A battle suit was a must-have for espers in this era, a good set could not only ensure the safety of soldiers, but also increase their immunity to powers. To Han, protection against super powers wasn’t as important because he was already immune to all powers. Instead, Han plans to find himself a fairly priced suit with great protection against physical attacks.

  Soon, Han found a black leather battle suit, which looked like a big dark pile, carelessly tossed to the side by Pathless Origin. If it wasn’t because this so-called “Black Celestial Python” set had a 2.5 star ranking, probably no one would want to spend 3000GC for something like this that looked like a pile of junk.

  Pathless Origin was a very strange guy. Normal sellers would have divided all 2 star equipment into high, medium or low quality and priced them differently accordingly. For Pathless Origin, all 2 star equipment were priced at 3000 GC each, and all 3 star ones were 10,000 GC each. He didn’t include any labels, and the most he gave was the name of the equipment.

  Han liked the Black Celestial Python set for two reasons: among all the 2 star equipment, it was the only one labeled 2.5 stars. Why wouldn’t someone want to spend the same amount of money to buy something that was higher level? It was just that Han didn’t get the meaning behind that extra half star.

  After thinking for a while, Han used the dark net chat service and called the owner Pathless Origin. It took a long time for the chat to be answered, and just when Han was about to greet him, Pathless Origin already started yelling, “If you have something to say, say it fast. If you need to fart, hurry and fart, can’t you see I’m busy?!”

  Han was shocked for a bit, as the old saying goes, being nice when doing business can really help your business, but this Pathless Origin boss seems to have quite an attitude.

  Han wasn’t angry at all, he had only been on the dark net for a short time so he was still a complete novice. Besides, there isn’t any downsides for him to be humble. In addition, Pathless Origin was recommended by Night Walker, and Han believes that Night Walker wouldn’t lie to him.

  “Teacher, I have a question to ask, why is this set of Black Celestial Python marked as 2.5 stars? Why is there still half a level?”

  Teacher was a common title in Asia, it didn’t have any special meaning other than to show respect to someone. Han saw that Pathless Origin had a bad temper, so he quickly lowered his head.

  \r \r \r

  “Stupid, you don’t even know this? This suit is made from the skin of the black celestial python, and it has a huge weakness. Although its physical defense is ranked to be 3 stars, its defense against super power is complete garbage. Other people sell it as 3 star, I don’t think it deserves such ranking so I lowered it to 2.5 stars.” Pathless Origin answered.

  Han was surprised, ranked 3 stars for physical damage and can’t defend against super powers, wasn’t this designed for him?! He was immune to powers anyways.

  “Teacher, I have another question.” Han continued politely.

  “Why are you so annoying? If it wasn’t because Night Walker specifically told me to treat you well, I wouldn’t even be replying you. Hurry, hurry!” Pathless Origin’s attitude was still the worst it can be.

  Han asked, “Aside from the Black Celestial Python set, I also would like buy the heavy dagger named Tremor. I want to ask about the actual weight of Tremor.”

  “How would I know if I never weighted it before? Tremor is just used for close range combat. For close range combat, if the weapon is too light it has no power. The pros all use weapons that are slightly heavier, if you can’t use it then you are too weak, it has nothing to do with the weapon.” Pathless Origin explained.

  Han noticed, although Pathless Origin had a bad attitude, all his explanations were all on point. He explained complex problems using just a few sentences. Han was yelling out of excitement on the inside, this guy’s actually a pro!

  He already got scolded for a while, might as well ask one more question, “Teacher, your review on power immunity was right on point. I was wondering, are there any other secrets to mastering martial arts?”

  “Hey are you going to be done anytime soon? To practice martial arts, of course you have to train in the extreme cold and train to your death! Only the iciness can trigger a human’s strongest power, the natural survival instinct. In this world, tropical temperatures represent life while cold represents death. The strongest moment in someone’s life is the moment he about to die. That’s when it’s most possible to conjure surprising amounts of energy. That’s the power of will to living. To practice martial arts, you have to go practice in an extremely cold environment and look for that near-death feeling.”

  Han realized that Pathless Origin was only cruel on the outside, but as long as he asks in a humble voice, Pathless Origin will still explain to you. Although the explanation isn’t very detailed, it was very memorable.

  Han still wanted to ask some question about training, but he feared that if he pissed off the oddly tempered Pathless Origin, then it won’t be worth it in the long run. So, he politely said bye to Pathless Origin and checked out the items he bought.

  Pathless Origin’s items were all cheaper than others, but the shipping was expensive: shipping to Earth costs 500 GC. After checking out, Han checked his wallet, he only had 11 GC left.

