Magnetic Field Maniac

Ji Xinghuo boarded an Aerospace Fighter again, speeding through the night sky.

Inside the cabin, he looked at the crystal pinched between his fingertips. It felt tough yet elastic, and its information panel appeared in his vision.

This Super-Limit Ability Seed had returned to his hands, though he had paid a certain price for it.

Calling it a price was uncertain, however. Perhaps it could even be considered a good thing.

He had signed the contract.

It was an employment contract from the Sharp Sword Bureau. After signing it, Ji Xinghuo had officially joined the Sharp Sword Bureau and become a "Fish Intestine" swordsman.

The Sharp Sword Bureau's swordsmen were divided into four ranks, all named after ancient famous swords.

From lowest to highest, they were Fish Intestine, Chun Jun, Chi Xiao, and Xuanyuan.

Fish Intestine swordsmen were the lowest rank, with benefits and salaries at the bottom of the Sharp Sword Bureau's scale. Even so, they were far better paid than ordinary jobs. The monthly base salary alone was just over 30,000 Asia Yuan. With various benefits and performance bonuses, monthly income could approach 40,000 Asia Yuan.

Participating in field operations also came with substantial additional allowances.

Of course, the Sharp Sword Bureau's work was unusual. Most operations were extremely dangerous, and the high salary was earned by risking one's life.

One careless mistake, and there would be money to collect but no life left to spend it.

Ji Xinghuo was only a Fish Intestine swordsman, so for now he did not need to participate in operations. The contract clearly stated that only Advanced Espers were qualified for field duty.

Before then, he was merely a member of the Sharp Sword Bureau's General Management Office Training Department.

Most Fish Intestine swordsmen belonged to the Training Department. Their most important task was training: undergoing agent training, cultivating, taking combat courses, and advancing to Chun Jun swordsman as soon as possible.

Although Ji Xinghuo had not wanted to join the Sharp Sword Bureau voluntarily, he had to admit that its Training Department was truly an excellent place.

The Training Department offered the best cultivation conditions, with many advanced facilities and devices unavailable on the market, all kinds of expensive supplementary medicines, and the finest coaches and teaching assistants. Its coaching staff was in no way inferior to those of the Super League, perhaps even better.

Most importantly, all of it was free!

No field duty, money just for training—it was practically perfect.

Ji Xinghuo was quite tempted, but after calming down, he understood something: every gift from fate had its price secretly marked.

The Sharp Sword Bureau was so generous for a reason. It was not running a charity.

Once he accepted the Sharp Sword Bureau's salary and enjoyed its benefits, he would have to risk his life for the Sharp Sword Bureau in the future.

Of course, one could also say that risking his life for the Sharp Sword Bureau meant contributing to the country. Ji Xinghuo did not object to that. He was very willing to offer his own share of strength to the nation.

But not now.

Ji Xinghuo had his own plans. Binding himself too deeply to the Sharp Sword Bureau at this point was not in his interests.

For the sake of the bigger picture in the future, and for his own prospects, he currently had to maintain a certain distance from any official organization or major power.

Only when I become stronger, when I have the power to crush every enemy, can I make a greater contribution to the country.

After considering it from every angle, Ji Xinghuo made his decision.

Sharp Sword Bureau swordsmen did not need to clock in for duty. He could resist the Training Department's benefits, voluntarily give up the preferential treatment, and simply not report in. There was nothing the Sharp Sword Bureau could do about it.

At worst, he would be fired! Ji Xinghuo could not help smiling to himself at the thought.

Zhou Yishang had pressured and tempted him with good intentions, clearly valuing his talent greatly. But no matter how thoroughly Zhou Yishang calculated, he would never have guessed that Ji Xinghuo did not care about the Training Department's benefits at all and would simply skip work.

I need to fuse the Ability Seed as soon as possible.

Then run!

The Sharp Sword Bureau's reach extended across the globe, so finding him would be easy. However, there was one perfect destination the Sharp Sword Bureau could not infiltrate.

The Star Realm! Modern nations' intelligence networks were everywhere. Through the internet and countless cameras, they could monitor nearly every movement across the world in real time. It was extremely difficult for an individual to evade a search.

But in the Star Realm, there were no electronic devices or networks, and the power of national organizations was weakened to its lowest point.

As it happened, Ji Xinghuo already planned to go to the Star Realm—for Spirit Source Energy! A short while later.

The Aerospace Fighter returned Ji Xinghuo to Chang'an, dropping him off in an empty park in Qishan District before taking off again.

Ji Xinghuo did not go home immediately.

When Min Chongwu had sent him away, he had said that for the next half month, the Sharp Sword Bureau would assign people to watch Ji Xinghuo's apartment building and the surrounding blocks, ensuring absolute safety.

However, Ji Xinghuo did not quite believe him.

He was not afraid of retaliation. He simply disliked being secretly watched.

At a hotel several kilometers from home, Ji Xinghuo rented a room. After washing up, he sat on the bed and took out the crystal he carried close to his body.

Ability Seed: Rotating Magnetic Field

Grade: Super-Limit

Fusion Success Rate: 99%

Upgradeable: Yes

A Super-Limit ability!

Ji Xinghuo had admired it many times already, yet whenever he saw the information on the panel, his heart still surged with excitement, nearly beyond control.

