Before leaving the slums, Ryan had around thirty-one thousand credits.
After paying eight thousand to leave the slums, one thousand as a deposit for the rented house, and five thousand for his Evo Identity Card, he was left with around seventeen thousand credits.
After buying essential daily necessities, renting books from the library, food, and covering other expenses, Ryan was left with only thirteen thousand credits after ten days.
Because he discovered that eating meat and nutrient-rich food could boost the transformation of his body, most of his money was spent on food expenses during those ten days.
After ten days, Ryan's height had increased to 180 cm, and his previously frail body was now packed with defined muscles.
With clothes on, he looked like a tall, lean, handsome young man with somewhat messy black hair, but with his clothes off, he looked like someone with a perfect physique, eight-pack abs and steel-like muscles.
Ryan wasn't sure how strong his current self was, but he was certain that his strength had at least doubled over the past ten days.
'I wonder if I can face a newly ascended Rank One Evolver...' Ryan thought to himself, his eyes filled with anticipation.
In the last ten days, Ryan had read a lot of books and finally gained some knowledge about Evolvers of different ranks.
Rank One Evolvers were not much different from unranked people. As long as they didn't possess some very powerful skill granted by their Aspect, the only difference between a Rank One Evolver and an unranked person was the vast disparity in their physical strength.
Ryan wasn't certain how large the gap was between the physical strength of an unranked individual and a Rank One Evolver, as every Evolver received a different boost upon advancing, depending on their Aspect.
Still, he felt that with his current strength, he should be able to match a normal, newly ascended Rank One Evolver.
What made Ryan feel depressed was that the more he read about Evolvers, the more he realized how difficult it was for an ordinary person to walk the path of evolution.
For the first three ranks, as long as a person put in a lot of effort, they had a chance to reach Rank Three.
However, effort and hard work alone were far from enough to become a Rank Four Evolver.
There was detailed information about the first three ranks in the books Ryan had read, but there was very little information about Rank Four and above.
He only knew that to become a Rank Four Evolver, one needed rare resources and high intelligence as one of the most crucial steps was engraving one's own Evolutionary Runes onto the body.
These Evolutionary Runes had to be carved using rare natural resources, but as for what kind of runes needed to be engraved, Ryan wasn't certain, as he didn't even fully understand what Evolutionary Runes represented.
Ryan recalled a piece of information he had come across during the past ten days and pursed his lips.
'There are still three months left before it starts. If I don't find any other solution, I'll go there and give it a try... ' Ryan thought to himself as he soon stopped in front of a ten-story-high building.
A signboard reading "Evo Association" hung neatly at the entrance.
Without wasting time, Ryan walked into the building and headed toward one of the counters.
"Hello, how may I help you?" Seeing Ryan approach, a woman wearing an assistant's uniform and standing behind the counter asked with a professional smile.
"I want to rent a Rank One training room for an hour," Ryan said as he handed his Evo Identity Card to the woman.
"A Rank One training room will cost five hundred credits for one hour," The woman replied as she took the card, registered his information, and handed it back to him.
Ryan took the card and paid the five hundred credits.
Once the woman received the payment, she handed him a key and pointed toward the lift.
"Please go to the third floor. You can use room number F5."
Ryan thanked her and walked to the lift, stepping inside.
Because he had come to the Evo Association before and had seen others use the lift, he knew how to operate it and immediately pressed the button for the third floor.
Soon, the lift moved upward and reached the third floor.
Stepping out, Ryan looked at the rows of rooms on both sides of the floor and soon stopped in front of room number F5.
Using the key the woman had given him, he entered the room, and the door closed behind him.
The space inside was quite large, almost the size of two tennis courts combined.
Ryan looked toward one side of the room and saw several puppets standing there in a row, each with a tag attached to the middle of its chest.
The puppets were about two meters tall, their entire bodies white with some black areas around their joints.
Ryan walked over and saw that there were three types of tags attached to them.
The puppets at the very beginning were labeled "Early Stage of Rank One."
Those in the middle were labeled "Middle Stage of Rank One."
And the ones at the end were labeled "High Stage of Rank One."
Ryan didn't touch the middle or high-stage puppets.
Instead, he activated one of the early-stage Rank One puppets to test the waters and walked toward the center of the room.
The puppet followed him on its own and stopped about five meters away.
'As long as I can fight against it, I'll be able to accept some low-level missions and earn quick cash to buy Life Crystals and other useful resources...' Ryan thought to himself and after taking a deep breath, he spoke in a serious tone.
"Start!"
As soon as his words left his mouth, a red light flashed in the puppet's eyes, and it charged toward him at a speed far beyond that of an ordinary person.
The distance of five meters was covered in barely a second, and the puppet threw a punch toward Ryan at lightning speed.
In Ryan's eyes, although the puppet's speed was fast, it wasn't to the point where he couldn't react.
Thus, the moment the puppet reached him and attacked, Ryan reacted instantly and moved sideways to dodge the punch.
A sharp whistle of wind rang in his ears as he looked at the puppet's outstretched arm that had barely missed the side of his head.
Having fought in gangs for years, Ryan possessed considerable combat experience. Although he lacked formal techniques, it was still easy for him to dodge the puppet's attack.
The moment the puppet missed, Ryan didn't waste the opportunity. Before it could pull back its arm, he gathered strength in his fist and threw a punch straight at its face.
The puppet was still in the process of retracting its arm and was unable to dodge.
Ryan wasn't fully aware of his current strength, so he had planned to take advantage of this opening and continue his assault after the first strike, but...
The moment his fist connected—
Bang!
A deep, explosive sound echoed through the training room.
The puppet's head snapped back violently as its entire body was launched through the air, crashing and tumbling across the ground before coming to a halt several meters away.
A deep yellow glow flickered across its face, tinged with red, as its body twitched unnaturally.
Ryan stood frozen. His fist was still extended, unmoving.
He blinked once… then twice and the next second—
"What the hell just happened?" He couldn't help but speak out loud.