"Seventeen?!"
Li Ling's voice went up by eight octaves.
Even the driver glanced at Bai Pu through the rearview mirror.
It's not that Bai Pu looked old, but rather he was too mature. His demeanor was calm and composed, lacking any trace of youthful capriciousness, making it easy to misjudge his age as being older.
Li Ling muttered, "You're only 17? I'm already 27! When you were playing with mud in kindergarten, I was already solving trigonometric functions..."
Bai Pu wasn't bothered by the age difference between Li Ling and himself—perhaps due to his relatively mature psychological age, he was quite accepting of older women. In the Flesh and Blood Plague: Origin Plane, Aunt Qin was already in her thirties.
Spiritual Particles seemed to have the effect of extending youth. Many male Awakened, even at seventy or eighty years old, could still toil day and night, a white pear flower pressing down on a crabapple tree; as for women, even more so, as Qin in her thirties was still tight and smooth, her beauty rivaling that of a young girl.
After confirming that he could take the college entrance exam, Bai Pu changed the subject:
"Wu Chen mentioned earlier, that heart is stored in the Boundary Land controlled by the Superstar Alliance... what is the Boundary Land?"
Li Ling snapped back to reality, took a long breath: "The Boundary Land... it's what Awakened streamers refer to as the 'Secret Realm'."
"Oh!" Bai Pu instantly understood.
On real-world Earth, there are also some secret spaces, filled with various monsters and exotic treasures.
Some Awakened streamers, in order to gain real-world fame, would venture into secret realms while live streaming or recording videos, earning clicks and attention for themselves.
Li Ling explained, "The Boundary Land is actually the meeting point between the Spirit Realm Plane and reality, akin to a one-way channel from the Spirit Realm to reality! When the Spiritual Era began, Spirit Realm Creatures invaded reality through this channel of the Boundary Land. However, with the advancement of Earth's Spiritual Civilization and the overall improvement of Awakened strength, many Boundary Lands have already been controlled by Awakened."
One-way channel.
Bai Pu grasped these four words.
For an Awakened to enter the Spirit Realm, the only way is through a ticket; the channel of the Boundary Land cannot allow Awakened to travel in reverse into the Spirit Realm.
"Which Boundary Lands does the Superstar Alliance control? Can we find out where that heart is hidden?" Bai Pu asked.
"What are you planning?" Li Ling was slightly surprised, "Don't do anything rash, your current strength is too weak."
"I'm just asking." Bai Pu smiled harmlessly.
Li Ling lamented, "The information on the Boundary Lands controlled by the Superstar Alliance is ordinary data, easily accessible in the database. As for where the heart is hidden, neither of us have the clearance to find that out."
Screech!
The jeep stopped in the suburbs, in front of a spacious and imposing large estate.
"We're here, this is the Xicheng Branch of the Divine Strategy Army." Li Ling patted Bai Pu on the shoulder, "Get out, kid... welcome to the world of the Awakened!"
...
Divine Strategy Army, Xicheng Hall.
Bai Pu stepped into the spacious hall, it was very quiet, with few people.
A petite girl with twin ponytails was at the front desk typing away on a keyboard.
"Xiaoxiao, I've brought a newcomer, the one who signed the contract today." Li Ling handed over a contract while introducing Bai Pu, "This lovely lady is Su Xiaoxiao, the receptionist at the Xicheng Branch."
"Hello, hello, Bai Pu gege, right? So handsome, really handsome! Welcome to the Divine Strategy Army!" Su Xiaoxiao's eyes sparkled, her small face shining with a charming dimple on her left cheek when she smiled.
Li Ling was speechless for a while, "Xiaoxiao, stop pretending to be young. This Bai Pu gege of yours is only 17, just half your age!"
"Ah?"
"Eh?"
Su Xiaoxiao and Bai Pu both exclaimed in surprise.
In Bai Pu's eyes, Su Xiaoxiao's figure, appearance, and attire all looked quite youthful, like a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old middle schooler.
Yet Li Ling told him that Su Xiaoxiao was actually in her thirties!
"Li Ling! You've outed me again." Su Xiaoxiao glared at Li Ling with indignant eyes, then a bit embarrassed, she looked at Bai Pu, lowering her head slightly, "This Bai Pu... little brother's gaze is too sharp, just like my university counselor... one slip and I act old."
