Earth, Year 2223!
In this era, Earth had become a place for Awakener and Cultivators, two groups of humans who possessed superpowers—something everyone dreamed of.
Becoming a Cultivator was something anyone could do, but becoming an Awakener was far more desirable because they awakened a System, received a class and skills from that System, and only needed to kill monsters to grow stronger.
This was different from Cultivators who needed a scripture and had to absorb Spiritual Energy little by little to reach the first stage.
Among all the people who tried cultivating, more failed than succeeded. In fact, the number reached over 90%.
Those who failed remained ordinary humans, but even those who succeeded, most of them got stuck at the first stage, unable to progress further.
Because of this, the strong people on Earth were dominated by Awakeners.
Compared to the difficult path of cultivation, everyone only wanted to awaken.
Every year, the Awakener Association would send representatives to high schools to help students awaken with the help of Awakening Crystals, which were said to have a very high success rate.
If someone still failed to awaken even with the help of an Awakening Crystal, it was certain that they could never awaken for the rest of their life.
To wait for this chance, students did not dare to try cultivating, because once the body began to absorb Spiritual Energy, the chance to awaken dropped significantly.
At Manchester High School 3, all the students had gathered in the school courtyard, staring at the stage in front of them where a group of men in black suits were walking up the stage while carrying a large suitcase, which they then placed on the table.
When the suitcase opened, a large crystal was revealed, shaped like a strawberry, clear in color, and radiating a faint mysterious glow.
A cold-faced middle-aged man stood beside the crystal, looking at the students with indifference.
The students didn't dare meet his gaze directly, because it made them feel such pressure that it was hard to breathe.
"I'm Dom!" the middle-aged man said. He didn't use a microphone, yet his voice was heard clearly all the way to the back, as if it had merged with the air and spread to wherever the air reached.
As he spoke, he picked up a folder on the table that seemed to contain a list of names.
"Whoever's name I call, come up to the stage," he continued.
"First, Ivy Wilson!"
When that name was called, everyone spontaneously turned to look at a girl with round glasses that were too large and covered almost half her face, her black hair braided into two, and her pale white skin as if she rarely saw the sun.
She stood in the corner, appearing quiet and withdrawn, but somehow carried an aura of confidence.
When her name was called, she stepped onto the stage and climbed the steps without a trace of nervousness.
"This bookworm, I didn't expect her to be this calm," said one student.
"Maybe she doesn't care whether she awakens or not," another replied.
Ivy Wilson quickly arrived beside Dom, and Dom pointed to the large crystal.
"Place your hand on this crystal," he said.
Ivy lightly nodded and placed her hand on the crystal, which suddenly began flashing continuously.
Rumble!
Suddenly the sky rumbled, and massive dark clouds appeared above the school—an unusual phenomenon that had never happened before, even shocking Dom.
From those dark clouds descended an army of Undead wielding swords and spears, clad in armor and riding horses made only of bones.
At the same time, Ivy's body suddenly emitted a frightening dark aura that spread upward and connected with the undead army, which, upon closer look, numbered more than a hundred.
"How is this possible?" the students watching couldn't believe it.
"Did she awaken the Necromancer Class, the class that controls the undead? But how could the phenomenon be like this? She even has undead already? Don't Necromancers usually have to find their undead first?"
"Could she also have awakened a High-Level Skill?"
"How could a bookworm be this lucky?"
"Yeah, I can't believe it."
"Anyone can awaken powerful skills if they're lucky."
"Yeah, but at least not a bookworm."
"..."
The undead army above descended toward Ivy, turning into dark light that entered her body.
Even more shocking, Ivy's eyes suddenly turned bright red, clearly visible behind her glasses that always darkened under sunlight.
But even the darkness of her glasses couldn't hide the red glow of her eyes.
Everything happened in an instant before returning to normal—but anyone who saw it knew that Ivy was not ordinary. Even Dom stared at her in awe.
"Can I go now?" Ivy asked Dom.
The latter unconsciously nodded.
"Yes, you can go to the Awakener Association to register yourself," he replied.
After he said that, Ivy stepped down, passing through the crowd of students who no longer dared to underestimate her just because she was a bookworm.
This bookworm might be destined to become a High-Level Awakener, a cornerstone of humanity.
"William Curtis!" Dom's voice echoed again.
This time it was a tall young man, about 195 cm, with large muscles.
Although he looked strong, he couldn't keep calm like Ivy.
His nervousness was obvious.
Ivy's success didn't encourage him—more often than not, after one person successfully awakened, the next would fail.
He somewhat froze as he arrived in front of the table.
"Hurry up, kid!" Dom looked irritated by his slowness.
Scolded, he quickly placed his hand on the crystal.
Luckily, as he touched the crystal, his body emitted a faint glow, though it didn't cause any great phenomenon like Ivy's.
He suddenly looked excited, but Dom didn't react at all.
To him, this was nothing more than a small awakening.
"Done, go quickly!" Dom said as the light on William's body faded.
The man quickly left, looking very happy.
Dom called the next student, who looked excited due to the two successes in a row.
Unfortunately, he failed—and became the start of many more failures.
After him, seven students in a row failed.
"Oliver Whitemoon!"
The next called student was a handsome boy with curly white hair but rather messy appearance—his school uniform stained with black oil marks.
Instead of being nervous like the others, he wore a pessimistic expression and occasionally scratched his head.
Not without reason, but because last night, after returning from his part-time job at a workshop, his body had somehow absorbed Spiritual Energy by itself for several minutes—something he didn't understand since he hadn't studied any Scripture, so it should've been impossible.
Even if it was just for a moment, it didn't change the fact that he had absorbed Spiritual Energy.
His chance of awakening had become drastically lower.
Arriving on stage, he immediately touched the crystal.
And the result—even the crystal's light didn't flicker, unlike the others who failed but still made the crystal flicker at least once.
Dom's expression darkened as he saw that.
"Stupid kid, did you start cultivating?" he asked coldly.
Oliver wasn't sure how to answer and was honestly too scared to say anything.
"Leave, quickly!" Dom immediately drove him off, and he hurriedly left the stage, receiving strange stares from the other students.
If someone failed to awaken purely because they had cultivated, they were truly foolish and shameful.
Of course, no one could say it was purely because of cultivation. After all, the chance to awaken was very small.
However, Oliver didn't lose hope in his dream of becoming a superhuman.
He knew something was strange with his body, allowing him to absorb Spiritual Energy on its own.
This might be a sign of a certain talent.
Cultivating was difficult, but it was different for those with talent.
To check this, he needed to go to the Cultivator Association, of which there were only ten in the UK, one located in Manchester.
He would even go now, feeling there was no point in staying in this school.