2: Chapter 2: A Classic Among Classics, F-Rank Talent?

But why is this color gray!?

That's right, it was a murky, lifeless gray.

Immediately after, the text on the detection light screen lit up.

It was like a loud slap to the face:

"Su Ming, awakened F-Rank Enhancement Type talent, Increasingly Heavy."

Before Su Ming could recover from the blow of being "F-Rank," the small line of text below completely broke his mental state.

“Side Effect: [Osteoporosis].”

The entire venue was dead silent.

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.

Then came bursts of uproarious laughter.

“Hahahaha! F-Rank! The number one in theory awakened an F-Rank!”

“Increasingly Heavy? Can that even be called a talent? Isn't that just pure chronic suicide?”

“I just checked the federal data. This talent's effect is a 0.1% daily weight increase, but for the limits of a human body, it's way too trash.”

“The key is that it even has a side effect! Also an Enhancement Type, someone else's A-Rank 'Thousand-Jin Weight' makes enemies bear a thousand times the force—now that's badass!”

The instructor's expression looked like he had swallowed a fly; he shook his head, his face full of helplessness and regret.

Even for an F-Rank...

The probability of a side effect appearing was only one percent.

Yet it just had to fall on Su Ming.

Moreover, in this era where Elemental Types are king and Special Types dominate...

The bottom-tier Physical Enhancement Type had long been proven to be a dead end with no future.

No matter how strong you are, can you smash through the spatial barrier of a Mystery Type?

No matter how high your defense, can you block the earth spikes instantly pulled up by a D-Rank Earth Type ability user?

The answer was: absolutely impossible.

Unless your genetic potential can break through the A-Rank 'watershed'.

But that requires an extremely low mutation probability and a massive pile of resources!

The students who had been full of anticipation just moments ago were now doubled over with laughter.

A genius fallen from grace is worse than a dog—after all, a dog can at least awaken an olfactory enhancement.

Su Ming stood on the awakening stage, staring at that piercing "F-Rank" line, his mind blank.

“This... is this right? You damn stone tablet, did you run out of ink and give me gray?”

“My guaranteed admission spot... my scholarship... and most importantly... my 'Luck-based meal ticket'!!”

“With this kind of talent, how am I supposed to dual cultivate with Ruyan? Use my weight to crush her to death?!”

An F-Rank chronic terminal illness talent.

Not only did it have zero combat power bonus...

But it also forced him to scrape money from his eight-hundred-yuan monthly relief fund to buy high-calcium tablets for the elderly just to stay alive.

Su Ming looked at the students below who usually copied his homework but were now laughing louder than anyone.

Even though he was usually a joker, he wasn't laughing now.

His legs felt a bit weak as he walked off the stage, but not out of fear.

It was that physiological sense of weightlessness after being slapped by fate.

Zhao Kuo was already waiting below the stage.

Followed by four or five lackeys, they all looked at Su Ming with smirks, as if watching a monkey show.

“Top Student Su.” Zhao Kuo blocked his path, tilting his head as he sized him up.

“F-Rank, Increasingly Heavy, Osteoporosis. Tsk tsk tsk... you'll be too fat to walk later. Go to a scrap yard and be a scale weight; the boss will definitely praise you for being steady.”

“So much for being a top student, you're not even as good as my D-Rank talent.”

The lackeys doubled over with laughter.

Su Ming didn't say a word, trying to walk around him.

Zhao Kuo reached out to block him, then turned his gaze toward Liu Ruyan walking up from behind, his eyes burning with desire.

"Ruyan, your A-Rank Luck Companion paired with my S-Rank Lava Earth Fire will be a match made in heaven."

He strode forward to meet her, his voice loud enough for half the plaza to hear, as if staking a claim.

"Following a cripple with Osteoporosis will completely ruin your talent."

Liu Ruyan stopped in her tracks.

She looked at Su Ming.

Su Ming also looked at her.

That was the top-tier school beauty he had protected for three years, just as she was about to be 'unboxed'.

He was still making a final struggle in his heart; if no one was around, he wanted to hold Liu Ruyan and talk to her properly.

“Ruyan, Ruyan baby, what's wrong with A-Rank and F-Rank? Give your brother a hand!”

“I might be heavy, but I'm steady! I might have loose bones, but I've got great technique!”

He saw hesitation in Liu Ruyan's eyes, but the speed at which it faded made his heart go cold.

Liu Ruyan looked at Su Ming's pale, handsome face, his worn-out school uniform, and the burn mark from Zhao Kuo on his right arm.

Without the slightest lingering affection, she walked to Zhao Kuo's side and turned to face Su Ming.

Her gaze was as cold as if she were a different person.

"Su Ming, let's break up."

Her voice was very calm, without even a trace of guilt or gratitude.

"My talent dictates that I must be with a truly strong person. We are no longer from the same world."

