The future is a gathering of heroes! Extraterrestrial civilization?

"So it really exists."

He had only been trying it out on a whim.

Yet he had actually found it.

But this quantity...

It seemed a bit stingy.

A faint glimmer flashed by.

A snow-white crystal the size of a fingernail appeared in Chen Ming's hand.

"Is this the rare resource?"

Sun Yang immediately looked over with curiosity, examining it closely.

"It doesn't look like... much of anything."

The rare resources he had imagined were the kind that glowed, substances akin to 'heavenly treasures.'

What Chen Ming held felt like nothing more than an ordinary little crystal.

Was this really a rare resource?

"If the real good stuff were easy to identify, it wouldn't be special."

In truth, Chen Ming couldn't see anything special about this Mind Crystal either.

After putting away the collected rewards, Chen Ming entered the guild building.

He approached one of the counters.

"Hello, are you looking to sell beast cores?"

The receptionist glanced at him, her tone indifferent.

"Yeah."

Chen Ming produced a bulging bag.

Although he had just received 10 gold coins as a Grand Exam reward, one could never have too much money.

There would be plenty of places to spend it in the future.

Clatter, clatter—

Beast cores of varying sizes rolled out.

There were seventeen in total.

"1700. Have a good day."

The lady glanced at the quantity and spoke without looking up.

At the same time, she reached out to sweep the beast cores away.

"Hold on."

Chen Ming said unhurriedly, "Take a closer look."

The lady frowned, glancing at Chen Ming with a hint of impatience.

"What's there to look at? Aren't these just seventeen Level 1..."

"Huh?"

Her expression shifted as she noticed something wrong.

These beast cores didn't seem to be Level 1?

She hurriedly picked up the cores one by one to inspect them, her mental energy sweeping across them.

"Level 2 Spike Roller Beast, Level 2 Flying Leaf Rat core... Level 3 Red Tusk Boar, Level 3 Triangle Lizard, Level 3 Earth Rat Beast Core..."

The more she saw, the more shocked she became.

"And a Level 4 Two-Headed Rattlesnake!"

Among the pile of cores, aside from one Level 1 Spike Roller core, they were all Level 2 and Level 3!

And there was even a Level 4 one.

Wasn't today only the first day of the Grand Exam?

What was going on?

During the Grand Exam, participating class-changers were forbidden from teaming up with non-examinees to level up.

This meant that all these beast cores had been hunted by the person standing right in front of her.

Hunting a Level 4 exotic beast on the first day?

What kind of ruthless person was this?

"My apologies, let me recalculate the price for you."

The lady immediately changed her tune.

"That will be 4,500 in total."

Chen Ming nodded and then asked, "How much for 4 Strength Rune Stone?"

"Attribute runes are 1,000 each, so 4,000 total. Would you like to purchase them?" the young lady replied patiently.

What a rip-off.

He remembered that selling attribute runes to the guild only fetched 600, so reselling them nearly doubled the price.

"Here are your 4 Strength Rune Stone and 500 in change. Please take care."

Seven-thirty in the evening.

Chen Ming finally returned home.

A home for one.

In his memories... his family in this life had perished in a beast tide ten years ago.

"Beep."

Chen Ming pushed the door open, changed his shoes out of habit, and took a shower.

After a full day of slaughtering exotic beasts, his body was stained with a strange, bloody scent.

After eating, Chen Ming lay on his bed to rest.

Throughout the day, his physical condition had never dropped below 10%.

In fact, he was already nearly fully recovered by now.

So, he felt almost no physical fatigue.

However, he was mentally exhausted.

Although Chen Ming had no active skills that consumed mental energy, he had been fighting for almost the entire day.

The consumption was significant nonetheless.

Taking advantage of the brief rest, he pulled out his phone to check the news regarding today's Grand Exam.

As the most anticipated month of the year, the Grand Exam dominated the entire internet's trending searches.

Chen Ming clicked into the Cloud Sea City section.

The first trending topic that caught his eye—

[Shocking! At 18:00, the first day of Cloud Sea City's level rankings were released, and the outcome is unexpected!]

[C-rank Shield Guard class-changer Chen Ming leveled up twice on the first day of the Grand Exam, ranking second in the daily level standings!]

The second one—

[Shocking! SS-rank Holy Radiance Angel class-changer Qin Zhixue has confirmed she is teaming up with Chen Ming, hitting the national trending list!]

The third one—

[An in-depth look at the connection between the first and second place on the first day! The two are suspected to be in a relationship...]

"What is all this nonsense?"

Chen Ming was speechless as he read.

The top three trending topics for the entire city were all about him?

Are these people so bored they have nothing better to do?

Wouldn't it be better to focus on something actually meaningful?

Just spreading gossip...

Chen Ming glanced at the group message notifications on his phone, where a crowd of people were hounding him about his relationship with Qin Zhixue.

There were also those wanting to join the 'Morning Light Squad'.

Ignoring them, Chen Ming clicked into the Huaxia Alliance's global trending interface.

[SS-rank Prophet, Master Azure Sky has made a prophecy, claiming that Blue Star has entered a special era node, and the future will see the rise of many heroes...]

Unexpectedly, the top trending topic on the entire web wasn't about the Grand Exam, but a prophecy.

Chen Ming curiously clicked in to take a look.

Master Azure Sky was a heavyweight figure in the Huaxia Alliance, and it was rumored that he performed a 'Grand Prophecy' once every ten years.

Each time, it caused a massive stir.

It even drew the attention of every alliance on Blue Star.

Who would dare ignore the importance of a Grand Prophecy made by an SS-rank Prophet once every decade?

A moment later, Chen Ming finished reading the trending post about the prophecy of the future era.

To his surprise, this wasn't just some 'clickbait'.

This "Great Prophecy" contained two main pieces of information.

One was that Class-Changers would awaken increasingly high-level classes in the future, leading to an era where geniuses emerge in droves.

Hmm, a very classic narrative...

Regardless, as long as it related to major Alliance events, it was just business as usual.

After all, Chen Ming had no idea what the overall awakening situation across the Alliance was like this year.

"Blue Star might make contact with interstellar civilizations in the future?"

This was the second point, and the most explosive piece of information in Master Azure Sky's prophecy.

"That's a bit of a stretch."

Chen Ming was somewhat skeptical.

When it came to the exploration of the stars, Blue Star was not even as advanced as the world from his previous life.

In this world, exotic beasts ran rampant and danger lurked everywhere; even the sky was filled with dungeons and mysterious zones.

One had to realize that beyond the Exotic Beast Forest, the Exotic Beast Airspace and Exotic Beast Ocean were even more terrifying.

The people of Blue Star had absolutely no opportunity to explore the stars.

They still had to struggle just to develop the civilization beneath their own feet, so why talk about interstellar civilization?

However, when Chen Ming scanned the other trending topics, he fell silent.

[For the first time in thirty years, the Huaxia Alliance has produced two SSS-Rank Class-Changers! A peerless pair of a man and a woman!]

[Large-scale 'Star Dungeon' suspected to have been discovered in Kunshan City, Xishu Province! The Alliance has now fully intervened...]

[Jiangnan Province and Shuanghe Province awaken two SS-Rank Class-Changers in succession, drawing the attention of the Alliance...]

[Lighthouse Alliance claims to have made contact with extraterrestrial civilization, potentially leading the future of all Blue Star...]

"How are these trending topics so highly consistent with the two points of the prophecy?"

Was this some new method of generating buzz?

Chen Ming shook his head, not dwelling on it.

These matters were still far removed from him...

And it wasn't his place to worry about them anyway.