Across global Ability Seed exchanges and major platforms, Super-Limit abilities were the highest-grade abilities one could buy.

But Rotating Magnetic Field was not among them.

So-called Super-Limit meant surpassing the limits of the human body.

Even the weakest and least broadly useful Super-Limit ability would cost no less than twenty million. Not to mention that an ultimate Super-Limit ability like Rotating Magnetic Field could not be bought even with money.

Its value spoke for itself.

Rotating Magnetic Field could amplify the human body's bio-magnetic field. When activated, it combined with Stellar Force to produce various powerful effects: enhancing strength, explosiveness, and speed; improving the efficiency of Stellar Force cultivation; accelerating recovery after Stellar Force depletion; and more.

Magnetic fields and electric fields were inseparable.

Therefore, Rotating Magnetic Field could generate electric current within an Aberrant's body!

The essence of this ability was electromagnetism, one of the universe's four fundamental forces. As Rotating Magnetic Field grew stronger and delved step by step into the roots of physics, it could grant all kinds of incredible, almost mythical abilities.

Manipulating electric currents, strengthening the body, cellular reconstruction, Control Metal, decomposing matter...

Its potential was nearly limitless!

Whoever controlled electromagnetism would be a tyrant who ruled the world!

Of course, such powerful abilities required abundant Stellar Force and the support of more abilities.

Electromagnetism was still far too distant. Forget an Elementary Ranger like himself—even a Heavenly King-level Aberrant would not dare claim to have touched so much as the fringe of electromagnetism.

Fusing Rotating Magnetic Field was merely the first step of a long journey.

It was so highly sought after not only because the ability itself was incredibly powerful, but also because Rotating Magnetic Field was the core ability of an exceptionally powerful Class Template.

That Class Template was the Magnetic Field Maniac! There were already more than forty mature Class Templates on Earth, and comparisons between them were inevitable. This topic had remained a perennial hot topic across websites, forums, and social media.

Which Class Template was the strongest, which was the weakest; which was the fastest, which was the slowest; which was the most unique, the rarest, the most versatile, the strangest, and so on...

Posting anything related online would draw tens of thousands of replies.

Countless people debated, argued, insulted one another, grew furious, became enemies, arranged offline fights, exchanged slashing blows, and even caused bloody incidents.

Some lost their lives, while others went to prison.

Amateur netizens argued endlessly, while professional organizations and official bodies conducted research as well.

At the beginning of this century, the Aberrant Guild under the Astral Defense Council (ADC) released a Class Template rating system. It broke Class Templates down into ten categories of ability: melee combat, ranged combat, defense, speed, perception, burst power, control, recovery, support, and potential.

The highest score for each category was 10, while the lowest was 1.

This rating system incorporated a large amount of detailed data, complicated formulas, and functions to calculate each category's score.

The scores in all ten categories were then added together to produce the final rating.

Most Class Templates scored below 40.

For instance, the Ranger scored 37.

The lowest-rated was the Giant General, with only 31 points.

Others included the Iron Guard at 32, the Star Beacon Hand at 34, the Evil Spirit and Phantom Sound Master at 35, and Swift Step and Ice Edge at 36.

The White Knight and Shadow Blade were the same as the Ranger, both scoring 37.

Class Templates scoring above 40 were considered relatively powerful. For example, the Black Bishop had 41 points, the Gravity Master 43, the Controller 44, and the Mind Hacker 45.

There were even fewer Class Templates that scored above 50.

The 51-point Capricious Genius, the 50-point Blood Butcher, the 52-point Superconducting Arcanist, and the 58-point Aura Fighter were all powerful and rare. Against them, Aberrants of the same level generally had almost no ability to fight back.

There were even stronger Class Templates, capable of scoring 60 or even over 70 points, but they were few and far between across the entire world.

For example, the Dragon Lord, Psionic Stringer, and Astral Traveler.

The highest-rated class in this evaluation system was precisely the Magnetic Field Maniac, which reached 81 points! Magnetic Field Maniac was the only Class Template to score above 80, and not one of its ten abilities scored below 7.

It was not only the Aberrant Guild that gave Magnetic Field Maniac the highest evaluation. In assessment systems released by other nations and organizations, Magnetic Field Maniac firmly occupied first place as well.

Without exception!

Countless people had argued about it online for years. No matter how heated the arguments became, they often ended with everyone reaching the same conclusion about the "strongest class."

Magnetic Field Maniac was the strongest Class Template in the minds of the vast majority.

Of course, rating systems were merely theory on paper.

A lower-scoring Class Template was not necessarily much weaker than a higher-scoring one. The key still depended on the Aberrant themself.

A Class Template was not the sole factor determining an Aberrant's strength.

On the contrary, high-scoring Class Templates often had many drawbacks.

For example, high entry thresholds, numerous requirements, difficult cultivation, low fusion success rates, abilities too rare to find, inability to advance, and so on.

Low-scoring Class Templates had many advantages and conveniences instead. Through subsequent class advancement, they could likewise gain strength comparable to high-scoring classes, or even surpass them.

Even so, people still yearned more for rare and powerful Class Templates.

Magnetic Field Maniac was one of them.

And the most important core ability of this Class Template was the Rotating Magnetic Field in his hand!