currently over five thousand people in the audience!
The first student, who had just questioned Reverie's ability, nodded as if in understanding. "So this person is Astra Li?"
The second student was no less shocked than the others around them. "No, this person has the second highest spiritual energy score from Sirius. His name is Gu Wen Cheng."
What kind of planet was Sirius? Not only did they have Astra, there was also another one? Even among the second years, the ability to manifest spiritual energy was enough to put someone at the top of the year. But class hadn't even started yet and these two could already do it!
As the pair conversed, the students from Sirius sitting in the crowd cheered for their fellow citizens. Someone shouted, "Way to go, Gu Wen Cheng!"
"You make Sirius proud! Astra, it's your turn!"
The professors around them looked on, smiling and shaking their heads.
What's not to like about such energetic students?
Comparing oneself with others was really an infuriating task. All the other first years had already given up on trying to surpass Reverie, but they weren't the only ones with complicated feelings.
In the century's worth of history since Solaris Academy was founded, the highest spiritual energy score of any student had been 2300. But even with such an excellent score, this student was only able to manage manifesting her spiritual energy half a month after entering the Academy.
But now… the top ranked students from each planet looked towards the stage, their gazes slowly gathering on Astra.
There were many people with spiritual energy scores higher than Astra, but none of them could achieve what the other had accomplished.
All the contempt and scorn from before faded away reluctantly during this shining moment.
After Wen finished his short speech, Astra was naturally next. Of course, he did exactly as Wen had done, and used his spiritual energy to carry the sound of his voice, easily covering the whole auditorium.
Astra found that the more he released his spiritual energy, the easier it became to use and control it.
After his speech, the audience was absolutely silent. Hundreds of pairs of eyes looked up at the stage, some sparkling with admiration, while others' were clouded over with the sense of inferiority. A teenager's mood was simple yet extreme, there were countless members of the audience who swore then and there that they would catch up to the five standing up there on the stage.
When it was time for Jiyu, Simon, and Linus to speak, Astra and Wen used their spiritual energy at the same time and helped their teammates, which made the audience roar with approval. Not a single teammate was treated differently than the rest. Astra and Wen's gazes met, mutually shocked by each other's actions.
The two of them grinned at each other.
After the entrance ceremony, supervisor Marten brought them the news from the school. They were allowed to go out on missions. "I've also finished picking out the mission."
He sent the information to their computer devices. Written on the first page of the document in big letters were the words 'Level D'.
It was actually a level D mission. The team members sighed in disappointment.
The mission took place on Planet Ganymede. Reverie had to bring back twenty pieces of the special water source-stones from Ganymede. The mission was easier than lying around and taking a nap.
"The mission requires water source-stones from the planet's wilderness." The supervisor could tell that they were disappointed. "If you guys complete it well, I will consider giving your team a level C mission next time."
The boys nodded resignedly and brought over their pre-packed luggage before they entered the small aircraft provided by the school.
Linus and Jiyu both knew how to pilot an aircraft. They powered up the engines and engaged the thrusters. The aircraft gathered momentum as it travelled through the tunnel, and shot straight up into the sky.
"It's just a level D mission. Of course it'll be easy," Jiyu tried to comfort his teammates when he saw them slouching around lifelessly in boredom and disappointment. "We'll be back in like two days."