In a dark area, Lu Jun opened his eyes with confusion. The first thing he saw were the massive pillars and this jolted him awake.
Looking around, he could see that, other than him, most of the people were back. The last time he saw them, they were vanishing, and their presence in this place indicated they had also failed to pass the trial.
For Li Jun, the mission objectives he had been given seemed to have failed terribly. To his surprise, he could see some of the individuals who had chosen to take the path of immortality smiling. Things on his end did not seem to be as exciting, though, and he was sure he needed to come to this place again to be able to gain another chance, but this would cost him a lot.
The other option was to attain the internal Introspect realm, but that would not benefit him as much. He would also be sent to random virtual worlds, but that was not something to be concerned about.
He was not sure if he could even accomplish this, let alone be able to come again to the Universe Hall.
This situation made him less calm, than he had been. It had also taught him a lesson: that the intelligence index did not necessarily mean a good chance of survival. In the virtual world, he was able to die so fast that, in his cognition, he had not even been able to survive for a week.
Thinking about it now, his death was an embarrassment in the virtual world. His face had that look of frustration, just like the many others around him. The reasons for this were different from theirs. He was once a top immortal expert and, at the moment, possesses an intelligence level of 55, but that was nothing compared to those he deemed less intelligent.
"I can't operate with the same logic in the real world. My intelligence gives me an advantage, but that is it. It is only an advantage, and if not used properly, it even endangers my life." Li Jun had already thought this through.
He did not want to wallow in sorrow like everyone else, but it was at this moment that he realized he was holding onto something. He remembered having been forced to hold onto something before he died.
The development after that was not something he remembered, but he was sure that one of the people who came into the valley was probably responsible for his death.
He was supposed to stay for ten years and then he could gain something, but now he had lost. But he quickly calmed himself when he realized he was holding onto something and yet could not see it.
But from the feel, it was indeed the finger-sized cube from the virtual world. "Wait? Has the universe-hall mechanism noticed it? But that is not the case; perhaps it is just considered a worthless object. That being the case, I should be able to take it away." Li Jun did think to himself, as he had already decided to keep the cube.
Instead of scaring himself, he calmed down. How could the Universe Hall care about the gains of someone like him? But the thing that had him concerned was the fact that the mission objective was to break through to the body metamorphosis stage. That experience was needed, by whom?
The question did flash through his mind, but he had overlooked it, and now that he was out, he was still thinking about it.
But too many things were happening to him to care; as such, his first thought was to get out of this place. Before that, he had to look around first; it was not easy to enter this place again.
The most important thing was that he had lost the chance to enter the internal introspect stage, as the experience might have proved handy, but like most of the losers in the hall, he walked out of the virtual world prematurely.
Since he did not know what the others had gained, they also did not know about him. As he was still in his stupor, he looked to his right, only to realize that Emily Wu was back too.
Today, not a lot of people were smiling and Li Jun was able to see Emily was putting on the same look, unaware if it was a facade or something. He could not trust this woman to wear her feelings especially when it involves the important aspects of her life.
He was very suspicious even his eyes were looking at her differently, she could tell it.
But she did not care at all, it was as if they were competing for the more convincing one.
But this mini-drama did not last long, as the long-awaited voice came again.
"This marks the end, each of you will have to follow the instructions on the projection before you." the moment the voice disappeared, he focused on the glass projection again.
"Was this always here?" looking at the massive glass protection before him, Li Jun had an unnatural expression on his face.
The projection was too large, and it did not meet the standards of the space it was standing in, but even so, he was able to see rankings on the performance of everyone appear on the projection and before he could react, a small grey line appeared on his wrist.
It was the same with the others, they were looking at the line carefully.
The moment this line appeared, Li Jun was already aware of what it was.
"This is the indication that one has entered the Universal Hall and even in the last timeline I had it. This can be hidden, after all, I had once managed to do it, and the teachers were also doing it. It is not good to try it though, this can only be done later." as his thoughts reached this point, he held firmly onto the cube in his left hand.
In the virtual world, it was not easy to survive, the situation was not the same for those who chose the immortal path, as they received some kind of tests, before gaining foundational practice methods.
It was easy to start and this was what made the path far more acceptable than martial arts. One could say the immortal path had a lot of geniuses.
The faster a path was to practice, the better it was promoted as the need for experts was indeed present. Resources were also rare and it would not be a good deal to promote resource-consuming paths.
As some individuals such as Yu Tu were finding it hard to hide their excitement, Emily and Li Jun kept observing each other silently.
No one knew what they were thinking until they finally vanished from the Universe Hall and appeared at the train entrance.
Without much commotion, everyone started to get on, and this was not because they were all nice people but consequences of bringing chaos were unfavorable.
It was thus best to be low key as possible, perhaps when they started the martial path, their treatment would change, but at this stage, they had civilian treatment.
*********
The massive trains they got on started to move ahead and everyone was prepared for this.
On the top of the train, massive weapons could be seen hanging, the distance from the Universal Hall to the outside environment was about a few miles, and looking outside, through the glass windows, Lu Jin could vast plains in the distance.
Since it was almost certain they were spending the on the train, he was slightly panicked.
This had a lot to do with his choices, he had chosen the immortal path in another timeline, but things seemed to go differently.
The danger was not the thing that had him on edge, but rather the fact he had not obtained any real means of practicing.
For the remaining distance, he was not sure if any changes would also happen due to his actions of having chosen a different path.
The creatures existing in the world now were more ferocious and massive. The destruction level of some of them was even beyond the ability of 20th-century toys such as nuclear bombs.
It is not an understatement to call them toys, because some humans have already reached a point where they can't be threatened by the existing technology, they can withstand a bombardment with the latest star destroyer canons.
Immortal Path can attack from a distance and flatten such weapons, as long as they are strong enough, making it hard to even threaten them with technology. In that case, it is already easier to see that the world is dangerous.
What would be able to take his life was not just the scary eyes that killed him in the previous timeline, allowing his memories a chance to escape to the past, rather even normal mutated creatures could crush him.
His hand holding onto the invisible cube had some doubts about it, but could not just ask. He was smart enough to know this was a stupid love, as such he was going to have to always hold it in his hands.
When everything quieted down, he was able to regain some peace of mind just for a moment.
It was also at this moment that a change occurred as he felt the sound of a heartbeat.