"You can just call me Bai Pu." Bai Pu was at a loss for words regarding the "little brother" address.
"No way, I'm going to call you Little Bai Pu. I'm so much older than you!" Su Xiaoxiao puffed out her chest and spread her slender arms exaggeratedly. Initially calling him Bai Pu gege was indeed with the intention of teasing the handsome young man.
"Xiaoxiao, you handle the registration, and explain the Divine Strategy Army's system to Bai Pu. Oh, he's the second-phase member I selected for the Genius Camp, don't forget his benefits."
Li Ling sat on the sofa in the hall, casually picking up a copy of "The Rise and Fall of the Aztecs."
"Okay, no problem!" Su Xiaoxiao glanced at Bai Pu's face, feeling delighted.
...
Su Xiaoxiao held a significant position at the Xicheng Branch, not only as a receptionist handling the induction of newcomers, but also managing logistics for the entire Jiangnan Region, and overseeing the distribution of Honor Points and military supplies redemption.
The Divine Strategy Army's military supply exchange doesn't recognize Huaxia Coin nor Spiritual Points, only "Honor Points."
Organization members can earn Honor Points through various means such as hunting Wilderness Area monsters, selling Spirit Realm intelligence, and completing task commissions.
Take task commissions for instance; a D-level commission has a base reward of 100 Honor, generally involving rather tedious, low-risk fieldwork that low-level Awakened can handle.
C-level commissions have a base reward of 300 Honor, and involve low-intensity combat, posing a higher risk to low-level Awakened.
B-level commissions have a base reward of 1000 Honor, prohibiting low-level Awakened from taking them. Higher-level A-level commissions start at several thousand Honor, so the difficulty of these is needless to say.
Earning money is like holding in urine, spending money is like flowing water. The same goes for Honor Points — they're hard to earn and easy to spend.
A piece of low-grade whiteboard standard equipment requires 100 Honor to exchange for.
Learning a skill — here it refers to the most basic one-star skill — costs 100 Honor as a baseline. For certain rare one-star skills, the Honor Points required can be several times higher.
Two-star skills are based at 1000 Honor, and the legendary three-star skills start at a whopping 10,000 Honor!
For newly Awakened individuals, besides having a basic professional skill, with no strength to earn Honor Points, what are they to do? The Divine Strategy Army doesn't allow members to trade Honor Points among themselves.
For this, the Divine Strategy Army has a humane system, granting every member a "debt limit," allowing them to consume Honor Points upfront, enhance their strength, then earn Honor Points later to settle the debt.
The debt limit is related to one's strength, with stronger Awakened having higher limits. For example, Bai Pu, currently just Level 1, though an Enhanced Elite, his debt limit is only 300 Honor Points, which corresponds to the debt limit of a Level 3 standard template member.
The Divine Strategy Army maintains an open attitude, not rejecting standard template ordinary Awakened. Regardless of strength, Awakened can apply to join the Divine Strategy Army.
After all, templates aren't fixed, Spirit Realm exploration is full of uncertainties, today's ordinary profession might just, after one Spirit Realm exploration, undergo a brilliant promotion, undergo a second job change, and transform into an Elite or even a Hero Profession!
Anyway, treatment is linked with strength, and Honor Points require the hard work of the Awakened to earn, so the Divine Strategy Army won't hand out too many resources for free.
Su Xiaoxiao showed Bai Pu the military supplies available in the Divine Strategy Army's inventory, but of course, only those he had access to with his current clearance.
It was already quite astounding, and Bai Pu could only say, as expected of a large organization with military backing. All sorts of equipment, tools, and even Skill Books filled the options, dazzling to the point of confusion.
"You're a second-phase member recommended by Li Ling for the Genius Training Camp, so there's a benefit you can claim." Su Xiaoxiao clicked on the computer and showed Bai Pu the genius benefits.
[Stowaway's Token: C+ level item. Allows the holder to disregard main mission requirements, forcibly detaching from the Spirit Realm and returning to the real world. Requires 10 seconds to prepare and can only be activated if not observed by any Natives.]