Chapter 6 — Beyond the Milky Way: The Miner Who Became a God of War

The Abyss Arena appeared before Lam Vũ's eyes, more majestic and terrifying than any image he had ever seen on a public screen. The giant structure was built to hug the mouth of a bottomless meteorite crater, metal stands rising like fangs surrounding the dark abyss, and in the center, a giant circular arena suspended by anti-gravity technology, swaying slightly above the abyss as a warning of the fate of those who failed.

The registration gate is located on the east side of the arena, a long line of candidates with Linh Cốt are waiting in line for their turn to undergo biometric testing. Lam Vũ stood in line, his heart beating rapidly, clearly feeling the Linh Cốt signal simulator wrapped around his wrist under the bandage, like a time bomb that could explode at any time.

"Calm down," Tinh Nhược whispered in his ear, standing in the crowd of spectators nearby, pretending like a curious fairgoer. "Breathing evenly, eyes looking straight, don't show anxiety." Lam Vũ nodded slightly, trying to regulate his heart rate according to what Bốc Vấn Sơn taught. The line gradually shortened, and finally it was his turn to step in front of the biometric scanner — a chest-high cylindrical device that emitted a pale blue light that scanned the body of the person standing in front of it.

“Identity,” the registration officer asked, his voice monotonous and mechanical.

"Zhet Lam Vũ," he replied, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible.

The machine began scanning, blue light gliding from his head to his feet. Lam Vũ held his breath, feeling each second pass by with breathtaking slowness. A beep sounded, and the screen displayed blue text: "Spirit CORE CONFIRMATION — PRIMARY LEVEL."

"Pass," the official said curtly, not bothering to raise his head, stamped the registration card and pushed it through the table slot to Lam Vũ.

He took the card, a feeling of relief filled his chest to the point that he almost collapsed. He passed the first hurdle. Stepping out of the registration area, he found the hidden corner where Tinh Nhược was waiting, her eyes also shone with undisguised relief.

"It's over," he whispered.

"Good," Tinh Nhược replied, but immediately turned serious. "Now the real hard part begins. The first round will take place in the next three days. You need to rest and maintain your strength."

Three days later, Lam Vũ stood among hundreds of other contestants in the waiting area, all wearing the standard silver-gray competition armor issued by the organizers. He looked around and realized that most of the contestants were from noble families, wearing a confident, almost arrogant look, chatting loudly about the "family heirloom techniques" they had been trained in since childhood.

"Look at that guy," a nearby contestant said, pointing toward Lam Vũ and smirking at his accomplices. "He looks like a low-class worker, probably lost in the wrong arena."

Lam Vũ was silent, did not respond, just clenched his fists and tried to keep a calm expression. He had been accustomed to such contemptuous words throughout his twenty-three years of life, and now, they only made the fire of determination within him burn stronger.

The first round of competition was announced over the loudspeaker system: a test of basic physical strength and skill, requiring the contestants to overcome a series of complex mechanical obstacles built right on the surface of the arena, while the floor continuously changed its structure, sometimes opening gaps that exposed straight into the abyss below.

The whistle sounded, signaling the start of the round. Lam Vũ rushed into the obstacle chain with hundreds of other candidates, his heart pounding when he realized right from the first steps that the difficulty of the test was far beyond what he imagined. Metal beams rotated continuously, sections of the floor collapsed suddenly, and streams of compressed air were strong enough to push an adult person away.

He uses the skills Bui Vấn Sơn taught to maintain balance, and the reflexes Tinh Nhược trained to avoid obstacles in time. Several times he almost slipped into a deep void, his heart clenched with fear, but his survival instinct and the will to save his mother helped him overcome each obstacle.

Around him, many other contestants failed - some people slipped and fell into the safety net below while screaming in panic, some people were pushed off the track by the compressed air, being eliminated from the round immediately. That scene reminded Lam Vũ that this was not a game, but a real battle of life and death, where every small mistake could cost him his life.

At the final stage of the obstacle chain, Lam Vũ faced an empty space nearly five meters wide, with nothing to hold on to but a fragile cable swinging in mid-air. He looked down into the dark abyss below, feeling fear rising up his throat.

In that moment, the image of his mother lying in a hospital bed behind a cold steel door appeared in his mind, and a familiar warmth began to run down his spine — the same feeling as when he supported the rock in the mine. He grabbed the cable tightly, used his strength to jump across the gap with a speed and strength far beyond his normal body limits, landing safely on the other side in front of the amazement of many spectators watching through a magnified screen.

"What did he just do?" A commentator's voice rang out through the speaker system, full of surprise. "That jump far exceeded the standard physical parameters of a primary Linh Cốt contestant!"

Lam Vũ stood still for a moment, panting, looking down at his slightly shaking hands. The warm feeling had disappeared again as quickly as it had appeared, but this time, he felt more clearly than ever that it was not a random outburst of instinct — it was a part of his true power that was slowly awakening in his body.

He finished in the first group of twenty contestants who passed the round, qualifying for the next round. Stepping out of the competition area, he found Tinh Nhược's eyes in the crowd of spectators, seeing her looking at him with a complicated expression - both surprised and confirming something she had long suspected.

But unbeknownst to him, at the highest aristocratic stage, another pair of eyes was also watching the jump just now with special attention - the eyes of an Elder of the Quang Nguyên Elder Council, whose duty was to directly report any unusual manifestations about Grand Patriarch Kha Bạch Vân.

The resting area for contestants is divided into many small compartments according to Linh Cốt rank, and Lam Vũ, as a beginner contestant, is placed in the shabbiest area, deep under the arena, far from the luxurious compartments of aristocratic contestants. He didn't complain, because for him, just being here, surviving each round of the competition, was a rare privilege that an empty-hearted person like him had never dared to dream of.

That night, Bốc Vấn Sơn tried to sneak into the contestants' resting area under the guise of a temporarily hired logistics worker, carrying some pain-relieving ointment for the bruises on Lam Vũ's body after a series of harsh obstacles.

"You did well," he said, his voice filled with both pride and worry, rubbing the medicine on the boy's shoulder. "But I saw something different in your eyes when you jumped across that gap. Did you feel the power?"

"I can feel it, uncle," Lam Vũ replied softly. “It was only for a moment, but it was much stronger than last time, in the mine.”

Bốc Vấn Sơn nodded thoughtfully. "It's growing bigger every time you face danger. It's a good sign, but it's also a dangerous sign. The faster you get stronger, the more likely you are to be noticed by those with sharp eyes. You have to learn to hide it better in the coming rounds, at least until you're strong enough to protect yourself without having to hide it anymore."

"I will try," Lam Vũ promised, even though in his heart he knew that, between survival and hiding his strength, sometimes he would not have the right to choose.

Before leaving, Bốc Vấn Sơn held his hand tightly, his old eyes shining with deep worry. "I will find a way to monitor your mother's situation every day and report back to you through Tinh Nhược. You just need to focus on surviving each round. Don't let worrying about your mother distract you from the moments of life and death." Lam Vũ nodded, watching the old man's figure disappear into the dark hallway, his heart rose with an even stronger determination than before. He knew that from now on, every step he took in the Abyss Arena was not only a fight for himself, but also a fight for all those who had sacrificed and endured, so that he could have this opportunity.

That night, returning to the rest area for contestants, Lam Vũ lay awake, feeling his body still had the afterglow of the strange power that had erupted in the moment of life and death. He knew he had just passed the first round, but he also sensed that, somehow, he had just attracted unwanted attention—attention that could bring both opportunity and untold danger in the coming rounds.