The Mysterious Confidence of Youth

Lu Yuan's heart hammered in his chest. *The blue cube — it's insanely powerful.*

He opened his eyes.

The Awakening Crystal was radiating a brilliant white light. On his left wrist, golden threads drifted through the air and wove together, finally settling into a perfect golden ring.

"A Gene Battle Mark?! Lu Yuan — you Awakened!"

The teacher's voice rang out, sharp with surprise.

The classroom erupted.

"Lu Yuan actually Awakened?!"

Students stared in stunned silence — envy written on some faces, jealousy on others, and a handful of girls watching him with a strange, searching brightness in their eyes.

For the first time all semester, the rigid mask the teacher habitually wore finally cracked. She smiled.

*(Word was that every student who Awakened counted toward a teacher's performance metrics. Apparently there was a generous bonus involved as well.)*

"Let us all congratulate classmate Lu Yuan on successfully Awakening."

Willing or not, the students followed her lead and applauded.

Lu Yuan walked back to his seat under every gaze in the room. He barely registered it. He had long since moved past the age of caring about that sort of thing.

"He never says anything to anyone. I didn't think he'd actually manage to Awaken."

"Hmph. So what? Gene Warriors lead dangerous lives. Who knows when something bad might happen to him."

He heard the murmuring from the rows around him. It rolled off him without leaving a mark.

The Awakening Ceremony continued. Lu Yuan stopped paying attention.

He was focused on his Gene Battle Mark.

The golden ring resting on his left wrist had a quality he couldn't quite describe — it felt like a *switch*. More than that, he was almost certain he could flip it on and off through sheer will alone.

He had a strong premonition: the moment he activated that switch, the legendary Land of Origin would open to him.

A Gene Battle Mark was the symbol of every Awakened person. It was also the key to the Land of Origin.

As for the deep-blue cube that had appeared during his Awakening — *what exactly was it?* It had manifested without warning. The name had come to him instinctively: the *Evolution Cube*. He liked how it sounded. It fit perfectly.

*Infinite evolution.*

*But what is it, really? Why did it appear when I Awakened?*

He had no answers yet. But one thing he was certain of: given enough time, he would grow into something that shook the world.

The ceremony ran its course. When the last student stepped away from the crystal, the result was final.

Forty-one students. One Awakening.

The teacher put the crystal ball away and looked out at the hall of dejected faces.

"Not Awakening is perfectly normal," she said. "If being a Gene Warrior isn't in the cards for you, then refocus. Study hard, get into a good university. That's how you take responsibility for your own futures."

The reaction was immediate.

"I *knew* I was going to Awaken this time — I just knew it—!"

"Sigh… so I'm going to be an ordinary person from now on?"

"Guess I'm taking over the family business. At least food and rent won't be a problem."

Lu Yuan listened. The speech gave him a strange sense of déjà vu — it reminded him of the hundred-day pre-exam rallies from his previous life. He had sat through those too. The words had the same shape: *take it seriously, your future depends on it.* And back then, as now, most of the students who heard it didn't truly understand — not until long after it was too late to act on.

Not like the current him. He understood plenty.

After addressing the class, the teacher turned to look at Lu Yuan directly.

"Classmate Lu Yuan," she said, her voice warm now, "congratulations. You're a Gene Warrior. There are two months left until the college entrance exams, so work hard and aim for a top-ranked Gene Warrior Academy — it'll make a real difference to your future. One more thing: since you've just Awakened, you should head to the Gene Warrior Association to register. Once you do, you'll be eligible to receive a monthly stipend of five thousand yuan."

Lu Yuan nodded. "Got it. Thank you."

"All right. You may return to your seat."

She left the classroom. Behind her, the students splintered into small clusters, and the groaning and arguing started up in earnest.

Lu Yuan barely heard any of it.

*Five thousand yuan?*

The news hit him like a sudden, pleasant jolt. Just register, and five thousand yuan would arrive every month, no questions asked. The Empire's monthly care package for orphans was eight hundred yuan — barely enough to cover necessities. The average fresh university graduate earned around three thousand. And here he was, doing nothing for five thousand.

