Growth

"You're awake? What on earth did you do?"

Seeing Su Shijie awake, Bai Xinxin seemed to relax slightly, though her tone remained impatient.

"I ran into a problem with my training."

Su Shijie told part of the truth.

The room fell silent.

Snort~

Unable to hold it in any longer, Bai Xinxin finally burst out laughing, her smile even twisting slightly.

Even Bai Congcong, who had a mild temperament, wore a strange expression, as if he were holding something back.

"Wahahaha~ I can't take it anymore."

Bai Xinxin kept slapping the edge of the bed as she wiped away tears from the corners of her eyes.

"I won't ask anymore, okay? Just don't say such stupid things.

"Please, big brother, think before you speak. You haven't even tried to break through since you were twelve. I still remember how ridiculously you suffered during your last breakthrough. It's practically my childhood trauma."

Bai Xinxin said, clutching her stomach.

"Third Brother, you're not feeling unwell anywhere, are you? Dad will be back by tomorrow at the latest."

Bai Congcong twirled a lock of hair, looking worried, as though he feared Su Shijie had damaged his brain in the fall.

I'm the one who feels unwell!

Although their emotional reactions were rapidly filling his spirit and energy, Su Shijie could not help grumbling inwardly.

Still, it seemed that his former self really had been rather unreliable. He had begun training on the path of Gene Evolution at ten, reached Mortal Rank 6 at eleven and Mortal Rank 7 at twelve. Then, as more memories awakened, he had stubbornly delayed until now out of fear of the pain of breaking through, waiting for the Awakened Gene Potion to arrive so he could undergo a painless upgrade.

"Get out, get out, get out~ Let me rest properly."

Somewhat embarrassed and angry, Su Shijie waved his hand in annoyance and chased the two of them from the room.

"Hmph, as if we wanted to stay here. How many days has it been since you cleaned up? It reeks."

Bai Xinxin wrinkled her nose, made a face at Su Shijie, then dragged Bai Congcong—who had wanted to help clean the room—out with her.

After stepping outside, she poked her little head back in and said to Su Shijie,

"Oh, right. The important final exams are about to begin. You always barely cling to the elimination line, so don't get eliminated this time and embarrass me.

"If you want me to tutor you, you can beg me..."

"Big Sister~"

From the other side of the door, Bai Congcong seemed to start dragging Bai Xinxin away instead. Then his soft voice came from outside.

"Third Brother, I can help you when the time comes."

After saying that, he thoughtfully shut the grimy door for Su Shijie.

Su Shijie climbed up from the hard bed and leaned half-reclined against the wall. Hearing them, he could not help curling his lip.

Those two were several years younger than him, yet they had already skipped grades into his class. In the Advanced Class, one ranked first and the other second.

They were already guaranteed to obtain Awakened Gene Potions through the Advanced Class, and barring accidents, they would likely pursue desk jobs in the future. Yet they had never neglected their psionic guidance and had both reached Mortal Tier Level 9.

Mortal Tier Level 9 at sixteen. Though their talent was far inferior to his, it was still quite good. More importantly, they could endure hardship and had perseverance.

Compared with them, he was far too lacking despite his talent—the classic other people's children.

If he had not frequently borrowed their notes before exams and crammed at the last minute, then even with his talent, he would probably have been kicked out of the Advanced Class long ago from slacking off every day.

"Looking at it now, I really was a total piece of trash..."

Su Shijie sighed, picked up a bottle of Happy Fat Otaku Water beside him, and gulped it down in one go.

Happy Fat Otaku Water was cheap and good. Even in this strange era, it remained a common drink.

Sugar easily gave people a sense of happiness.

But what gave me the illusion that I'm not trash now?

After finishing the drink, Su Shijie let out a belch and fell into thought.

Thinking of the scene where he had nearly died, and the final scene from his previous life, he inexplicably felt a surge of sorrow and heaviness in his heart. His eyes blurred without him realizing it.

"I originally planned to wait for the Gene Potion and get it all done in one step, then work hard to earn a Transformation Tier Gene Potion. But now it seems danger won't always wait for me.

"I never encountered it before because Dad, Big Sis, and Second Brother were all strong enough to keep danger outside. But when they aren't around, who knows what I might run into?"

