1 Awakening, Boundless Potential

"All of you, this is your last awakening ceremony. If you guys still fail to awaken, you will have to spend the rest of your lives as ordinary humans. You all might find this somewhat regretful, but you guys will also be far away from the vast majority of dangers, so this might not be a bad thing…"

A voice entered Lu Yuan's ears, bringing him back to reality from his illusions.

As a result, his body violently shook and he was shocked awake.

Lu Yuan then lifted his head and glanced at the surroundings with bewilderment in his eyes.

Right now, he was inside a classroom that was packed full of students, roughly around forty of them.

On the rostrum, a teacher over 50 years old was currently speaking.

(...This place is?)

Lu Yuan was shocked in his heart.

(Am I not dead?)

Originally, Lu Yuan was a corporate drone that 'enjoyed' the 996 working schedule*. Sometimes, he could even get to enjoy the 007 working schedule*.

Right now, the rat race was becoming increasingly competitive. If he didn't work overtime, it was as though he would let down the entire world.

And due to staying up all night too much, eating packed food daily, and having unhealthy work and life balance, he eventually got cancer.

After the diagnosis was confirmed, Lu Yuan actually didn't feel too many fluctuations in his heart.

Wasn't life something that was supposed to give you a 'surprise' after you thought that you had been through and experienced enough shit?

Although this 'surprise' was very huge, he had grown somewhat numb with his life.

When the diagnosis was confirmed, the cancer was already in its late stages. Hence, to reduce his family's financial burden as well as his pain, after he had deleted many of his study data with tears in his eyes, Lu Yuan ultimately chose to end his life.

Although escaping was very disgraceful, Lu Yuan felt that it was quite useful.

He still had a younger brother at home, so Lu Yuan didn't have to worry that no one would take care of his parents. Hence, he was quite serene when he ended his life.

But probably, his parents would feel very hurt, right?

Lu Yuan's consciousness trembled for an instant, and he returned to reality after that.

Since that was the case, a question appeared in his mind.

(Who am I?)

(Where am I?)

The words spoken by the teacher could be understood individually when Lu Yuan heard them. But when the words were joined together, he couldn't understand what they meant.

(Awakening?)

(What awakening?)

At this moment, Lu Yuan's brain swelled, as much information entered his mind.

The confusion in his eyes gradually faded and became much clearer than before.

So, he had arrived in another world and become another young man that was also named Lu Yuan.

In this world, everyone would have a chance to awaken during the three adolescent years, from age 16 to age 18.

If they managed to awaken successfully, they would be able to activate their genetic chain and become mystical gene fighters. Moreover, they could then enter a place named 'Land of Origins' to adventure and explore, obtaining magical treasures and powerful strength.

As Lu Yuan wasn't an awakener, his understanding of the Land of Origins and awakeners wasn't much, and he had limited information on them.

In this world, he was an orphan. When he was very young, he became the sole survivor of his family. in an unfortunate mutation incident. It was only under the child support provided by the empire that he was able to survive and grow up.

When he recalled that incident that was in the depths of his brain, Lu Yuan's pupils violently narrowed and his body shuddered.

This was his body's instinct when in terror.

This year, Lu Yuan was already 18 years old. If he could awaken and activate his genetic chain, he would be able to head to a gene fighter academy in the future.

If he couldn't awaken, he could choose to take the test and join an ordinary university. Naturally, the empire would no longer be responsible for his living expenses and school fees.

After all, the empire's child support would only last until one became an adult at 18 years old.

Strangely, the memory of this original body vanished before this lesson started. At the end of the memory, his body fell onto the table as he lost consciousness.

It seemed that this original body somehow died?

Because the original body's personality was too antisocial, he didn't even have a single friend in class. Even after the lesson started, no one discovered that he had died. This lasted until Lu Yuan transmigrated here.

This made Lu Yuan feel somewhat astonished.

From the memory of this original body, it seemed that due to the mutation incident, in addition to losing his parents, his personality became extremely anti-social. However, his body was still very healthy.

So, why would he suffer a sudden death?

He didn't stay up through the night at all, right?

Lu Yuan pondered and felt that it might be due to the sequela from the mutation incident. After all, in this world, mutation was the most difficult thing to understand. It wouldn't be strange if anything happened.

Lu Yuan didn't continue to probe.

To him, being able to start all over again was something worthy of celebration.

Since he was here, he should just live his new life with peace of mind.

He just hoped that this new life wouldn't be too involuted, as he was really worried he might not be able to handle it.

"Alright, come onto the stage if your name is called. We'll start the awakening ceremony. Wang Yi."

The words spoken by the teacher pulled Lu Yuan back from his thoughts. After that, he lifted his head and glanced at the rostrum as a hint of anticipation appeared in his eyes.

Awakening.

In the past, he had also read novels before, so he naturally thirsted for supernatural powers like these.

The original body had failed the past two times. Hence, Lu Yuan could only hope that he would be able to succeed this time.

The guy named Wang Yi went onto the stage, his face filled with nervousness as he stared at the teacher.

"Don't be nervous. You've tried awakening twice before, so you should know what to do, right? Place your hand on the awakening crystal and use your heart to sense your existence."

