Crush all his hopes

Jacob got up in the morning, brushed his teeth and took a shower. His parents were already up with his mom making breakfast. Standard eggs and bacon. He personally prefers sausage, but isn't too picky. As he was walking to the table, he received a news link from his father.

"There were apparently large changes made for the entrance exams for colleges this year. A big survival competition it looks like." His father, Charles, said. Clicking the link, Jacob started reading. The past exams that would be made for colleges, would all usually be held internally on each planet, with results forwarded to colleges that the student applied to.

But, according to the news article, this year will be a bit different. Every High School in the federation has 10 slots to recommend students to compete against their peers in a survival challenge on one of the most ferocious planets in the federation, Resource Planet Daliomon.

It is a planet that grows numerous exo beasts in a free range environment, yet it is not short on various spirit herbs either. The challenge throws all of the students onto the planet with nothing except their clothes and a safety shield generator. The win condition is determined by the beasts that are hunted.

Another benefit is that students are allowed to keep whatever they collect. This is one of humanity's main resource stars, with many items that will help the students break through, along with various fights along the way.

There was a whole slew of rules and regulations listed that he was too lazy to read as none of them affected him. He finished his breakfast, then put on his shoes and grabbed his backpack. Saiya was waiting at the door for him ready to go.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The trip to school was uneventful, as it was less than a ten minute walk. The high school Jacob and Saiya went to was called 'Golf Military School'. It is not named after the leisure sport, but from a general who shared the same last name who graduated from the school that led it to be renamed after he gained fame.

As they were nearing the school, a man burst out from behind a tree with flowers and said, "Yaya, I really like you. Can we give each other a chance to know each other?" He was a golden-haired handsome with a smile. He spoke gently. Clearly, he was educated.

This person was called Hans Anderson. He was the son of the mayor of Dukarth planet. He was in the same grade as Saiya. If Saiya was the female idol of the school, then Hans was in the top 3 male idols of the school.

His family was exceptional. He was handsome and gentle. His cultivation talent was not much weaker than Saiya's. He was a dantian refinement stage 4. In the eyes of students at the school, he and Saiya were a good match.

Hans fell in love with Saiya the first day he went to school. He had been chasing her for two years since. He never even looked at other girls who liked him. Saiya though, did not like him, and made it clear on more than one occasion.

Saiyai smiled softly as usual "Sorry, Hans. I don't plan to have a relationship in high school. You don't need to waste time on me."

Hans was clearly used to Saiyas's rejection and smiled helplessly. He looked at her softly and said, "I won't give up. If you don't want a relationship during high school, I'll wait till we are in university for you. If you don't want a relationship while we are in university, I will wait for you for the rest of my life."

"Oh my god!!!"

Hans' expression made the nearby girls scream. Their faces were red. Who knew what they were thinking inside their brains. Saiya smiled and said nothing. She turned around and saw Jacob. Her mouth spasmed. This guy was enjoying the show? He didn't even help her get out of this situation! She threw hidden messages in her eyes, hoping her brother that seemed to regain his EQ would help.

At this moment, Hans looked at Jacob and smiled helplessly "Brother Jacob, help me persuade Saiya. I promise to give her happiness." Jacob was dazed, you wanted to steal the treasure, and have the guards help you?

Looking at Hans' hopeful eyes, Jacob smiled with pitying eyes, "Brother Hans, can I talk to you for a moment." Under Hans' disbelieving eyes, the guy who usually ignored him most of the time pulled him to the side and started whispering to him.

"Brother Hans, I always wanted to tell you this, but I was never able to because I couldn't confirm it myself, but during this break I finally confirmed it, you have zero chance, she has someone she likes." Jacob started spewing nonsense the second he opened his mouth.

