[The system grabbed your brain in one go and refined it in an instant!] [Refinement results: Wealth +999, Luck +999!]
Cloud Sea City.
The Class Changing Hall was packed with people.
An air of nervous tension hung over the crowd. The hall, which had been bustling with noise, had fallen silent as everyone watched the very center.
A raised platform stood there.
A huge array appeared overhead, countless runes linking together in a dazzling stream of light.
The class-changing ceremony—a special day that would decide everyone's fate and future.
Chen Ming stood on the platform, feeling the countless complicated gazes around him. His eyes remained calm as a still well.
"Don't be too nervous. Just relax."
The director of instruction, who was in charge of the awakening, looked at Chen Ming with an encouraging gaze.
As a student whose spiritual potential had broken the historical record, he was naturally someone she had high hopes for.
As the ceremony began, the runes in the array started to flicker.
The director's eyes brightened along with the rising light...
But the next second—
The array's operation came to an abrupt halt, and the light stopped dead.
"This..."
The director froze. She had presided over countless ceremonies, but this was the first time she had seen an array stop halfway through.
She hurriedly looked at the instrument. Chen Ming's awakening information was already displayed on it.
But when she saw the results, the director fell silent...
After a long moment, she finally looked up at Chen Ming with a sympathetic gaze and slowly said:
"Chen Ming, you've awakened a C-rank class: Shield Guard!"
As her words fell, an eerie silence settled over the hall.
A C-rank class...
It wasn't trash, but it was nowhere near "good."
For an ordinary person, it would count as decent luck.
At least it wasn't a life-skill class below D-rank.
But this was Chen Ming, whose spiritual potential had broken the record at Cloud Sea No. 1 High School!
Everyone had thought he would be one of this year's S-rank Class Changers.
Gradually, murmurs arose from the crowd.
"No way. Chen Ming's one of our school's genius prospects, and he only got a C-rank..."
"Tsk, and it's a Shield Guard with just one attribute bonus. That's not even as good as a B-rank Knight, who can both attack and defend."
"Looks like high potential doesn't guarantee awakening a high-rank class."
On the platform,
the director hesitated, then could only offer some comfort:
"Chen, awakening a class is just the first step. You'll have more chances later, so don't put too much pressure on yourself."
That was what she said.
But the director herself knew how slim those chances were.
For Class Changers, nothing mattered more than skills.
And the first skill was tied to the class's rank.
That meant Chen Ming's C-rank Shield Guard could only awaken a C-rank skill for now.
Leveling up and obtaining resources in the future wouldn't be easy.
Let alone finding rare resources to awaken high-rank skills.
Chen Ming nodded without saying much.
He simply walked calmly down from the platform and returned to his class.
Dozens of gazes turned his way, some mocking, some disdainful, some sympathetic...
But no one said anything.
"C-rank class, Shield Guard..."
Chen Ming looked at his status panel, lost in thought.
He had been in this world for three years and had long since learned all about it.
Exotic beasts ran rampant, occupying more than seventy percent of Blue Star's habitable territory.
Every Blue Star resident who turned eighteen could awaken a class through the class-changing ceremony.
A Class Changer's rank was the sole symbol of their status!
Of course, changing classes wasn't entirely a matter of luck.
Potential in every area played a major role, and the most important was spiritual potential.
Chen Ming's spiritual potential was a staggering 19%!
What did that mean?
To put it this way, the highest record for an eighteen-year-old in Cloud Sea City had been 12%.
That was why his awakening of an ordinary class had attracted so much attention.
If you can't find the book by searching its title, try searching for the author. Maybe the title was changed!
However, Chen Ming showed no sign of dejection or despair.
His eyes fell on the bottom of his personal status panel.
A line of striking text was flashing—
[Charge Progress: 99.99%]!
Almost there.
As he watched the last sliver of progress about to disappear,
even Chen Ming couldn't stop himself from growing excited.
"Chen, you okay?"
A familiar voice called out.
A young man with a crew cut stepped forward and patted Chen Ming on the shoulder.
"Chen, don't lose heart. With your spiritual potential, you'll definitely have more chances to awaken new skills after leveling up."
The young man was Sun Yang, Chen Ming's close buddy.
"Let's team up. I'll help you level up."
Sun Yang patted his chest and declared confidently.
He had awakened a B-rank class: Shadow-Hiding Blade.
It was an assassin-type class.
Chen Ming waved a hand, his expression calm.
"Don't worry, I'm fine. As for teaming up... we'll see."
He needed to find out what ability he would get once the charge was complete.
Fighting exotic beasts was no game. Every battle was a fight for life and death.
And teaming up was undoubtedly the best way to increase one's chances of survival.
Before Class Changers reached a certain level, they usually teamed up in pairs, ensuring both safety and leveling efficiency.
Only later did they take on dungeons as a group.
Compared with the fog-shrouded wilderness, large dungeons offered not only known information about the exotic beasts, but also more generous rewards.
Some rare resources could only be obtained in dungeons.
Just then, a commotion erupted in the crowd.
Chen Ming turned to look.
The array on the platform was shining with an intense radiance, almost lighting up the entire ceiling of the hall.
Countless points of light poured down like a curtain of rain, landing on the tall figure standing on the platform.
"Qin Zhixue..."
The director in charge of the awakening stared at the information on the instrument, her voice trembling with excitement.
"Awakened—an SS-rank class: Holy Radiance Angel!"
As her words fell,
after a brief silence, the entire hall erupted into an uproar.
"W-what rank?"
"Double S?!"
"Jiangnan Province hasn't had an SS-rank in ten years, has it?"
"I thought an S-rank was the best this year could produce, and now there's an SS-rank!"
"No wonder she's a genius whose every other stat broke the record!"
"You're wrong. Compared to previous years, Qin Zhixue's spiritual potential broke the record too. It's just that Chen Ming set an absurd new record this year."
"Good heavens, a Holy Radiance Angel! The best of the best, maxed-out offense and defense, plus a team-wide boost. If I could team up with Qin Zhixue, I'd be willing to be her lackey for the rest of my life!"
"Damn... speaking of which, isn't Qin Zhixue on Chen Ming's team?"
Someone suddenly chimed in from the crowd.
Quite a few people turned to look at Chen Ming near the back, their expressions hard to read.
"I heard the school temporarily put a few high-potential students together for the city-level potential competition."
"What's the point of a team formed before changing classes? An SS-rank and a C-rank—anyone with half a brain knows they won't stay together."
"Even so, their personal profiles still list them as teammates."
"Just wait. I bet the first thing Qin Zhixue does after changing classes is leave the team. If she doesn't, I'll eat my hat!"
"..."
At the back of the crowd,
hearing the chatter around him, Chen Ming finally remembered.
Earlier, the school had used the competition as an excuse to make him form a team...
Really, they just wanted talented students with high potential to learn from one another.
One was a well-rounded genius who had nearly broken every record; the other was a prodigy with off-the-charts spiritual potential.
Come to think of it, he and Qin Zhixue had spent some time working together because of that.
Just not much.
He opened his personal status panel.
Under the team section, it clearly read [Morning Light Squad]—Captain!
As for the members,
including Qin Zhixue, there were three in all.
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