Back then, Lu Yan’s video had gone viral across the entire internet overnight. By the very next day, all related footage had been wiped clean, as though it had never even existed.

The Prevention and Control Center naturally had intentions to market and promote a few “trophy” Awakened to boost public sentiment, but the candidates up for introduction would absolutely never include Lu Yan.

This was because doing so was a highly dangerous gamble. Research indicated that high-level Corrupted also possessed a certain degree of intellect.

Gaining too much fame was by no means a good thing.

It was exactly like how a nation would never make a grand display of introducing and publicizing an active, on-duty undercover narcotics officer.

The Western Sea Territory.

As they were constantly positioned within the lower-latitude regions, the nearby waters had noticeably grown sweltering. Shen Qingyang had not applied any sunscreen, and several of his tentacles were looking somewhat withered and lethargic.

They were currently aboard a vessel—a small fishing boat.

Shen Qingyang possessed the ability to mimic human forms, making it quite convenient for him to blend into human society. However, the Prophet, unfortunately, looked distinctly non-human at a single glance.

His black robe was covered beneath a layer of a straw raincoat, wrapping him up airtight. His left sleeve hung completely hollow and empty, missing a hand.

The two of them looked exactly like the most ordinary fishermen heading out to sea.

Yet, considering the small size of the fishing boat and the sheer distance they had traveled away from the coastline, these two “fishermen” were remarkably audacious.

With no one else around, several tentacles along Shen Qingyang’s waist traveled disobediently out from beneath his clothes, plunging straight into the ocean.

“Ah, that’s refreshing… But why does this water taste so bland? The salinity must be too low.”

Due to Shen Qingyang’s presence, every ocean fish within a radius of several kilometers avoided this boat like the plague.

Occasionally, deep within the ocean bed, a dark shadow would snap open a pair of eyes. Upon realizing the party was merely passing through, it would close them once more out of sheer disinterest.

The place they were heading toward was an uninhabited island out in the Western Sea Territory.

The fishing boat traveled incredibly slowly. The Prophet had actually wanted Shen Qingyang to carry him on his back, only to be mercilessly rejected.

According to the Prophet’s account, he had recently glimpsed a vision of the future.

A future where “the single individual who poses a genuine threat to the Corrupted will depart from human society because their contamination rate exceeds 100.”

The Prophet conversed eloquently, “In the future I beheld, a black dragon will manifest in the skies above the Changyi Plains. Half of City A will be leveled to the ground. It might still retain a portion of its human memories and emotions, which is why it chooses to retreat to an island overseas.”

“If we can persuade it, our path ahead will be significantly easier… After all, he only turned into that state because of those people.”

The Prophet intended to await the descent of that black dragon, just as he had once awaited Shen Qingyang.

“Leaving your sentences half-finished is highly unethical, Teacher.”

The massive eyeball on the Prophet’s face was tightly shut, with streams of bright red blood leaking from the seam of his eyelid.

“That is already enough. Who can peer into the divine without paying a price? Perhaps the one with the talent ranked sixth can. But it is impossible for anyone to obtain it.”

Shen Qingyang lifted his phone and lay down on the deck, idly scrolling through Douyin to pass the time. The phone had been swiped from the fishing boat’s owner before they set out to sea; since there was no signal out here, he could only watch cached videos.

As he scrolled, Shen Qingyang abruptly bolted upright, a look of astonishment flashing across his face.

“What is it?” the Prophet inquired.

Shen Qingyang offered a faint smile. “It’s nothing. Just stumbled upon a jump-scare image; scared me out of my wits.”

Yet, the image displayed on his phone screen was clearly a pair of pristine, snowy-white wings.

Shen Qingyang lowered his phone, pondering for a long while, unable to bring himself to delete that video. Following this, he pressed his hand over the position of his heart and said, “Teach me English grammar today, Teacher.”

Off-road mountain orienteering with heavy loads. It sounded utterly demonic just hearing it.

The staff members were currently fastening metallic blocks onto Lu Yan. They were custom-made, incredibly dense, and heavy.

