Chapter 1: The Age of Traits! Scavenger! A Unique-Grade Trait?

Blackwater City, Frenzied Blade Martial Hall!

On a vast training ground, a group of muscular men were tempering their bodies.

Yet among them stood one youth who seemed distinctly out of place. His build was lean and well-proportioned, and his features were strikingly handsome.

“Huh? Where on earth have I ended up? Is this even still China?”

The boy looked around in bewilderment.

His name was Xiao Xuan. A moment ago, he had still been pulling an all-nighter playing Black Myth: Wukong. The Great Sage’s Broken Shell had only had a sliver of health left when his window suddenly exploded, and a mosquito larger than a man had flown in and drained him dry in a single bite.

In the instant before he died, he had seen gigantic mutated beasts everywhere outside the window.

Who could have guessed that the moment he opened his eyes again, he would be in this strange place?

“Zhou Wu! What are you standing there dazed for? At your age, how do you still have the face to rest?!”

A furious roar suddenly exploded through the air, so loud that Xiao Xuan’s eardrums throbbed with pain.

A burly man two and a half meters tall strode over, grabbed a boy nearby who had just sat down to rest, hauled him to a corner, and began berating him.

The boy trembled in fear and could do nothing but apologize over and over.

At the sight of the man’s enormous muscles—so massive that even Schwarzenegger would have felt small beside him—Xiao Xuan swallowed hard.

He immediately clasped his hands behind his head and started doing squats like mad, afraid that the giant would drag him away as well.

But in the next instant, he froze in shock. There were words floating above the burly man’s head.

[Big Build! White] [Energetic! White] [Average Aptitude! White] [Angry! White] [Violent Maniac! White]

The sight of five separate traits left Xiao Xuan dumbfounded.

BOOM!!

At that moment, a torrent of information flooded his mind.

In an instant, he understood everything.

He had been transported into a future world where everyone could awaken traits.

A thousand years ago, spiritual energy had revived on Earth, and all of humanity had suddenly gained the ability to awaken all kinds of traits.

These traits were ranked from the lowest White, then Green, Blue, Purple, all the way up to the powerful Silver and Gold.

The stronger the trait, the greater the user’s future achievements would be.

Over the course of more than a thousand years, Earth’s diameter had expanded by more than ten thousand times. Now, even the sun itself had become a satellite of Earth, revolving around it.

What was especially bizarre was that, by all logic, a planet that massive should have collapsed into a black hole long ago. Yet Earth had not changed at all, and even its gravity showed no abnormal effects.

Early scientists had been convinced that physics no longer existed, and many of them had thrown themselves off buildings in despair.

As Earth grew larger, the population naturally exploded as well.

Even a small eighth-tier city like Blackwater City had a population of at least tens of millions.

That alone was enough to show how terrifying the population of this world had become.

And there were at least ten billion such cities on Earth.

After all, once Earth’s size had increased ten thousandfold, its volume had become more than a trillion times greater than before.

Its habitable area had also expanded by more than one hundred million times.

With an area that vast, it was only natural that the population had grown by more than ten million times as well.

Still, the development of this world was rather strange. Even though it possessed superweapons capable of destroying stars, such weapons were rarely used. Instead, the martial path had become the true orthodoxy.

Xiao Xuan understood the reason after a moment’s thought.

There were two reasons.

The first was that powerful martial artists in this world could shatter heaven and earth with a wave of the hand.

Some could even leave Earth and casually smash apart stars.

The second reason was more complicated.

When spiritual energy began to revive a thousand years ago, a great number of subterranean caverns had appeared across Earth. From those caverns, all kinds of powerful ferocious beasts poured out without end.

And when those beasts were killed by technological weapons, they produced a kind of blood miasma.

Any technological weapon shrouded in blood miasma would suffer a drastic loss of power. Bullets became useless, nuclear weapons could no longer detonate, and even radiation was greatly weakened.

Worse still, blood miasma was lethally poisonous to humans.

Once it spread, everyone in the affected area would die.

In humanity’s early days, there were no cultivation methods, so people could only rely on weapons to kill the ferocious beasts.

As a result, blood miasma spread through many cities.

In the end, the number of people killed by the beasts was not even one percent of those poisoned to death by blood miasma.

Thus, once humanity gradually stabilized, technological weapons were sealed away. They were still being researched, but they would only be used when survival itself was at stake.

What had truly allowed humanity to survive beneath the onslaught of countless ferocious beasts was the existence of all kinds of traits.

A powerful trait could grant a person terrifying strength in an extremely short time.

And the text of a trait described exactly what it did. For example, the burly man was named Wang Kai.

He was the instructor for Xiao Xuan’s class.

His [Big Build] trait was a White-tier trait that enhanced all attributes. It made the body larger while greatly increasing strength and defense.

At the same time, however, speed and agility fell somewhat. After all, it was only the lowest and most common White trait.

Meanwhile, [Energetic] increased stamina and endurance.

And those were only ordinary traits.

It was said that [Big Build] had an upgraded form. Rumor had it that one of Blackwater City’s experts possessed the Blue trait [Gigantification].

His body could grow to dozens of meters in height, and a single punch from him could shatter a high-rise.

It was also said that some of humanity’s top prodigies had awakened Purple, Silver, or even Gold traits.

Videos of them circulated online, and one of the most popular videos of the last two years was footage of a Gold-trait powerhouse from the capital fighting.

That powerhouse had awakened the trait [True Dragon Transformation].

In the video, he transformed into a divine dragon more than thirty kilometers long and fought a terrifying beast ten thousand meters tall. That battle destroyed a city home to hundreds of millions.

But no one blamed him, because if that beast had been allowed to rampage freely, the destruction would have extended far beyond a single city.

Of course, for ordinary people, those traits were far too distant. Ninety-nine percent of people could only awaken White traits.

As for things like [Angry], those were temporary negative traits.

Once the state disappeared, the trait disappeared with it.

Other similar traits included [Weak], [Excited], and [Fearful].

Still, Xiao Xuan was puzzled. In the memories he had inherited, there had been no mention of anyone being able to see other people’s traits.

Normally, the only way to see someone else’s traits was if they displayed them voluntarily.

Otherwise, if traits like [Lying] or [Guilty Conscience] appeared automatically, would swindlers not be exposed immediately?

“Could this be my special advantage? But what use is an ability like this? Am I supposed to interrogate criminals with it?”

Xiao Xuan felt somewhat helpless, though it was useful at least.

“But what on earth is this trait of mine?”

He then looked at the projection floating before his eyes.

This was an ability everyone in this world possessed: the ability to examine their own attributes.

...

Name: Xiao XuanRace: HumanLevel: Advanced Martial ApprenticeVitality: 0.75 (1 point of Vitality = 1,000 kilograms of strength, along with corresponding speed, defense, and attack power)Soul: 0.2 (Corresponds to mental power and soul strength. Average person: 0.1)Cultivation Method: Enhanced Body-Tempering Art (Proficient, Second Rank, Lower Grade, 0/3)Martial Skill: Basic Fist Technique (Mastered, First Rank, Lower Grade, 0/5)Traits:[Scavenger! Unique] (Can collect trash! Can recycle trash!)[Average Aptitude! White] (0/10! You have a little talent, but not much!)[Worn Out! White] (0/10! You are worn out! Endurance -50%)Eco Points: 0

...