First Thought

Martial World: A Saiyan Immortal

…

['saiyan' input accepted]

[Warning! AttributeError: module 'martial_world.humanoid.bloodline' has no attribute 'saiyan'.]

[Importing 'dbz.humanoid.bloodline' as dhb]

[Warning! The name 'dnbLoreDetails' does not exist in the current context.]

[Executing 'Bullshiting.exe']

[Body creation succeeded!]

…

I've been reborn for three months now. It has also taken this long for me to adapt to this reality.

Though my mind contained the consciousness and the spirit of an eighteen-year-old, the body I currently possessed was of a fifteen-year-old, the same age as Lin Ming.

When I opened my eyes and found a gray coloured cube right across from my face, I was confused beyond belief. It was only until I felt an extra limb growing out of my backside that I came to the realization that I wasn't my old self anymore.

The gray coloured cube in front of me though, was giving me a sense of deja vu much more serious than the brown tail. My mind was unable to accept such an idea at first. Because it was, and still is, ridiculous to think of.

That is, until I saw a golden scaled Pangolin with teeths sharper than a great white shark dashing away faster than my eyes could track.

"Ah…" A sentence popped into my mind.

'Level Two Ferocious Beast – Goldback Pangolin, this Ferocious Beast has teeth that could crush stones and could drill through a mountain as though it was tofu.'

A line from my very first cultivation novel assaulted my common sense.

Like a pure maiden from the 21st century being r*ped by a mythical dragon, my ability to perceive, understand, and judge the world around me received a shock.

So for the next few minutes after I opened my eyes, I kept alternating to stare at the cube and tail respectively.

I could only reach out to grasp the cube before thinking through my next plan of action.

The first thing I thought of was money, I needed money to buy herbs. As, if the tail signified what I think it was, then no amount of zenkai boosts was gonna be viable if I can't heal my injuries in time.

That brings me to my second point, the economy of Sky Fortune Kingdom.

In the novel, Lin Ming sources his income from the Grand Clarity Pavilion after he landed a job as a butcher.

Upon further thinking, one thing was painfully clear.

Old Lin got scammed.

For a monthly salary of measly five gold taels with some food and accommodation benefits, he took on a job that usually requires five people working for 12 hours just to butcher a beast.

For example, in one work day, he has to process beast carcasses worth hundreds of gold taels.

As a perfect human being, Lin Ming wasted very little meat with each beast, saving much more than what mortal men could hope to accomplish. In the hands of Lin Ming, an ordinary knife could turn into an exceptionally sharp weapon. The edge of the knife could move through the gap in the veins, cutting through even the toughest of beasts smoothly as though he was cutting through paper. In the end, the 12 hours project can be cut down to less than an hour in the hands of Lin Ming.

Even a low-balling estimate of 3% extra meat would result in the restaurant saving about ten gold taels everyday. Ten times thirty equals to a figure of around three hundred gold taels every month.

If we were to compare it to the five gold taels Lin Ming requested, I wouldn't be surprised if the beautiful female manager was laughing in her sleep.

I suppose it made sense though. Lin Ming was a country bumpkin coming from a family that made one hundred and fifty gold taels per year. For a 4 hours part-time job, forty gold taels annual income was probably pretty good in his perspective. It was just too unfortunate that his cousin Lin Xiaodong wasn't there to help beat some senses into his less socially adapted relative.

But wait… Grand Clarity Pavilion is the most luxurious dining establishment in Sky Fortune City, they should receive a large amount of high-standing guests regularly. It's hard to believe they haven't built a cost-effective workforce training system in place already, are all of the low-leveled cultivators so arrogant they missed out on a potential career path? But that's not how the job market works, heck, that's not how human nature works.

In the end, for the Pavilion to allow a poorly dressed teenager to barge into the kitchen is pretty suspicious in itself, much less allow him to test his skills on a hundred gold liang beast carcasse… Unless?....wait…

It was their plan all along!

In fact, it shouldn't just be the Pavilion that is doing this, that whole city is in on it!

They knew that the entrance assessment of the Seven Profound Martial House was held regularly at the beginning of fall and the beginning of spring every year, and with it, tens of thousands of supernatural teenagers from the countryside would flood the city in the hopes of getting a better future.

If there were three words to describe these teenagers, it would be…

Strong!

Naive!

Broke!

Most of them do not have access to cost-effective herbs as the Seven Profound Valleys imposes taxes on all cultivation resources, so their only option is to spend their family's life savings to keep up with the accumulation of internal injuries.

What's next?

Debts!

If Lin Ming's situation is anything to go by, the majority of these teenagers would travel alone without parental supervision.

Desperate for a better future, in a big city with no one to rely on as your savings depletes little by little, what if a 'big brother' were to reach out a helping hand?

I'm afraid nine out of ten will take it!

There couldn't be a more suited environment for loan shark businesses.

If the examinee passed, sure, they might not dare to force their debts against a Seven Profound Martial House's disciple.

But what if they fail?

The 'Big brothers' would suddenly turn into hungry wolves ready to plunder whatever dignities they have left.

As a result, failed examinees will get turned into a massive amount of cheap labor that will be inserted into the city's job market… In fact, if the loan sharks and the employers work together seamlessly, they should be able to stretch out the workforce until the next entrance assessment comes….

Holy shit!

This IS the cost-effective workforce training system!

It was no wonder why no low-level cultivators would be willing to compete for jobs like butchering! No one can undercut the wages of tens of thousands of teenagers who just want to see their family again!

I broke out in a cold sweat.

It seems that my first obstacle in the cultivation world isn't supernatural beasts or humans, but rather it's...… Capitalism?!