For a brief, ridiculous moment, he felt as if he had already reached the peak of human achievement.

*Free money. Who doesn't love free money?*

But he caught himself almost immediately.

*I'm destined to be the strongest man in the universe.* Letting five thousand yuan satisfy him was out of the question. Unless they were offering ten thousand.

He thought about youth then. About the peculiar certainty that every young person carried inside them — that they were somehow the protagonist of their own era. Step out into the real world, and of course you'd build something, achieve something, stand at the very top of it all.

He had been exactly that way in his last life.

Reality had its own ideas.

He'd ended up grinding away at a thankless job, putting in the hours and "enjoying the blessings" — as the saying went.

*Where did that mysterious confidence even come from?*

He looked at himself now: clear-eyed, grounded, practical. And for just a moment, something in him felt almost fond of that younger version of himself — that blissfully overconfident kid who had never once doubted his place at the center of things.

Not like the current him. Not like this.

After Lu Yuan's Awakening, the stir in the classroom settled down quickly enough. He was the only one — people absorbed that fact and moved on.

What did shift, slightly, was the amount of attention directed his way.

Gene Warriors held an elevated position as the Human Race's premier fighting force. Now that he'd Awakened, whatever pull Lu Yuan had before had jumped several notches. He could tell. Some of the girls kept glancing toward his desk.

One of the prettier students stood up and came over.

"Classmate Lu Yuan," she said, smiling brightly, "I think we're heading the same direction after school. Want to walk home together?"

Lu Yuan glanced at her, then shook his head.

"No thanks. I'm used to going alone."

Her smile froze. She gave a short, awkward laugh. "Oh." She turned and left.

The other girls who had been working up the nerve to approach quietly let the idea die.

To be fair, Lu Yuan had never been unattractive. But the original body's reputation — brooding, antisocial, and marked by the shadow of an Aberration Event — had kept everyone at a careful distance for three years. The Awakening had reignited some interest. That didn't mean he had anything to say. They hadn't spoken in three years of high school, and there was no particular reason to start now. These weren't people he'd walk the same road with.

He had no grudges. He just had priorities.

Even Gene Warriors were still enrolled students. Academics didn't stop because you'd Awakened — Gene Warriors weren't illiterate, and beyond the combat side of things, school was fundamentally about developing the capacity to think. That mattered.

Having already lived through university once, Lu Yuan knew it well: a good school was a better platform. It made the road ahead easier to walk.

He needed to work hard. There were only two months until the exam, and he was two years behind every peer who had Awakened at sixteen. Catching up and placing well enough for a top Gene Warrior Academy in that window wouldn't be easy. The entrance exam for a Gene Warrior Academy was definitely not the same as an ordinary college exam.

Still. He had the Evolution Cube. Genes that could be evolved without limit. There was hope — maybe more than hope.

Whatever happened, he would give everything he had.

After school, Lu Yuan left the building and headed toward the Gene Warrior Association on foot.

Why on foot?

Poverty. His monthly allowance from the Empire was eight hundred yuan, and he had already checked the map: the Gene Warrior Association was a long way from the school. Over an hour on foot. He couldn't afford the fare.

Before registering, he needed to prepare — research the Land of Origin properly, understand what he was getting into. He still knew very little about it.

*Go home first. Learn everything I can. Then get moving.*

He made his way through the streets.

He had seen this city in the original body's memories. But there was a difference between a recollection and standing inside it. Towers rose on every side, dense and glittering, their surfaces alive with neon in every color. Above the streets, hovercars drifted and threaded through the air in quiet, unhurried streams. Enormous holographic screens floated against the skyline, blazing with advertisements — beautiful celebrities singing and dancing in brilliant light, their smiles incandescent.

On the sidewalk: a man with mechanical legs walked past without drawing a second glance. A robot waited at a crosswalk. Crowds flowed in every direction.

Though he had accessed these sights through the original body's memories, being here in person was something else entirely. Lu Yuan's chest tightened with something vast and quiet.

*It feels like the future.*

He quickened his pace.