  That’s alright, the drug index can generate for him a steady income of 400-500 GC every day, and he just had to make more money. ……

  Soon, it was 5 days after.

  In the 5 days, Han took out at least 8 hours every day doing physical exercises and some basic training. Now he lowered the time needed to write the index report to 1.5 hour, plus another 1.5 hour to polish up the data and the report. In total, he spends 3 hours every day, and he actually accomplishes more within these 3 hours than when he used to work 20 hours every day.

  Han couldn’t thank his super power enough. After he had Void End, it’s like he changed into a new person, even his brain worked better than before now.

  Aside from training and writing drug index reports, Han also checked out Pathless Origin’s website on a daily basis and asked that oddly tempered old man whenever he was stuck on a difficult concept.

  Of course Pathless Origin didn’t want Han to bother him, but there was a good old saying: no one hits a smiling face. Han’s attitude was way too nice, calling him teacher every sentence. Also, Han would never annoy him, he only asked at most 3 questions every day and it never took longer than 5 minutes.

  Although Pathless Origin was still as bad tempered as before, he never refused to answer Han’s questions. There was even one day when Han didn’t even open his mouth before Pathless Origin started the conversation with, “What do you want to ask again today?”

  This was a good start, along with Han’s improving ability to study and Pathless Origin’s mentorship on the side, his knowledge on power, martial arts, strategy, training, started growing at an incredible speed.

  Han did start very late, but his speed of improvement was unmatched.

  At dawn, Han came back home from a morning run. He took a shower, got changed and left the house. The night before, Night Walker’s package finally arrived. Han delivered the package to 4th Grandpa right away at night, and he was told that the effect was promising. Li Qi had told Han to meet with him at the hospital in the afternoon. Now, Han’s going to go to the Esper Administration to continue the pressure exam.

  Chapter 20: Potential that’s Against the Rules of Heaven!

  Han took the subway and arrived at the 18th floor of the Esper Administration center again and saw Li Muyun. The Monk was there too, but Cheng Zhong wasn’t.

  Han and the Monk casually chatted for a bit and then went into the assessment pod.

  Shua~

  Light flashed past and Han was teleported to the second round of the Galactic Pressure Exam. According to his knowledge, there were 3 rounds for this pressure exam, the first one was advancing under the deep sea again, the second one was escaping the desert, and the third one was climbing a snow mountain. These three were ranked by difficulty from easiest to hardest. The first one was naturally the easiest, with a max score of 100. The second one was harder, with a max score of 300. The third one was the hardest, max score was 500. Plus another 100 points for bonus, the max score in total was 1000. After the three pressure exams was a battle test, the max score was 3000.

  After these two sets of exams were done, the top 10,000 contestants would be chosen to join the Galactic Meet’s main contest.

  The oldest allowed signup age was 27 years old, since the Galactic Meet was a competition between the younger generations. With a countless number of planets in the Galaxy, the total population was at least on the scale of millions of trillions, so the top 10,000 contestants were for sure the elites among the young ones in the galaxy.

  Han saw the Monk in the public square. They were both doing the second test so they took the adjacent teleporters but got teleported to different arenas again.

  Han shrugged his shoulders, he had power immunity so if he could be in the same arena as Monk for this exam then he can at least somewhat help Monk. Looks like the system automatically separates contestants of the same country or planet to avoid cheating.

  Han took a look around himself, only to see that he was standing in the middle of a desert tornado. The tornado had blown the sand into a swirling pattern so no matter which direction he took he would have to cross the tornado.

  The wind had an extremely powerful destructive force. Even before entering the storm, some soldiers that were a little weaker were already struggling to stay standing. Han saw many people reluctantly walk into the storm, only to be torn into pieces by the sharp wind. Of course, the difficulty of this round was a lot higher than the first one.

  According to the rules, the further you walk in the storm, the more points you will get. And if you successful walk out from the tornado then you receive the maximum score of 300. In addition, there’s also 50 bonus marks for this round. Apparently there’s a sacred temple inside the storm, and if one can retrieve the stone of light from the temple then he/she will receive the bonus points.

  Of course, most people wouldn’t bother with some temple because they would already consider themselves incredibly lucky if they can even make it out. Ain’t nobody got time for that shit.

  Han scouted around, and picked the path with the least amount of people and started advancing. The majority of the contestants were gathered on the right hand side of Han, it was like the sheep crowd effect where basically everyone would follow the crowd. Doing so allows the people that are scared of challenges and adventure to feel safer while walking behind others.

  But Han didn’t worry since he could nullify any power and this sand storm was simulated with the attacks of a sand descent esper and a wind descent esper, which has no effect on Han. He just had to make sure he doesn’t get lost.

