The awakening ceremony 

"Chen Heyu! 

Wake up, you will be late for the awakening ceremony!" 

A strong and burly teenager shouted as he slapped a boy who still seemed to be asleep in bed. 

"Who are you?" The teenager shouted after being successfully awakened by the boy's slap, looking at him with a confused face. 

"Did you drink too much again last night? I'm Zhang Jun, your brother from another mother," the boy said with an exaggerated expression. 

Just as Chen Heyu was getting even more confused as to how he could suddenly find himself in such a situation, when he was just walking home from training at the gym and was hit by a loose brick falling from a tall building, memories flooded his mind. 

Damn it, it turns out that I have transmigrated! 

Chen Heyu thought after he had roughly figured things out. 

Just then, he remembered that there seemed to be another person beside him, who seemed to be his best friend Zhang Jun, as he had seen in the memories that had flooded his mind earlier. 

"Oh yeah, I remember, it seems like I really drank too much yesterday, hehe" 

Chen Heyu quickly found an excuse for his strange action of not recognising him earlier. And it was partly true, as the predecessor had indeed been a heavy drinker after his parents' death, and had indeed drunk a lot yesterday as well. 

"Well, you must hurry! The awakening ceremony starts in 20 minutes," Zhang Jun reminded Chen Heyu, who had already jumped out of bed and was looking for his clothes scattered on the floor. 

"Yes, I'll hurry up, don't worry." Chen Heyu reassured him and was soon dressed and ready to leave. 

In the memories he had received earlier, there was information about this 'awakening ceremony'. It was a mandatory event for every high school student in the Black Eagle Empire. In their final year, the students would all try to awaken to a profession. 

Yes, a profession. 

This world is not like the planet Earth where Chen Heyu came from, because at a certain point a few hundred years ago, the whole world was gamified, and alien beasts and other disasters invaded Blue Star. With gamification, the area of Blue Star also expanded a thousand times. Unfortunately, the humans' path of development was different from Chen Heyu's home planet, and they had no weapons of mass destruction to effectively stop the disasters on Blue Star. 

Luckily for them, with the gamification of Blue Star came the opportunity for the awakening of professions. Professions are divided into combat professions and support professions. 

With the help of those who had awakened to powerful professions, humans finally had some ability to protect themselves. However, in all those years, humanity had not been able to effectively counterattack and could only passively defend itself. 

Now there were still several countries on Blue Star, but many smaller countries had not been able to defend themselves in the beginning and had been destroyed. 

The strongest countries were now the so-called Big Five, namely the Black Eagle Empire, the Dragon Country, the Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets, the Lighthouse Federation and the Bear Country. The other countries were either vassals of one of the big five or struggling to survive independently. 

Chen Heyu was lucky to live in one of the strongest countries, where things were relatively peaceful compared to the weaker countries. 

Now back to the present, Chen Heyu and Zhang Jun were already close to the place where the awakening would take place, which was the huge open field in front of their high school where they usually practiced sports. 

As they approached, they could see a man dressed as a mage carving strange-looking runes into the ground, which soon led to the formation of a large circle. 

"This must be a professional mage!" 

Zhang Jun shouted, to which Chen Heyu could only say, "Thank you for stating the obvious out loud." 

Just as Zhang Jun was about to reply, they saw a stern looking middle-aged man approach them with an angry expression on his face. 

"Why are you so late? You almost missed the chance to wake up because of your stupidity!" 

"We are sorry, Teacher Li" 

"Now come and line up behind the others from your class; oh, and did you bring your ID cards?" 

"Yes, yes we did," Zhang Jun replied immediately, while Chen HEyu was about to say that he had indeed forgotten. 

After reprimanding them, Teacher Li left and Zhang Jun whispered to Chen Heyu: 

"I took your ID card in case you were wondering, hehe". 

"Woah, thank you, I completely forgot." 

Just then they saw teacher Li looking over at them, so they hurried to their class and honestly lined up. 

At this moment, the headmaster came on stage and gave a short speech: 

"Today is one of the most important days in your life, the chance to awaken! 

I know that you all naturally hope to awaken into a powerful profession to help protect your motherland, but the reality is that not everyone will be able to awaken to a powerful profession, let alone successfully awaken to any profession at all. But don't be discouraged if you don't manage to awaken, because you can still achieve great things without awakening and serve your motherland in other ways, so don't be too nervous now and just let fate take its course. With that, I officially declare this ceremony to have begun!"

