Perception Check

After hearing the general classification of the Awakened.

Xi Shenlian chose to ask a seemingly insignificant question.

"I remember that the probability of a human becoming Awakened is roughly one in fifteen million."

"Then, may I ask how long it usually takes for an Awakened to pass through the Initial Awakening Stage?"

For someone already in the Mature Stage like him, this question should have been meaningless, but he needed a rough timeframe to analyze certain matters.

As someone from an ancient family, Ouin Chiyoka did indeed know the answer to this question. She did not think it was something she could not answer, and immediately said frankly:

"Although all Awakened are Awakened, their physical qualities and various innate conditions still differ greatly. As a result, the length of time each Awakened spends in the Initial Awakening Stage can also vary enormously!"

"The short ones generally advance to the Mature Stage after two or three years. The long ones may take several decades. However, differences in time do not directly represent differences in talent. Who can go farther still depends on all sorts of factors."

While answering the question.

She had assumed that Xi Shenlian wanted to determine how long it would be before he could advance to the Mature Stage.

In her view.

He should have been in the Initial Awakening Stage for at least a year or two, and should have undergone some highly professional training.

Otherwise.

He would not have left her utterly powerless to resist from the bottom of her heart.

As for his claim that he had only become Awakened a month ago, she completely refused to believe it.

If that were really the case...

She did not dare imagine what level this man could reach if he were given a few more years.

All she could say was.

Dongying could not contain this Great deity...

However, what Xi Shenlian was pondering naturally was not when he would advance to the Mature Stage. Rather, he suddenly realized why the local authorities and various factions in Dongying had yet to contact him.

That was right.

At this very moment.

Xi Shenlian clearly knew that he had long since been exposed to the eyes of certain upper-level figures and nobles.

He had known it for quite some time.

Probably when he had gone to get a haircut.

When he saw the barber use all his strength yet still only manage to cut two or three of his hairs at once.

Xi Shenlian had realized that it would not be long before his identity as an Awakened was exposed.

The actual reason was very simple.

Compared with ordinary people.

He was an anomaly!

A complete and utter anomaly!

His clothing, food, accommodation, and transportation would all reveal how different he was from ordinary people.

Putting everything else aside.

Take clothes, for example.

For a group of people whose arm strength started at the level of tons, what kind of clothes could possibly withstand their exertions without tearing the moment they moved their arms and legs?

At the very least.

Ordinary clothes would certainly not do.

And since those special clothes were needed by so few people, while their materials were equally scarce, they could only be bought in a handful of places.

Then.

If someone with Xi Shenlian's ordinary identity suddenly went to buy that kind of clothing, what would it mean?

Purely collecting them?

Perhaps.

There were probably people like that.

But what if someone investigated how much Xi Shenlian had eaten recently?

What if they investigated the various changes that had happened to Xi Shenlian recently?

Very few people were truly stupid.

And those who had managed to reach the upper levels were even less so.

Especially in modern society, this was even more true!

Many times.

Your purchase records and every move you made would leave indelible traces in all sorts of places.

The upper levels only needed to use big data for a simple screening, and countless matters would become completely impossible to hide.

When he was getting his hair cut, he had suddenly realized all of this. Once he determined that he was completely different from ordinary people and would easily be exposed.

Xi Shenlian had instantly formed numerous judgments.

He understood.

Although he could forcibly conceal himself.

With the system's abilities, this would not be difficult.

But ultimately, there was no meaning in doing so.

After all.

Why the hell should I hide???

Pretend to be weak while secretly biding my time?

I've got a cheat, so why the hell would I pretend?!

I don't care who you are.

I don't care how many people you have.

As long as you dare piss me off, I'll crush my way through you and grind every last one of you into the dirt!!

Therefore.

Even after noticing the problem, he could not be bothered to conceal anything. He had even brazenly displayed his many obvious traits.

For example, eating food meant for more than a hundred people directly in front of outsiders.

Or jumping twenty or thirty meters into the air before the eyes of numerous workers.

And then there was his thirty-day-and-thirty-night experience of exorcising demons and eliminating monsters.

To be honest.

If someone claimed that the authorities and various major factions had not received some additional intelligence, Xi Shenlian would never believe it.

However.

What puzzled him slightly was that throughout this entire month, no one had come to contact him.

He had even been waiting for them to show off to his face so he could slap them down!

Yet all that had happened was that a few randomly respawning monsters had run into him...

Now that he heard Ouin Chiyoka's words.

He immediately understood the general situation.

It was nothing more than the various factions believing that he had only recently awakened and did not pose much of a threat, so they were taking their time observing him from every angle.

For example, observing what his personality was really like and how much of a threat he posed.

Or weighing whether recruiting him was worthwhile and how great a price they would have to pay.

Or perhaps the various factions were secretly fighting among themselves, competing over who would gain priority in recruiting him.

For a moment.

Countless conjectures surfaced in Xi Shenlian's mind.

At the same time, his senses.

His hearing, for example, began to automatically unlock a portion of its potential.

He began capturing every movement within a radius of five hundred meters.

Footsteps, breathing, heartbeats.

As one of Shinjuku District's bustling streets.

In an instant.

Xi Shenlian not only sensed tens of thousands of people, but also heard the ceaseless flow of traffic aboveground, as well as the snakes, insects, rats, and ants beneath the surface.

Then.

Xi Shenlian began to activate his Innate Ability—Perfect Nature—to perform perception judgments on the targets he had sensed.

It was an ability akin to prophecy.

Question: Is the other party paying attention to my movements?

No!

No!

No!

Yes!

No!

Yes!

No!

No!

Before long.

The judgment originating from his own instincts made him realize that while he was sitting in the corner of the café.

Within a radius of five hundred meters, eleven people were still paying attention to his movements.

Four of them were café customers, including Ouin Chiyoka.

Three others were café employees.

As for the remaining four targets.

Through the sound of their heartbeats, Xi Shenlian determined that each of them was roughly two hundred meters away from him.

At this moment.

Xi Shenlian could not help feeling that games were indeed more fun when played a little slower...