Swallowing the Stars: Starting with the Battle of Geniuses.

Chapter 14 The Road Ahead

"Master, this is your consciousness-sensing helmet, and a virtual universe anonymous account has been registered for you. In addition, the company's spaceship has been sold, and with the supplies you asked me to purchase, there are 7.8 billion Morning Star Coins remaining in the bank account."

"Very good, Kihara."

Hunzhen accepted the storage ring handed over by the toad-faced man, nodded slightly, glanced at the toad-faced man's joyful expression, and said, "Go down. I'll call you again if I need anything."

"Yes, ma'am."

Half a month has passed since we left Fendi.

About a week ago, we arrived at this planet called Sky Blue Star.

Blue Sky Star is one of the central cities of the Morning Star Empire, a mid-level cosmic civilization, and its status is comparable to that of Dragon Star in the Black Dragon Mountain Empire in the original work.

Even a domain lord-level powerhouse wouldn't dare cause trouble here, let alone the strongest being, who is merely a universe-level Black Oak Company.

In addition, each of these central planets has a branch office of one of the five major human powers, making it very convenient to purchase and sell supplies and treasures or to investigate and collect intelligence. They are perfect as temporary bases.

After checking in, Hunzhen immediately opened an account and became a citizen of the Morning Star Empire, finally rising from a native and slave to a citizen of the universe.

When traveling, it's practically impossible to get by without money, so while instructing Kihara, also known as Toad Face, to handle their most valuable supply ship, he used his citizen ID to register as a free gladiator in the Giant Axe Arena.

This is completely different from the treatment of the simulated humans before. If you had to say, it's somewhat similar to the treatment of a boxer in my previous life.

Without the layers of exploitation by the company, and without having to work as a slave for the Giant Axe Arena to "pay off debts," every victory brings considerable rewards.

As gladiators, in addition to signing a waiver of life and death, if a gladiator does not participate in a competition for too long, their qualification will be automatically erased and they will have to start over.

A star-level gladiator is required to participate once every ten years, or they will be disqualified.

With Hunzhen's current level, accumulating hundreds of consecutive victories is a piece of cake. By then, his wealth will be comparable to that of a universe-level powerhouse without any problem.

Unfortunately, in reality, Hunzhen doesn't intend to follow the path of a life-or-death axe warrior; he's just here to earn some extra money and complete his initial capital accumulation.

If he could attract the attention of higher-ups in the martial arts competition, Hunzhen would naturally not mind enjoying the genius-level training in the martial arts arena.

In fact, in the dozen or so simulations over the past two weeks, the management of the Blue Star Giant Axe Arena invited the simulated humans almost every time, but unfortunately, they were rejected each time.

The reason is actually very simple: once he has broken free from the cage, how could he possibly throw himself back into it?

It's important to know that the Giant Axe Arena's method of cultivating geniuses is arguably the most brutal among the five major human factions, bar none. The first requirement for a simulated human is to achieve a thousand consecutive victories to become a Giant Axe Warrior.

Knowing that their real talents were not outstanding, the simulated human realized that fulfilling this requirement would be extremely risky, so they immediately refused.

Hunzhen also considered whether to replicate his previous actions. In reality, he agreed to the request of the Giant Axe Arena manager to let the simulator work for him in the simulation.

However, this idea was quickly rejected by Hunzhen himself.

Indeed, in the process of obtaining the title of Giant Axe Warrior, he will also encounter many experts at the second or third level of the domain, and even, with a very small probability, the fourth or fifth level. The collision with these genius-level figures can bring him sparks of inspiration and lead to a huge improvement.

But he has already experienced far too many gladiator battles.

Real-world combat isn't limited to gladiatorial combat, nor is it like playing a video game where you defeat the same boss through trial and error. Experience gained from the same objective largely becomes useless in the next game, requiring you to accumulate it all over again.

Perhaps if he continued to simulate like this, he could become the true King of Gladiators, but that's not what Hunzhen wanted.

The moment he touched the threshold of the Law of Wind, Hunzhen understood what he truly wanted—freedom.

The boundless universe is the sanctuary of freedom and romance. How can one confine their adventures to a small arena?

If he only seeks to reach the level of a Realm Lord, he only needs to follow the path of the Law of Wind step by step to cultivate and he will almost certainly reach it. Even after spending countless years, achieving immortality will most likely not be a problem.

