Chapter 2

Only after the ingredients had heated evenly did Wen Jing reach for the spatula with her right hand and extend it toward the only seasoning beside her.

Unlike the callused hands of the other students, hers had instead become delicate and soft after she mastered every required and elective weapon in the weapons applications curriculum.

They not only missed none of the feedback from any force, but also resembled an infant's skin, as though constantly growing.

Whoosh-

One scoop reduced the wok hei flavoring in the measuring cup by precisely 10 milliliters, and a distinctive seared aroma instantly filled the tossing wok.

"No wonder you're our Number One High School's top student. I bet even the freshly stir-fried dishes those plutocrats eat don't smell any better!"

The cafeteria cooks watched without blinking the entire time, sniffing the air in admiration.

Chicken with shiitake mushrooms, fish-fragrant eggplant, sweet-and-sour pork... After different quantities of wok hei flavoring were added, packet after packet of premade food went into large serving containers, which the waiting cooks immediately pushed out to the serving counter.

As soon as classes ended, the students sprinting to the cafeteria headed straight for this counter. A long line soon formed, in stark contrast to the other counters.

In the kitchen, Wen Jing received her wages after finishing the last packet of premade food:

"Payment received: 150 credits. Current account balance: 620."

Since her tuition was waived, her scholarship and part-time work covered her living expenses, so her only debt was a life loan of five million credits. She could still keep a little money after paying the monthly interest.

Money, however, was not all Wen Jing gained from her part-time job.

At the same time, a progress bar on the data panel in her consciousness had just filled, bringing up a notification-

[Mastered "Cooking → Molecular gastronomy." Skill points +1.]

This was the cheat she had bonded with after transmigrating into this world as a fetus. Whenever she learned a skill, its proficiency appeared, and each time a progress bar filled, she earned a skill point that she could use to enhance her various attributes.

Those attribute increases, in turn, helped her master various skills faster.

She had concluded that practically anything the people of this world generally recognized as a skill would produce a progress bar.

For example, "molecular gastronomy," whose progress she had just maxed out.

Before her transmigration, calling this a culinary technique would definitely have been absurdist nonsense. But in this world, which had moved beyond crop farming and truly synthesized food at the molecular level using advanced technology, it really was genuine molecular gastronomy.

From her very first skill, "Languages-Federation Common Language," learned in infancy through the early education videos played inside the population factory's cultivation pod, to "Combat-Basic combat lv1-lv10," "Movement lv1-lv10," and more after she started school... The skills Wen Jing had mastered over eighteen years already filled a long page.

In her previous life, she had been an ordinary person who switched back and forth between "grinding" and "lying flat."

This life was different. She was addicted to learning and frighteningly disciplined!

Even setting aside the wonders of skill points, visible proficiency alone was enough to provide powerful positive feedback-all progress was visible, effort brought rewards, and there was no confusion or discouragement along the way.

Yet her basic attributes had not increased for years.

Life: 10

Strength: 10

Speed: 10

Spirit: 10

Species level (human): 10/10

Skill points: 346

The sheer number of skill points she had saved made it clear that Wen Jing was not slacking. Her cheat simply was not pulling its weight.

Every point added to the first four attributes brought her various obvious improvements. Species level alone was the most unusual: like the shortest stave of a barrel, it capped the other four attributes.

Worse still, its limit seemed to be ten.

The reason she said "seemed" was that Awakened existed.

Becoming an Awakened could be called the dream of everyone in this world.

Even an F-rank Awakened with the lowest potential could surpass human limits, to say nothing of being able to enter the Ancient Wilderness.

The five-million-credit loan she owed might take an ordinary person more than a lifetime of work to repay, but for an Awakened, it might amount to the proceeds of one lucky expedition.

Whether someone could awaken, however, remained unknown until their awakening ceremony.

Like every other student on this planet, Wen Jing was nervously anticipating the unified awakening examination three days later.

Chapter 2

The Unified Awakening Center was not on the surface of the school district planet, but was an enormous

space

station orbiting it.

While this year's examinees were being transported to the center by space elevator, a patrol warship from the Federation Military Department also arrived.

The awakening ceremony required rare materials from the Ancient Wilderness, which the Federation military made a special trip to deliver each year. Meanwhile, the students who successfully awakened after the examination would also travel aboard this warship to academies on different planets.

At the spacecraft landing pad, the awakening center's director and the school district planet's chief superintendent waited ahead of time with the various secondary school principals.

Under their gazes, the warship's central hatch opened. Two files of fleet soldiers ran out briskly and formed lines on either side.

A moment later, a tall man in a Federation military officer's uniform emerged first. His epaulets indicated his rank: a Radiant Moon Rank officer, a legion commander qualified to command an independent combat legion in the military.

