Chapter 39 – Who Exactly is Number Fifty-Four?

As players grow stronger and advance to the Professional Tier and Second-Order Elite Tier, a very small number of them have a chance to awaken talents.

However, research has shown that these genius players capable of awakening talents already exhibited extraordinary qualities even before their talents manifested.

This is referred to as latent talent.

The probability of talent emergence among second-generation superhumans is much higher than among ordinary people, but when the base number of ordinary players is large, numerous heroes and prodigies still emerge.

There are many types of talents, but they can generally be divided into two categories:

Individual talents and strategic talents.

Individual talents, as the name implies, include abilities like fire-breathing, water manipulation, telekinesis, mental links, and so on.

Strategic talents, on the other hand, affect groups.

A player with a marksmanship talent, when commanding ranged projectile units, can grant those units longer range and faster firing speed.

A player with a lancer talent can make the lancers under their command more lethal. When using random remnant souls for recruitment, they also have a higher probability of recruiting lancer-type units.

This is a form of compatibility.

A natural compatibility with lancers.

As for Mu Yuan, this young man is naturally compatible with skeleton soldiers. He remains remarkably calm and composed during command, employing sound tactics—undeniably a rare talent.

Even if this talent only enhances ordinary three-star skeleton soldiers, it is still quite valuable.

After all, in the legions commanded by Great Lords, basic units still make up the majority.

Not only that…

This young man’s luck is also formidable.

Otherwise, even with a latent skeleton soldier talent, it would be impossible to train skeleton soldiers to such agility in just a few days—this clearly indicates awakened intelligence.

Examiner Jiang looked at Bone Four, who had already achieved a double kill. “Your skeleton soldier is quite impressive, worthy of intensive cultivation. Hmm, I suggest you give it a name to distinguish it from other skeleton soldiers. This helps units develop intelligence. One day, it might even awaken true self-awareness, which would make its future exceedingly bright.”

Mu Yuan could only respond that he would name it upon returning home.

He couldn’t very well say that this skeleton already had a name—Bone Four.

It signified the fourth skeleton soldier, with three older brothers ahead of it, the third of whom, Bone Three, had just evolved into a skeleton warrior this morning.

After all, this was an examination venue. Having received Examiner Jiang’s approval and secured the additional benefits, Mu Yuan led his group of dismembered skeleton soldiers away through the side passage.

Well, he certainly couldn’t carry so many disabled skeletons by himself, and the Chosen One’s mark couldn’t accommodate that many either. The on-site staff had to summon sentinels, each carrying one skeleton, to bring them into the treatment room.

“Undead type? Proceed to Room Eight.”

“Hmm, undead energy is harmful to the human body. Players can wait outside,” said the supervisor, who was reading a newspaper, adjusting his glasses.

Mu Yuan thanked him and then, like a family member accompanying a patient for a CT scan, watched as the alloy door slowly closed.

Moments later, in just a few dozen seconds, the anti-undead energy radiation door slowly opened again. Out walked one after another fully restored skeleton soldiers, their armor and sabers looking as brand new as if they had just been forged.

Mu Yuan: “!!!”

He couldn’t help feeling that he had missed an opportunity to freeload equipment.Thinking that Bone Four and the others rarely had a chance to come out, Mu Yuan decided not to waste the opportunity. Surrounded by a group of Skeleton Soldiers, he headed toward the neighboring training area.

He wanted to practice personal control.

In case he encountered any unexpected situations in reality, he wouldn’t be caught off guard. He felt there was still room for improvement in his earlier performance. After all, it was his first time, and he had been a bit nervous.

…

Player Association, main hall.

The newbie spectators were still enthusiastically gathered in front of the large screen.

Although they could only see the examinee numbers, through gossip spreading from one player to two, and two to ten, the numbers of the “seed contestants”—such as the whale spender and two or three commoner newcomers—were no longer a secret.

“The one currently at the top of the leaderboard is Young Master Tan, right? As expected of the young master of White River Real Estate. Money really is powerful—so enviable! Even the luckiest commoner player is no match for him.”

