Aren became extremely excited by the sound of the notification inside him.
It was not a simple sound; it was the celestial orchestra that played when a pauper realized his lottery ticket was worth a mansion, a sound that promised not just power, but a lifetime supply of 'I-told-you-so' moments directed at every single person who had ever called him a failure.
It was the siren song of destiny,the one that allowed a mere 'trash' to not only become a dragon but to also possess the divine mandate to slap everyone else, non-stop, without consequence.
It was the sound that delivered all the beautiful women in the world right to his doorstep, gift-wrapped.
It was a sound which could truly change a destiny.
In countless novels, this sound had been the herald of a protagonist's glorious rise, turning beaten-down young masters into cosmic overlords.
But for Aren, this was no mere work of fiction he'd stayed up all night reading; this was real. This was no fantasy. His pathetic, miserable, pre-system life was officially obsolete.
"System, please give me your details," he demanded, his voice trembling slightly with an excitement that made his fresh hospital gown feel like a monarch's robe.
[Host: Aren Hunter]
[Species: Human]
[Bloodline: Level 0 (0/100 exp)]
[Physique: 0.2 (1 point= 100 kg)]
[Gene Amplification: 1x]
[Shop: Locked (Requires Level 10 Bloodline)]
[Demonic Points: 0]
[Quest: No Quest]
A succinct, clear, and absolutely glorious list of starting stats. But his physique was really pathetic.But he dismissed the thought instantly.
Soon, his physique would be so high, it would require a whole new numerical system, probably involving Greek letters and imaginary numbers.
Then came the explanation of how to gain exp points.
[There are many ways to get exp. Completing quests would give you exp to level up the bloodline.]
[But to activate the system's main function, you will have to swallow a monster core. A certain monster core will give you a certain amount of exp. Once you swallow a monster core, the system will give you a similar number of exp everyday, until you break through to the next level. Then you have to swallow another core to activate the function again.]
[You can also actively swallow cores to gain exp faster.]
[As for Demonic Points, you will have to kill a living organism and sell it to the system. According to the power and rank of the organism, Demonic Points will be given. You can use the Demonic Points to do shopping in the shop.]
[Each 10 levels will evolve your bloodline into something new,something more powerful.]
The system gave him a detailed, albeit slightly alarming, explanation about its function.
Aren's eyes were wide open, his jaw was dropped so far it was practically resting on the floor, doing an impression of a bewildered cave entrance.
"Swallow a monster core? And then I get EXP every single day, passively?"
"What kind of absurdly broken, overpowered, logically-unregulated system is this thing?" he muttered, a maniacal grin stretching across his face. "No wonder it had the word 'infinite' in it! With this, I won't just become a god; I'll become a Supreme Demon God who can also cook a mean omelet! I'll be so powerful, people will accidentally faint just by hearing my name!"
He quickly clamped his jaw shut, remembering his current predicament. He looked up, his eyes landing on the poor, baffled nurse who had been standing there the whole time.
He'd completely forgotten about her existence in his sudden eruption of internal, world-shattering excitement.
He burst into a fit of giggles, laughing at her bewildered expression like an absolute fool, before quickly composing himself and offering a sincere-sounding apology.
"Pretty lady, I am so sorry," he said, trying to sound charming despite his recent fit of deranged laughter. "I just... lost my composure. And thank you for treating me. Can I leave now?"
The nurse, who had been ready to call security, became momentarily stunned by both the unexpected compliment and the boy's sudden, baffling bravery. He had gone from a beaten-up patient to a strange, almost radiating young man.
She softened slightly. "Rest for two more hours, then leave when the school day is over. Call me if you need anything," she instructed, her cheeks a little pinker than before, and then quickly left the room.
Aren watched her go, a genuine, appreciative sigh escaping his lips.
"What a beautiful woman," he complimented in his heart again, filing her away in the mental database of 'People I Will Be Very Nice To When I Rule The World.'
Then, his focus snapped back to the main event: the world and the Tower.
He hadn't finished the recollection of his knowledge about this martial world before the system had activated. Now, he had to integrate his incredible new cheat with the cruel realities of his new home.
