The Era of Gods

18 Chapter 18 Rewards and Transactions
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“`

“Lin Xiao, not only did you come first in this base test, but you also passed an additional challenge, earning you an extra prize,”

the form teacher said, extending a finger with a card that faintly contained Divine Power appearing at the tip. He smiled at Lin Xiao and said,

“Lin Xiao, please come forward to receive your prize.”

emmm…..

He felt speechless and annoyed. It was like some award ceremony. Way too high-profile.

But this was how the teacher always operated. Every base test ended with lavishing praise on students with good results to spur everyone’s ambition.

Seeing as it’s a Divine Realm Card…

Alright then!

Amidst the envious and jealous stares of his classmates, he walked up and took the Divine Realm Card from the form teacher’s hand.

Yuan Hong’s gaze was fixed on him until he reached out to take the card, at which point a red rhombic crystal on his forehead lit up, and a voice emerged from nowhere:

“Lin Xiao, is that a Five Star Divine Realm Card you have there?”

He turned around, surprised. The other students’ expressions didn’t change, so it seemed that only he could hear it. He nodded and replied,

“That’s right.”

“I’ll trade you two Five Star Cards for it!”

Lin Xiao frowned. The offer itself was fine, but the tone as if doing him a favor by offering the trade… he didn’t like it and flatly refused,

“Not trading.”

“Three cards!”

“I need it for myself.”

After receiving the card from the teacher, he immediately stored it within his Divine Realm.

Having been refused continuously, Yuan Hong’s expression didn’t change, but his voice became much deeper:

“This Divine Realm Card is very important to me. In addition to the three Five Star Cards, you would also gain my friendship.”

Lin Xiao looked up, astonished, with a weird expression on his face.

“What the hell,” he thought. That line sounded so familiar. He remembered that in the web novels he used to love, it was one of the classic lines of self-important antagonists, the kind that implied doing someone a favor by agreeing to a trade.

“Could it be that in this life, I’m meant to be the protagonist?”

Familiar side characters, classic Golden Finger, a surge of power just before a crucial day… Wasn’t this the standard set-up for a novel’s protagonist?

But then, some things didn’t add up. He wasn’t starting from scratch as a ‘good-for-nothing’, his parents were still alive, there was no beautiful elder sister or younger sister, no annoying relatives to bother him, and key figures like the form teacher or the prettiest girl in the class or the school weren’t around.

“Hmm, definitely not!”

He rubbed his cheek, looked up with a bright smile, and shook his head.

He was not intimidated by Yuan Hong. Although Yuan Hong was a True God offspring, he himself was not to be underestimated. The Lin Family also had a True God, so there was nothing to fear.

Moreover, he was in the right this time around. He had earned the reward fair and square, why should he give it up?

Well, it wasn’t about giving it away, it was about trading, but it was all the same. I’m not trading, so what now?

Yuan Hong really couldn’t do much. If it were a student of ordinary background, perhaps he could have threatened him, but this Lin Xiao, although his past performance was not great, he came from a decent background. Not as good as his own, but not someone he could just threaten. If Lin Xiao really didn’t want to trade, there was nothing he could do about it.

After giving Lin Xiao a deep look, Yuan Hong expressionlessly shifted his gaze away.

“`

The other students did not notice the covert clash between the two, but the homeroom teacher Wu Hai seemed to have sensed something. However, he merely glanced at them before returning his gaze and said in a deep voice:

“This time, for the basic evaluation test, Yuan Hong is second and Wan Chuan is third. Please, both of you, come up to receive your rewards.”

Unlike the first-place winner, the second and third place did not enjoy the privilege of receiving their awards alone.

After handing a card to each of them, Wu Hai said:

“The basic evaluation test has ended, but a more severe challenge will come next month. You all know what the final exam means, without me having to say it. Yes, that’s right, it’s about class placement. This is directly related to your future achievements and is extremely critical.”

“I won’t say anything superfluous. I believe you all understand better than I do, and I have no extra demands. I do not require you to take any particular place nor how many of you will make it into the elite class. I’ll just say one thing.”

At this point, he extended his right hand and a card emitting a blinding golden light appeared, inspiring an irresistible urge to snatch it from everyone present.

Deity, whether Divine Beings or a Demigod, even a True God, naturally craves Divinity.

Without questioning or looking, all of the students knew what it was. Yuan Hong and Wan Chuan, two of the class’s top students, simultaneously stepped forward and asked:

“Teacher, is this perhaps…”

“Yes! This is indeed a speck of Divinity!”

Wu Hai was very pleased with the students’ reaction and said with a smile:

“This time, the best reward for the final exams will be this speck of Divinity. During these finals, no matter who it is, as long as you achieve first place in our class and within the top five in the entire school, you will receive this speck of Divinity.”

He paused and then added:

“Lin Xiao only needs to be in the top ten of the whole school.”

Everyone turned to look at Lin Xiao. Yuan Hong immediately asked:

“Teacher, why is that?”

All the other students were also visibly puzzled, clearly eager to know the reason.

Wu Hai replied:

“This speck of Divinity comes from the Divine Realm of our classmate Lin Xiao. He made a considerable contribution to obtaining this speck of Divinity, and since there was no compensation, he has the advantage for this round of finals. Moreover, if someone achieves the same results, under the same conditions, priority for the Divinity will also be given to him.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Yuan Hong and several other top students protested at once:

“That’s not fair!”

“Hmm!”

Wu Hai’s commanding gaze swept over them, and the top students swayed slightly. Yuan Hong gritted his teeth and said:

“We think this is unfair to us. We are willing to compensate Lin Xiao now, but we want a fair competition for this speck of Divinity.”

Wu Hai pondered for a moment, then said to Lin Xiao:

“Lin Xiao, what do you think?”

Lin Xiao clasped his hands together, his mind racing as he considered their proposition.

In principle, he didn’t want to refuse, since for him, being in the top ten or top five of the entire grade didn’t make much difference; both were equally difficult to achieve.

Though he could technically ask his parents for some good stuff during this time, the good things he could get were limited.

It wasn’t that his parents wouldn’t give them or didn’t have them, but it was due to the regulation that every student could only use one card per month. Lin Xiao had only used three cards so far, which left him six slots available. However, these three cards were created from six cards recombined through the Golden Finger.

He had used only three, but to outsiders, it appeared he had used at least five or six, leaving him, at most, three or four cards left to use. Deducting one slot as a reserve, in case he suddenly got a good card and couldn’t use it, this meant he could only get three or four cards at most from his parents.

Now that he had the Creation Rubik’s Cube, he would surely deconstruct and fuse these cards into new and powerful cards, and obviously, the more basic cards in his pool, the better.