1 Talent Awakening

"The sorrows of the world, the soaring of flesh and blood."

"Let us join the glorious evolution!"

"Congratulations, Lucky One. You've been enlisted as one of the first warriors in the Talent Space."

"From now on, all the trifles of the world are away from you."

"There's only one thing you need to consider, and that is to 'survive'."

"To become stronger!"

"The current recruitment drive has 10 000 vacancies!"

The age of enlistment is 16 to 40."

"Those who are too weak are not worth training."

"Lucky One, work hard! Then struggle!"

"Live and become stronger."

"Remember the last piece of advice: Weakness will not be tolerated!"

That day, Zhao Gao was in his rented apartment, busily typing away.

All of a sudden, a futuristic screen appeared in front of him. It crackled and displayed words that stunned him.

Before he could react to this explosive message, this futuristic screen started spinning all of sudden. In less than three seconds, the screen turned into a vortex.

As seen from a third person's perspective, the blue vortex suddenly opened up in front of Zhao Gao.

Zhao Gao looked into the vortex and saw blue light. The tunnel was not only a few inches deep; it was like a huge monster wanting to swallow him whole.

However, before Zhao Gao could do anything else, a suction force hailed from the vortex.

Zhao Gao was instantly sucked into the vortex.

"Ahhh! Ahhh… Help!"

"I haven't got married yet! I don't want to die!"

Zhao Gao was thrown into disarray by this sudden occurrence; and could not help but screamed in fear.

After screaming for a while, Zhao Gao suddenly realized that he was actually unharmed.

In this blue tunnel, he did not even feel like he was moving forward.

It was only due to the rapidly moving blue wall beside him, that he could tell he was being pulled into the unknown by an unnatural existence of force.

As he suspended in mid-air within the tunnel, it felt as though he was lying on a bed. There was nothing uncomfortable about it.

Zhao Gao was attracted to this new and interesting experience. He spun around and jumped in all kinds of directions.

However, there was a mysterious force that helped him maintain his balance in the air,

It prevented him from bumping into the tunnel's light wall.

After a while, Zhao Gao recalled the information he saw on the screen.

"Recruitment. Space. Vacancies. Isn't that… isn't that 'Infinite Space'?"

"Don't think that just because you've changed your skin, I won't know that it's 'Infinite Space'." At the thought of this, Zhao Gao began to panic.

He had been staying home in solitude, and was also a struggling author. It was already a blessing for him to be able to maintain a suboptimal state of health.

As someone who had read novels, he knew very well how terrifying 'Infinite Space' was.

As for this so-called 'Talent Space', even if it was not as terrifying as 'Infinite Space', Zhao Gao estimated that it would not be easy to deal with.

Moreover, in the beginning, the information stated that the weak would die, and becoming stronger was their only way out.

Before Zhao Gao could think further, he realized that the tunnel was changing.

In front of the tunnel, it was no longer blue, but an endless sea.

Please forgive Zhao Gao for his ignorance. He could only describe this as a sea-if only seas have such fancy colors.

This boundless sea was filled with colors of all sorts—red, blue, green, gold, brown, etc…

They each occupied a distinct area. With his naked eye, Zhao Gao could already see dozens of colors.

Suddenly, Zhao Gao was thrown out of the blue tunnel. When Zhao Gao came back to his senses, he took a quick look around, and screamed, "Help! I'm afraid of heights!"

After Zhao Gao was thrown out of the tunnel, he was over a thousand meters above the sea.

As there was no one around, and Zhao Gao's hopes were dashed.

Just like that, amidst his wailing, he was tossed into a region of the 'white' sea.

Before Zhao Gao could react, he heard a mechanical voice.

"Target has been thrown into the Energy Pool. Prepare for Talent Awakening."

"Energy is abundant. Beginning Talent Awakening."

"Talent Awakening in process…"

Towards the end, Zhao Gao felt a wave of drowsiness sweep over him.

His eyelids grew heavier, and in the end, Zhao Gao could not help but feel extremely sleepy. He closed his eyes, and fell into unconsciousness.

As Zhao Gao fell into a deep sleep, without him knowing, the White Energy was rapidly entering his body.

The injection of this energy caused him to undergo some mysterious changes. Every now and then, mysterious symbols would appear on the surface of his body.

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After a while, Zhao Gao suddenly thought of his life.

"Haha, I have a son now. I'll call you Zhao Gao," the young Mr. Zhao said loudly, as he lifted up his newborn, Zhao Gao.

Days passed. Little Zhao Gao's childhood was no different from other children's.

He was used to using bamboo slices to hit at the crops; using firecrackers to blow up cow dung.

All of these experiences gave Little Zhao Gao a happy childhood.

As Little Zhao Gao grew up, he started going to school. As he grew older, Little Zhao Gao realized that there was something wrong with his name.

"Zhao Gao? Isn't that the greedy, unlawful minister from the State of Qin?" people asked.

With the increase in the popularity of legendary television dramas, people got to know the historical characters of the State of Qin.

And the biggest villain, "Zhao Gao", was also familiar to everyone.

Every time Zhao Gao introduced himself, the others would say, "Zhao Gao! The greedy minister who killed Yi Xiaochuan?"

This made Zhao Gao hate his name, as he progressed from elementary school, to middle school, to high school and all the way to the present.

More and more people became familiar with Zhao Gao as a punch line. Although others did not mean him any harm, their constant teasing hurt his pride.

To others, it might be their first time teasing Zhao Gao; but every time a person teased him, it was no longer a joke to him.

To Zhao Gao, this was malice!

As he grew older and became more well-informed, he finally learned that he could change his name.

For countless times, he had thought about taking the household register to change his name. However, he was afraid that his father would scold him, and thus he suppressed this thought.

When he entered university, his parents had to go out of town to work to make a living.

However, it was also during this year that he and his parents were separated by life and death.

The reason was that, while Zhao Gao's elderly grandparents were harvesting their crops on the mountain, they encountered a landslide and were killed.

Mr. and Mrs. Zhao, who were out of town, drove home immediately. However, on their way back, due to excessive sadness and fatigue, they got into a car accident and died.

Just like that, before Zhao Gao could recover from the death of his grandparents, his parents followed suit.

He was the only one left in the family now.