The Gene Research Institute

Early morning, 6:30.

When the pale golden sunlight shone through the curtains and fell on Xu Tui's long eyelashes, he opened his eyes right on time.

Three years of intensive study and training had made Xu Tui's body clock incredibly punctual.

He slowly stretched.

He felt refreshed.

His limbs, which had been sore yesterday, felt incredibly sluggish today.

He was back at full strength.

Xu Tui's lazy expression was tinged with a strong, youthful air.

But that lazy air vanished as soon as he got out of bed, replaced by a brisk and energetic demeanor.

He brushed his teeth.

Then he gulped down a large glass of warm water from the table.

That was his mother's order.

Xu Tui had long since gotten used to following it.

He washed his face.

Then he changed clothes.

Xu Tui wolfed down the breakfast that had been prepared beside the table as quickly as he could.

Three boiled eggs.

A large glass of milk.

An ear of corn.

A big basket of pork and eggplant buns, their surfaces glistening with oil.

A small dish of bright-red chili oil.

It was the dipping sauce for the big buns.

His mother had made it herself.

Or perhaps his father had.

Mmm, it smelled great!

It really was delicious.

In the Gene Great Era, every student had to receive an education in both academics and physical training of a certain intensity, starting in elementary school.

Physical training peaked in high school.

The fact that gym teachers served as homeroom teachers throughout those three years made that clear.

For most ordinary families, eggs were the best and cheapest source of protein.

Xu Tui's family was very ordinary.

Their neighborhood was full of the sights and sounds of everyday life, and his parents were ordinary wage earners.

The only reason they could live an ordinary life like this was that his parents had both passed the Gene Admission Line back in their day.

"Mom, I'm full. I'm heading to school."

After letting her know, Xu Tui picked up the liability waiver and accident insurance form and headed for the door.

His mother, Zhang Xiuli, looked at him and opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

His father, Xu Jianguo, waved at him. "Go on. Remember to call us after you come out of the gene examination room."

Xu Jianguo didn't say the words "to let us know you're safe," but Xu Tui still saw his mother's body tremble.

"Got it."

When he was younger, he hadn't understood and had always resented his parents' reminders whenever he went out.

But today, Xu Tui felt the weight behind those reminders.

After Xu Tui left, Xu Jianguo slowly sat down at the dining table and pulled out a tissue to hand to his wife.

"In this day and age, every child has to go through this.

Without the Gene Liberation Potion, you're a cripple in this Gene Great Era."

"Besides, you and I went through it too, and we came through just fine.

What is there to worry about?"

"And more than twenty years ago, weren't you even more eager than I was to take the Gene Liberation Potion?

I don't remember you crying back then."

Xu Jianguo's words finally helped his wife calm down. She took the tissue and dabbed at the tears in her eyes. "I'm just worried about Jinfeng.

A probability is just a probability, but when it happens to someone personally..."

"It won't happen to Jinfeng."

Xu Jianguo's voice turned forceful and resolute.

"Teacher said that as long as you keep up this meditation for more than ten years, the probability of your genome collapsing after taking the Gene Liberation Potion will come infinitely close to zero!"

At the mention of his teacher, Zhang Xiuli visibly calmed down.

She clearly trusted the teacher Xu Jianguo spoke of.

"But those side effects..."

"No buts!"

Xu Jianguo was firm.

"Besides, the teacher has tracked very few people. The statistical results aren't all that meaningful!"

Xu Tui had no idea that after he left home, his parents were worrying about his future.

The school was filled with students whose faces brimmed with anticipation and excitement.

After taking the Gene Liberation Potion today, quite a few of them would transform into gene superhumans.

Every student, Xu Tui included, hoped to become a gene superhuman.

Speed like the wind.

Or the strength of a steel strongman.

Or the astonishing eyesight of a hawk.

Even legendary supernatural abilities!

Of course, nearly all of the students walked stiffly or limped.

Cheng Mo was even more ridiculous, hopping into the school like a frog.

Today, they were gathering directly at Training Ground No. 4.

Their homeroom teacher, Yu Zeping, was already waiting there.

One by one, he collected and checked the liability waivers and accident insurance forms.

The death rate for the Gene Aptitude Test, which would take place in a few hours, was no joke.

When it was Xu Tui's turn, his waiver and insurance form were fine, but Yu Zeping frowned at how perfectly normal his gait was.

"Looks like yesterday's triple training load wasn't nearly enough for you.

Go do two more rounds before everyone else starts."

Xu Tui's spirited face instantly turned green.

"Teacher, I really hit my limit yesterday."

Xu Tui tried hard to make himself look like he was limping.

Crack!

The thin leather whip in Yu Zeping's hand snapped sharply as he pointed it at Xu Tui.

"You think I'd believe that?"

"..."

Xu Tui opened his mouth, then resignedly walked toward the training ground.

Cheng Mo, Tang Ting, and the others shot Xu Tui mischievous looks, enjoying his misfortune.

They knew exactly how Xu Tui was.

No matter how exhausted he'd been the day before, he'd always be full of energy again the next morning.

But today, he was in for it.

Xu Tui walked onto the training ground with a look of utter resignation. Before he left, he called out, "Homeroom teacher, Cheng Mo and the others might be faking it!"

Cheng Mo, Tang Ting, and the others turned pale.

Yu Zeping had already walked over to them, whip in hand. Its thin tip flicked lightly. "We'll find out if they're faking when we put them to the test!"

The homeroom teacher's so-called limit-pushing training was no joke today.

Yesterday's three sets of routine exercises had already pushed many of the students to their limits.

The routine training had barely begun that morning when quite a few students were pushed to the point of crying and losing control.

