Chapter 2 – Talent: Your Spiritual Root Is Unlike Any Other

Seeing this, Su Xing froze.

Su Nian’an was his sister. The two had grown up together—how could she have suddenly died?

Carrying his doubts, Su Xing continued reading.

【Your parents told you that Su Nian’an died during a dungeon leveling run.】

【You were overcome with grief, drowning your sorrows in alcohol day after day, living in a drunken stupor.】

【Your good brother Yu Yan found you. He expressed his sorrow over your sister’s death.】

【He consoled you, and you emerged from your grief.】

【He gave you a large sum of money, which you used to invest in a Class User equipment shop.】

【You quickly made a fortune and became a moderately famous secondhand equipment dealer in Capital City.】

【Three years later, terrible news arrived—your good brother Yu Yan had also died.】

Su Xing fell silent at this.

Yu Yan was his college roommate and his best brother at university.

Moreover, Yu Yan was also a hidden-class Class User, considered a prodigy even across all of Capital Vocational Academy. How could he have just died like that?

【You attended Yu Yan’s funeral.】

【At the funeral, you learned that Yu Yan had died in a dungeon.】

【From your classmates, you discovered that over the years, most of your fellow graduates had died in dungeons.】

【You were shocked. What kind of dungeon could have killed hundreds of powerful Class Users?】

【But they refused to say more.】

【A sense of crisis erupted within you like never before, and you resolved to train diligently.】

【You spent a year advancing to the ninth layer of Body Tempering.】

【You continued training, but your cultivation could not advance even an inch further.】

【Left with no other option, you shifted your focus to business.】

【A sudden market fluctuation sent the prices of recovery potion items skyrocketing, while your equipment went completely unsold.】

【You went bankrupt. By then you were thirty-two years old, no longer possessing the ambitions of your youth.】

【You took your thirty million in savings and prepared to retire in the countryside.】

【Four years later, you had become the village’s famous wealthy gentleman.】

【The village matchmaker, seeing that you were single, wanted to introduce you to Ruhua from the village entrance.】

【You took one look at Ruhua’s face and politely declined.】

【You thought your days would continue on peacefully like this.】

【One day, while you were cooling off in your courtyard, you looked up and saw a colossal beast that blotted out the sky.】

【In a daze, you saw several golden figures fly upward and attack the giant beast.】

【The beast opened its maw and swallowed the entirety of Great Xia whole.】

【You died at the age of thirty-six!】

【This simulation has ended!】

【First simulation reward is free to claim. You may select one of the following rewards: spiritual root holder (talent), Ninth Layer of Body Tempering (cultivation)】

Looking at the simulation results before him, Su Xing fell deep into thought.

Fifteen years from now, a powerful demon beast would descend upon the real world and swallow all of Great Xia whole!

Su Xing had never heard of such a powerful demon beast.

He feared that no Class User in the entire human race could currently stand against it.

Thinking of this, Su Xing let out a bitter laugh. “So the world ends in fifteen years… Hah, who would have thought that after a thousand years of resistance, humanity would ultimately be wiped out by the demon race.”

Su Xing sighed, but then shook his head.

“What happens fifteen years from now, who can say… Better to focus on what’s in front of me!”

Su Xing turned his gaze to the two rewards he could choose from and fell into a dilemma.

The spiritual root holder talent, or the ninth layer of Body Tempering cultivation—which should he pick?

After deliberating for a while, Su Xing made up his mind.

“I choose spiritual root holder!”

At that moment, an invisible change seemed to occur within Su Xing’s body, and his five senses became markedly sharper.

“So this is what it feels like to have a spiritual root?”

Su Xing suddenly noticed something, then sneaked a glance downward. Hiss— He hadn’t expected that “unlike any other” would come with such a bonus?

A wave of delight washed over him.

The reason he had chosen the spiritual root was naturally because this talent was randomly obtained, and he still harbored a longing for immortal cultivation—he absolutely could not pass up such a gift.

