2: mercy
Lin Feng didn't know how he got off the Awakening platform.
His mind was in Chaos, and his ears were filled with various noisy sounds: undisguised mockery, feigned sighs, and whispering discussions. These sounds were like countless fine needles, piercing his nerves, dense and sharp.
Wherever he walked, the crowd would instinctively part like the Red Sea, stepping aside to create an awkward path. His classmates, who once called him brother, now avoided his gaze, as if an extra second of eye contact would infect them with the bad luck of an “F-grade Trash.”
He returned to the corner of the classroom, sat down silently, and shrank into the shadows, trying to cut off everything from the outside world.
Just then, a figure surrounded by light, moving through the adulation of the crowd, came before him.
It was Su Qingxue.
An invisible barrier seemed to surround her, isolating all the noise. The principal and several important figures from the city were following behind her, smiling, wanting to say something to this future Genius, but her polite yet distant gaze stopped them.
She stood in front of Lin Feng, her shadow perfectly enveloping him.
“Lin Feng…” she began, her voice as cool as ever, but tinged with a complex emotion she herself hadn't noticed, “Don't be too sad. Life skills professions… are actually very important too.”
She tried hard to choose her words, attempting to comfort him: “Look, even powerful combat teams need alchemists to provide supplies, and blacksmiths to forge equipment. A Gatherer is the foundation of all production professions; future logistical support cannot do without someone like you…”
Her words trailed off because she saw Lin Feng's eyes.
It was a look she had never seen before, as calm as still water, without anger, without sorrow, and not even inferiority. Beneath that excessive calm lay a bottomless chasm, separating the two of them into two completely different worlds.
“Someone like you…”
Her words caught in her throat. Yes, someone like me. An F-grade Gatherer, destined to serve you high-and-mighty S-grade Geniuses, to chip away at Ore in muddy mines, to gather herbs in swamps infested with venomous insects, to achieve your greatness with my insignificance.
Lin Feng did not voice these thoughts. He just looked at her quietly, then nodded slightly.
“Hmm, I understand.”
His voice was light, yet carried a decisive sense of detachment.
Su Qingxue’s heart trembled violently. She suddenly felt that the boy who had grown up with her since childhood had become incredibly unfamiliar. She wanted to say more, but the respectful urging of the important figures behind her, and the countless gazes from around them, made it impossible for her to stay there any longer.
She was the Genius admired by all, and he, the unnoticed dust.
“I… I'll go first. I’ll come find you after the ceremony.” Su Qingxue hesitated, then turned and left.
Watching her re-enter the light that belonged to her, Lin Feng slowly lowered his gaze.
Pity, more than mockery, felt like a knife… Lin Feng didn't hear a single word of the subsequent Awakening ceremony. Like an outsider, he waited numbly until the ceremony ended, then was the first to walk out of the gymnasium.
The scorching sunlight stung his eyes.
On the huge light screen billboard at the school gate, the most sensational news of the day was already being broadcast in the most striking red font:
“Heartfelt congratulations! An S-grade Genius has emerged from our city's Third High School! ‘Frost Empress’ Su Qingxue’s future is boundless!”
Below it was a beautiful photo of Su Qingxue on the Awakening platform, enveloped in a pillar of ice-blue light.
On the street, pedestrians stopped to look up, exclaiming in admiration and envy.
Lin Feng pulled at his collar, burying himself deeper, and hurried through the crowd like a deserter.
The way home had never felt so long.
He lived in an old residential complex; his parents were ordinary working-class people. To provide him with better resources to pursue a good combat profession, the family had scrimped and saved, even buying him an expensive bottle of “Elementary Mental Energy Potion.”
That bottle of potion had cost nearly three months of the family’s income.
Pushing open the door, the aroma of food wafted out.
His mother, wearing an apron, was busy in the kitchen. Seeing him return, she immediately broke into a smile: “Xiao Feng is back? How was it? Was the Awakening ceremony smooth? What profession did you Awaken?”
His father sat on the sofa, seemingly reading a newspaper, but his slightly trembling fingertips betrayed his inner tension.
Lin Feng looked at his parents’ hopeful gazes, his throat feeling as if something was blocked, unable to utter a single word. He simply silently brought up his profession information panel and projected it into mid-air.
“Name: Lin Feng”
“Profession: Gatherer (F-grade)”
The air in the living room seemed to freeze instantly.
His mother’s smile stiffened, the light in her eyes dimming little by little. The newspaper in his father’s hand silently slipped to the floor.
No scolding, no complaints.
The entire house fell into a suffocating silence.
After a long while, his mother finally forced out a smile uglier than a cry, walked over, and patted his shoulder: “It’s… it’s okay. A Gatherer is good too. No need for fighting and killing, it’s safe… safe is good.”
His father picked up the newspaper, sighed heavily, walked onto the balcony, lit a cigarette, his back appearing particularly lonely.
That dinner was tasteless. His parents forced smiles as they served him dishes, saying some innocuous things, but the dull, oppressive atmosphere made Lin Feng feel worse than any harsh reprimand.
He knew his parents’ hopes were shattered.
Returning to his small room, Lin Feng threw himself heavily onto the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Mockery, pity, disappointment… scene after scene replayed in his mind like a movie.
His life seemed to have been sentenced to death today.
Unwilling.
Truly unwilling!
He suddenly sat up and once again brought up his attribute panel. An F-grade profession, an empty talent slot, and that single initial skill—[Gathering Skill].
The root of everything was this Trash skill, scoffed at by everyone.
His gaze swept around the room, finally landing on a decorative longsword hanging in the corner. It was a cheap iron sword he had bought from a street stall with his pocket money during his middle school chuunibyou phase, fantasizing that one day he could become a swordsman roaming the world.
Now, how ridiculous it seemed.
A Gatherer, with a sword?
Lin Feng chuckled self-deprecatingly, a strange irritation and destructive urge welling up in his heart.
As if by some ghostly impulse, he extended his right hand towards the rusty, inferior iron sword, activating his only skill.
“Gathering Skill.”
He just wanted to vent, or rather, to see just how Trash this Trash skill could be. What could it gather from an iron sword? Rust?
A barely noticeable faint green light emerged from his palm, like the glow of a firefly, gently enveloping the iron sword.
Lin Feng was about to withdraw his hand when a crisp, unfamiliar mechanical prompt suddenly sounded in his mind.
“Ding!”
“You used Gathering Skill on ‘Inferior Iron Sword’, Gathering successful!”
“You obtained ‘Weapon Proficiency’ (Whiteboard) Skill Shard * 1!”