Take Patrick Star as an example: this planet’s gravity is 1.5 times that of Earth, the oxygen content in the air is only ten percent, and it is covered in frost and snow all year round. Calculated by Earth years, more than eleven months of the year are plagued by blizzards and violent winds. Almost all life has vanished from the planet; although there are many green plants, due to the nature of Patrick Star’s soil, ninety-nine percent of them are highly poisonous.

In a sense, Patrick Star is simply a planet unfit for human survival, let alone a place to abandon a group of young children to fend for themselves.

But these are also among the reasons why the Order chose this place as the training base for replenishing new blood for the papacy. Only in extremely harsh environments can humans be forced to tap into their potential. “Survival of the fittest” has always been a phrase the instructors of the Order keep on their lips.

Brian Carter has been sent to Patrick Star by the Order for two years and three months now. He was nine years old when he arrived, just a naive child who loved to snuggle in his mother’s arms. But ever since his mother died of illness, and he suddenly learned that he was actually the illegitimate son of Grand Federation Senator Kevin Carter, his fate underwent unimaginable changes.

After his mother’s death, Brian Carter was taken home by Kevin Carter, the politician who appeared to be his father. But after only three days, Brian Carter was sent to Patrick Star. At the time, he had no idea why any of this was happening. Even now, he is unwilling to think about the reasons...

In order to survive, Brian Carter quickly grew from an ignorant child into someone much more mature. Second level in physical arts, third level in mental power—these are the achievements Brian Carter reached in two years. Although he is still far from matching the top talents in the Star Rush Base, he is at least at a mid-level.

Especially considering that Brian Carter has only been here for two years and is training in both disciplines, such talent is already considered excellent. You should know that in the Grand Federation, even after a year of new recruit training, most soldiers can only reach the fourth level in physical arts or mental power, and it is rare for anyone to succeed in both disciplines at once.

Of course, Brian Carter’s abilities have never been shown in front of others. In the eyes of the other children, he is just a loser who will inevitably be sent back to Earth once he reaches the age limit.

You should know that every year, the children sent to the base by the Order have one chance to participate in an ability test. As long as they pass, they will be accepted by the Order and sent to a more advanced training base to be cultivated as elites of the Order.

Of course, the selection rate is extremely low. Every year, nearly a hundred children are sent to the Star Rush Base, but among the nearly one thousand children who take the ability test each year, if more than ten meet the standard, it is already considered a stroke of luck.

As for those who reach the upper age limit of sixteen but never meet the standard, they are sent back to the planets they originally came from.

The harshest thing about Patrick Star is not the year-round blizzards and gales, nor the 1.5 times gravity or the low oxygen content in the air, but how to fill your stomach.

There are only three instructors in the Star Rush Base, but over fifteen hundred children. These three instructors are not here to train the children; they are only responsible for, after each annual intake, teaching the newcomers the systematic methods of training physical arts and mental power, and then they ignore everything else.

The reason why these thousand-plus children train so desperately is to earn the precious food that allows them to keep surviving.

Whether on Patrick Star or in the Star Rush Base, you absolutely cannot find even a scrap of food. Except when they first arrive, the instructors give each new child a month’s supply of nutrient solution. After that, if you need food, you can only trade for it with minerals.

In the central region of Patrick Star, there is a towering ring-shaped mountain range, which contains extremely rich and clearly stratified mineral deposits. However, due to the harsh environment of Patrick Star and the extremely hard iron rock of the ring mountains, mining these minerals is extremely difficult.

Not only that, the Star Rush Base does not provide any tools for mining. The children in training must rely on their own hands to mine ore in exchange for food. Reality is just that cruel, but for the sake of survival, all the children silently accept this fate. In fact, they have no room to resist; most of them even came here voluntarily.

After all, if you can stand out and enter the Order, a bright future is just around the corner. You should know that an ordinary instructor of the Order enjoys all the privileges of a regional executive governor. So when the Order’s people come to the major colony planets to select children for training, many parents are deeply upset if their child’s aptitude is too poor to make the list.

A small titanium-steel shovel, a standard military knife, two high-powered flashlights, two sets of spare clothes, and thirty-two and a half bottles of nutrient solution—all stuffed into Brian Carter’s backpack. These are all the possessions he has accumulated over the past two years, saved up only after enduring countless hardships.

“Ring Mountains... this time, I will conquer you...”