Main Attributes

The quiet dormitory held only Zhang Ping's steady breathing.

Just then, a gentle morning breeze drifted in from the balcony, making the hanging human skin before him sway slightly.

Behind Luo Shiyu's bloodstained, pallid human skin, a Tianchang Fox silently watched Zhang Ping as though watching a performance.

Its narrow fox eyes narrowed slightly. It extended a claw toward Zhang Ping's head, only to stop at the last moment.

After pondering for a moment, it slowly withdrew its claws, rose, and walked out of the dormitory.

"Your Highness, why didn't you kill him?"

A Tianchang Fox waiting outside the door saw "Luo Shiyu" emerge and asked in confusion.

"Luo Shiyu" looked coldly at the Tianchang Fox and said, "Not him. And... don't waste food!"

"Yes!"

The Tianchang Fox immediately realized it had spoken out of turn. It quickly lowered its head and tail, wearing an obedient expression.

"Luo Shiyu" glanced back at Zhang Ping, who was still asleep, then left the boys' dormitory with its subordinates.

Half an hour later.

Zhang Ping, who had appeared to be sleeping soundly in the dormitory, suddenly opened his eyes.

"As expected, I can't let my guard down even for a moment."

Zhang Ping calmly glanced out the window. Only after confirming that the Tianchang Foxes had left did the tension in his heart finally ease.

Just now, he had ordered his body to sleep while ordering his brain to remain awake. Thus, while "Luo Shiyu" inspected the dormitory, he realized where he had slipped up.

It had still been dark after four in the morning.

While in Nightwalker state, everyone would subconsciously overlook him.

There were not many students in the school who could get up early in the first place, and even fewer knew that he got up so early to go running.

But after five-thirty, dawn began to break, greatly weakening the Nightwalker state. Some early-rising students would inevitably notice him jogging in the morning.

He usually ran on the track after five, but he had not appeared today, so the Tianchang Foxes became suspicious of him.

Through appraising the Assassin Ring, he had seen footage of "Luo Shiyu" attacking. Whether in strength or speed, "Luo Shiyu" was overwhelmingly powerful compared to him.

He had no chance of survival before "Luo Shiyu."

Fortunately, through his observations over this period, he had determined that "Luo Shiyu" seemingly had no appetite for boys.

Therefore, the instant he woke in alarm, he decided to gamble. He gambled that it did not know he had picked up the ring, that it would not spot his flaws, and that it ultimately would not eat him.

"Training is too slow. I have to find a way to get some equipment."

Sitting at the edge of his bed, Zhang Ping deeply realized just how dangerous his situation had been.

What could be more pitiful, terrifying, and horrifying than being meat on the chopping block?

He absolutely could not make another mistake!

Since he was already awake, he would go to the cafeteria "normally."

Although Zhang Ping did not want to see "Luo Shiyu," failing to go to the cafeteria today would clearly make him even more suspicious.

However, when he arrived at the cafeteria, he heard many students discussing the same matter: Black Death Star was dead.

Black Death Star was a notorious assassin in Pearl City. As long as the price was right, he would even dare to assassinate the city lord.

It was said that the previous city lord had been injured by Black Death Star and later died young when his old wounds flared up.

As Zhang Ping ate breakfast, he listened to the students' discussion and gradually learned more about the situation.

Apparently, residents nearby had discovered Black Death Star's corpse this morning.

Black Death Star had died in a filthy ditch not far from the school, and wild dogs or similar animals had bitten away more than half of his body.

His once-white clothes were soaked in blood. The black mask on his face had shattered into several pieces, and the expression of death beneath it was extremely miserable.

"Could Black Death Star be the man in white who assassinated 'Luo Shiyu' last night?"

The more Zhang Ping listened, the more Black Death Star sounded like the white-clothed man he had seen during the appraisal.

In other words, the white-clothed man he had thought was an ally last night had actually been an assassin?

Wait.

That wasn't right!

Like him, Luo Shiyu had grown up an orphan. She was not some important figure, and no one she knew could afford to hire an assassin.

Could someone else have also noticed the mutated beasts in the city...

So they had boldly spent money to hire a killer to kill beasts?

Zhang Ping thought with a strange expression.

Still, that was a good idea.

After all, even if people had not realized mutated beasts existed, as long as the target was specified, hired killers would kill them whether they were human or beast.

There was no need to seek evidence or convince anyone.

All it took was money!

