4: Chapter 4: The Beginning

[Name: Wang An, Essence: 1.15, Qi: 1.06, Spirit: 2.04, Talent: Incarnation, Profession: Intelligent Life, Student, Martial Artist, Skills: Basic Taijiquan (Proficient, 1/1000), Fitness Qigong Baduanjin (Novice, 60/100), Mindfulness Meditation (Novice, 40/100)]

[Martial Artist]

Function: Improves martial arts cultivation efficiency. When practicing martial arts, one can always find the most suitable cultivation method.

Skill, Repair: Consumes Qi to improve the body's Repair ability. Formula: Essence × Qi × (1 + Usage Amount) = Repair Speed. Duration: Usage Amount (cannot be lower than 0.5) × 60 minutes = Usage Time.

Through calculation, the recovery speed of this [Repair] skill is twice the usual rate.

Although it doesn't have the terrifying bonuses of the [Student] profession, the [Repair] skill of this profession can last for more than 60 minutes. It is quite friendly for those with minor injuries or internal injuries.

And there was a change in another value, which let Wang An understand something.

[Soul Strength: 2.3]

Calculated this way, one profession provides 0.1 Soul Strength, not a percentage.

My original Soul Strength was 2. I estimate that in this world, there is no one with a higher Soul Strength than me.

[Essence: 1.2]

With the increase in the Essence attribute, Wang An estimates his full-force straight punch is around 250 kilograms.

That is more than 1.5 times that of a "normal" adult male who has received combat training.

It counts as having a little strength, though he still lacks a lot in terms of technique and experience.

Now that he has funds and a certain ability to protect himself, it is time to start executing the next step of the plan.

On the eighth day of the first lunar month, the guest tables for the New Year had basically been cleared.

Wang An took advantage of this free time to tell his parents about his plans and arrangements.

At the dinner table, Wang An opened a bottle of good wine from the New Year.

He poured a glass for his father and himself, saying, "Dad, I want to take half of the money we got from selling the meteorite to start a business."

His father, Wang Rushan, drank the wine in his glass before saying, "What are you planning to do? Our family has few relatives, and there are no connections that can help you with business."

Wang An continued to pour wine and said, "I know."

"Did you see the meteor shower that day? With so many meteorites, the price in the meteorite market is rising instead of falling."

"Many big bosses are everywhere trying to buy this stuff."

"I feel that there might be some secrets we don't know about those meteorites. The wind has changed."

Looking at his father and mother's gradually aging faces and the gray hair growing, Wang An's eyes gradually became firm.

"Although your son doesn't have great skills, I am among the first batch of people to come into contact with those meteorites, which is already ahead of others."

"Just like the reform and opening up, even a pig can fly if it stands in the path of the wind."

His father did not speak, pondered for a long time, and sighed.

"If you want to start a business, take all 100,000. It came easily anyway, and at your age, it is the time to go out and venture."

After saying this, he poured himself another glass and said with a serious expression, "However, you must promise me one condition: do not borrow money. Even if the business fails, you cannot borrow money."

Wang An looked at his father and said solemnly, "Okay!" After saying that, he drank the glass of wine.

At this time, his mother, Liu Aihua, spoke up, "Xiao An, it's good to go out and venture, but put your own safety first in everything."

"Don't be afraid if you fail. Come home, Mom and Dad are here!"

Listening to his mother's words, Wang An felt warm in his heart, knowing that his mother was worried about his safety.

He promised, "Mom, I promise you that I will never personally put myself in danger."

Hearing his son's promise, Liu Aihua breathed a sigh of relief and put food into her son's bowl.

Wang An thought for a moment and still said it, "Dad, if our family still has spare money, we can buy some gold and store it. Even if something big happens, gold is still a hard currency."

Wang An's father did not speak and looked out the window.

In the dark night sky, there were sporadic fireworks, just like the meteors that scattered away that day.

It was not that he hadn't let his parents try to take up a profession.