Wang Yi nodded and directly placed his hand on a crystal ball on the desk. After that, he closed his eyes.

The air turned heavy as the atmosphere fell silent.

A short while later, the teacher glanced at his pocket watch and spoke in a dull manner.

"Alright, it has been one minute. There are no reactions from the awakening crystal, so you have failed the awakening. You can go down now."

When Wang Yi heard this, his eyes turned red. After that, he walked back in disappointment.

The atmosphere in the class turned somewhat bleak.

The teacher swept his gaze over everyone and spoke.

"There's only a 10% chance for ordinary people to awaken, and the probability becomes lower time after time. If one fails the first two times, the rate of success for their third attempt will be extremely low. Don't harbor too much hope so you can avoid being disappointed if you fail."

Upon hearing this, the atmosphere grew even heavier and more restrained.

At this moment, Lu Yuan couldn't help but praise this guy silently. This teacher was truly the king of chilling the atmosphere.

After hearing this, even his heart state grew colder by a great deal.

Didn't that mean that he would fail his awakening?

However, wasn't there something wrong here?

According to novels, weren't people who transmigrated the main characters?

If he didn't awaken, wouldn't this world lose an extremely powerful gene fighter?

Also, in the future when they had to deal with mutation attacks, the pillars of humanity against the outsiders would be lacking by one.

This was a loss that humanity couldn't afford to have!

"Next, Li Xi."

…

The awakening ceremony continued.

Just like what the teacher had said, the third attempt at awakening had an extremely low probability of success.

Half an hour later, 30 students had finished the ceremony, but not a single one awakened successfully.

Lu Yuan's heart also continued to sink unceasingly.

"Lu Yuan."

When the teacher called Lu Yuan's name, for a time, everyone in the class turned and gazed over.

Lu Yuan was someone they treated as non-existent. As he had no good friends who could cheer and encourage him, everyone merely watched him in silence.

Also, the teacher's attitude toward him was as indifferent as how he treated the other students. He maintained a poker face continuously.

Lu Yuan grumbled in his heart. Where was the special treatment accorded to the main characters?

If things developed in the usual way, wouldn't there be many people showing care and concern for him or someone jumping out to mock him?

But why were their reactions so calm and indifferent?

Was this logical?

(Could it be that I'm not the main character?)

Lu Yuan arrived before the desk and the teacher repeated his earlier words again.

"Place your hand on the crystal ball and use your heart to sense your existence. Don't be too nervous."

Lu Yuan nodded and placed his hand on the awakening crystal.

The surface of the awakening crystal was very cool. It felt very comfortable to touch it.

Closing his eyes, Lu Yuan followed his teacher's instruction to sense his existence.

After that, he felt a stretch of darkness before his eyes.

Time flowed silently as Lu Yuan's heart gradually grew increasingly nervous and uneasy. He didn't sense anything at all.

(Could it be that I really cannot awaken? This world isn't safe. It's always better to have some strength than none.)

Just when Lu Yuan's heart was saddled with unease, a dot of blue light manifested in the darkness.

In the next instant, a blue-colored translucent cube appeared in the darkness and began to make irregular rotating movements.

At that moment, the darkness shattered and white mist shrouded his perception.

A gigantic double-helix light pillar stood tall and imposingly in the white mist. There was a white-colored base below it, and the top of the pillar was covered by the mist.

After the double-helix light pillar appeared, the blue cube seemed to be attracted by it. It moved near to the light pillar and began to rotate around it.

Genetic chain!

Lu Yuan's heart was filled with surprise.

(Have I awakened? As expected, I'm indeed the mighty me! But what is this cube?)

Although his understanding of gene fighters wasn't much, he still knew some basic knowledge about awakening.

He had never heard that a cube would appear when someone awakened.

Lu Yuan then stared at the cube. At the next instant, as though he was possessed by instinct, he understood the information about the blue cube.

The function of this cube was very simple and also excessively ridiculous.

Evolution.

It was said that gene fighters could engrave and record the genes of monsters and ferocious beasts in the Land of Origins to obtain genetic battle techniques. For example, the swimming ability of fishes and the flight ability of birds. It was a type of ability that was engraved and recorded in the genes.

Whenever gene fighters leveled up, a new blank genetic chain would appear, giving them a chance to engrave and record new genes.

However, the gene that was engraved and recorded in the blank genetic chain would be something fixed; there wouldn't be any way to continue upgrading it. Low-grade genes wouldn't bring about too much improvement, while high-grade genes might even counter-devour the host if the host wasn't cautious enough when they engraved and recorded it.

So, one had to be exceptionally careful when they chose the genes. Every time they recorded and engraved a genetic battle technique, they had to ensure that the new technique was something beneficial to their existing ones.

On the other hand, this cube could actually continue evolving the genes after they had been engraved and recorded. This was relatively equal to having limitless potential. Even if the gene he engraved and recorded was the weakest and most common gene, it could gradually evolve to its ultimate peak!

This represented limitless potential and boundless possibilities!

Footnote:

[1] 996 working schedule: working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week. 007 working schedule: No rest days to speak of. You have to be there whenever you are needed.