Hans, never one to stop responded, "No! There is no one better for me, I am rich, handsome, and my dad is a mayor!" Jacob then increased the pity level in his stare and said, "You have a penis right?' to which Hans nodded quickly 'then you have zero chance, Saiya doesn't like men, but.. She plays for the other team…"

A bomb went off in Hans' mind, he thought back to every time he tried to speak to Saiya, She always rejected him, and didn't even like staying near other guys except her brother. Think of her always being surrounded by girls, being very enthusiastic with the hugs, his mind short-circuited, unable to comprehend the sheer amount of information he is processing.

Jacob patted him on the shoulder with the max level pity stare, "Sorry, I had to tell you, such a good man such as yourself should not ruin yourself traveling a road with no end." He then left to go back to talk with Saiya. With Hans' blank stare scaring many students.

Hans smiled awkwardly and patted his face. "Brother Jacob you're right. Look at me, I'm too desperate. I won't disturb you guys." Then, he left elegantly.

Seeing Jacob look at Hans leave, Saiya smiled, "He's finally gone, he will probably find me again later." Jacob shook his head and said, "No, he will not. I've crushed all his hopes." Saiya's eyes opened in astonishment, not understanding the feelings of men chasing women.

Jacob was a bit bummed out though, after all, once you transmigrate, you should encounter the antagonist. Why did he encounter such an excellent man? Hans was almost as excellent as him.

By the way. They didn't seem to be real brothers and sisters. Should he try chasing her too?

*Cough*

As a reincarnator, if he still needed to chase girls then he would lose the face of all those other reincarnators. He must not think like this! It should be saints and demons girls coming to him. Goddess and immortal goddesses wanting to sleep with him!

Saiya then left to go to her own class, while Jacob made his way towards his own.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The Dukarth planet was in the Sunliao Solar System, which was bigger than the Solar System. The star here was called Sunliao. It had 33 planets revolving around it, and four of them were planets with life.

This included Dukarth, Winstra, Jingging which had people living on it. There was another small planet filled with exo beasts and that was Buffot. There was no huge ocean on Buffot. However, salt and freshwater lakes were scattered across the surface. The rest of the area was land.

The planet wasn't big and was only half the size of Earth. All sorts of ferocious beasts lived on it. It was quite a nice hunting ground. Many cultivators of Dukarth, Winstra, and Jingging would go there to hunt exo beasts to sell.

Around this time, all the high school students usually would be having their graduation trial on this planet. Clearly, it was a major event of Sunliao system. But this year it would most likely be different as everyone wanted to go to the survival challenge, where opportunities abound.

Jacob sat in class as a few girls stared at him in astonishment, they all knew that this piece of eye candy suffered from permanent facial paralysis and never smiled, why was he now smiling, and even humming!

A few girls were swooning. Past Jacob was already a solid 10/10, yet his handsomeness was detracted by an ever present blank stare, and unsmiling face to almost 7/10. His bright, smiling look though, enhanced it to an 11/10. That gap was so large that it made it seem even larger.

As a couple of the bolder girls were about to make a move, the teacher strolled into the classroom with his hands behind his back. He was an elderly man, looking like an old immortal, long white flowing hair, beard, and eyebrows. His eyes had a wizened look. He glanced at Jacob and made a comment, "Mr. Davis, you seem to be spirited today."

His comment drew the attention of those who were not paying as much attention. Jacob responded modestly, "Yes teacher, over break I managed to break through to the Dantian refinement stage, and even advanced to stage 2 shortly after."

Many students were amazed, not at his cultivation level, it was pretty average in the school, but it was that his whole demeanor seemed to have changed. In the past, he never smiled, as he treated words as gold, but now he can smile and confidently speak to the teacher. The teacher, whose name is Chan Kong-sang, usually referred to as old Chan by the students secretly, smiled and said his congratulations.

He then clapped his hands together to gather everyone's attention. "As many of you may know, there will be changes to this year's graduation. We will have a standard elimination tournament, with the top 10 getting the chance to go to Daliomon. We will hold it the last two weeks of school."