Having tasted the sweetness of freedom, how could he be content with mediocrity?

To know the vastness of the world yet only pursue immortality is far too, far too... boring.

In Hunzhen's heart, something called ambition was growing and was already spreading like wildfire.

As a wanderer of the universe, how could I miss this grand cosmic event!?

Freedom is relative.

Absolute freedom can only be granted by absolute power.

So even now that he has broken free from his constraints, he is still pursuing power.

Even though he had broken free from the company's constraints, his determination to participate in the Genius Battle only grew stronger.

He knew better than anyone that the winner of the Genius Battle was on the right track to becoming a powerful figure.

In any case, he didn't want to miss out on those one thousand spots to enter the initial universe.

He is now fully confident that he can achieve the initial goal of reaching the ninth level of the domain before the Genius Battle.

Stepping from the realm of artistic conception into the realm of mastery, each subsequent advancement remains difficult, but it involves more accumulation of quantity. And as long as there is accumulation of quantity, Hunzhen has nothing to fear.

As for getting started with the fundamental laws? After touching the threshold of the laws of wind, it's only a matter of time before you fully grasp them.

The only problem is that this time will definitely be incredibly long. So long that even Hunzhen, who just claimed to be "not afraid of accumulating quantity," is not confident that he can achieve it in a short period of time.

In the original story, Luo Feng touched the threshold of the Space Law during the Genius Battle, but it took him more than ten years of secluded cultivation in Chaos City to truly master it. Keep in mind that this was after Luo Feng had already entered the core of the Virtual Universe Company and spent those ten years in Chaos City.

The latest novel is first published here!

Touching the threshold only allows one to truly sense the laws, but actually stepping inside is still a distance comparable to a long march.

While comprehending the Law of Wind is easier than comprehending the Law of Space, the difficulty level increases by the same amount from touching the threshold to truly mastering both.

Luo Feng's entry into the Law of Gold seems easy, but that's because he is essentially a Golden Horned Beast. As the darling of the Law of Gold, isn't entering the realm as simple as eating and drinking? He eats and sleeps, and as his life level is sublimated, he naturally breaks through.

Moreover, although mastering the basics of a single lower-level law can indeed lead to a qualitative change in one's overall strength.

But to reach the top 1,000 human stars in the entire universe? That's far from enough.

Which of those true geniuses didn't begin to comprehend higher-level laws at the celestial level?

If he chose to become an invincible gladiator, he was confident that he could achieve the status of a star-level giant axe warrior and a cosmic-level giant axe warrior within ten or twenty years... But even so, after two years, could he reach the top one thousand star-level humans in the entire universe?

This is a very big question mark.

"Hardship in the Giant Axe Arena cultivates a gladiator's combat experience and intuition. But for me now, while my combat experience is already among the best of my rank, comprehending the laws is even more important."

If they join the Giant Axe Arena, the Sims may not be able to truly unleash their potential until the Genius Battle ends.

Major powers emphasize rules and procedures in cultivating geniuses. For basic-level geniuses like simulated humans, they won't let you achieve success overnight and will simply feed you resources directly.

Although the Genius Battle exists as a shortcut to leapfrog the ranks, Hun is truly so conflicted because he wants to stand out and make a name for himself in the Genius Battle...

In the Giant Axe Arena, this process involves becoming a Star-level Giant Axe Warrior, passing through layers of secret realm trials that serve as both assessments and rewards, and only after passing these trials can one become an outer member, and so on.

As the assessment is conducted step by step and the rewards are distributed step by step, your sense of belonging is established.

Just like the old people in the various secret realms in the original work who did not enter the core of the Virtual Universe Company through the Genius Battle.

However, such a process is too long and tedious for the simulated human.

Even if we don't say that the simulated humans won't survive that long, after hundreds or thousands of years, their true abilities will be exposed, and the resource allocation will no longer exist.

"I need to meet at least one of the two major criteria for advancement to have a solid grasp of the top 1,000. That's my next goal. And before that..."

Hunzhen put on the mind helmet and entered the virtual universe.

After successfully connecting to the Cosmic Bank account, Hunzhen purchased a virtual item without hesitation.

The Hunjing Stone is a common civilian tool used to test the innate talent of the human race in accordance with the laws of nature.

(End of this chapter)