Lu Yan had already reached the standard of a D-rank Awakened by now, though his data card had not been updated yet. Thus, just like the other E-rank Awakened, he was being laden with 270 catties. Furthermore, because he belonged to the support stream rather than the combat stream, an extra 30 catties had been deducted from his load.

A mere 240 catties, given Lu Yan’s current physical constitution, was practically no different from a light tickle.

He felt it wasn’t much of an issue, but Director Hu next to him, who was being strapped with 80 catties, had already put on a mask of pure agony.

The selected location was situated in the suburbs of City A, named Mount Zhengrong. It had undergone a preliminary sweep and was frequently used for the training of the Sounding Arrow special forces in the past. At present, it had been requisitioned by the Special Operations Department.

The Sounding Arrow was a highly renowned domestic special forces unit.

“If you truly can’t hold on, use the monitoring watches on your wrists to call for distress,” the assistant instructor, Lone Wolf, advised the trainees before him with earnest concern. “Withdrawing halfway only costs a deduction of 0.5 points; it’s no big deal.”

Lone Wolf was blind in one eye, resembling a pirate captain, and his expression was quite relaxed.

He had already checked the roster. Although his tier contained two trainees with spiritual energy thresholds exceeding a thousand, one belonged to the support stream while the other was a psychic type within the combat stream—neither could be considered to have great physical endurance. Thus, he didn’t hold high expectations for any rewards.

“Instructor,” Lu Yan raised his hand from among the crowd, “is there a reward for arriving first?”

Lu Yan still intended to purchase that silver bow after graduation.

Compared to painstakingly earning 30,000 contribution points on the outside, figuring out a way to amass 30 credits on the inside sounded significantly easier.

The moment these words were spoken, many people around him burst into laughter.

“Big brother, far be it from me to burst your bubble, but for a support stream guy, your ambitions are quite lofty,” a tall, hulking man from the neighboring class remarked, his tone dripping with teasing banter as he flaunted muscles that resembled solid rock.

Lone Wolf answered, “Of course there is. First place rewards 3 credits. Second place gets 2, third place gets 1. The remaining positions from fourth to tenth place receive 0.5 credits.”

Do not look down on these small figures. Once trainee credits were converted into contribution points and then into hard cash, 0.5 credits was equivalent to five million.

A score of 1.5 credits would allow Lu Yan to purchase another property in the downtown area of City K, allowing him to live the comfortable life of a landlord.

Every trainee shared the same starting point, but according to the navigation, their destinations were all entirely different. The distances varied from 12 kilometers to 15 kilometers, largely depending on the difficulty of the obstacles along the route.

Just as they were about to set off, Chen Anzhi nudged closer to Lu Yan’s side and inquired in a low whisper, “Lu Yan. Will 240 catties be too overwhelming for you? How about transferring some of it to me?”

He belonged to the combat stream, after all, and believed his physical conditioning was still superior to Lu Yan’s.

Most importantly, Chen Anzhi possessed the talent [Hypnosis].

He had already planned to find a sucker along the way to seamlessly and covertly transfer his own weight burden onto them.

Hearing his words, Lu Yan blanked for an instant. “There’s actually such a good deal?”

Chen Anzhi’s expression was full of encouragement. “It’s perfectly fine. I asked the instructor, and he said it’s permitted. We’re teammates; we’re supposed to look out for each other, right?”

Thus, Lu Yan unceremoniously gestured toward Director Hu. “Director, come over here. Someone here just said they can help share some of your weight load.”

The smile on Chen Anzhi’s face instantly froze solid, while Director Hu trotted over with absolute glee, grasping Chen Anzhi’s hand and shaking it up and down vigorously. “You are a truly good man, big brother! In the future, if you ever come to the City K First People’s Hospital for surgery, I’ll pay out of my own pocket to give you a twenty percent discount!”

At 2:00 PM sharp, the orienteering training commenced.

The 62 trainees departed from the same starting point, sprinting toward different directions according to the navigation displayed on their watches.

