The electronic synthesized voice sounded again: “Among the list of all those who have completed the assessment, your current ranking is 421st in the city, 14th in the school, and 2nd in your class.”

Linda Warren's pupils contracted slightly as she looked toward the exit in disbelief.

She was the second in the class to begin the assessment, which meant that Ryan Lincoln's mental power score had actually surpassed hers?

Impossible!

Although Ryan Lincoln's 'dantian' was of top quality, his 'meridians' were only of second grade.

How could Ryan Lincoln's usual training in mental power and true qi possibly compare to her, who had already implanted a top-grade wheel pulse, and whose dantian and meridians were both of top quality?

Ryan Lincoln had already arrived at Classroom 3321.

This classroom was a combat simulation room built at great expense by the school, with an especially spacious interior. Inside were rows of 'combat simulation terminals' each over two meters high and more than a meter wide and long.

Ryan Lincoln found his assigned simulation terminal according to his exam number and sat down in the massage chair-shaped seat.

Not long after, the classmates who had already completed their mental power assessments began to file in.

Linda Warren sat right next to him.

For some reason, as soon as this girl entered the classroom, she stared at him intently.

The chubby Sam Warren also found this odd and sent him a message.

Weirdo Youngster: So strange, why is Linda Warren staring at you? Could this tomboy actually have a crush on you?

Weirdo Youngster: No, judging by her eyes, it’s like you did something to wrong her. Come on, confess, what did you do?

Ryan Lincoln's lips twitched, and he replied with his mind.

Logan Knight: Scram!

‘Logan Knight’ was his current online name.

Ryan Lincoln felt it was pretty cringey, a bit embarrassing, and decided to change it after a while.

Sam Warren sent another message, but Ryan Lincoln couldn’t be bothered to respond.

He simply opened the video library on his smart terminal and browsed through ‘his’ past life experiences.

About thirty minutes later, all thirty-two students in the class had completed their assessments.

Once everyone was seated, three invigilators in military uniforms entered the room.

The chief examiner was a stern-faced middle-aged man wearing a Federal Major’s uniform.

He swept his cold gaze across the classroom: “The alien body assessment will begin in three minutes. Please take your assigned seats and put on your consciousness deep-dive helmets.

Before the assessment, make sure to check that your virtual terminal and helmet are functioning properly. If the terminal is damaged or the system reports an error and cannot start, notify the invigilator immediately.”

Ryan Lincoln had already carefully checked the virtual terminal in front of him.

When he put on the deep-dive helmet, the backrest of his seat slowly reclined, putting Ryan Lincoln's body in a semi-reclined position.

As the virtual terminal started up, Ryan Lincoln's vision went black.

In the next instant, he found himself standing on an arena.

The arena was about fifty meters in diameter, built from massive stone beams each ten meters long, with black void surrounding it on all sides.

Ryan Lincoln knew this was a computer-simulated world, but the stone beams beneath his feet felt very real.

He looked down at his own body.

It was about 2.4 meters tall, nearly two heads taller than present-day Earth humans.

The physique and clothing of the body were similar to those of ancient Chinese people.

There were no mirrors here, so Ryan Lincoln couldn’t see his own facial features, but he assumed they were similar to those of East Asians in the Earth Federation.

—This was the appearance of a Celestial Star person.

The alien body that Ryan Lincoln would control in the future looked just like this.

So-called ‘alien bodies’ were hybrid Celestial Star people cultivated by bioscientists using a combination of human and Celestial Star DNA, and could be controlled by human consciousness.

Humans piloted alien bodies to descend upon Celestial Star, carrying out various exploration and research missions.

They called themselves ‘alien body walkers’, but the Celestial Star people referred to them as ‘demons from beyond the domain’.

The Earth Federation had built fourteen super-large base cities on the many satellites of Celestial Star. Only the most gifted group of armed colonists in these cities could obtain alien body licenses and become alien body walkers.

Alien body walkers enjoyed extremely high social status and were in the most lucrative profession of the era—a shortcut for ordinary people to elevate their social class.

At this moment, Ryan Lincoln's opponent also appeared on the arena.

But Ryan Lincoln first looked at the ‘Combat Assessment Instructions’ projected before his eyes.

Ryan Lincoln was already familiar with the assessment rules.

In summary, there were only three points.

1: The combat assessment is a ranking battle. Opponents are assigned randomly from adjacent rankings based on individual battle records.

2: Each battle lasts five minutes. If the fight is not concluded within five minutes, the outcome is determined by both sides’ battle scores.

3: The ranking battles end after four hours. The final result depends on the number of victories and accumulated battle scores.

After Ryan Lincoln agreed with his mind, he looked across the arena.

What a coincidence—it was actually his classmate.

Above the opponent’s head was a name—Anderson Wardell.