Chapter 3: Talent

The light dot jumped slower and slower. The final result was about to arrive, yet Xu Feng wore a bitter smile, whispering to himself, “One thousand Fate Points.”

“Congratulations. You have obtained one thousand Fate Points.” Sure enough, the mechanical voice sounded again the moment the light dot stopped jumping.

After Earth’s Will awakened, the currency systems of all nations completely collapsed. Those beautifully printed paper notes soon became as worthless as trash. Precious metals like gold and silver could only exist as alchemy materials from now on, no longer serving as currency equivalents.

Fate Points would function as Earth’s currency after the awakening of Earth’s Will – the sole currency on Earth. (Fate Points are Earth’s only currency, but Cosmic Gold Coins also exist as currency in the vast cosmos, which will be mentioned later). Most tasks issued by Earth’s Will reward Fate Points. Inside the Fate Store operated by Earth’s Will, only Fate Points can buy the goods. Any transaction—specifically, any transaction with Earth’s Will—must use Fate Points as the settlement currency.

The purchasing power of one thousand Fate Points could buy roughly a one Star-Level Bronze Grade piece of equipment. It could purchase ten bottles of primary health potions, or three months’ worth of food and fresh water. It wasn’t a lot, but it wasn’t too few either. Early on, it was a valuable amount of starting capital.

(In the apocalypse, all items are categorized into grades: Common, Black Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Dark Gold, and Sacred. Higher grades mean better effects and greater power).

“If I’d used this thousand Fate Points wisely in my previous life, the start would have been much easier…” Xu Feng said softly, his eyes slightly dazed, as if lost in memory.

“But my good neighbor, my so-called good friend, Wang Zhipeng!” Xu Feng gritted his teeth. “He actually tricked me out of that entire thousand Fate Points…”

Before Earth’s Will awakened in his previous life, Xu Feng hadn’t entered this five-star hotel. Instead, like any normal day, he took the bus home. Disaster erupted on his way home. Xu Feng hid inside a restaurant with a group of people. There, he met Wang Zhipeng, who lived in the same residential area. Afterwards, he stayed with Wang Zhipeng.

Earth’s Will gave each person a random gift. Few received identical gifts. Xu Feng got one thousand Fate Points. Wang Zhipeng received a Discount Card, offering a 30% discount on transactions with Earth’s Will.

So, Xu Feng transferred all one thousand Fate Points to Wang Zhipeng. It was agreed that Wang Zhipeng would buy two Black Iron Grade weapons, one for each of them. Yet, after getting the Fate Points, Wang Zhipeng bought a one Star-Level Bronze Grade weapon and a piece of Black Iron Grade armor for himself…

“Wang Zhipeng is probably still hiding in that restaurant right now, just like last time. Without Fate Points, what use is that Discount Card of yours?” Xu Feng sneered to himself coldly. “Without those two pieces of equipment, I wonder if you’ll have the courage to be the first one to step out and hunt those monsters.”

“Gift from Earth’s Will has been received. Commence extraction of character talent?” The cold mechanical voice continued.

“Begin extraction,” Xu Feng thought.

Similar to online games, after physical datafication, everyone extracts their talent. This system was implemented by Earth’s Will to let humans swiftly gain strength to fight off alien races. Ordinary people, even with datafied bodies, were no match for aliens. With talents, at least in the early stages, human casualties could be minimized, making it faster and easier to complete tasks issued by Earth’s Will.

Soon, a Magic Circle appeared before Xu Feng. It was a six-pointed star, surrounded by a circle of complex runic symbols.

The runes in the outer circle began to light up one by one. Then, the circle slowly rotated, accompanied by eerie music and what seemed like a faint, strange laughter.

Seconds later, a multicolored Flamefire burst from the Magic Circle’s center. Once the flames dissipated, a card appeared, gradually enlarging.

“Congratulations. You have extracted an R-grade talent: Warrior’s Heart!”

“Hah, just like last time. No difference at all,” Xu Feng forced another bitter laugh, unable to suppress the disappointment within him.

Everything was identical to his previous life – the same gift, the same talent. The only difference was likely the absence of a “good brother” like Wang Zhipeng to cheat him out of his thousand Fate Points.

Each person extracts a different talent. Talents are graded into four tiers: N-grade, R-grade, SR-grade, and SSR-grade. Talents provide attribute bonuses. Higher-grade talents offer greater assistance for future growth. The truly powerful figures from his previous life almost all had strong talents supporting them.

Of course, the talent gained initially isn’t fixed for life. Even an N-grade talent has the potential to evolve into an SSR-grade. In his previous life, Xu Feng’s R-grade talent had grown into an SR-grade. However, such growth was incredibly difficult, requiring near-impossible challenges where death seemed almost certain. Even now, recalling the process made him shiver. If faced again, he couldn’t guarantee he’d succeed once more.

“Hah, looks like it is what it is,” Xu Feng sighed. He was about to open his Attribute Interface to check his stats when the cold mechanical voice sounded again in his ear.

“Do you confirm your current talent? If dissatisfied, you may spend one Fate Point to re-roll it!”

“Wha—what?” Xu Feng couldn’t believe his ears when he heard this.

Spend Fate Points to re-roll? Really?

In his previous life, Xu Feng had his Fate Points swindled immediately by Wang Zhipeng. Wang Zhipeng spent every last coin and then left. Back then, after extracting his talent, Xu Feng received no prompt about being able to re-roll.

“Ho—how is re-rolling even possible?” Xu Feng stood frozen in the room, dumbfounded.

“Do you confirm your current talent? If dissatisfied, you may spend one Fate Point to re-roll it!” The System asked again.

“It must… it has to be because I had zero Fate Points before! Even if it showed prompts, I couldn’t re-roll! So it just skipped it! Now I’ve got a full thousand Fate Points—of course I can re-roll!” Xu Feng burst into loud laughter.

An intense excitement welled up in Xu Feng’s chest. At this moment, he was literally shivering with emotion.

“Re-roll! Absolutely re-roll! Hahahahaha!” Xu Feng laughed wildly towards the ceiling. Right then, he truly felt his own destiny had actually changed.