1 The Mascot of Year 3 Class 16 (1/2)

Wednesday 14 March, 2019. 3:40 PM.

Shencheng Research High School, Year 3 Class 16.

Ding!

As the school bell rang, the students let out a deep sigh—they had been studying all day long.

Classes were finally over for the day. The following period would be self-study, where students got to calm their nerves. It had truly not been easy to endure such a hard time until that moment.

When the teacher left the room, diffused noise took over.

”Quick! Look at the headline on Weibo! Someone else has Awakened! In the Functional System, there is a power that gives you the ability to fly. He has been directly scouted by Meituan and the starting monthly pay is at thirty thousand!”

”Is that true? Where?”

A group of students gathered to see what the commotion was all about. Hong Xiaofu joined them too.

Hong Xiaofu was an eighteen year-old orphan, with above-average looks: fair skin, five feet nine, always the one getting everyone's attention in a crowd. He also had a good temper and was even slightly endearingly silly. He had a good relationship with the rest of his class.

He looked at his classmate's phone screen. There was a young man, who must have been twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, posing with a V sign. Behind him

was a gigantic poster of Meituan Delivery, and beside him a young lady held on to a signboard that read, in large and clear characters: Starting Monthly Pay of 30000.

Hong Xiaofu was extremely envious. He could not remember when such news of humans Awakening with supernatural abilities had first broken out.

At the beginning, the government had kept very strict control over the news. Any indication on the internet would be taken down almost immediately right after being posted. Slowly, as more Awakeners started to surface, the government also gradually loosened control and the general public finally came to discover the truth.

The world had changed.

”Ah. How I wish I could be Awakened, too!” Hong Xiaofu sighed softly as he walked back to his seat.

Being Awakened was, at the time, comparable to passing the imperial examinations at the provincial level in feudal times. Anyone who had that ability seemed to have their social status increase multiple times. Even though it was merely the ability to fly through the Functional System, one could easily get a job with a starting monthly pay of thirty thousand.

Besides, the country cared more about the Awakeners of the Elemental System and the Strengthening System. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Awakeners of both systems were becoming the symbol of the country's confidential information and one of the indicators of military force of the new generation.

Students showed great interest in following the Awakeners. The strong passion was in many ways similar to those who had, in the past, chased after idols.

”Big news! There's big news!”

Hong Xiaofu's thoughts were disrupted by a student who dashed into the classroom and shouted loudly, ”The Class Monitor of Class 15 has Awakened! He is an Awakener of the Strengthening System with an integrated constitution! He has been admitted to Qinghua University and he is signing autographs for everyone in his class! If you want his signature you gotta go look for him, quickly!”

”Shit! Are you serious?!”

Upon hearing the news, all students became truly excited.

An Awakener of the Strengthening System--that was as powerful as a classification could possibly be!

Regardless of the improvement in strength or speed, it was a classification that the country thought very highly of! If you were lucky, you could become the most suitable candidate chosen for battle as an Awakener of the Strengthening System with an integrated constitution. As long as the identity check went well, you could even directly enter the military and bear the title of officer.

In the blink of an eye, half of the students in Class 16 ran outside.

”Xiaofu, aren't you planning on getting the signature?” Xiaofu's deskmate, Su Ying, asked as she blinked her big, beautiful eyes.

Su Ying was the Class Monitor of Class 16—a pretty and generous girl.

Though her family was relatively well off, she was surprisingly not pampered and spoiled, but instead had a good personality.

She had been extremely caring toward Hong Xiaofu in class, and she had never discriminated against him only because he was an orphan.

”I'm not going.” Hong Xiaofu turned his head and smiled at her before saying, ”I'm going to have a good rest for now. I have to work when I get back home later.”

Being an orphan, Hong Xiaofu's only source of money was the funds from the social support group. After becoming of legal age in Year 3, he had looked for an hourly-paid job of some sort where he could work at night and earn his own allowance.

However, it had proven too time-consuming and the pay was not high. Then, the son of a wealthy classmate, Zhao Ming, offered him a job to be a replacement gamer. He just had to level up and unlock more features in the popular online game DNF.

In all honesty, Zhao Ming merely took pity on him for his tough life—he wanted to lend him a helping hand since his family was very rich. He did not have time to play the game himself, so it was a win-win situation to let Hong Xiaofu help him level up, unlock more stages, and win weapons in the game. Of course, the pay was not too low. He earned 40 dollars a day by managing two gaming accounts, excluding the fees for selling weapons. He would have enough to spend each month by being a little thrifty.

It wasn't a secret that Shencheng Research High School was a good environment. The students were friendly and there had been little to no cases of bullying in school. Moreover, as the students knew about Hong Xiaofu's family background, they showed extra concern for him.

Su Ying let out a sigh as she looked at Hong Xiaofu, who was smiling vibrantly. He was a good person, but he had a tough life… poor thing.

The students who had flown out of the class earlier quickly ran back.