But anyone who could afford Black Death Star—

The mysterious person or force that might be an ally had considerable wealth.

What a pity.

Black Death Star had failed.

Not only had he failed, he had also alerted the enemy.

During this period, the Tianchang Foxes would definitely investigate in secret.

Once someone's behavior became too unusual, it could easily draw their attention.

Zhang Ping's feelings were complicated, but he calmly finished his breakfast.

After returning to the dormitory,

he prepared to begin his daily training.

No matter how many thoughts he had, he could only wait until nightfall before taking action.

Before training, he sat on his bed and condensed a Contract Gem. After swallowing it, a sensation that "everything was ascending" suddenly spread from within him. He was stunned for a moment before realizing that he might have gained another new talent.

However, unlike Nightwalker, he could not immediately sense the changes brought by this ability as soon as it appeared.

Zhang Ping steadied himself and appraised himself first.

[Appraisal Successful]

[Summoned Beast: Zhang Ping]

[Master: Zhang Ping]

[Race: Human]

[Potential: ????]

[Lifespan: 89]

[Rank: Beginner Awakened]

[Level: 2]

[Talents]

[Contract Gem: Physical strength and mental power can be consumed to condense a Contract Gem. Once a target voluntarily accepts the Contract Gem, their life, soul, and consciousness will be controlled by the summoner. At the same time, they will gain the summoner's potential and luck enhancement. After the first consumption, each subsequent consumption will slightly increase their potential, with a 1% chance of awakening a new talent. Note: The talent abilities acquired by summoner Zhang Ping through overdrafting his intelligence, potential, and luck are powerful, but they possess some enormous flaw. Excessive ambition does not seem to be a good thing.]

[Absolute Command: You possess absolute authority over summoned beasts. Your commands cannot be defied by summoned beasts.]

[Absolute Obedience: You absolutely obey the summoner's commands. You will faithfully carry out the summoner's orders.]

[Stable Appraisal: Can appraise a target, with an extremely small chance of obtaining target information. The smaller the difference in strength between both sides, the greater the chance of successfully obtaining information. Once an appraisal succeeds for the first time, the success rate for subsequent appraisals of the same target will increase significantly. Note: A talent ability born from the thirst for knowledge of summoned beast Zhang Ping and summoner Zhang Ping.]

[Nightwalker: Gain night vision. Presence is greatly reduced at night, movement speed greatly increases, body weight decreases, and you become completely invisible while in shadows.]

So he had leveled up!

After reading his attributes, Zhang Ping thought to himself.

However, he had not expected to level up only now.

He had previously estimated his own level and believed he should have been somewhere between level three and four.

Who would have thought that he had actually been a level-one rookie all along?

"After leveling up, Appraisal changed from Unstable Appraisal to Stable Appraisal, and my attributes now include rank and level. In other words, I don't need to wait until nighttime to determine a mutated beast's level?"

Zhang Ping closed the status panel and guessed inwardly.

However, all verification would have to wait until night. For now, the plan remained unchanged: training came first.

"Today is a good day. Let's celebrate with two thousand push-ups."

Zhang Ping smiled, stood, and began warming up.

Once he finished his warm-up, he immediately gave the order in his mind, and his body began exercising automatically.

After leveling up, both his stamina and energy had improved.

As he trained, Zhang Ping carefully felt the changes in his body.

His strength, speed, and other attributes had increased only slightly.

But both his mental power and physical strength had increased by roughly five percent.

After finishing his push-ups, Zhang Ping estimated inwardly.

It seemed that, as an Awakened, his primary attributes were physical strength and mental power.

Different Awakened had different physiques and abilities, so the attributes improved upon leveling up also differed.

Some Awakened possessed astonishing strength, some had vast mental power, and some had exceptionally powerful vitality. It was all because their primary attributes differed.

There were also some Awakened who chose the opposite path.

Not only did they avoid specializing in their primary attributes, they instead dedicated themselves to making up for their weaknesses.

Others happened to have abilities that complemented their primary attributes, leaving them without weaknesses in any area.

Most of the diversity among Awakened came from the differences in their abilities and primary attributes.

Night fell.

Zhang Ping put on the Assassin Ring and left the school.

Nightwalker already made his presence extremely faint. If he stood still, even people of higher rank than him would subconsciously overlook him. Now, with the Assassin Ring added, no one noticed him along the way. Their gazes did not even land on him.

"In my current state, as long as I don't attack anyone, they probably won't notice me at all."