He then glanced around the room, "Should you be fortunate enough to secure a chance to the survival challenge on Daliomon, keep in mind that there will be a representative for every cultivation college present. So make ample preparations in not just cultivation, but in your martial arts and general survival skills."

He then grabbed a piece of chalk, and wrote on the board 'Survival 101' old Chan then started speaking again, "When stranded in an unfamiliar environment, what is the first thing you should do?" Hands quickly rose.

"Food!"

"Water"

"Shelter"

Old Chan shook his head, then called on Jacob who just wanted to mind his own business. The issue was, Past Jacob was a dropout, if it didn't involve cultivation, he didn't care. Jacob's mind quickly spun, he eventually blurted out, "Scan for hostiles!"

His words stunned old Chan, before he smiled and said, "Yes, that is correct, in our time where there can be exo-beast anywhere in the wild, the first thing you should check is if they are near you. This also applies in many other situations. If you are too lazy to care, and start searching for water, food, or shelter, you may end up becoming a snack for something else."

He then went on about making a safe shelter because of the harsh climate of Daliomon, how it's water is unsafe for most humans to drink directly, but if boiled it will be safe to drink limitedly. He then explained how to safely prepare 100 different edible exo beasts found on Daliomon, the rest not being edible.

With that, the class time quickly went on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saiya and Jacob made it home without encountering any rogue bullies, tragic encounters, or lame villains. In front of their house was a variety of packages from a few different companies. His seeds finally arrived! Under Saiya's questioning stare, he grabbed them all and brought them to his room.

He quickly brought them into his dimension. The first thing he brought out was a rather large box, on it read 'Self-assembling greenhouse - Deluxe Edition' He opened the package the size of a refrigerator, and what it showed was a large silver egg shaped item. He brought it to an area not too far from the pond, and pushed a button on the top.

*Vrrrmmm*

Whirring noises were quickly heard, as the egg undid itself like a large jigsaw puzzle, parts sprouted out crazily in different ways, the final result being a large building the size of a football field. Jacob was amazed by the spectacle he just witnessed. In seconds, a large building made of metal and plastic appeared.

He grabbed a connected hose to a pump and put it into the pond, he has already tested that watering with pond water quickens growth, and this greenhouse comes with an automatic watering feature.

He had already collected a bunch of dirt when he was making the area for the greenhouse to go, so he filled every pot and stand. Then, he meticulously, planted every single seed, while also transplanting the purple shade, and black fire flower. There was even an area to grow mushrooms and spirit trees!

Jacob then spent a bit of time fiddling around with the depleted spirit rock sources he bought, dunking them in pond water seemed to have no effect. Normally you just put them in areas with a high concentration of universe energy, and they regrow into spirit rock mines, he eventually placed them a distance away, hoping in the future he will have his own spirit rock mine.

After that was done, he left his dimension, took a shower, then went to bed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following weeks, Jacob worked hard on his cultivation, while also communicating more at school, his 'New' demeanor charmed the hearts of many young girls, which led to the annoyance of a certain younger sister who had to deal with many potential suitors who wanted to know more about him.

Another thing that annoyed Saiya, was that someone seemed to have started a rumor of her being lesbian, which she quickly clarified to her brother that she was not, but she also had to deal with a bunch of suitors of her own!

She took most of her anger out in spars with Jacob, much to his dismay, his cute little sister seemed to have turned into a wild exo beast. Clicking his tongue at the backfire caused by him, he constantly bribed her away with bottles of 'Higher Dimensional Energy' that he made with his 'Talent'.

During this time he also told his parents about it, which they also told him to keep quiet about it, while he also supplemented them. Time passed by like this until the time of the elimination tournament. During this time, Jacob advanced to Dantian refinement stage seven, mainly because he focused on survival skills, and learning a new martial art, 'Five Animal Boxing'.