The martial artists were the elite, the power brokers, the ones who could awaken a talent by ascending the mysterious Tower of Destiny.
There were precisely 100 stairs in this tower, and the entire world's destiny revolved around them.
Every person, upon turning 15, was required to go to the Tower to undergo the Ascension Trial.
The level of their talent—the single most important factor for cultivation—depended entirely on how many stairs they could walk up.
Each step provided a tremendous, exponentially increasing pressure on the body, the soul, and the sheer willpower of the aspirant. Most people couldn't even walk past the first stair without collapsing into a whimpering puddle.
The talent rankings were brutally clear:
|Stairs| Talent|
| 1-10 | F rank talent |
| 11-20 | E rank talent |
| 21-30 | D rank talent |
| 31-40 | C rank talent |
| 41-50 | B rank talent |
| 51-60 | A rank talent |
| 61-70 | S rank talent |
| 71-80 | SS rank talent |
| 81-90 | SSS rank talent |
| 91-100 | Unknown |
This talent was the absolute dictator of one's cultivation speed.
It decided how fast one absorbed the world's ambient energy and converted it into personal strength.
The difference was staggering. Each talent rank was roughly two times higher than the previous one.
This meant the absorption rate of an SSS rank talent would be 2^9 = 512 times faster than a pitiful F rank talent. The poor F rank cultivator would literally turn into dust before reaching the power of an SSS rank in the same timeframe.
It was a ridiculously unfair world, engineered to produce a few true elites.
But this was not the end of the Tower's devilish complexity. There was another, even more critical, layer to the trial.
The highest floor of every talent level would grant a corresponding Bloodline.
* Stair 10 = F rank bloodline
* Stair 20 = E rank bloodline
* ...and so on...
* Stair 90 = SSS rank bloodline
Here was the catch, the soul-crushing dilemma that broke countless ambitious aspirants: If someone walked past the 10th stair to the 11th, they would not receive the F rank bloodline. They would get nothing until they successfully reached the 20th stair.
It was a maddening, high-stakes gamble.
You either reached the absolute pinnacle of a realm (10, 20, 30, etc.) to secure a Bloodline, or you sacrificed the Bloodline for the mere hope of a higher-ranked Cultivation Talent by pushing on.
The general advice was: You either go to the top of the current realm stair to get the Bloodline, or you remain at the top of the previous realm. Going past the safe threshold without a certainty of reaching the next one was called 'committing social and spiritual suicide.'
Why? Because a Bloodline was monumentally, ridiculously important. It was the source of unique innate abilities, and it fell into three powerful categories:
* Elemental: Manipulation of natural forces like Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Lightning, and so on.
* Physical: Direct enhancement, like super-strength, hyper-regeneration, or even beastly transformations.
* Spiritual: Unique powers like Telekinesis, Clairvoyance, Mental Manipulation, or the ability to communicate with spectral pigeons.
No one—not even the village idiot—would be stupid enough to lose this opportunity for a Bloodline. Unless they were absolutely, one-hundred-percent sure they could make it to the next Bloodline step (like from 10 to 20), they would never walk past the final step of their achieved realm. The world was littered with the tragic, bloodline-less geniuses who faltered at stair 19.
"Level 0 Bloodline," he mused, looking at his stats. "My bloodline is literally nothing right now. But the system explicitly said: 'Each 10 level will evolve your bloodline into something new.'"
His mind went into hyper-speed. The key was the monster cores. Passive EXP gain.
"I need to swallow a core. A low-level, common core. Let's say a Level 1 monster core gives me 1 EXP. That means every day, I get 1 EXP passively. I need 100 EXP to get to Level 1. That means I will break through in 100 days just by doing nothing!
If I swallow a core that gives 10 EXP, I'll level up in 10 days!"
"This is insane," he whispered, a thrill of power washing over him. "I don't need to cultivate. I just need to eat the world's equivalent of monster energy bars! While everyone else is sitting cross-legged, agonizing over their slow-as-molasses F-rank absorption talent, I'll be leveling up while taking a nap!"