“I’m so nervous. Our class is up next. I wonder if I’ll awaken as a Guide.”
“I want to awaken as a Guide too. A Guide can bond with multiple Sentinels, and every one of those Sentinels is tall and long-legged, with eight-pack abs. They’re all gorgeous men.”
“Heh. Keep dreaming. A hundred people have gone through already, and not one of them has awakened. If you ask me, Feng Zhi is the only one in our class with a chance.”
At the mention of her name, a crowd of people instinctively turned to look.
In the direction of their gaze stood a young woman dressed in light green casual clothes. Her features were as lovely as a painting, and her smooth black hair was tied up in a bun, with a few loose strands hanging down and swaying gently in the breeze.
Sensing everyone’s eyes on her, the young woman turned around.
Her fair skin was flawless, gleaming like jade in the sunlight. Her features were exquisitely delicate: the tip of her nose was softly rounded and slightly upturned, its curve gentle, and beneath it were pale pink lips, full and moist.
Most striking of all were her eyes, which held the faintest hint of a smile. Long, curled lashes framed bright, lively eyes, clear and luminous. When she blinked, her dark pupils were as clear as obsidian washed clean with water.
The group fell silent at once, unwilling to disturb the lovely scene.
Feng Zhi smiled politely at them, then looked away.
Her gaze was fixed intently ahead, but her mind had actually wandered off some time ago.
She couldn’t believe eighteen years had passed so quickly.
Eighteen years ago, she had been a twenty-two-year-old who had just graduated from university on Blue Star.
After getting her diploma, she wanted to let loose, so she stayed up late playing a game. She hadn’t expected to fall asleep while playing—and when she woke up, she had transmigrated into this world as an unborn child.
This was a technologically advanced Sentinel-Guide world. It was somewhat like a futuristic interstellar world, but not entirely, because this world had contaminants as well as Sentinels and Guides.
Everyone underwent a school-organized awakening ceremony at the age of eighteen. Men had a chance of becoming Sentinels, while women had a chance of becoming Guides.
Once they became Sentinels or Guides, they left the world of ordinary people and became government employees with secure jobs. As long as they didn’t die, they never had to worry about unemployment.
Feng Zhi pressed her lips together, feeling a little nervous too. She didn’t know whether she could become a Guide. After all, an ordinary person’s chance of awakening as a Guide was one in a thousand. There was only one Guide for every thousand people.
The odds for Sentinels were much better, at about one in a hundred.
By now, the whole morning had passed, and only twenty people had successfully awakened: sixteen Sentinels and four Guides.
As Feng Zhi’s thoughts wandered, the orderly line shuffled forward. Before long, it was her turn.
In front of her stood a transparent object resembling a crystal. Feng Zhi placed her hand on it and closed her eyes.
【Ding! Energy source detected…】
【Absorbing energy source…】
【Absorption successful. Game starting…】
【Startup successful. Insufficient energy source; unable to connect online.】
【Online Mode failed. Single-Player Mode activated.】
Several dinging notifications sounded in her mind, startling Feng Zhi. She opened her eyes instinctively.
The familiar transparent crystal was still in front of her, but another interface had appeared.
On the pale blue screen was a game character who looked exactly like her. Looking at the game interface, she realized it was the very game she had been playing before she transmigrated.
No—she shouldn’t say that the game character looked like her. Rather, she had been born in this life looking exactly like the character she’d created before. Otherwise, there was no way an orphan like her in this life could have been so beautiful.
As she examined the game interface, a smiling voice came from beside her. “Very good. Congratulations on awakening as a Guide. You may only be an F-rank Guide, but if you work hard, you can still become a D-rank Guide someday.”
Feng Zhi hadn’t seen what happened because her eyes had been closed, but when the game notification said it was absorbing an energy source, the crystal in front of her had flashed.
Any reaction from the crystal was judged a successful awakening. Judging by the brightness of its flash, she was an F-rank Guide.
“Hm?” Feng Zhi was surprised, but also relieved.
Good. Judging by the people around her, they probably couldn’t see the game interface. It seemed only she could.
She quickly composed herself and smiled at the teacher beside her, her eyes curving at the corners. “Thank you, Teacher. I’ll head over now.”
She joined the group of twenty people who had awakened on the other side. Several Sentinels soon looked her way, their gazes both disdainful and eager.
Their disdain came from the fact that they had always thought Feng Zhi was out of reach, someone they could never hope to approach.
She had grown up in an orphanage, yet she was exceptionally beautiful, and she had always ranked first in her year. They hadn’t dared approach her.
They had also always thought that if Feng Zhi awakened as a Guide, she would surely be a high-rank one.
But they had never imagined she would turn out to be the lowest rank, F-rank. They immediately felt that Feng Zhi wasn’t all that special after all.
Their eagerness came from the fact that their Sentinel ranks weren’t high either, so they were a good match for Feng Zhi.
But with so many students watching and so many teachers nearby, they didn’t dare make a move just then.
Feng Zhi ignored their stares. After confirming that no one else could see the game interface, she began examining it.
First, she checked her level.
Great. Her level had dropped from 100 to 1, but her class was still the same as before: a Healer. Only one skill was lit up now.
Healing.
【Healing: Uses 10 MP to restore 50 HP to the target.】
She checked the health and mana bars above her game character.
Level: Lv. 1
HP: 100/100
MP: 100/100
Feng Zhi stared at her level, lost in thought as she considered how to level up.
In the game, she used to be able to complete quests to gain levels. But now she was in Single-Player Mode, with no quests to do. That left only one way: heal people and help others kill monsters.
But this wasn’t a game. Where would she find monsters to kill? Could the contaminants count?
As Feng Zhi pondered this, a teacher came over and clapped to get everyone’s attention. “All right, everyone, wake up!”
“This morning’s testing is over. I’ll take everyone to the Sentinel-Guide Center to register.”
【About naming: I don’t follow celebrities or TV dramas, and I don’t read comics or watch anime. There are plenty of other things I don’t follow either. I usually pick names at random, and it’s impossible for me to look someone up every time I choose a name just to find out who they are. Before searching, I don’t know who these people are, and I won’t make a point of searching for them in the future. I’ll keep choosing names at random. In this novel, the names refer only to the characters in this book. Don’t associate them with anything else.】