Trait Advancement

The hall fell deathly silent. Not a single person stepped back.

They had come this far. Who would willingly give up a chance to rise above their station?

They had fought for these spots themselves. Others would have given anything to be in their place.

Jiang Yue stripped off his clothes without a flicker of expression, revealing a lean, densely muscled body honed by punishing exertion. He lay down in the Medical Pod.

The lid closed soundlessly. Cold, viscous Blue Nutrient Solution flooded in from all sides and completely submerged him.

"Injection commencing."

At the command from the control console, a mechanical arm extended inside the pod. An icy needle pierced Jiang Yue's carotid artery with precision.

The entire tube of Primary Gene Enhancement Fluid, glowing with a shifting halo, was mercilessly injected into his bloodstream!

Boom!

The moment the fluid entered his body, Jiang Yue's steady breathing seized.

A terrible cold raced through his blood vessels toward his heart. Then, with one beat of his heart, that cold turned into molten fire fierce enough to set his soul ablaze!

Pain! Pain beyond words!

It did not come from torn muscles, but from destruction on a microscopic scale.

Jiang Yue could almost hear the trillions of cells in his body wailing together.

His once-flimsy gene chains were being brutally torn apart by the fluid's overpowering effects!

For someone whose foundation had been built since childhood, this reconstruction might have gone smoothly. But for Jiang Yue's body, which had started with such poor foundations, the drug was far too potent!

"Beep, beep, beep—warning! Subject's heart rate has exceeded the critical threshold! Severe rejection reaction detected!"

The violent reaction sent Jiang Yue's body into convulsions within the nutrient solution.

At that life-or-death moment, the panel deep in Jiang Yue's vision was finally activated by the vast influx of foreign energy!

[Action: Eating—Trait [Food Digestion] activated!]

[Current status: +++]

By Food Digestion's underlying rules, anything that entered the body and contained energy counted as food—even a volatile Gene Potion!

An illusory furnace hidden in his stomach roared to life, trying to digest the drug's gene-rending power and bring it under control.

But the gulf between their energy levels was too great!

I can't hold on...

The agony began to blur Jiang Yue's consciousness, but his eyes remained open in the nutrient solution, fixed on the panel before him. A savage, almost deranged hunger blazed in them.

Eat it... All that energy...

I risked my life in the Gravity Chamber to earn this... I won't waste a single drop!!

"Eat it!!!"

Desperate defiance and a frenzied will to seize everything became an obsession that drove his body onward.

Deep within the panel came a crisp crack that only Jiang Yue could hear.

[Advancement successful!]

[Gluttony (Green)]!

[Description: Any high-grade energy taken into the body (high-grade potions, toxins, Exotic Beast Blood Essence, trace radiation, etc.) can be forcibly stripped of impurities and converted into the purest reserves of life. Absorption efficiency reaches 100%, regardless of biological drug resistance! Digestion speed increased!]

[Can store vast quantities of excess energy that cannot currently be digested, then release it in an instant during battle or exhaustion!]

The instant that faint green light appeared, the Gene Potion rampaging through Jiang Yue's body seemed to meet its natural predator!

His stomach, which had barely managed to grind down energy before, became a terrifying miniature black hole.

A domineering, ruthless, unstoppable devouring!

The Gluttony Trait turned ever so slightly. The Blue Nutrient Solution's energy, which had been rampaging through his blood vessels, was torn apart in an instant, forcibly squeezed dry and absorbed at a terrifying speed. It merged perfectly into every inch of Jiang Yue's rebuilding gene chains!

But Gluttony's appetite was enormous.

After draining the Gene Potion in just a few minutes, Jiang Yue's body instinctively bared its fangs at the world beyond him, seeking to fill the vast energy deficit left by his expanding genetic capacity.

Gurgle...

Inside the Medical Pod, the Blue Nutrient Solution that was meant to sustain recruits' vital signs and was rich in high-energy nutrients began to lose its color before their eyes!

The pores all over Jiang Yue's body devoured its nutrients like a whale swallowing seawater!

In little more than ten minutes, an entire pod of costly, highly concentrated nutrient solution had been reduced to clear, impurity-free water!

"Beep—beep—beep!!"

"Warning! Nutrient solution reading in pod G-876 has dropped to zero! Energy depleted!"

Red warning lights flashed wildly across the area, immediately alerting the senior military doctors in the distance.

"What happened?! Did the nutrient solution leak?"

Several doctors and emergency Medical Robots rushed to the pod. When they saw the crystal-clear water through the glass, they stared as though they had seen a ghost.

"What the hell? Even someone approaching Martial Artist level needs at least an hour to absorb the drug and nutrient solution on their first try! It hasn't even been twenty minutes?!"

"Is this kid's body a black hole? Check his vital signs! Have his genes collapsed?!"

One doctor fumbled open the data panel, then froze.

Jiang Yue's heart rate, blood pressure, and cellular activity had not collapsed. They showed an exceptionally robust state of health!

"Could this... be some extraordinarily rare recessive genetic mutation?"

The doctor wiped cold sweat from his forehead. It was the only conclusion he could reach, though he barely believed it himself.

Hiss—

Just then, the doors of Medical Pod G-876 slid open automatically.

Jiang Yue slowly sat up in the clear water.

He was nothing like the recruits in the surrounding pods who had survived the transformation. They were so drained by pain that they barely had the strength to stand.

His gaze, by contrast, was frighteningly clear. A faint green gleam still lingered deep in his eyes.

Jiang Yue looked down and clenched his fist.

He did not feel any explosive, immediate increase in muscle strength. The genetic fluid raised his potential, not his current combat power.

But he could clearly feel that the heavy shackles within his body had vanished completely!

Now he was like a bottomless abyss with limitless capacity. No matter how much Blood Energy he gained, he was confident his body could contain it all!

Then came another physical reaction, far more immediate and ferocious.

Hunger!

A hunger unlike anything he had ever known!

The ravenous craving rising from the depths of his cells, from Gluttony's very instincts, made Jiang Yue's gaze turn predatory.

He even felt that if the doctors were not there, he could bite the metal arm off that Medical Robot and chew it to pieces!

Jiang Yue took a deep breath and forced down the frenzy in his eyes.

He stepped out of the Medical Pod, picked up his terminal, and glanced at it.

His extra reward for placing in the top thousand of the Gravity Assessment was waiting there: [Basic Military Merit Points: 100].

Jiang Yue touched his flat stomach, and a smile slowly curved his lips.

His Gene Lock was open, and his digestive system had evolved into a bottomless pit.

Fortunately, he had plenty of Points now. He could finally eat his fill.