As for the ninth layer of Body Tempering cultivation, while it would certainly be useful for his current self, as long as he continued running simulations, training back up to the ninth layer of Body Tempering would not be difficult.

After selecting his talent, Su Xing tried to run another simulation, but received a system notification.

【Ding. This simulation consumed 200 energy points. Current simulation energy: 0. Simulation cooldown in effect. Please recharge energy and simulate again after one week.】

Only then did Su Xing remember that each simulation required energy, and there was also a one-week cooldown period.

The cooldown was easy enough to deal with—he just had to wait a week.

But how was he supposed to obtain energy?

【Ding. This simulator can absorb any energy-containing substance and convert it into simulation energy!】

Su Xing’s mind stirred at this, and he hurriedly dug out over a dozen white-grade pieces of equipment.

“Absorb!”

【White-grade equipment detected: sharp dagger. Successfully absorbed. 5 energy points obtained.】

【White-grade equipment detected: Little Princess’s Boxing Gloves. Successfully absorbed. 8 energy points obtained.】

【White-grade equipment detected…】

【…】

【Simulator remaining energy: 103 points.】

Su Xing’s expression darkened when he saw the notification.

Over a dozen pieces of white-grade equipment, and at most one provided 9 energy points, while the lowest gave a mere 2.

They had only restored the simulator’s energy to 103 points—still nearly half short of the 200 needed!

“Damn it, a single piece of white-grade equipment costs at least 1,000 Great Xia dollars, and just like that I’ve burned through tens of thousands?”

Su Xing’s heart ached, but he still pulled out another dozen-plus pieces of equipment and recharged the energy to 205 points.

“Ugh, three years’ worth of collected equipment, practically all gone. If I need to recharge again, I’ll have to spend actual money to buy more!”

Su Xing sighed, but fortunately, over the past three years he had frequently run dungeons for gold farming and power-leveling services, so he had over a million in savings.

“Might as well buy more white-grade equipment and convert it all to energy!”

Su Xing took out his phone and spent several hours on the Class Users’ online trading platform, buying over a hundred pieces of white-grade equipment in one go and converting them all to energy.

【Simulator remaining energy: 713 points.】

Looking at the energy displayed in the simulator, Su Xing felt a wave of satisfaction.

“Now I just have to wait one week!”

Knock knock knock! Just then, a pudgy figure walked into the dormitory.

“Old Su, there are six freshman girls waiting for you outside the dorm… and one of them is a real looker! Heh heh, you sly dog, playing the field, aren’t you!”

The speaker was none other than Yu Yan, nicknamed Fatty Yu—a fire mage with a hidden class: Blazeflame Mage!

Su Xing knew it was the freshman girls who’d come to him for power-leveling, so he gave Fatty Yu a complicated look.

“Got it. They’re here for me to carry them through a dungeon. I’ll be back tonight—make sure you save me some food!”

Su Xing patted Fatty Yu on the shoulder and left the dormitory building.

At the dormitory entrance, Su Xing saw six freshman girls dressed to the nines.

Su Xing got straight to the point. “You all know the rules, right? One dungeon run, 2,000 per person. All equipment and item drops go to me!”

The girls nodded in agreement, all except one with delicate features and a fresh, understated look, whose face showed signs of hesitation.

Su Xing took note but didn’t call her out, simply saying:

“Then follow me.”

Before long, the group arrived at a dungeon outside the city called “Ten-Mile Slope.”

This dungeon was perpetually stocked with a type of demon beast known as the “Wild Boar Demon.”

Their levels ranged only between Bronze rank 5 and 10. For newly job-changed Class User beginners, the experience was decent, but the difficulty was considerable.

For Su Xing at the sixth layer of Body Tempering, however, it was like cutting through small fry with a single sword stroke.

An hour later, each of the girls had leveled up once.

Su Xing collected his 10,000 in payment as expected, then turned to the girl who still hadn’t produced any money, her expression uncertain.

“Um, upperclassman… I’m a little short on cash right now. Would it be possible to…” ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)