Immediately the magic formation drawn earlier by the mage lit up. 

"Tom Lang, Grade 12, Class C" 

The first name was called out and shortly afterwards a boy stepped forward into the circle. 

A few seconds later the circle was illuminated by a dim light and an announcement was made: 

"Successfully awakened to the common profession: <Warrior >" 

Immediately, discussions began about how lucky this guy was to have successfully awakened to a combat profession. 

"I wonder if I will be able to awaken to a profession, and if so, which one," Chen Heyu thought silently. 

"Lin Chuhan, Grade 12, Class B" 

 "Awakened successfully....." 

"Stephen King, Grade 12, Class B" 

"Failed to awaken" 

... 

Soon it was Chen Heyu's turn to be called forward. 

"Chen Heyu, Grade 12, Class A" 

"I wish you luck," Zhang Jun said as he patted his shoulder. 

"Thank you."When Chen Heyu stepped into the magic circle, he was a bit nervous, because he really hoped that he could awaken into a powerful profession to protect himself in this dangerous world. 

After a few seconds, nothing happened, the circle did not light up, just nothing. Chen Heyu became more and more nervous, and then the devastating blow came with the following announcement: 

"Failed to awaken" 

"What?!" Chen Heyu exclaimed, but still stepped out of the circle and slowly walked back to his seat, where Zhang Jun was already waiting for him. 

Zhang Jun had no idea how to comfort his friend, so he just kept quiet until it was his turn to be called forward. 

"Good luck!" Chen Heyu said, not forgetting to reciprocate his friend's earlier action, no matter if he was depressed or sad at the moment, it had to be done as a matter of respect. 

As soon as Zhang Jun stepped into the circle, it immediately lit up in various bright colours, causing quite a stir. 

"Successfully awakened to the epic profession: <Magician of the Four Elements>" 

Even though Chen Heyu was quite sad that he could not successfully awaken, he was still quite happy for this friend of his predecessor who had a good personality and character. 

So as soon as Zhang Jun returned to his seat, he congratulated him: "Yo, congratulations on awakening to such a powerful profession!" 

"Haha, thank you! I, your big brother, will take care of you in the future". 

... 

After everyone was called to the front, the headmaster stepped forward again and gave a closing speech: 

"I am very pleased to see that so many of you have successfully awakened to a profession. I am also honored that some of you have awakened into rare professions, and one of you even into an epic profession. And for those of you who didn't successfully awaken, or awakened to what you thought was a "weak" profession, don't be discouraged! As I mentioned at the beginning of this ceremony, all of you, whether you have awakened successfully or not, will be able to achieve great things with perseverance and hard work. As the saying goes, there is no weak profession, only a weak professional. So just give it your all and you will achieve great things!" 

On the surface, this speech seems perfectly fine, but anyone who has entered society would know that those with "weak" professions almost never become truly strong, as the potential is simply not enough. The same goes for those who have not successfully awakened, although it is true that they can also achieve great things like becoming rich, famous, etc. It is simply not of much use in a world where strength reigns supreme. 

Nevertheless, this speech cannot be said to be useless as it did calm down many disappointed people and strengthened their morals. 

"The college entrance exam is in twenty days, so you have twenty days to level up and train. 

Tomorrow morning, the Novice Dungeon will open, and those who wish to train there can do so by arriving at the school at 8:00, where we will depart from. It is recommended that you take advantage of this opportunity, as the Novice Dungeon is specifically designed for novices to level up and train with relatively low risk. But no one is forcing you. I just hope that you will all do your best and not embarrass our Chun Shen High School when the college entrance exam comes around.

And for those of you who have not awakened successfully, you will also take the college entrance exam, but for the normal subjects, so I wish you already now a happy holiday!" 

With that said the students all left the place and walked to their parents who had been waiting for their children all this time. 

Zhang Jun was the same so Chen Heyu bid him goodbye and walked alone towards his home. 

As soon as he returned home, a 'ding' sound suddenly appeared in his mind and a panel popped up in his field of vision. 

"The system's activation conditions have been met, and the lottery system is activated!"