“It’s said the lucky player has several Skeleton Soldiers and has been developing rapidly, but in the end, luck can’t beat money. Not only can he not compare to Young Master Tan, but the lucky player has also dropped to fourth place.”

“Young Master Tan is indeed impressive—I’m referring to his spending power. He may not be a second-generation gamer, but his family is definitely richer than many veteran players.”

“Could it be that Young Master Tan will dominate the leaderboard the entire time? Can none of the second-generation gamers surpass him? You second-generation gamers need to step up your game!”

The spectators murmured, counting off the remaining big-shot newcomers who hadn’t yet taken the exam.

Number 66, Number 77, Number 96, Number 101…

As for Number 54? Aside from Frog-Selling Bro and White Fox, no one paid attention to a random number like 54. People only cared about whether the upcoming big-shot newcomers could claim the top spot.

They just wanted to see the excitement, to witness the bloodbath.

“He’s appeared! He’s appeared!”

“A new top contender has arrived, and his identity is… Let me check… Huh, who is Number 54?”

The hall fell silent for a moment. The spectators looked at each other, expressions shifting between shock, astonishment, and confusion.

Only in one corner did Frog-Selling Bro and Miss White Fox exchange glances, both letting out exclamations of disbelief.

“Holy crap!”

…

Mu Yuan had no idea that as an ordinary new player who had summoned some ordinary Skeleton Soldiers, he had been given a high score by a very talent-appreciating examiner.

Seeing this, the other examiners also gave high scores.

After all, this was a newcomer who had received genius support, with considerable future potential. Even if his current strength couldn’t match that of the top spenders, as a commoner, it was reasonable for him to score higher.

It was entirely within the rules.

(Mu Yuan: I don’t want this!)

But since he had already received it, he might as well accept it.

In the future, if he wanted to compete for various resources, he couldn’t stay completely low-key anyway.

Sigh, he was just too outstanding.

Mu Yuan had originally planned to finish the exam, have lunch outside, and then slip away. But he forgot that resource distribution would only happen after the exam was completely over and all slots were confirmed.

Even though he had already secured a qualifying spot, he still had to wait.

Mu Yuan took the opportunity to sell off a few Remnant Souls and bought Little Skeleton and Slime Remnant Souls from multiple stalls.

To be fair, with so many players at the association today, there was an abundance of various Remnant Souls.

Mu Yuan left all matters of the territory to Deadbone and spent his time moving from stall to stall, picking and choosing, haggling over prices. He was busy for most of the day before finally completing his procurement tasks.

“I’ve really worked hard today.””However, the gains were quite substantial—I managed to purchase 10 Little Skeleton Remnant Souls, 10 Slime Remnant Souls, and 1 Falcon Remnant Soul in total.”

“And now comes the main event of the day—the outstanding Newcomer Aid Package issued by the Xuan Nation’s authorities.”

Evening had fallen, and the assessment had concluded.

The sixteen outstanding newcomers who had earned the Newcomer Aid Package were led by staff to a designated location to collect their resources.

Mu Yuan glanced around and noticed that, as expected, most of them were the seeded newcomers Frog-Selling Bro had introduced earlier.

Among the remaining unfamiliar faces, he unexpectedly spotted a familiar figure.

“Liver Emperor?”

“You passed too? I barely scraped through by the skin of my teeth. Thank goodness for that extra half-day of grinding I did earlier.”

“Same here, same here.”

After passing the assessment, Liver Emperor had continued grinding relentlessly, oblivious to the outside world. But along the way, he had vaguely overheard discussions about Candidate No. 54.

Wait—his unfocused gaze gradually sharpened and settled on Mu Yuan.

Slowly, a question mark formed in his mind: You call that barely scraping by?

In comparison, his own narrow pass fell far short. This must mean his grinding efforts were still insufficient—he needed to grind even harder.

Thanks to ‘Listening Rain Chanting Pavilion’ and ‘Bookfriend 20220902234001003’ for the rewards, and thank you all for the votes and continuous reading.

(End of Chapter)