To the old man, as he watched Jake stand there staring into space, it seemed as though the boy was fixated on the spherical orb before him, the one glowing with a dull grey color.
Unlike the others, whose spheres displayed distinct weapon-type symbols within, Jake's own showed nothing, absolutely nothing.
The man narrowed his gaze, recognizing Jake as the same student he had been certain would fail, only for a Hanger System to latch onto him at the very last moment, though he knew he shouldn't take satisfaction in the boy's misfortune, however; he just couldn't help it.
To him, Jake had simply been lucky to awaken and should have lived a mediocre life.
It wasn't unheard of for someone to lack a weapon affinity, there had been a few such cases throughout history. However, those individuals were never of Common rank and most of them came from wealthy backgrounds.
So their families had been able to fund experiments, which led to extracting talents from beasts, while alchemists developed specialized potions to help them awaken weapon affinities, but the one thing all of those cases had in common was this, they possessed sufficiently high main talents.
That was why their families were willing to invest heavily on them, and that was exactly what no one would do for Jake because even if he comes from a rich clan..
A common talent, at its peak, could only offer a 20% increase in performance, and no one would spend such an enormous amount of resources on someone with such limited potential as they would see it as a waste.
"Stop staring at the Talent Orb and move aside," the man said coldly, but Jake paid him no attention, because unlike what the oil man thought, he hadn't been looking at the orb at all.
Instead, his gaze was fixed on the interface floating before him.
[ Pilot Market ]
> Affinity
> Implants
> Currency Exchange
He swiftly opened the affinity option in his system, and there it was: all Nine known weapon affinities available for purchase at the Common level, but that wasn't all.
There were also several mysterious items listed in the store — Uncommon Advance Potion, Rare Advance Potion, Epic Advance Potion, and Legendary Advance Potion.
Still engrossed in the glowing blue screen, Jake walked away after being coldly dismissed by the old man.
He was completely absorbed in trying to understand what lay before him.
Curious, he focused his attention on one item in particular — the Uncommon Advance Potion, as a detailed explanation immediately unfolded:
[Uncommon Advance Potion : If consumed after a Common talent has reached the peak of its potential, there is a 100% chance of evolving the main talent into the Uncommon rank. Additionally, the consumer's talent limit will be increased after consumption.]
Just from reading the description, Jake understood its true value, this was the ability to directly upgrade one's talent rank, something even the greatest human cities had been desperately researching for years without any guaranteed solution.
Yet here it was, offered in his system with a perfect success rate, for the first time, Jake didn't feel completely hopeless.
And that wasn't all, the system shop also contained injections capable of further upgrading any Common weapon affinity he might purchase, each at different price Tier, after confirming everything, a wide, genuine smile spread across his face.
Only when he finally raised his head did he realize that the recruiters had already begun approaching the other students, enthusiastically offering them contracts and terms; he had been so deeply focused on his system that he hadn't even noticed the lively chatter filling the hall.
Looking around, he saw that he was the only one left without anyone trying to recruit him, however; instead of feeling discouraged, Jake simply smiled faintly. It didn't matter that much to him, as he plans to prove them all wrong on his own terms.
His only real problem now was money, he needed to buy a mech, that was the most crucial first step, his gaze shifted toward the other two students who had also awakened from the F region.
As of that moment, the top guilds and military force from the C region were fiercely competing to recruit Aiden, while the F region representatives didn't even bother trying to compete.
They simply turned their attention to Gideon, knowing they stood no chance of stopping Aiden if he chose to leave, they too understood exactly what decision they would make if they were in his shoes.
They knew they could never match the offers coming from the C region forces, all they could do was hand Aiden a small scroll containing their promise: they would use every resource at their disposal to help him grow and appoint him as the fourth captain of the F region Army.
Becoming a Captain in the F region Army sounded tempting on paper, but the offer held little real promise, as the region had fewer than fifty registered soldiers, and they constantly had to pay outside forces to help clear their dungeons.
As a result, they could barely gather enough funds to develop their own territory, after delivering their offer to Aiden, the F region recruiters moved on to Gideon.
They told him it would be an honor for him to serve the region and that he would still receive a regular salary while in the academy.
Unlike with Aiden, they made him no grand promises, they simply offered him a choice between choosing a Lancer or Paragon mech if he decided to join the F region military.
Without hesitation, Gideon signed on the spot, agreeing to become a member of the F region Army, even though he would be going to the academy to learn the ways of the Mech Super Soldier for now, at least now he knew he would be doing so with the full backing of the F region army.
Only then did the recruiters turn toward the last remaining student, two of the three military personnel sighed.
The third one, whose uniform looked like it had seen far too many years, stepped forward toward Jake.
"Hello," the man said. "Do you remember me?"
Making Jake wonder whether he was ever supposed to remember such a person, but since not all of his current memories were clear, he simply shook his head.
"Well, I guess it has been a long time since you last saw me, then allow me to reintroduce myself," the man said.
"I am Captain Zack of the Region F Army. I am currently the strongest and one of the highest-ranking members of the Region F Army, back in the day, your parents served under me," he said, placing a hand on his chest.