Worldwide Class Change: Minimal Effort, Maximum Reward!-Chapter 82, Weeks Later, Level 79!
More than a month had passed since the bus carried them back through Jianghe’s east gate.
The city had received them the way it always received things that were bigger than expected, quietly at first, then loudly once the information spread. The examination results had been public knowledge within a day. The score board from Celestial City had been replicated on the academy’s main display, and for approximately a week afterward Lin Yi could not walk through the campus without someone stopping to say something about it.
The intake assessment for Heavenly Phoenix Academy had been administered three weeks after they returned. It was held in Celestial City again, this time in a formal examination hall rather than the Dragon God Tower, and it covered everything from strategic combat theory to monster ecology to dimensional rift classification systems and basic formation mechanics. A hunter who couldn’t think, Principal Zhou had said, was just an expensive weapon waiting to break. The exam had proven he meant it. Four hours, ninety questions, and a written scenario analysis that required candidates to walk through tactical decision-making across three different wilderness emergency situations.
Lin Yi had found it manageable. He did not find it easy, which was its own kind of interesting. The wilderness made him stronger in ways that were visible and measurable. The assessment measured something else, and it did it well.
The day the assessment was held, he had arrived at the examination center and found, among the gathered candidates from all eight cities, several familiar faces. Wang Hao, sitting near the entrance eating something and reviewing notes with the expression of someone who had studied reasonably hard and was making peace with the gap between what he knew and what the exam might ask. Su Qinghan, already seated inside, back straight, reviewing nothing because she had reviewed everything already. Chen Feng, standing off to one side with a stillness that communicated he had treated the written assessment with the same seriousness he brought to everything else.
And Tang Yue.
She had seen him immediately. He had not immediately seen her because he was not looking for her, but she was looking for him, and the moment their lines of sight crossed she moved toward him with the particular purpose of someone who had been waiting for this specific opportunity for some time.
"Lin Yi."
He looked at her. She was in full assessment attire, composed, her hair tied back with the precision of someone who did not do things carelessly. She held herself the way she always had, with the posture of someone who had grown up being told she was exceptional and had not yet encountered sufficient reason to revise that.
"I remember what happened in the tournament," she said. Her voice was controlled. Not shaking. She was too disciplined for that. "I haven’t forgotten it."
Lin Yi said nothing.
"I was humiliated," she continued. "In front of everyone. My arms were broken." A brief pause. "I want you to understand that I am aware of what happened and I do not intend to pretend otherwise."
Lin Yi looked at her for a moment. Then he looked back toward the examination hall entrance. "The assessment starts in ten minutes," he said. He walked past her.
Tang Yue stood there. She had prepared more to say. None of it had been used. Behind her, Wang Hao, who had witnessed the entire exchange from his seat near the entrance, lowered his notes and stared at the space Lin Yi had just vacated, then at Tang Yue’s back, then at the entrance Lin Yi had walked through.
"That," he said to no one in particular, "is what it looks like to be the number one candidate in the entire regional academy pool."
...
That had been three weeks ago.
Now Lin Yi sat in his dormitory room, system panel open in front of him, the early morning quiet around him.
He had spent the week following the assessment in the wilderness. Not because he needed the distraction. Not because he was nervous about the results. Because a week of uninterrupted grinding under his system’s amplification was worth more than many things. The wilderness outside Jianghe was familiar ground at this point. He knew which sectors had the highest monster density, which zones refreshed fastest, and which environmental conditions produced the best balance between threat level and volume.
The system panel in front of him reflected what that week had produced.
....
Host: Lin Yi
Class: Laborer
Rank: E
Level: 79
EXP: 950 / 360,000
[Attributes]
Strength: 448
Agility: 328
Constitution: 381
Spirit: 165
Free Attribute Points: 0
(All accumulated points fully allocated, heavily favoring Strength and Constitution for dominance and survivability, with balanced Agility scaling and moderate Spirit growth.)
[Class Skills]
Titan Grip – Enhances grip strength and weapon stability, allowing the user to control heavier weapons and amplify close combat force.
[Acquired Skills]
Phantom Void Step – A spatial movement technique that allows the user to momentarily distort space and perform instantaneous step transitions.
Eternal Spirit Core – A passive spiritual cultivation skill that continuously regenerates spiritual energy over time while stabilizing the user’s inner energy circulation.
Celestial Sword Qi – Releases compressed celestial energy in a ranged arc, capable of wide-area annihilation depending on output.
[Equipment]
Celestial Lord Blade
Quality: Mythical
Attack Power: 405
Grand Defense Ring
Quality: Legendary
Physical Defense: +311
Magical Defense: +302
[Inventory]
Celestial Emperor Note
High Energy Core ×12
Advanced Energy Potion ×15
Mid-Grade Recovery Potion ×10
Beast Core (Level 50+) ×6
Rare Material Bundle ×8
Wilderness Ration Pack ×5
Spatial Storage Token
Empty Slots: 27
...
Level 42 to Level 79 in one week. He looked at the number for a moment. Six weeks ago he had broken a six-year examination record on a torn arm. A week of focused grinding had pushed him nearly forty levels further. The mathematics of his system were not subtle. Minimum effort, maximum reward. Every monster that fell within range of Celestial Sword Qi contributed. Every material drop, amplified a thousand times, had been funneled into the Spatial Storage Token he had acquired on the fourth day, when his regular inventory filled completely for what must have been the twelfth time that week.
The Spatial Storage Token had been the most significant non-combat acquisition. An unlimited spatial dimension accessible through a single item, capable of storing anything regardless of size or quantity. With it, he no longer needed to leave materials behind. Everything the wilderness dropped, he kept. The copper coin equivalent of what sat in that spatial storage at current market rates was not a number he needed to calculate to know it was significant.
He closed the panel. Outside, Jianghe was a month from the end of its role in his story. The Regional Academy semester began soon. Application results were due on the student portal today.
His phone vibrated.
