"Ryan Ashford."
The professor's voice pulled Ryan's attention away from the window.
He looked toward the front of the lecture hall just as a marked paper was placed on the desk.
"Seven."
For a moment, Ryan stared at the number written across the top of the page.
Then he leaned back in his chair.
A few people nearby glanced over, and one of the guys sitting beside him immediately leaned closer.
"Seven?You are screwed bro."
Ryan slowly turned his head toward him.
"No, Liam. this is actully one of the highest score i have got."
Noah, sitting on Ryan's other side, burst out laughing.
Even Liam couldn't hold it in.
The professor had already started distributing the remaining papers, but before moving on, he looked back toward Ryan.
"Ashford, this is your final year. You cannot keep turning in results like this."
Ryan gave a small nod.
"I know."
The professor sighed.
"You were doing considerably better during your earlier semester. Whatever is happening now, fix it. If this continues, you may find yourself extending your degree another year."
As the professor walked away, Noah immediately leaned across the desk.
"I'm telling you now, Ryan is going to spend more years repeating his final year than he spent getting through bachelore degree."
Liam nodded seriously.
"At this rate, by the time he graduates, they'll give him a second master's degree just for attendance."
Ryan folded his exam paper and shoved it into his bag.
"Both of you are very funny."
Ryan looked at Noah.
"What did you get?"
"sixteen."
Ryan paused.
"Show-off."
Noah laughed again.
The truth was that Ryan couldn't even argue much.
His grades had been slipping for some time.
During his early years at university, he had done reasonably well. Nothing extraordinary, but certainly nowhere near this bad.
Recently, however, things had gone downhill.
Missed lectures.
Late assignments.
Falling asleep during classes.
Now, during the final year of his master's degree, Ryan had somehow reached the point where finishing the program itself was becoming questionable.
Noah seemed to decide Ryan had suffered enough and turned toward Liam instead.
"So, forget Ryan. How's it going with that girl?"
Liam's expression immediately darkened.
"Don't ask. she left me for Ethan."
Ryan looked over.
"Who's Ethan?"
Liam slowly turned toward him.
For several seconds, he simply stared.
Ryan raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
Liam shook his head.
"No wonder you're failing."
"You skip so many classes that you don't even know your own classmates anymore."
Liam pointed several rows ahead.
"Over there."
Ryan followed his finger.
A guy was sitting farther down the lecture hall, talking with two other students.
Ryan watched him for a moment before recognition finally appeared on his face.
"Oh."
He nodded.
"That Ethan."
Liam stared at him.
Ryan reached over and patted him on the shoulder.
"It's tough for you, buddy, but if she left you for another, just go for her mother. You'll time-skip the development phase and get the final ready product."
"Fuck off."
Noah nearly choked trying not to laugh too loudly.
Liam pushed Ryan's hand away.
"I like petite girls. Your stupid time-skip strategy doesn't work for me."
Ryan nodded thoughtfully.
"A serious problem."
"You're the problem."
For a moment, the three fell quiet as the professor began explaining one of the exam questions at the front of the hall.
Liam glanced toward Ryan's bag.
"You actually need help catching up?"
Ryan's smile faded slightly.
He exhaled and nodded.
"Yeah."
He hesitated before adding,
"I'm sorry, Liam. It seems I really need your help this time."
Liam waved it off.
"Don't worry about it. I've got nothing to do anyway."
Ryan looked at him.
"Oh? You're really not going after her mother?"
Liam's face twitched.
"Maybe she has a sister."
"You son of a—"
"Bros before hoes," Noah cut in solemnly. "It's probably a good thing you broke up with her."
Liam turned toward him.
"You too?"
Noah shrugged.
"We're trying to support you."
"You two are the shittiest friends I've ever had."
Liam looked between the two of them and shook his head.
"Nothing has gone right in my life since I met you idiots."
By the time the lecture ended, the conversation had moved through several equally pointless subjects.
Once they left the lecture hall, the three walked together across campus before eventually reaching the point where they had to split up.
Noah headed off first, while Liam reminded Ryan that he would send him the material he had missed.
Ryan thanked him, exchanged another round of insults with both of them, and finally went his own way.
He didn't have any plans for the evening.
More importantly, he needed sleep.
Ryan worked the night shift at a 24-hour supermarket. His shift started at ten in the evening and lasted until six in the morning,
By the time he reached home, exhaustion was already catching up with him.
Ryan dropped his bag beside the desk, changed out of his clothes, and checked the time.
He still had several hours before work.
He set an alarm, pulled the curtains closed, and collapsed onto the bed.
His original intention was simply to rest for a while before getting ready for the supermarket.
Instead, barely a few minutes after closing his eyes, Ryan fell into a deep sleep his last ever sleep in this world.
....
Another World
Ryan, who had been asleep, suddenly jolted awake and fell heavily onto the wooden floor with a loud thud, his head hitting the floor first.
"Ah—"
The young man shrieked, but this time it wasn't from fright. It was a pig-like groan of pain.
"Damn it, damn it, what… what exactly is going on?"
Clutching his head tightly with both hands, he remained there for a long while before the pain finally began to lessen.
The young man looked around suspiciously.
Old wooden floor.
A bed covered with a blanket.