Having grown up together, Su Shijie's feelings for his father and siblings in this life were entirely genuine. As for the scenes from his previous life, powerless to do anything about them, he could only choose to lock them deep within his mind.

Precisely because he had lived two lives did he understand even more deeply how precious family was.

Although his other siblings were the orphaned children of his father's comrades, they were no different from family in essence.

It was also because his family was so capable that he had been given the space and time to selfishly walk his own path.

But now it seemed that the path he had thought was secure was not nearly as stable as he had believed.

That feeling of life and death being beyond his control, of having one foot through the gates of hell—he never wanted to experience it again.

To achieve that, there was truly only one way: become stronger without stopping!

He did not want to suffer, but he wanted to die even less!

And if he could really keep growing stronger...

Shaking his head to cast aside those thoughts, Su Shijie made his decision.

Even though his father would soon bring back the Gene Potion, he still sprang up, preparing to enter a training state.

When he had chosen his path, he had also asked his father for advice.

His father had said that Gene Potions could get everything done in one step without any pain. There were even precious potions that could directly turn a person into a Transformation Tier powerhouse.

But those who relied on potions to reach that point only had impressive numbers on paper. When faced with all kinds of danger, they were completely inferior to those who had painstakingly trained their way into the Awakened Rank and Transformation Tier. In battle, being defeated by opponents of lower ranks—or even several ranks lower—was commonplace.

Because they lacked a fighting spirit, their potential would also be reduced to varying degrees.

But Su Shijie had always felt that it did not matter, since he was not taking a combat path anyway.

Having lived in a peaceful era in his previous life and having been well protected since childhood in this one, he now understood more clearly the sigh in his father's words.

Sometimes, it isn't enough just to not want to fight...

Forget it. Since you're talented at games, taking this path is fine too. Your old man should have no problem protecting you until the Transformation Tier.

"Dad, your biological son almost died."

Su Shijie muttered, then began controlling his breathing rhythm and slowly entered a training state.

He gradually focused his mind on the starting point of the spine at the back of his head and began locking onto the cluster of Progenitor Stem Cells he had chosen.

The first step of Gene Evolution was to choose an initial gene and use methods such as suggestion to make it easier to quickly enter a state of psionic guidance.

The Solar System was now covered by psionic energy clusters, so the first thing one had to do was allow one's genes to be imbued with psionic energy and fuse with it.

Since humanity had only come into contact with psionic energy for a thousand years, almost no one had any innate imbuement. Thus, before the Awakened Rank—the starting point of cultivation for most interstellar civilizations—there was also a stage called the Mortal Rank.

Mortal Rank 1 through 9 represented 1% to 9% psionic Gene Imbuement. There were no early, middle, or late stages within each level, and each level increased one's on-paper stats by roughly ten percent.

Based on the roughly one hundred kilograms of overall strength at Mortal Rank 1, Mortal Rank 7 Su Shijie possessed about one hundred and eighty kilograms of force, while his little sister at Mortal Tier Level 9 could normally exert around two hundred and twenty kilograms.

Aside from Bloodline Transformation, individual differences would gradually be compensated for as imbuement increased. Whatever was lacking would be made up for.

That was why his little sister had so easily lifted him onto the bed earlier.

The Awakened Rank was the normal starting stage in most interstellar civilizations. It involved imbuing one's genes with psionic energy from 10% to 100%. There were likewise nine levels, but each level was divided into early, middle, and late stages.

Within the same level, the middle stage was roughly ten percent stronger than the early stage, as was the late stage compared to the middle stage. The late stage was twenty percent stronger than the early stage of the next level.

In other words, the gap between levels was roughly forty-five percent. Breaking through from Mortal Tier Level 9 to the Awakened Rank brought about an increase of approximately the same magnitude.

The difference might not seem large, but in reality, if there was no major difference in experience and neither side used external tools, then a ten percent gap was normally an insurmountable chasm.

A gap of forty-five percent was like a tiger entering a pack of wolves.

Of course, because of firearms and all kinds of thermal weapons, experience and condition could not possibly be completely identical. It was common to defeat stronger opponents in wilderness encounters, and evolutionary level was merely a reference on paper.