  \r \r \r

  Before walking into the storm, Han could already feel grains of sand hitting his face which was actually quite painful. Power immunity didn’t mean it was also immune from pain, so Han could still feel the sand hitting his face.

  But that didn’t slow down Han’s steps at all. After experiencing the battle 7 days ago, Han started to realize the responsibility on his shoulders. Regardless of how weak Earth was, it was still his home and the place he grew up in. Who would want to see their home ending up in the hands of others and see his fellow citizens whipped out of their existence.

  Reminiscing the scene where the espers from Earth were putting their lives on the line to protect the powerless people, Han could never stay calm. Although he couldn’t name any one of them, he felt that they were all heroes and a bunch of fellows that deserved respect.

  In comparison to the past, Han had one more belief, he’s still not strong enough right now and he needs to work to become stronger non-stop! He had to give it his all to protect those existences that were worth protecting.

  Han squinted his eyes and started walking faster and faster in the mad sand. Regardless of how hard the sharp sand grains hit his face and how many more bloody cuts appeared, his footsteps did not slow down at all. To others it may seem like a disaster, but to Han it was training that he must endure.

  The further he walked, the harder the sand storm hit. The furious wind could easily blow people off their feet.

  Suddenly, a black shadow loomed on the horizon, and when Han got closer he saw a sacred temple built with giant white stones.

  How lucky! If it wasn’t because he chose the path that the majority didn’t, he could’ve never have come across this lonely temple.

  “A bonus 50 points is pretty good.” Han smiled and said to himself. ……

  Esper Administration 18th floor.

  After what happened last time, Li Muyun started paying extra attention to Han. The moment he entered the exam Li Muyun started playing Han’s exam broadcast on the large screen.

  Void end was still as powerful as before. When everyone else were getting blown to the point of losing their sense of direction, Han’s footsteps were still firm and determined. As Han walked further and further in distance, his points became higher as well. According to the system, Han’s score had past 200 already, surpassing the majority of people.

  Monk, who took the exam at around the same time as Han, had already been eliminated from the test.

  “Void End is really a power against all heaven’s rules.” Li Muyun exclaimed.

  The Monk shook his bald head, “I don’t think it’s all because of his power. You see, his steps are very determined, on the unstable sand against that raging wind, yet his legs aren’t shaking at all. It seems like his power source index has improved from the first time I’ve seen it seven days ago.”

  “That can’t be right……” Li Muyun hesitated and said, “Han used 16 years to accumulate 26 power source index, which means that it grows on average 1.68 every year, his potential is probably the worst I’ve seen. According to my past experience, this speed of growth can’t be improved no matter how hard he trains. Now it has only been a few days and his index increased?”

  The Monk shrugged his shoulder, “I’m not too sure, I just feel that Han’s steps are a lot stable than a week ago.”

  Li Muyun thought for a second, opened Han’s assessment statistics out of curiosity, and he almost jumped up when he saw Han’s updated index.

  The assessment chat showed no changes for other data, but Han’s power source index actually increased by 15, so now Han’s at 42!

  Li Muyun was completely astonished by what he saw, and he began to realize that he and Chu Li might’ve completely misjudged Han’s potential.

  Normally, power source index has a natural growth rate, and that means even if an esper doesn’t do any training at all, their index will still naturally increase by a certain amount.

  Natural growth rate of power source index is like someone’s foundation, and combined with intense training, it can be amplified by as much as 4 and 5 times more. That means, an esper with a natural growth rate of 10 every year, if trained properly, can increase his/her power source index by 50, more or less.

  And back to Han’s case, natural growth rate of 1.68 was not just bad, it was the worst of the worst. That was why even though Li Muyun and Chu Li knew how powerful Han’s power was, they didn’t make any arrangement for him.

  But now, Han’s natural growth rate had reached 15 points every week, which meant that it could’ve been a 60 point increase if he had the proper training! Every year had 52 weeks, that’s a growth rate of around 3120 points in one year!

  According to this calculation, Han would be an average division three star esper in one year, capable of creating a void domain of 10 meters in radius! And in that domain, he would be a godly existence! Everyone else’s power would all be forcefully taken away! It would be complete darkness and the ultimate end for the enemies!

  And what about two years after?

  Five years?

  Ten years?

  Li Muyun blew out a heavy ring of smoke, he finally realized that Han’s not some ordinary guy with the right power but no potential. Instead, he was a monster with the power and the potential that went against all heavenly principles!

  Thanks guys for all your support, the bonus queue is at 17 now. Although it will take some time for us to clear the queue since it’s exam season, but don’t worry homies! We will clear them right up after we r done exam!

  Again, thank you guys all for the support and donations!