The sky above Jianghe City gradually darkened as evening settled over the city.
By the time Lin Yi returned home, the streets were already lit by rows of yellow street lamps. The dormitory where he lived stood in one of the older districts near the southern side of the city. It was not a luxurious place, but it was quiet and stable, the kind of neighborhood where most ordinary students spent their entire lives.
Lin Yi climbed the stairs to the third floor and unlocked the door to his small dorm room.
The room inside was modest. A narrow sofa sat beside a low wooden table, and a small kitchen occupied the far corner of the living space. The previous owner of this body had lived here after his parents passed away several years earlier, leaving him with just enough savings to finish school and support himself for a while.
Lin Yi placed his bag on the table and stretched his arms.
The silence inside the room felt refreshing after the noise of the awakening ceremony.
For a moment he simply stood there, replaying the events of the day in his mind.
Awakening.
Laborer class.
System activation.
Registration with the Bureau.
And that froststeel dagger.
Any one of those events would have been enough to shake an ordinary person.
Yet strangely, Lin Yi felt very calm.
Perhaps it was because he had already experienced something far more unbelievable when he transmigrated from Blue Star into this world. After that, everything else seemed easier to accept.
He poured himself a glass of water and sat down at the table.
Then he closed his eyes.
The system interface immediately appeared within his consciousness.
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[Minimal Effort, Maximum Reward System]
Host: Lin Yi
Class: Laborer
Rank: E
Level: 1
Experience: 0 / 100
[Attributes]
Strength: 9
Agility: 7
Constitution: 7
Spirit: 6
Free Attribute Points: 0
Inventory: 1 item
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Lin Yi focused on the inventory.
The froststeel dagger materialized again in his hand with a faint shimmer of light.
He held it up under the lamp and studied it carefully.
The blade was narrow and elegant, its surface reflecting a pale silver glow. If he looked closely, he could see faint crystalline patterns along the edge of the metal, like frost spreading across glass during winter.
Even someone with no knowledge of weapons could tell that this dagger was far from ordinary.
Lin Yi swung the blade lightly through the air.
A faint cold current followed the motion.
"Interesting."
The system had said that items would be amplified by one hundred times, but the result clearly went beyond simple numerical improvement.
The weapon had evolved.
A common beginner dagger had turned into a rare froststeel weapon.
If the system worked this way for every item…
Lin Yi slowly lowered the blade.
Then he opened the system panel again.
"So the real question," he murmured, "is whether it works the same way for skills."
Unfortunately, he currently had none.
Laborer was a lifestyle and support class. It provided physical endurance and tool efficiency, but it did not grant combat skills at all.
And most awakened individuals obtained their first class skill around level five.
That meant Lin Yi would need to gain experience.
And the fastest way to gain experience was obvious.
Monsters.
Lin Yi leaned back in his chair.
Beyond the massive defensive walls surrounding Jianghe City lay forests, ruined highways, abandoned towns, and countless creatures born from the rifts that had scarred the world centuries ago.
Most citizens never saw those places.
Hunters did.
Three days from now, Lin Yi would be one of them.
A faint knock suddenly sounded at the door.
Lin Yi blinked in surprise.
He stood up and walked over before opening it.
Wang Hao stood outside, and looked exhausted.
"You came all the way from next door just to wake me up?" Lin Yi asked, leaning against the doorframe.
Wang Hao didn't wait for an invite. He squeezed past Lin Yi and collapsed onto the small sofa with the dramatic flair of a dying man.
"I had to walk at least twenty feet," he groaned, throwing an arm over his eyes. "The journey was treacherous. Water. I need water."
Lin Yi handed him a glass, unimpressed.
Wang Hao drained the glass in one go and sat up, his expression turning unusually serious. "Listen, Brother Lin. I've been thinking about this all afternoon."
"The expedition is in three days. We can't just walk out there and hope for the best. We need to prep."
"Prep how? We're broke, Hao."
"Not entirely. We've got our graduation stipends," Wang Hao said, his eyes brightening. "There's a hunter's market two streets over. They sell entry-level gear and surplus supplies. Most rookies spend weeks training before their first outing—we've only got seventy-two hours. We should at least have decent boots and a bag."
"You've already mapped this out, haven't you?" Lin Yi asked.
"I've got the route pulled up on my phone," Wang Hao admitted, grinning. "If we're going outside the walls, I'm not going empty-handed."
"Fine," Lin Yi said, grabbing a jacket. "Let's see what the budget buys us."
The hunter's market was a stark contrast to the quiet student dorms. Located near an inner-district checkpoint, the air here smelled of whetstones, dried herbs, and ozone. Lanterns hung above rows of stalls, illuminating everything from notched iron spears to vials of low-grade healing salves.
Actual hunters moved through the crowd—men and women with weathered gear and the kind of hard, focused stares that only came from facing monsters.
"Stark difference from the classroom," Wang Hao whispered, his bravado dipping slightly as a scarred warrior with a massive claymore brushed past them.
They stopped at a stall overflowing with basic ironmongery. A middle-aged vendor with soot-stained hands glanced up. "Looking to arm yourselves, kids?"
Wang Hao nodded, chest out. "We're joining the sector expedition. I'm a Scout."
The vendor nodded. "Decent. You'll want a light blade or a recurve." He turned his gaze to Lin Yi. "And you? Fighter? Tank?"
"Laborer," Lin Yi replied.
the vendor paused, his hand hovering over a bronze buckler. He looked Lin Yi up and down, then shrugged. "Well, you've got the frame for it. You can carry the heavy loot while the others do the hunting. Every team needs a mule."
Wang Hao coughed awkwardly, glancing at Lin Yi to see if he was offended. Lin Yi just offered a faint, amused smile.
"You're late."
The voice was cool and familiar. They turned to see Su Qinghan at the neighboring stall, meticulously inspecting a set of whetstones. In the lantern light, she looked less like a student and more like the B-rank prodigy the city expected her to be.
"You're here too?" Wang Hao blinked. "I thought the academy provided your gear."
"They provide the basics," Su Qinghan said without looking up. "I prefer to choose my own tools." She finally looked at Lin Yi. "You should be doing the same."
Lin Yi tilted his head. "Is that advice from the top of the class?"
Su Qinghan didn't bite. "It's advice from someone who doesn't want to waste energy hauling an injured teammate back to the gate."
Wang Hao choked on a laugh, turning it into a fake sneeze. Lin Yi, however, just held her gaze.
Su Qinghan gave Lin Yi a long, unreadable look before nodding curtly and moving toward another equipment stall.
As she disappeared into the evening gloom, Lin Yi felt a strange spark of anticipation. Between the system in his head and the people around him, the next few days were looking a lot less like a chore and a lot more like a turning point.