But he found that his parents seemed unable to complete the profession acquisition, and there was no information about profession acquisition on the internet either.

Most of it was still news about exploration and acquisition.

Wang An felt that there might be some hidden conditions for acquiring the [Intelligent Life] profession.

Others couldn't achieve it, and he just happened to meet the requirements, so he succeeded.

It is possible that the "mental state," "physical state," or "time window" at that time were all possibilities.

After dinner, he returned to his room and opened his phone to check the news. These past few days, the internet had been like a chaotic dance of demons.

Short video and social media platforms had become the main battlefield.

Basically, everyone was talking about who had found a meteorite and sold it for a high price.

Some said they sold it for a few thousand, some for tens of thousands, and some even said hundreds of thousands.

However, almost no one believed the one about hundreds of thousands, because everyone remembered that so many meteorites had fallen from the sky this time, and once a large number were found, the market would definitely crash.

There were also some short videos of dubious authenticity:

"I picked up a meteorite in the back mountain of my hometown, and my graduate school entrance exam review efficiency exploded the next day. My dad soaked the meteorite in wine, and his back and legs stopped aching. The child touched the stone and suddenly could recite Li Sao."

Most of these videos were rough, but the comment sections were flooded with people asking for coordinates or saying, "I encountered it too."

Deifying meteorites as mysterious items that could bring luck or wisdom.

There were also various treasure hunting strategies and scams.

Various technical posts appeared on how to calculate meteorite landing points based on meteor trajectories, the three major characteristics of identifying high-value meteorites, etc., mixed with a large amount of misinformation and product placement advertisements.

Moreover, shops selling meteorite fragments began to appear online, but as soon as Wang An looked, he knew they were fake.

There were even some "weird incidents" and panic rumors.

"After a whole village picked up meteorites, their behavior became strange, and the meteorites carried radiation that caused animals to mutate."

This information triggered small-scale panic, and the exploration of the meteorite craze in some areas weakened. The authorities were also debunking rumors and launching some science popularization videos to guide public opinion.

In the meteorite forums and supernatural phenomenon research groups that Wang An had joined, the enthusiasm for meteorite research was skyrocketing.

Some people began to systematically collect and compare descriptions from netizens in various places, trying to find patterns.

Wang An saw a small number of posts claiming that meteorites could provide professions, as well as panels and skill functions.

However, they were regarded by most people as fantasies from reading too many web novels, and some people who had already tried it said in the comments that nothing matched what the original poster said, cursing them as scammers.

Through his attempts with his parents, Wang An felt that there shouldn't be many people who had truly acquired a profession.

Perhaps the authorities and some large organizations knew the real news.

They hadn't responded publicly yet, perhaps because the number of people who had acquired a profession was too low.

It was unclear if it was a human issue or if some meteorites didn't have the function of profession acquisition.

Those group companies would definitely not reveal this information, quietly suppressing the price of meteorites to acquire them.

A post titled "Does the country actually know?" became a hot topic.

Netizens would analyze whether the military had been mobilized, whether scientific research convoys had entered the mountains, and the wording of news reports, trying to judge the official attitude from the clues.

Based on these netizens' ideas, Wang An began to understand some official actions.

Some protected areas began to see exploration activities under the name of official scientific expeditions.

Nature reserves also began to close or reduce tourist reception.

At the same time, some meteorite Exploration Teams formed by small companies online were recruiting local guides at high prices.

Checking the controlling shareholders behind these small companies, basically, they were all well-known large groups and companies.

These people, in the name of small companies, greatly reduced public attention to these events.

Seeing this information, Wang An felt a sense of urgency.

He planned to go to the provincial capital, Changnan, to see if he could sell the used meteorites to some unsuspecting speculators through the meteorite market.

The next day, Wang An, seen off by his parents, headed to Changnan.

Since he was a senior in college, he was supposed to find a company for an internship, so the timing was just right.

"Changnan, I'm coming!"