In correlation with the awakening of their talent, individuals also awaken their class and their dantian. This grant them access to an interface upon entering one of the various pocket worlds within False Heaven. This interface displays their progress and attributes, allowing them to track their development in real time.
A typical system interface includes the awakener's name, class, talent, cultivation rank, and skills, alongside various attributes such as strength, spirit, and agility.
Cultivation is exclusive to awakeners because, as previously mentioned, they have awakened their dantian. This enables them to store the mana they have cultivated, allowing them to wield magic and temper their physical strength.
The truth of the matter is that cultivation was not a new concept to the people of Earth. More precisely, humans already practiced what is known as external cultivation, which involves the rigorous conditioning of the physical body through repetitive exercise, martial arts forms, and alchemy. Practitioners often endure extreme temperatures, strike hard surfaces to densify bone structure, and master complex movements to maximize their physical output.
However, there was no true power in external cultivation alone.
To genuinely grow in strength, one must absorb the energy of that now saturates the earth. To achieve that, one must be connected to False Heaven, and to forge that connection, one must first undergo awakening.
Creak!
The door groaned open as Ethan stepped inside. It was already 8:30 PM. He had returned this late intentionally; he hadn't yet mustered the courage to face his mother and tell her he had failed his awakening.
As a high schooler, Ethan had his entire life ahead of him, but awakening remained a life-changing privilege. If he had awakened an SSS-rank talent, it would have meant the heavens were finally on his side.
Ethan had his own desperate reasons for wishing to awaken.
Scanning the room, Ethan took a long look at the place he called home. It was a cramped, one-bedroom apartment. The total number of furniture pieces could be counted on his fingers.
Ethan was poor, and as noted before, he was also fat. Weighing 260 pounds, he was undoubtedly well-fed. His mother never failed to provide him with balanced meals, but he knew how deeply they were struggling.
She worked as a healthcare assistant, earning a pre-tax salary of $32,000 a year. It was a meager sum considering they lived in the city where her job was located. Fortunately, a government assistance program ensured she could still keep Ethan properly fed.
Before his evaluation, Ethan had already done the math. He calculated that he could earn at least $150,000 a year as an awakener. The statistics were simple, of the 20% of the population that awakens, 75% possess E- or D-rank talents. While SSS-rank talents appeared in less than 0.001% of cases, even those with D-rank abilities earned an average of $180,000. At the very least, Ethan could have earned more than five times his mother's salary.
Ethan carefully made his way through the stacks of old newspapers and past the small kitchen table to the worn-out couch. The apartment was quiet except for his mom's heavy breathing from the bedroom. They shared the only bed most nights because their place was so small, but tonight, he felt like his failure was too much to bring into the room. He didn't want her to wake up and see how ashamed he was.
He plopped onto the couch, and the springs complained under his weight. He cringed at the noise, staying still until it was quiet again. He started thinking about the dad he never knew—the guy who left as soon as his mom got pregnant. It had been just him and his mom versus the world for seventeen years, a fight he was sure he would win today.
With a sigh, he took his cracked phone out of his pocket. The screen was really bright in the dark. He opened the messaging app, his thumb over the Class 3-A Official group chat.
The notifications were already in the hundreds.
[Class 3-A Chat Group]
[Tyler]: "Yo, did you guys see the mana density in the testing hall? I felt like a god. Already got a scout from the Bronze Gate Guild hitting up my DMs."
[Sarah]: "Lucky! I only got E, but the local security firm offered me $90k starting. My mom is literally crying tears of joy right now."
[Leo]: "Anyone heard from Ethan? He was so confident he'd be the one to carry the class. Big guy probably broke the scale instead of the awakening crystal, lol."
Ethan's grip tightened on the phone. The messages scrolled by in a blur of celebration and mockery. Every "Congratulations" felt like a jab, and every mention of starting salaries felt like a door slamming in his face. He was the "big guy" who was supposed to have a big future, now reduced to a punchline.
As he scrolled further, a long message from his only true friend, Baki, caught his eye.
[Baki]: "Guys, I don't even know how to say this. I'm just leaving the evaluation center and I'm still shaking. I always thought I was talentless—just a waste of space—but I was wrong. To keep it short: I awakened an S-Rank Talent: Supreme Spatial Awareness. My class is Spatial Mage. It's insane; I can perceive every atom in a thirty-meter radius, and the recruiters say I'll eventually be able to fold distance itself to blink across battlefields. I... I think my life just started."
Reading those words felt like a fresh drenching of fuel on the fire of Ethan's despair. He wasn't the jealous type, especially not with Baki. They had been the inseparable clowns of Class 3-A,.Ethan, the fat, invisible kid, and Baki, the short, slow-witted one. They were supposed to be at the bottom together.
But now, Baki's story had flipped. In this world, initial attributes scaled proportionally with the rank of the talent. While a B-rank might start with a 15 in a core stat, an S-rank exploded out of the gate with values over 50. Baki wasn't just lucky; he was now a different species of human
Ethan shifted his weight, the old couch springs screaming in the apartment. He looked at his mother's worn shoes by the door, the soles thinned from years of double shifts, and then at his own trembling hands.
"Can life ever get better for someone like me?" he whispered. "Am I just meant to watch everyone else fly while I stay at the dirt?"
The tears he had been holding back since the testing center finally blurred his vision, dripping onto the cracked glass of his phone. But as a single drop hit the center of the screen, and the display flickered.
[Ding!]
A transparent window materialized in the air, casting a blue glow over the cramped room.
[Warning: Universal synchronization initialized.]
[Your conditions have met the hidden prerequisites for connection to the Multiversal Domination System.]
[Do you wish to forge the connection and transcend your limitations?]
[ Yes / No ]