“There are too many locusts!”
“There must be at least 100 million! How can the gap between us and our seniors be this wide when we’re only a year apart?”
“So this is the strength of our seniors at Imperial College!”
Still, a few students remained skeptical and looked down on him.
“I thought our seniors would be powerful if they made it into Imperial College, but these are just Elite locusts. There are plenty of them, but what can they do if they’re all weak?”
Several teachers frowned at the remark.
“Who said that? What’s his name?” Xu Mei asked the teachers.
One homeroom teacher raised a hand. “Ms. Xu, that’s my student, Xu Ziang. His core race is the Elite Fire Breathers. He ranked ninth on the last test.”
“Fire Breathers?” Xu Mei muttered to herself, finally understanding Xu Ziang’s confidence. Fire Breathers were natural enemies of most insects, but Han Wu’s locusts were different.
The juniors launched their attack, with Xu Ziang’s Fire Breathers charging at the front. The Fire Breathers raised their heads and opened their maws, unleashing flames that scorched the air. The burning streaks raised the temperature around them by several degrees.
Xu Ziang stood confidently within his Fire Breathers’ protective circle, already picturing the scorched locusts raining down from the sky. Sadly, his vision shattered as the Fire Breathers abruptly ceased their flame attacks. The locusts remained alive and turned on him, launching their own assault.
“The locusts are not afraid of fire? What’s happening? Stop! Don’t come any closer!” he cried out in fear.
The locusts ignored his desperate plea. They swarmed down from above, plunging into the mouths of the Fire Breathers before detonating. The resulting explosion obliterated the virtual Fire Breathers instantly.
Xu Ziang reeled in shock. He never expected Han Wu to use his core race as suicide bombers. Even more unsettling, the explosions packed devastating power.
The other students, witnessing the locusts’ strength, scrambled to pull their units back, trying to avoid the chain reaction of explosions that could wipe out clusters of their units.
Han Wu didn’t spare a thought for the losses his self-detonating locusts incurred. He gave the order to attack without restraint, and the locusts poured down in relentless waves. Each time one struck an enemy, it exploded on contact.
Within fifteen minutes, Han Wu had annihilated the combined army of 1,000 students. Their faces turned pale with fear or flushed green with frustration. They’d known from the start that their senior was strong, but none of them had expected this. The power of the self-detonating locusts had left them stunned.
The teachers were no less astonished. They had long been familiar with Han Wu’s tactics, but the strength he displayed after entering Imperial College had exceeded all their expectations. The locusts’ explosions were now hundreds of times more powerful than before. They doubted any student could withstand that force.
Tian Wen observed his colleagues’ stunned expressions and chuckled. Han Wu has only shown them a glimpse of his strength, and they’re already shaken. If they saw his full power, they might just faint.
Some juniors, frustrated and unwilling to accept defeat, voiced their complaints.
“Senior Han, this isn’t fair,” one of them grumbled. “You only made the locusts explode because this was a virtual battle. You wouldn’t lose anything, so you didn’t hold back. We lost tens of millions of units, but you sacrificed hundreds of millions of locusts. In reality, your losses are greater than ours.”
Others nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, why didn’t I think of that? Our senior may have won, but he took heavier losses. He wouldn’t have acted in a real battle.”
“He’s exploiting a loophole to defeat us without losing his units.”
“Senior Han, is this all you’ve got? I’m disappointed.”
Many juniors resorted to insults, trying to rationalize their defeat and salvage their pride.
The true purpose of the match had started to slip away, and Xu Mei felt compelled to defend Han Wu.
Han Wu stopped her. “Juniors, I can assure you that what I’ve shown today is my standard approach to warfare. There’s no reason to doubt it.”
“Do you think we’ll believe that just because you said so? Show us some proof,” one student snapped.
“You should summon your real army instead of those bugs,” another added. “Don’t embarrass yourself with those weak units.”
The juniors dismissed his explanation outright, so Han Wu simply smiled and opened another gate.
This time, locusts poured out in such overwhelming numbers that they blotted out the sky. A variety of species followed—far more than before. Alongside the usual Elite Locusts came the terrifying Heavenly Demon Insects, Abyss Bugs, Dark Cursed Bugs, Locustmen, Primal Locusts, and the enormous Sapper Locusts. Each one gave off a pressure far beyond the threshold of an Elite life form.
The display stunned both juniors and teachers alike, and they all needed time to process what they were seeing.
Silence stretched for nearly thirty seconds before one teacher finally gasped. “Hold on, that’s absurd. I think he could destroy our entire school alone.”
Xu Mei wanted to reprimand the teacher but held back because every other teacher shared the same thought.
“Han Wu’s growth is nothing short of a miracle,” Tian Wen said with a sigh. He had once believed he understood the limits of Han Wu’s strength, but once again, he was proven wrong.
Xu Mei sighed as well. “Tian Wen, it looks like you’ve truly nurtured someone strong enough to become our school’s pillar this time.”
The other teachers exchanged astonished glances. Could they really consider a student their strongest pillar? They glanced up at the dense swarm of locusts and silently agreed that it was possible.
They had believed the hundred million locusts represented the peak of Han Wu’s power, but it was only a fraction of his true strength. Their doubts melted into deep reverence.
“Senior Han is ridiculously strong.”
“When can I become half as strong? No, even a tenth of his strength would be enough. If I reach that, my father will treat me like a god.”
“Are you sure he’s only one year older than us? My brother graduated from a lower-ranking college, but he’s nowhere near Han Wu’s level.”
“Duh. Senior Han is not just top of his class, he’s also a standout at Imperial College.I want to work hard to get in there and be his friend.”
“Me too. I want to be the next Han Wu.”
Xu Mei nodded approvingly as she listened to the juniors’ talk. This was a successful match.