Even Dad, at Late Awakened Rank 9, only had some resistance to ordinary firearms. More often, he needed the Awakened Rank's computational power and danger instincts to evade attacks.

That was the essential difference between the Awakened Rank and Mortal Rank.

However, because of psionic coverage, within regions covered by psionic energy, all electronic locking functions were unable to lock onto organisms imbued with psionic energy. This applied to both electromagnetic radar and optical radar.

They could detect biological signatures and choose to blanket an area with firepower, but they could not precisely lock on, nor could they determine an individual's exact rank.

Battles between psionic organisms generally depended on each side's reaction speed and manual aiming.

And while each increase of ten or twenty percent might not seem significant, the gap between early Awakened Rank 1 and late Awakened Rank 9 was twenty-four or twenty-five times!

For example, Dad, Su Ren, had been bitten while unsuccessfully hunting a Spirit Beast during his adventurous younger days, losing his left hand and left foot. His combat ability had declined considerably.

But as someone at Late Awakened Rank 9, he could unleash seven or eight tons of explosive force. Though his speed had not increased by such a large multiple due to air resistance, his ultimate attacks could break the sound barrier.

The density of his bones and muscles allowed him to withstand non-vital attacks from ordinary Electromagnetic Handguns.

If he went all out, he could even use the airflow to kill ordinary people nearby.

He was now an instructor at Shelter P-314 and had trained Big Sis Li Meier and Second Brother Li Wei into Awakened Rank 5 experts.

Within Residential Zone No. 2, their family held the highest status. Even across the entirety of Shelter P-314, they were considered part of the core class.

Only Commander Sergei Brin stood firmly above Dad in all of Shelter P-314. Besides being Transformation Tier Level 1, he had successfully inherited his ancestors' bloodline. Like Su Shijie's current bloodline, it was considered a Knight-class Bloodline.

Once Big Sis and Second Brother both became Awakened Rank 5, their entire family could have immigrated to Prosperous Sky City without much difficulty.

But Dad was currently an instructor at the shelter, Big Sis was the captain of a hunting squad, and Second Brother was the captain of an investigation squad. Their conditions were all quite good, and they had grown accustomed to living here.

Furthermore, competition in Shelter P-314's Advanced Class was not as intense. To ensure that Su Shijie could keep muddling along above the elimination line without being kicked out, they had chosen to remain here.

Otherwise, if they moved into a Floating City, Su Shijie could forget about keeping the Advanced Class as a backup path. He would have no choice but to go all-in on gaming.

This was also one of the sources of confidence and reasons that had allowed Su Shijie to choose the gaming path before.

He could lie back and choose the path he liked, and the benefits he could gain from that path would not be bad either. Of course he had not wanted to suffer.

But now, he had to suffer whether he wanted to or not!

People were always forced into change!

Su Shijie's Gene Imbuement had already reached its current limit. He had only avoided breaking through because he feared the pain.

Once he made up his mind, he gritted his teeth and took that step.

Perhaps there was a chance that, as someone with the essence of an evil god, he would not feel pain...

"Ah!!!!"

A pig-slaughtering scream erupted from Su Shijie's mouth.

An intense, twisting pain exploded throughout his body, as though he were covered in eggs that had all been kicked apart at once.

It included his internal organs and bone marrow!

After the selected Progenitor Stem Cell's Gene Imbuement completed a stage, it began assimilating the imbuement level of every cell throughout the body. Every breakthrough between stages had to be endured once.

It felt as though his entire body were melting. Like every egg in his body breaking? Like full-body gout multiplied by ten? Like full-body kidney stones multiplied by ten?

And after the pain ended, there would be itching. The sensation of his bone marrow and internal organs itching while being impossible to scratch was no easier to endure than pain. This pain and itching would not become familiar or numb with repetition.

It was as though even his nervous perception had been amplified.

This was a baptism...

Other than using a Gene Potion to get everything done in one step by "sleeping through it," every improvement he guided himself through required enduring this once.

Su Shijie did not know how to describe what he was feeling. He only knew that he was screaming like a slaughtered pig while stubbornly holding on.

More than pain, I don't want to die!

When a person went through a major upheaval, they would always change in some way. A boy's growth into a man might take only one night...

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