From Igniting Talent to Becoming a Demon God - Section 2

Moreover, the major companies in Prism Ring City, including key government departments of the Alliance Nation, were all raising their thresholds. In recent years, their educational requirements had grown higher and higher.

But unfortunately, seven years of primary education and four years of secondary education... the expensive tuition alone was enough to stop many people in their tracks.

The original owner had merely come from an orphanage and had not received much formal education. That had already cut off most paths upward; easy jobs would never fall to him.

Taking a deep breath, Lu Chao wore his filthy cleaner's uniform and continued mopping the floor.

Air mixed with blood and rot rushed into his nostrils.

The puddle reflected a thin, gaunt face that could not hide its exhaustion. An emotion was stirring in his heart.

Unwillingness.

Yes, that was exactly the feeling.

He did not want to start life over only to still live this kind of mediocre existence, never knowing if tomorrow was secure, working at the bottom with a meager income.

Even after death, he could only become nutrients to be reused, unable to rest in peace.

And besides.

[Glutton: Lu Chao]

[Vitality: 4]

[Potential Progress: 98%]

The light-screen panel quietly hovered before his eyes, yet Old Cheng and the others around him did not notice it.

After repeated experiments, Lu Chao had confirmed that only he could see it.

This was the reason he was unwilling to accept things, his deepest secret, and even the confidence that made him want to reach higher.

The cheat that had appeared along with his transmigration was called Glutton.

As long as he devoured biological resources, he could obtain energy and slowly increase his potential progress.

"Just a little more."

Lu Chao glanced at the 98% progress.

Over the past month, through his three meals a day, along with various extra expenses on nutritious meals, he had pushed the progress upward.

His intuition told him that when the progress reached one hundred percent, some kind of change would very likely happen to him.

At that thought, his mopping paused slightly.

Lu Chao looked outside the alley.

Hovercars swept through the air, leaving wake trails across the gray sky and setting off a wave of exclamations.

Neon signs hovered and crisscrossed between the tall buildings, like a colorful sea of advertisements.

Whether from the memories of his predecessor or what he had taken the initiative to learn during this period, Lu Chao knew that this world, called Earth Star, not only had technology far beyond Earth's, but also possessed supernatural powers.

That was the difference brought about by contact with extraterrestrial civilizations. Supernatural knowledge from the stars mainly classified levels by vitality.

There were several ways to develop vitality, and every increase would gradually transform a person, lifting them beyond ordinary humans.

For example...

Boom!!

Suddenly, a deafening explosion rang out, tearing through the dull silence inside the alley.

Lu Chao's thoughts were instantly cut off. His eardrums buzzed, and his vision went dark.

In his stunned gaze, he saw a figure blasted several meters away, flying past right before his eyes.

The atmosphere fell briefly silent, and even the alley floor was still trembling.

Until—

"Old Huang?"

Lu Chao was stunned, and he saw the figure's face clearly.

His legs had been blown apart, and his cleaner's uniform was torn to shreds.

Blood poured nonstop from his entire body, and quite a few black shrapnel fragments had lodged in his flesh. He was clearly on the verge of death and beyond saving.

"It's a micro-bomb!"

"Those gang lunatics actually hid something like that inside their bodies!"

Furious, shocked voices came from the other side of the alley, and Lu Chao turned to look.

A two-meter-wide collapsed crack had appeared in the concrete wall on the left side of the alley, scorched black.

The body bag had exploded into flying scraps. The remaining cloth burned on the ground, and another cleaner had a huge hole torn through his chest and abdomen. He was opening his mouth and coughing blood, the light in his eyes rapidly scattering.

"What are you standing there for? Save him!"

"Hurry, tell Team Leader Cui!"

"Old Huang, hang in there!"

Tap tap tap tap!

A dense rush of footsteps rang out as members of the logistics team charged in from outside the alley, carrying old medical devices.

Panic, anger, grief...

Old Cheng's voice was mixed in with the crowd, but Lu Chao no longer had the mind to pick it out.

The other cleaner in his line of sight died completely, and Old Huang could not be saved either, gradually losing his breath.

Lu Chao stood rooted to the spot, a little dazed.

People came and went, crisscrossing before his eyes.

Only after several breaths, when he felt something strange on his face, did he raise a hand to wipe it away.

A smear of cold blood appeared in his palm. It was blood that had splashed onto him earlier.

"Dead..."

Coming back to himself, Lu Chao murmured.

Though his predecessor's memories contained similar fragments, and Old Cheng had also warned him that the cleanup team's work carried a certain amount of danger.

Not until this moment.

Clenching his fists, watching two colleagues become part of the bodies to be collected, did he truly feel that coldness and powerlessness.

A chill seeped into his heart. At last, Lu Chao looked at the panel.

"Get stronger!"

He had to get stronger.

He had to break free from this situation!

That morning.

From the alley beneath the high-rise, two corpses wrapped in white cloth were carried out.

Yellow police tape once again sealed off the nearby block, holding back the passersby who had come to gawk. People from the Patrol Bureau arrived at the first opportunity, their expressions grave, carrying instruments as they began a second sweep of the scene.

"Old Huang... sigh. Who could've thought there was a micro-bomb hidden inside that corpse?"

"I heard that to send his daughter to Prism Ring Academy, he worked three jobs and even borrowed a lot of money from a gang. Now that he's gone, those debts..."

"Who knows if the company will compensate him. This should count as a workplace injury, right?"

"Heh, you didn't see how ugly Fatty Cui's face looked back then. And don't forget, lately they've been making a fuss about layoffs and pay cuts. We're only C-rank temps, too."

The discussions of his colleagues entered his ears. Some sighed, some cursed under their breath, and some clenched their fists, their expressions shifting.

Lu Chao stood at the edge of the police tape, listening quietly.

All the cleaners had been temporarily gathered together and stood outside the alley entrance. They had to wait until the Patrol Bureau finished its inspection before they could continue cleaning.

"This is fate."

"Something like this might not happen even once in three months, yet Old Huang just had to run into it... If the two of us had gone to collect that body just now, we'd definitely have gone down too."

Old Cheng, standing beside him, shook his head as he spoke. On his forty- or fifty-year-old face was sympathy for what had happened to Old Huang, but also deep lingering fear and relief.

Lu Chao fell silent at those words, feeling only that the sunlight around him was a little glaring.

Even though Old Huang had died in an accident, his family might not receive much compensation.

In name, they were people of the Patrol Bureau, but in reality, they were outsourced temporary workers who had signed contracts with a labor services company.

Their treatment was worlds apart from that of official Patrol Bureau members.

The former earned meager incomes, faced layoffs and pay cuts, and lived from day to day, while the latter enjoyed all kinds of generous benefits and apartment housing near the central district.

"Is there really no chance for us to become permanent employees?"

Seeing patrol officers in blue uniforms walk out of the alley entrance, the usually stern-faced team leader, Fatty Cui, hurried over to meet them, wearing a fawning smile and bowing obsequiously.