But they were only allowed to leave after the school doctor, who was carrying a vital-signs monitor on the training ground, confirmed that they had reached their physiological limits.

Xu Tui was the last one to leave Training Ground No. 4.

The other students needed only one or two rounds of routine training before the monitor showed that their muscle strength and heart strain had reached their limits. They could then go prepare for the next stage.

But Xu Tui had to go through four and a half sets.

The homeroom teacher was baffled.

He'd never seen anything to suggest this guy had an exceptional talent for training.

Xu Tui felt miserable.

He knew it was all because of the nightly meditation sessions that helped him recover so quickly!

After the limit-pushing training, all the students washed up at school. Once their electronic identities had been verified, they boarded buses together for the Gene Aptitude Test site.

There were two Gene Aptitude Test sites.

One was located at the examination center at Jincheng Gene Evolution University.

It provided the D-grade Gene Compound Chain Allele Potion.

Students whose college entrance exam scores were above the Gene Admission Line but below the First Gene Excellence Line took the Gene Aptitude Test there.

The other was the examination center at the Jincheng Branch of the Gene Research Institute.

It provided the C-grade Gene Compound Chain Allele Potion and the Gene Activation Stabilization Potion.

Students whose college entrance exam scores were above the First Gene Excellence Line took the Gene Aptitude Test there.

Whether it was the D-grade or C-grade Gene Liberation Potion, or the Gene Activation Stabilization Potion, they were all extremely precious. With so many doses involved, their total value was astonishing.

Three days earlier, the military had taken over both examination sites.

Once the convoy came within ten kilometers of either site, all kinds of unmanned technology began escorting and inspecting it.

Xu Tui, Cheng Mo, Tang Ting, and the others got off in turn in front of the Gene Research Institute's Jincheng Branch and underwent inspection.

Besides Xu Tui and Cheng Mo, six other students in Yu Zeping's senior class seven had passed the Dual Excellence Line: four boys and four girls in total.

Fingerprints!

Iris scans!

Electronic identity cards.

Facial recognition.

Only after all four checks were completed, along with the supervising teacher's signature, were Xu Tui and the others allowed to enter the security checkpoint at the Gene Research Institute's Jincheng Branch.

It was the most advanced security checkpoint Xu Tui had ever seen.

There were no fewer than eleven types of security scanners alone.

Beyond the checkpoint, all sorts of unmanned technology equipment could be seen moving back and forth. Armed soldiers stood guard, underscoring how important this Gene Aptitude Test was.

At the end of the passage was a large hall, spacious enough to accommodate hundreds of people in an orderly manner.

One side of the hall had forty sealed rooms. Each room had a student number displayed outside, and students went in when their numbers were called.

The other side contained function halls marked with their respective purposes. Students who had finished taking the potion kept coming out of the rooms and entering them.

The function halls were divided into two categories.

The Limitless System testing hall and the Mysterious System testing hall.

The Limitless System produced superhumans.

Xu Tui and the others had learned these basics long ago.

What caught their attention most was the row of rooms in different colors on the north side.

That was the Mysterious System testing hall.

Only the Mysterious System could produce supernatural abilities.

Hardly any students went in and out of there. In fact, there were almost none.

At any rate, from the time he arrived at the hall until now, Xu Tui hadn't seen anyone head into the Mysterious System testing hall.

Just then, the door to the supernatural testing hall beside the Mysterious System testing hall suddenly flew open.

A short boy walked out of the hall, grinning foolishly.

When the boy's supervising teacher came over, he excitedly raised his arm.

"Supernatural!"

"Teacher, I got a Fire Element ability!"

He hadn't even finished speaking before crackling flames burst into life.

Smoke and fire suddenly billowed around the short boy.

First his hair and eyebrows caught fire and began to smoke, then his clothes and shoes.

"Side effects?"

The supervising teacher reacted quickly and immediately turned to lunge for a fire extinguisher.

But the security staff were even faster.

Almost as soon as the flames appeared, fire-extinguishing foam sprayed over the boy, covering him in an instant.

But before the fire all over him could be put out, the boy fainted.

"Take him to Cold Storage Room No. 9. Set the temperature to five degrees."

"Administer one dose of the D-grade Recovery Potion by subcutaneous injection."

A researcher in a white coat appeared at the entrance to the Transcendent-class testing hall. Wearing an impassive expression, he rattled off a series of procedures, clearly a man who'd seen this sort of thing many times.

Mm, it sounded a bit like a doctor's orders.

Old Classmaster Yu Zeping's eyes suddenly lit up.

"A D-grade Recovery Potion?"

"This kid's lucky. Not only did he awaken a Transcendent gene, he even got to use a D-grade Recovery Potion.

"Judging by that, he must have unlocked somewhere between eight and ten Gene Points.

"And the side effects look negligible, too. Just some excess strength, or an inability to control it.

"Not bad. Very good!

"If only you had this kid's luck.

"One of you like him, and I'd be satisfied!"

Old Classmaster Yu Zeping said this as he looked at Xu Tui, Cheng Mo, Tang Ting, and the others.

"Old Classmaster, this kid's hair and eyebrows were all burned off just now. Think he caught fire?" Cheng Mo nudged Tang Ting with his elbow.

"So he's a roasted bird?"

"Charcoal-grilled?"

The hundred-kilo Tang Ting instinctively swallowed, then nudged Xu Tui with his elbow.

Xu Tui was still astonished at having seen a Transcendent for the first time. Without thinking, he blurted out:

"Barbecue?"

"Isn't that Old Classmaster's favorite?"

Old Classmaster Yu Zeping's smiling face turned green in an instant.

He was just about to lose his temper and teach the three little rascals a lesson.

Xu Tui and Cheng Mo's names and student ID numbers rang out at the same time.