In the 'Five Animal Boxing', the imagery of five animals is used —Tiger, Crane, Leopard, Snake, and Mantis. It is a level above the 'Basic Boxing' that everyone has to learn. The martial art is different, in that it uses universe energy to form animal images when attacking, these images provide numerous different effects.

During this time, Saiya has been drinking the pond water, her energy cycle also covers her whole body, and it seemed to stabilize her dantian before finally pushing her to stage seven, the same as Jacob. One thing he noticed though, is that while it also has the effect of promoting cultivation on Saiya like him, it seems to only be around 70% as effective.

Why it is like this, has baffled him, another thing he noticed, was that her energy cycle streams were also smaller than him when she begrudgingly let him sense them. This led him to think about innate potential. This has been a topic that was rarely touched upon in middle school. There are items that have been said to increase a person's innate potential, but they are too rare.

One such item, found on Daliomon, is called 'Mother Rock Milk' he planned to find this item for him and Saiya to use. Right now though, he has made his way to school to participate in a seven day long elimination tournament.

A bracket was made known a few days prior, there are around 400 seniors in this graduating year. There are four blocks in the bracket with about 100 students each. Blocks A and B are on the first day, while blocks C and D are on the second day. The remaining 200 students on the third day, 100 students on the fourth day, 50 students on the fifth day, 25 students on the sixth day, with one lucky person getting a free pass. On the last day, the remaining students perform a combat trial against a teacher to eliminate three students.

Jacob is in block C, so he spends most of the first day being a salted fish in the stands with his sister and her friends. On the next day, Jacob has to go up rather early, his opponent is surprisingly a good match for him, he is also dantian stage seven, while being extremely proficient in 'Five Animal boxing'.

Jacob was exhilarated to fight this guy. That was until the guy came onto the stage. Standing at a whopping 2.2 meters tall, much larger than Jacob's 1.87 meter height. Jacob was cursing about what this kid ate. Rippling macho man muscles spread across this kid's body, if not for the baby face, you would wonder if this was a middle-age man that snuck into the schools tournament instead of an 18 year old kid.

The referee signaled the two contestants to get into stance. Jacob took the Coiled Flood Dragon stance of the snake form, the fastest starting stance among the five forms, while the Macho Man Kid took the stance of the Crouching Tiger, of the tiger form, the starting stance with the strongest power.

A flood dragon formed behind Jacob, while a majestic white tiger formed behind Macho Man Kid. When the referee blew the whistle, Jacob sprung into action, crossing the small stage in a matter of seconds, then aimed for Macho Man Kid's throat. Macho Man Kid waited for Jacob to get close before releasing his stored power, forcing Jacob to dodge last second.

Jacob then switched into the crane form, which is considered the nimblest of the five forms, then surrounded Macho Man Kid, giving many successful and unsuccessful jabs. He long studied Macho Man Kid, and knew, like Past Jacob, formed an energy cycle in just his arms, making him much worse everywhere else.

In the stands, Saiya was sitting with her group of friends, a girl next to her, a fiery red-headed beauty commented, "Saiya, your brother looks so awesome, fighting that big strong guy, you think you can introduce me?" Saiya gave her the side eye, "Washboard, didn't you just hit on me the other day?" The girl's face turned as red as her hair as Saiya continued speaking, "Olivia, I bet you long wanted to eat up both of us siblings if you had the chance." The girl, Olivia, stuck out her tongue at Saiya, making no comment.

Macho Man Kid, after being worn down, made a desperate attempt, switching to the leopard form and continuously trying to perform a crushing move, Clouded Leopard's Bite, before getting punched squarely in the chest by Jacob using the Snake Strike of the snake form.

Macho Man Kid was knocked out of the ring in a gasping heap, Jacob was barely winded, mostly annoyed by how Macho Man Kid had a solid defense and was hard to hurt him. The referee quickly announced his win, before shooing him off the stage in a rush for the next set of kids.

Jacob waved to Saiya, before making his way to the bathroom.