Zhang Ping stopped at a street corner, looked toward a shop in the distance, and thought silently.

He used Appraisal on the Tianchang Fox inside the shop. After failing once, the appraisal succeeded.

[Appraisal Successful]

[Mutated Beast: Tianchang Fox]

[Race: Mutated Fox]

[Potential: ?]

[Lifespan: 66]

[Rank: Intermediate Mutated Beast]

[Level: 15]

[Talents]

[Cognitive Distortion: You possess a field capable of distorting creatures' cognition and can alter a target's perception.]

[Subversion of Common Sense: When performing actions that defy common sense, you can subvert a target's common sense and forcibly prevent the target from noticing anything abnormal.]

Zhang Ping had already known this Tianchang Fox's rank before appraising it, but he had not known its exact level.

He gave the attributes a quick glance before continuing onward. Since he could gather more information, he would understand both himself and his enemy as thoroughly as possible, first figuring out the levels of the Tianchang Foxes in the surrounding area.

Before leaving, he had planned to spend tonight mainly observing the levels of some Tianchang Foxes and, while he was at it, asking about the prices of superpowered equipment.

He desperately wanted to arm himself.

Especially after "Luo Shiyu" inspected the dormitory that morning, he had deeply realized how dangerous his current situation was.

If "Luo Shiyu" had wanted to kill him then, his corpse would probably already be lying in a garbage heap.

Half an hour later, he arrived at a weapon shop named "Soul of Iron."

He had noticed this weapon shop while wandering at night two days ago, mainly because its owner was human rather than a Tianchang Fox.

At present, Tianchang Foxes could be found in many shops throughout Pearl City. In particular, weapon shops, equipment shops, and potion shops were mostly controlled by Tianchang Foxes. Finding a clean shop was not easy.

After observing it, he found that the shop had few customers, and most of them were adventurers.

Generally speaking, adventurers were Awakened who were not qualified to join the three major violent organizations.

Although some genuinely loved freedom, adventurers as a whole were loosely organized and relatively weak, making them a disadvantaged group among Awakened.

Newbie adventurers in particular had an extremely high casualty rate.

Furthermore, those who died in the wilderness were treated as missing persons, so there were no pensions or compensation to worry about.

In ordinary Pearl City families, parents would not support their children becoming adventurers, so orphans made up a large portion of adventurers.

Put simply, being an adventurer was an orphan's profession.

Zhang Ping happened to be an orphan, so the chance of being suspected upon entering such a shop was extremely low.

He observed for a full half hour, only entering when there were no new customers inside.

The shop was quite spacious, displaying many large weapons. The most exaggerated was a saber five meters long, something only a high-level Awakened could probably wield.

The lighting inside was dim, and a large furnace stood in the deepest part of the shop.

The fire in the furnace had not gone out, so the moment one entered, one could feel a wave of dry heat.

A skinny old man sat beside the furnace. With his eyes half narrowed and his back against the wall, he puffed away at a long-stemmed pipe.

Seeing that the old man paid him no attention, Zhang Ping walked to the display counter and lowered his head to examine the weapons.

Awakened in Pearl City favored sabers, so sabers were the most common weapons in the shop.

Every saber on the display counter had a written description below it.

Zhang Ping stopped before an exaggerated-looking broadsaber and read the description: Nine-Ring Ghost Axe Saber, three meters long and three hundred fifty jin heavy; half saber, half axe, designed specifically to deal with medium and giant mutated beasts.

He continued forward. Ahead was a scythe.

The Ghost Scythe was 4.3 meters long and weighed 396 jin. A chain was concealed within its long handle, allowing the scythe to be launched to restrain opponents. It was specially designed for dealing with agile prey that was good at running.

Looking farther ahead, Zhang Ping's eyes lit up slightly.

Displayed on a stand was an exceptionally beautiful blade. Its design resembled an Embroidered Spring Saber, but it was far longer, and its entire body was snow-white, like white jade.

Zhang Ping looked at its description, which read: Cold Maiden Slim Blade, 1.88 meters long and weighing 80 jin, forged from iron tempered in Frost Leopard blood. Its attacks carried an innate chill; when it struck a target, the cold seeped into the marrow. If the chill was not expelled in time, the victim would die within forty-five minutes as their blood vessels froze.

A fine blade!

But when Zhang Ping glanced at the price, it felt as though he had been struck by the Cold Maiden Slim Blade. His heart turned equally icy.