[This afternoon’s training is actually a baseline evaluation test,]< the System’s voice rang out lazily. >[Only by identifying where your absolute limits lie can they effectively tailor their teaching to your individual needs. However, I must say your head instructor for this term is far too wicked; there are quite a few pitfalls laid along your path.]<

[He probably believes you truly awakened an early-warning talent.]<

[Oh, right. The Special Operations Department has always maintained a steadfast belief that the finest training is forged within danger. And the supreme method to train a talent is to utilize it extensively. This afternoon, I shall put on a stellar performance mimicking your ‘early warning’.]<

[300 meters ahead, the ground beneath the grass is hollow—there is a pit, bypass it.]<

[The bridge will collapse if you don’t cross it within 10 seconds; accelerate your pace.]<

[Treating your direct front as the Y-axis with one meter per graduation interval. There is an archer positioned in the direction of (297, 311).]<

“Good heavens.” The assistant instructors stood within the monitoring room, their gazes involuntarily drawn toward screen number 17. “Are talents ranked in the five-hundreds nowadays already this formidable?”

Beside them, a researcher from the Third Research Institute explained while logging data, “It is highly probable that his compatibility with this specific talent is exceptionally high.”

“Talent compatibility” was a concept that the research institutes had recently concluded.

The personnel at the First Research Institute discovered that many Awakened who had undergone talent transplantation surgeries displayed a degree of utilization that fell far short of naturally awakened individuals of the same caliber.

Consequently, the concept of “talent compatibility” was introduced.

Facts proved that if a talent was unsuited for an individual, the results would often remain thoroughly unsatisfactory, even if it was forcibly transplanted.

Yet, there were still countless ordinary citizens lining up to undergo talent transplantations. Among these people, the vast majority belonged to the wealthy and powerful ruling class.

Compared to risking contact with Corrupted to naturally awaken, this method was undoubtedly far safer.

Because of this, Tang Xun’an had voiced his resistance toward the practice on multiple occasions. At present, this specific surgery had already been expunged from the routine procedures of the First Research Institute.

At the thought of this, the researcher couldn’t help but look toward Tang Xun’an, who was positioned at the absolute front.

Standing at the vanguard, only his straight and towering back could be seen. He didn’t speak much, which inevitably made him appear somewhat out of place.

The researcher vaguely recalled a rumor.

Tang Xun’an had also undergone a talent transplantation surgery once. The surgeon who performed the operation was the long-deceased Professor Qiao Yu. That year, Tang Xun’an was a mere 16 years old.

The talent he had transplanted was harvested directly from a Corrupted.

Undergoing a transplantation involving a Corrupted meant Tang Xun’an’s rejection reactions were exceptionally severe. Many people believed he would not survive that winter.

Ultimately, however, Tang Xun’an had stubbornly pulled through and lived on. It was only that he was left blind in both eyes and deaf in one ear.

Those golden eyes of his were rumored to have been transplanted later on. Because his hearing was impaired, Tang Xun’an still wore a specialized hearing aid manufactured by the research institute to this day.

Fortunately, after enduring the agonizing rejection phase, Tang Xun’an acquired the strongest offensive talent within the current combat stream:

[Talent 9: Dragon Bone].

__

Author’s Note:

[Year 2036]

— “You may leave; I will never give my consent. Even if my talent is Gene Fusion, with our current technological capabilities, the mortality rate of fusing with a Corrupted remains exceptionally high. I will never allow a minor to become a test subject.”

— “My father is the instigator of the ‘Sparks Initiative’. This project is indeed fraught with controversy, which is why I am here of my own free will.”

— “Are you truly here of your own free will?”

— “Yes.”

— “No, you aren’t.”

— “I am.”

— “You should not be a sacrificial lamb for your father’s political ideals.”

— “You have misunderstood, Professor Qiao Yu. I am not doing this for my father’s ideals; I am doing this for my own ideals.”

— “What ideals?”

Tang Xun’an stared into his eyes, answering with absolute gravity, “On the day the absolute worst-case scenario arrives, to become the final line of defense for human civilization.”