Walls built of brick and stone.
All-wood windows.
A desk.
A few books and sheets of paper.
And a lamp.
Ryan's chaotic thoughts slowly cleared, and memories that did not belong to him surfaced one after another.
At the same time, a new wave of memories merged with his own.
"So I crossed over!"
Ryan smiled bitterly.
This body was not his original body, but that of a young man who shared the same name as him—Ryan Ashford.
He came from the year 2026, but according to the memories of this body, the year in this world was 2173.
This was not the Earth he knew.
It was a completely different world.
The current era was also known as the Age of Talent.
Ryan slowly digested the information in his mind about the history of this world.
Many years ago, spatial cracks appeared across the world, and countless fierce beasts poured out from them. Humanity fell from the top of the food chain almost overnight and was forced to struggle for survival beneath the ferocity of the beasts.
Faced with the fierce beasts, humans initially tried to destroy them with thermal weapons.
However, a mysterious substance had appeared throughout the world.
Later generations called it Original Essence.
Original Essence interfered with the structure and operation of thermal weapons, preventing them from exerting their proper power. Even nuclear weapons, once humanity's ultimate weapons, eventually became little more than useless scrap.
Humanity suddenly entered an era dominated by cold weapons.
But how could ordinary humans armed with cold weapons possibly be opponents for fierce beasts?
Fortunately, the fierce beasts that had first entered the world were all relatively low-level, giving humanity a chance to survive.
After years of research, scientists discovered that the mysterious Original Essence that had appeared throughout the world could also be absorbed and used by humans.
Thus, a new profession emerged.
Blood Warriors!
By tempering the body, absorbing Original Essence, and continuously breaking through the limits of the human physique, humans could embark upon the path of the Blood Warrior.
At the same time, humanity's talents began to awaken.
A small number of people possessed special talents.
The most common and most important among them was Cultivation Talent.
Cultivation Talent largely determined how far a person could ultimately travel along the path of cultivation.
Besides Cultivation Talent, there were also other kinds of talent, such as Martial Arts Talent, Flame Talent, Ice Talent, and many others.
Relying on their talents and cultivation, humans gradually gained the ability to contend with fierce beasts.
Even so, the vast majority of the world remained occupied by fierce beasts. Humanity controlled only a small portion of the land, establishing one survival city after another to protect its remaining population.
It was worth mentioning that the world of this era was many times larger than the Earth Ryan remembered, with vast territories stretching between the regions occupied by humanity.
"Original Essence, talents, beasts, what a wonderful world!"
Ryan took a deep breath and smiled.
Perhaps coming to this world wasn't such a bad thing.
After sorting through the memories of his previous life and this world, Ryan slowly examined his current body.
This body was fifteen years old.
In the Age of Talent, fifteen was generally considered the age at which cultivation could properly begin.
Before the age of fifteen, the body had not developed sufficiently and was usually unsuitable for cultivation. Unless someone came from a powerful family capable of using precious resources to accelerate the body's development, cultivating too early could do more harm than good.
It could be said that fifteen was the golden age for beginning cultivation.
Once someone reached the age of twenty without starting, even if their talent was exceptionally high, their future achievements would be greatly limited.
"Fortunately, it's not an old man's body, otherwise I would have been miserable."
"No..."
Ryan's expression suddenly changed.
He finally remembered something from the body's memories.
Its talent.
The talent of this body was very low.
Extremely low!
Weak Cultivation Talent!
In this era, the most important talent was Cultivation Talent.
From low to high, the known grades were:
Weak, Inferior, Primary, Medium, and High.
It was said that even greater talents existed above High, but such information was not something the current Ryan Ashford had access to.
Once someone reached the age of fifteen, they could purchase a Talent Stone to examine their Cultivation Talent.
However, an ordinary Talent Stone could only detect Cultivation Talent. Other kinds of talent required specialized Talent Stones capable of detecting particular attributes.
The previous owner of this body had recently turned fifteen.
Filled with excitement, he had bought a Talent Stone and tested himself inside his room.
The result had been devastating.
Weak Cultivation Talent.
"Damn, Weak Talent, this is the most rubbish Cultivation Talent, and there's no hope of even becoming a Blood Warrior!"
Ryan was also desperate.
Blood Warrior Apprentices and Blood Warriors represented the beginning of the cultivation path.
Strictly speaking, Blood Warrior Apprentice was only a preparatory stage rather than a true cultivation rank.
Only after an apprentice tempered their body to the required level and successfully broke through could they become a Rank 1 Blood Warrior.
But talent placed a harsh limit on what a person could achieve.
To have a realistic possibility of becoming a Rank 1 Blood Warrior, one needed at least Inferior Cultivation Talent.
Inferior Talent was only one level above Weak Talent, and even then, a person's lifetime achievements would usually be limited. At best, they might barely step into Rank 1.
Even so, Inferior Talent at least offered hope.
Once someone became a genuine Blood Warrior, even if they had only just entered Rank 1, their position was already far above that of ordinary people.
Weak Cultivation Talent was different.
Even if Ryan cultivated for his entire life, he would most likely remain nothing more than a Blood Warrior Apprentice.
This was the limitation imposed by talent.
"If only I could change my talent!"