Chapter 12: The Prepared Way Out
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[Normally speaking, for a low-level fledgling team like the Redheart Team, each day was spent fighting in the dungeon hall. During their brief rests, they discussed and analyzed the habits and combat styles of the monsters within the dungeons.]
[Yet because of their trust and loyalty toward you, the members of the Redheart Team followed your command and came to the Misty Wetlands to fight.]
[Under your leadership, the Redheart Team quickly adapted to the pace of battle on the outskirts of the Misty Wetlands.]
[Moreover, thanks to their complementary teamwork, their earnings had nearly multiplied several times over compared with before.]
[At this rate, they would need only a little over two months of continuous fighting to advance another level.]
[As a result, the members of the Redheart Team grew increasingly eager to venture deeper into the Misty Wetlands.]
[However, you knew how dangerous the depths of the Misty Wetlands were, so you ventured in only occasionally. The moment you sensed anything amiss, you immediately led the team away.]
[Most importantly, deep within the wetlands, you spotted the Red Crow Team.]
[You remembered that damned team all too well.]
[However, the Redheart Team was still no match for the Red Crow Team at this stage, so you still needed to spend some time developing your strength.]
[June 19, Year 125 of the Transcendent Era—the day of the grand examination.]
[You brought the Redheart Team to the examination site and arranged for everyone to take part.]
[The members of the Redheart Team were not particularly concerned about the grand examination.]
[After spending this much time with you, they believed that following you promised a brighter future. As for professional universities, they had adopted an indifferent attitude.]
[To make the team take the examination seriously, you used only one sentence.]
[As long as they entered a professional university and obtained student status, even if it was the worst professional university imaginable, their loan limits would double. Many secretive lending agencies would even open their doors to them.]
[Everyone’s eyes lit up. A higher loan limit meant they could purchase higher-quality equipment and skill cards, further increasing their combat strength.]
[As for the terrifying interest?]
[Under your leadership, the Redheart Team had long since cast such concerns aside.]
[The moment you decide not to repay, the whole world suddenly feels vast and free!]
[If they did not repay the loans, what did the ever-compounding interest have to do with them?]
[Nothing at all!]
[Those lending agencies were practically the kindest people in the world.]
[They saw that the team was short of money and came to give them more.]
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[As for the possibility of being pursued for overdue debts, you had already prepared a way out.]
[As long as every member of the Redheart Team completed their first advancement, they could officially join a war corps.]
[In this transcendent world, war corps were military institutions responsible for clearing abyssal creatures beyond the borders. When the abyss invaded, they were also the forces that held the front line.]
[Therefore, war corps wielded tremendous authority.]
[As long as the Redheart Team became a team under the command of a war corps, all the loans they owed would vanish without a trace.]
[The debt-collection squads under those lending agencies might bully ordinary civilians at will. Under the terms of their contracts, they might even dare kill low-level professionals and strip away their souls or harvest their organs.]
[But would those lending agencies dare make a scene in front of a war corps?]
[Even the conglomerates behind the lending agencies had to lower their heads and behave themselves before a war corps.]
[It came down to the same principle: as long as you possessed sufficient power, or had a powerful force behind you, so-called financial scams and loan agreements were nothing more than scraps of paper!]
“Things can work that way?”
Lin Xia’s eyes flickered as he read this.
A first-advancement professional could join a war corps?
At that, he understood.
It seemed that the ultimate escape for low-level professionals burdened with multiple loans was to raise their levels by every possible means, then join a war corps.
Once they entered a war corps, its deterrent power would naturally wipe everything clean.
“So this system exists to force low-level professionals into joining the war corps?”
Lin Xia’s eyes flashed.
With abyssal creatures invading on a massive scale and the death rate among war corps remaining so high, the world’s defensive lines would be in grave danger if those corps lacked enough recruits.
[The first portion of the grand examination was the level assessment. When your level of seven appeared on the testing platform, it immediately attracted quite a few gazes.]
[For the scions of prestigious families, a high level was perfectly normal.]
[For professionals with Gold-tier talents, having a high level was equally reasonable.]
[But you possessed only an Iron-tier talent—and not just any Iron-tier talent, but the most useless kind, a command-class Iron talent. How had you reached level seven in only three months?]
[However, the people who found you puzzling were all low-level professionals.]
[The scions of prestigious families and professionals with high-grade talents merely glanced at you. They did not take a level-seven professional like you seriously at all.]
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[Even after receiving most of the gains from your previous simulation, before scions of prestigious families who possessed fortunes worth millions, you were still nothing more than a slightly larger ant.]
[No one came to provoke you, much less mock you.]
[Would a divine dragon soaring high above the heavens ever care about ants struggling each day to put food on the table?]
[The world was vast, and nothing was too strange to exist.]
[Such a thing was best treated as a source of amusement.]
[The goal of the scions of prestigious families had always been the federation’s top universities.]
[Even if you performed exceptionally well in the second, practical portion of the examination, with your level of seven, you could at most enter a second-rate professional university.]
[Compared with your relatively eye-catching performance, the other members of the Redheart Team performed quite ordinarily.]
[However, when the chief examiner announced that the practical examination would take place in the Misty Wetlands, every member of the Redheart Team turned an admiring gaze upon you.]
[They knew that you might simply have been a blind cat that happened upon a dead rat.]
[But your astonishingly lucky prediction still filled them with boundless admiration.]
[Thus, after more than a month of training under your guidance, every member of the Redheart Team achieved a respectable result in the practical examination.]
[When the final composite scores were released, the entire Redheart Team passed.]
[With a composite score exceeding the passing mark, you were even qualified to apply to second-rate professional universities anywhere within the federation.]
[You made the following arrangements.]
[Taking advantage of the opportunity to attend university, everyone in the Redheart Team would leave Jiangcheng.]
[After all, they had taken out so many loans from Jiangcheng’s black market. Until they had developed enough strength, it was wiser to keep a low profile and avoid the limelight.]
[Thus, after you made the decision, everyone in the Redheart Team chose to develop in Yuncheng.]
[You were admitted to Yuncheng’s Second Professional University, while Lin Xue and the others were admitted to Yuncheng’s Third Professional University.]
[However, before leaving Jiangcheng, you once again led the Redheart Team to the black market. Using your transcript and a photocopy of your admission letter as collateral, you borrowed another huge sum from the Ruthless Loan and the Yama Loan.]
[Your teammates had reached level five. With the increased credit limits granted by seventy-four types of loans—including Soul Loans, Equipment Loans, and Skill Loans—they each replaced their old gear with a complete new set.]