Everyone's eyes lit up, and they immediately went forward to greet him.

"Welcome, Officer Tainuo. Thank you for making the journey."

Expressionless, Tainuo continued toward the awakening center without breaking stride.

"Address me as chief examiner here."

Behind him followed more than twenty finely dressed youths with proud bearing.

These youths likewise ignored everyone present, leisurely surveying their surroundings with curiosity.

Accustomed to this, the others maintained their smiles. "Yes, yes... Please come in, Chief Examiner. Please come in, everyone."

Tainuo was at least a C-rank Awakened, while the director and chief superintendent were the only two F-rank Awakened on the entire school district planet. With such an enormous gulf in strength and status, they naturally could not command his attention.

The identities of the youths behind him were not difficult to guess either. Anyone aboard this warship was naturally a new student about to attend one of the academies-unlike ordinary people, who had to pass round after round of examinations on a school district planet to earn an opportunity to awaken, some people started where others spent their entire lives striving to reach.

Without the objective restriction that humans could only awaken after turning eighteen, those following Tainuo now might have been children.

At the same time, inside the awakening center, the academic examination had already begun.

Beams of light shone down from the dome, enveloping each examinee.

Questions were projected directly onto their retinas, with a different question order for each person. The next question appeared only after the previous one was answered, and completed answers could not be changed.

The extremely stringent rules eliminated any possibility of cheating.

The enormous examination hall was silent.

Like the other examinees around her, Wen Jing rapidly entered answers with both hands on the virtual keyboard projected by her beam of light.

The academic examination was called that primarily to distinguish it from the martial examination. It was actually a collective term for all academic subjects.

The language, geography, and chemistry sections all consisted of multiple-choice questions, with a difficulty comparable to high school graduation in her previous life. They simply covered a broad range of knowledge and contained many questions. The moment she finished reading each question, she selected the answer.

Mathematics, physics, and celestial studies introduced large numbers of calculation and derivation problems, abruptly taking the difficulty to another dimension.

Her expression grew focused. Her mind calculated rapidly, and her pace slowed to one question every three or four minutes.

Calculus and differential geometry, topology and discrete mathematics, electromagnetism and introductory quantum physics, thermodynamics and statistical physics, celestial mechanics and orbital calculations, cosmology and Ancient Wilderness mapping...

This knowledge corresponded to master's-level mathematics and physics in her previous life, while celestial studies even reached introductory doctoral level, involving extensive theories of transdimensional space in the Ancient Wilderness.

Time ticked away, and question after question disappeared from her retinas.

With more than an hour remaining before the examination ended, the beam above Wen Jing's head turned green, indicating that she had completed every question. Her result appeared instantly:

"Overall academic score: 100"

Tainuo's party, serving as the proctoring delegation, walked across a floor transparent from only their side. Beneath them lay individual square rooms arranged as neatly as a chessboard, each containing an examinee taking the martial examination.

A boy hurried up from behind and rejoined the group.

He boasted to his companions with an air of casualness, "I went and tried one of these martial tests. It was so easy. I got full marks without even trying."

"So it really is as easy as it looks. Why are these people struggling so much?" a companion chimed in.

As they spoke, an examinee in a room they had just passed over was knocked down hard by a robot.

The room immediately glowed red, indicating both that this test had ended early and that the examinee had failed.

The examinee's eyes went wide, and he abruptly spat out blood, staining a large patch of his chest red.

At the sight, the two began passing judgment:

"Didn't they say everyone who makes it to their final year on a school district planet is a genius?"

"Tsk. Looks like they're nothing special."

A girl in their party could not help interrupting their boasting, her gaze disdainful. "He Fei, you've already awakened. Even if your current compatibility is only 1%, your strength, speed, endurance, and ability to withstand blows aren't on the same level as someone who hasn't awakened... And you're comparing yourself to them?"

Called out and humiliated, He Fei's smile stiffened, but he did not dare lose his temper with the girl. He tried to salvage the situation sulkily. "As if they're worthy."

People of their class were, if anything, the most pragmatic. His potential after awakening was C-rank, while the girl's was B-rank. The difference in strength between Awakened of different ranks was enormous. Once the two matured, their positions in their respective families would not be on the same level either.

Just then, someone pointed at an examination room below and exclaimed in surprise, "Huh? There's actually someone with long hair on a school district planet?"

Compared with short hair, long hair was more of a disadvantage in combat. Freedom to choose their hairstyles belonged to descendants of plutocrats like them, who did not need to take the unified examination. All along the way, the school district planet's examinees had worn their hair short regardless of gender, with quite a few even sporting shaved heads. This was the first one they had seen with long hair.