Lu Yi, once again, found himself standing in the same eternal white room.
[Ding!]
A Fragment window appeared in front of him.
[The game has ended]
[Congratulations! You achieved the last survivor title]
[+100 Fragment Points]
[Total Fragment Points: 149]
[Converting the Fragment points into free points…]
[Please allocate your free points]
[Human Body / The Unseen Shroud Void Body]
Two options appeared side by side. Lu Yi selected them one at a time, reading each carefully:
[Human Body:
Strength: 11
Agility: 13
Intellect: 10
Stamina: 11
Senses: 9]
[The Unseen Shroud Void Body:
Strength: 15
Agility: 17
Intellect: 11
Stamina: 16
Senses: 14]
[Free points: 149]
"The Void body is actually stronger than the human body…" He murmured to himself. "It's a relief I can allocate the points separately, which means if I don't allocate any points to my human body, it won't be awakened."
The consequences of his actions were still not over. He had already faked his death. Now, it was necessary to see it till the end. Lu Er—who died before entering the top 50—couldn’t be an Awakened.
"But how do I distribute them..." He fell into the eternal dilemma that every player faced when confronted with such choices. Nobody could ever know how to put their stats into the right place.
"Strength and agility are a no-brainer. Stamina is also important. Intellect also seems necessary. My senses also need to be sharp…"
Lu Yi thought for a long time, before he realized something else: 'But what about essence?' He didn't remember the instructor telling anything about the essence. Xia Zhong had even said that the free points could be converted into physical stats, but never told anything about essence.
Not reaching any conclusion, he decided to put twenty points in each and leave the rest.
[The Unseen Shroud Void Body:]
Strength: 15{+20}
Agility: 17{+20}
Intellect: 11{+20}
Stamina: 16{+20}
Senses: 14{+20}
[Free points: 49]
Lu Yi willed to proceed, but he was hit with a message:
[Warning: Not using all the free points before proceeding will result in free points being lost forever. You cannot carry on the free points to the next step.]
[Continue?]
"Oh well, that makes it easier then."
He used all of the free points:
[The Unseen Shroud Void Body:]
Strength: 15{+30}
Agility: 17{+30}
Intellect: 11{+29}
Stamina: 16{+30}
Senses: 14{+30}
[Free points: 0]
As he proceeded once again, he was blocked once again, the interface flickering with another warning:
[Warning: If you choose to not allocate any free points, you won't be awakened. The free points will be lost forever. You cannot carry on the free points to the next step.]
[Continue?]
Lu Yi understood that the warning was for his human body, but he had already chosen it to be this way. He was still in his void body, so he agreed.
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From a small dot in the middle of the room—a hole emerged—quickly enveloping the entire room as the white emptiness collapsed into darkness. He was hauled into the hole, his figure diminishing somehow, compressing into something smaller.
Soon, he found himself in a familiar environment. It was space—outer space. Except there were no planets around, only some stars shining in the distance.
Suddenly, a euphoric feeling grabbed him as he floated around. It was similar but much weaker than when he was first assimilated. Yet it was still damn strong. He felt as if he'd ascended. The sensation was hundreds of times stronger than doing fentanyl or heroin.
Unfortunately for it, Lu Yi had experienced something far better, so he still had some control over himself. He could feel a few things changing inside, his bones were realigning, his muscles were changing.
In the middle of the transformation, he noticed something else: his entire body had shed its skin, his hands were now the same pitch-black void. His palms, on the other hand, were completely white. If not for that, he would’ve had some problems differentiating the hand from the surrounding.
Lu Yi felt himself getting stronger and stronger. But he could also feel a tiny bit of pain deep down, it was so deep that he had to concentrate with all his effort just to know that it was there.
Lu Yi had a suspicion that the euphoria he was experiencing was not natural. Yes, it was real, and yes, it was caused by the heavens themselves, but something wasn't right. It seemed as if it was only given to suppress the pain of being Awakened. Most people wouldn't even notice it, they would be way too deep inside the euphoria, lost in the sensation, unaware of the transformation occurring beneath the pleasure.
It ended after a few moments. Lu Yi was still in the space. He moved his limbs around a bit, testing the new form and evaluating the changes. Then, he was hit with another message, the interface appearing before him:
[Choose your path Awakened:
Path of a Cultivator: Awakens Essence
Path of a Mage: Awakens Mana
Path of a Researcher: Awakens Energy
Path of a Follower: Awakens Blessing]
"What?!" The surprise was evident in his voice. This was unexpected. "They actually exist. I would have never expected. But why did I receive this choice? The instructor never said anything about something like this."
Though the choice was obvious, he was still baffled by the fact that he was even given a choice. He had to choose the path of a cultivator because there were a whole lot of essence stones circulating around, and not the mana stones or energy stones. It was obvious why everyone nearby was a cultivator.
'Maybe it's because of the Void body? Does the Fragment see it as an outside body, thus giving the choice to choose the path?'
The thought crossed his mind while his hand chose Cultivator.