Su Ming felt like a knife had been stabbed into his heart, and it was a barbed one at that.

Damn... is your ancestral home in Chuanshu or something?

What happened to the 'hehehe' in university we talked about?

What happened to listening to everything I say?

A woman's mouth is a lying ghost!

You don't have 'Luck Companion,' you have 'Sucking up to the Powerful' companion!

The surrounding students watching the drama also went quiet.

Zhao Kuo took the opportunity to wrap his arm around Liu Ruyan's slender waist; her delicate body only stiffened for a moment before she submissively leaned in.

He held his chin high: "Top Student Su, didn't you always want to get into a top ten university? Don't worry, I'll take Ruyan and we'll get in together."

He intentionally raised his volume so everyone around could hear clearly.

"At that time, you can stay home and nurse your Osteoporosis. When I become a Gold-level powerhouse, maybe I'll come back and take a look at you."

"After all, you could be considered my girlfriend's 'ex-boyfriend'."

The surrounding laughter surged toward him like a tide.

“Getting your girl stolen right in front of you, that's too tragic...”

“Tragic? How can an F-Rank fight an S-Rank? Can't even keep his own woman, what an incompetent boyfriend.”

In the distance, the class teacher Homeroom Teacher Wang Jianguo saw a large crowd gathered and squeezed his way in.

“The awakening is over and you haven't gone back to class to report, what are you all doing gathered here!”

When he squeezed into the crowd and saw the situation, he was stunned for a moment.

As the class teacher, he naturally knew how Su Ming and Liu Ruyan had been for the past three years.

After a brief moment of shock, his face filled with a fawning smile.

“Oh! Zhao Kuo, Ruyan! You two have achieved a great honor for our Jiangcheng No. 1 High School and our Class 2 today!”

Homeroom Teacher Wang Jianguo rubbed his hands together, showing no professional dignity as a teacher, and complimented them loudly in front of the whole class.

“S-Rank and A-Rank, this is what you call a match made in heaven, a perfect pair! I could tell from below the stage just now, in our whole school, only you two are the most well-matched couple!”

Hearing the class teacher's blatant flattery and seeing Liu Ruyan beside him not only showing no resistance but instead being sweet and submissive, Zhao Kuo felt like he had stepped onto a cloud.

Su Ming stood there, watching this ridiculous and disgusting scene.

“Since Old Wang says so, then I wish you two a long life together and many children. Everyone, move aside, don't block me from going home to take my calcium tablets.”

After speaking, he didn't give the group another look and turned to leave.

Having lived two lives, he couldn't be impulsive now.

However, this extraordinary calmness was like an invisible slap that struck Zhao Kuo hard across the face.

What Zhao Kuo had expected to see was this perpetually superior top-of-the-grade crying, raging in incompetence, or even humbly begging her to stay.

For this moment, he had held it in for three years!

But Su Ming's "even though I lost, you didn't really win either" vibe of posturing still felt incredibly piercing to him!

“Stop! Did this Young Master say you could leave?”

Zhao Kuo took a step across and firmly blocked Su Ming's path, his eyes sinister.

“A cripple who can barely walk straight, and you're still putting on your ridiculous top student airs in front of me?”

Zhao Kuo pointed condescendingly at the bluestone slab beneath his feet, his eyes full of malice: “Now, get down on your knees and kowtow, and loudly wish Ruyan and me a long life together. Maybe if I'm in a good mood, I'll reward you with a few thousand yuan to buy calcium tablets later.”

The people around began to whisper.

Anyone could see that Zhao Kuo wanted to completely crush Su Ming's dignity.

Su Ming stopped his steps and slowly raised his head, mentally cursing every female member of Zhao Kuo's family a hundred times over.

Facing the terrifying heatwave emanating from the S-Rank awakener, his gaze didn't retreat at all, showing only his own stubbornness.

“An S-Rank talent indeed allows you to walk sideways in Jiangcheng.”

Su Ming's words were clear, neither humble nor arrogant.

“But federal law hasn't given you the privilege to make a citizen kneel. Move.”

This fearless, cold rejection ignited Zhao Kuo's arrogance.

“Using federal law to pressure me? Do you know who I am!”

Zhao Kuo's face was distorted with rage.

"Buzz!"

A ball of dark red, viscous flame suddenly surged from his right hand.

The violent high temperature of the S-Rank [Lava Earth Fire] distorted the surrounding air.

“Die, you cripple!”

Zhao Kuo showed no mercy, throwing a fire punch carrying lava-like heat directly toward Su Ming's chest!

Su Ming showed shock for the first time!

He didn't expect Zhao Kuo to actually dare to strike.

At this moment, only one sentence was in Su Ming's mind.

“Help!! System! Cheat! Grandpa! Even a brick would do! If you don't come now, I'm really going to become a 'charcoal-grilled scale weight'!”

...