Following the confirmation, thin, lilac-colored threads started to appear around Lu Yi. The thin threads of essence circled all around, and covered him almost completely. One by one, they entered his dantian, the energy flowing into the core of his being. The transformation accelerated.
Lu Yi felt a metaphysical sphere in his dantian, the thin essence threads dissolved into this metaphysical sphere, strengthening it and making it more distinct from the surrounding. After a few moments, the threads ended, as Lu Yi's body started producing its own essence. His own essence was blue in color, and somewhat like smoke, ethereal, intangible, the difference in quality was like heaven and earth, but it would have to do.
Du dun—
All of a sudden, Lu Yi opened his eyes. He was sitting on the floor in a small room. He was back to the real world. The transition was jarring.
Observing his body, he found that he was Lu Zhiheng.
So, he let the connoisseur take over, and spent the next ten minutes switching with Lu Er.
Lu Er stood up, and pulled the door open, the wood creaking in protest.
"What do you think?" A voice called out.
"Girl, I am telling you; she crushed his nuts…" Another voice said, crude and laughing, the words carrying across the hallway.
"What is the dinner today?" A third voice asked.
There were a few youths walking around the floor, their voices filling the space with life. Lu Er was slightly taken aback by the change. He remembered the instructions and went down the stairs.
And there were hundreds of youths, some in the hall, some in the grounds outside. There was a reception-like room to the left of the stairs. A fat woman sat behind the window. There was a long queue in front. It was long, but it wasn't that long despite there being hundreds of youths walking around.
A game had concluded just now. There were nearly five hundred who entered the game. Out of those five hundred, only fifty succeeded, out of which three were scions. They had no need to queue among the poor.
As for those who couldn't succeed, it was over for them. They had to go home and remain a mortal for the rest of their lives.
Lu Er joined the queue, and waited for his turn, his patience tested, his anxiety growing with each passing moment. Arriving at the window, he greeted the lady with a smile. The lady wasn't exactly enthusiastic, her expression bored, her attention already drifting elsewhere.
"So, you became an Awakened?" She asked, her voice flat, the question was more of a routine at that point.
"No. But I am a Ranked." Lu Er replied with a smile.
The teenagers behind him gave him a few glances, a few also nodded in appreciation, but that was all. It passed quickly.
"Oh, congratulations. You have a bright future ahead, boy." The lady's expression relaxed a little after hearing that Lu Er was a Ranked. "But I am asking about awakening."
"I was killed by Hua Yong of the Hua family, therefore was disqualified, and lost the opportunity to Awaken."
"Oho, tch, tch. You have some bad luck." She clicked her tongue, sympathy mixed with dismissal. "Anyways, you are a Ranked, so it's probably not that bad. I've heard that the physical body doesn't matter for high-level Ranked. You still have a bright future." She took his numbered plaque and carved an identity token.
"Here, take this, go to the left, you will see an artifact with written instructions and information. Just put your identity token above, it will tell you everything you need. You can even ask a few questions."
"Thank you." Lu Er took the token, it was a silver-colored wooden plaque with his name and room number written on it.
"Uh—I have a question for you."
"I just told yo—"
"Where would I be able to find Xia Sahui? Daughter of Instructor Xia Zhong."
The lady blinked at his face, and let out a small laugh.
"Lad, aren't you skipping a few steps here? You just became a Ranked and you already want to court a lady?" She shook her head, still smiling. "Go ahead and eat some food. It looks like the bad food in the game got to your head."
Lu Er wanted to retort, but hearing about the food made him stop. It was true, that trash jerky and those biscuits in the game had indeed got to his head. He walked to the board-like artifact and pressed his token. The touch activated the interface.
Information started appearing on it, it had his name, and his status as a Ranked. There were instructions about how to proceed.
First of all, he was free to do anything he wanted. The food in the normal cafeteria was free for those with copper plaques. But there was also some different dishes available, only for those with a silver plaque.
This was the way the youths were divided. The Awakened were given copper-colored plaques. Ranked were given silver, while scions and instructors were given golden-colored ones.
There was also another cafeteria and this one had much better food but was only available for gold plaques.
The facilities were all divided on the basis of what type of plaque one had.
There were facilities where the Awakened could get their aptitude measured—which Lu Er had no reason to attend.
There was also a small map of the surrounding in the artifact. He quickly memorized the paths and arrived at the cafeteria. Lu Er was still surprised by the fact that he hadn't seen anyone who he recognized—until now—as he spotted a table where all of them were sitting.
Cai Hong, Xu Qin, Hu Jian, Chen Tao, Chen Yuan, Zhu Yan, Yao Ming, Wan Reira, all of them were sitting at the same corner, eating. It was understandable though—he was nearly ten minutes late—causing way too much crowd to gather at the reception window.
"Hey! Lu Zhiheng! Here!" Wan Reira found him first, and waved her hand, her voice carrying across the cafeteria, drawing a sliver of attention from nearby tables.
