The Urban Leveling Life From Zero - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: World of Levels

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Rank ‘S’!

That’s right, an ‘S’-rank potential!

Among the four stats, other than Neural Reaction which was ranked ‘S’, his Strength and Agility were ranked ‘A’, and his Endurance was ranked ‘B’.

His potential was comparable to Xia Qingyao’s potential. Xia Qingyao was known as the most gifted person in the City of Light in recent decades. Two of her stats were ranked ‘S’, while the remaining two were ranked ‘A’.

“Mr Lu Jin, let me repeat myself before you sign the document.” Qin Lianyue gently adjusted her AR sunglasses and said in a serious tone, “After you become the CEO’s husband, you will not receive any shares and cannot interfere with the group’s decisions. All you need to do is to fulfill your duty as a husband. And of course, the CEO will try her best to satisfy the rest of your requests, including the fees and resources required for your sister’s further studies in the prestigious Light Academy.”

“I understand.” Lu Jin nodded his head and signed the contract.

Based on young Lu Jin’s memory, Lu Jin understood the situation clearly.

The conditions that were presented by Xia Qingyao could be said to be any man’s dream. They could enjoy the various resources provided by the Fantasy Light Group without having to work. Now, after 400 years of development in AR technology, as long as they had the resources, everything could be materialized.

Delicacies, beautiful scenery, beautiful women, and so on. They could absolutely live a life more comfortable than even the gods.

As for fulfilling the duties of a husband, who could refuse that?

One could say that it was the main reason Xia Qingyao sought him.

In the 200 years that the mist had appeared, for reasons that were unknown, people generally did not live past 60 years old. As for men, their lifespans were even shorter. Most of them did not live past 45 years old.

Furthermore, the birth rate of males was constantly dropping.

In just 200 years, the ratio of men to women in a city had reached an astonishing 1:4. Therefore, a young man with great potential was definitely a very scarce resource, especially for the Fantasy Light Group.

The Fantasy Light Group had existed for hundreds of years. Originally, the family was very large and prosperous, but due to an upheaval a few years ago, only Xia Qingyao was left in the Xia family of the Fantasy Light Group. Xia Qingyao took over the group, which had turned into a mess, when she was barely 20 years old. She steadily became the manager of the Fantasy Light Group. In the City of Light, she was one of the rare few experts whose AR system had reached level 25.

However, after Xia Qingyao had become the official manager of the Fantasy Light Group, she was no longer young. She looked to be in her early twenties, but in reality, she was almost 24 years old. In this world, she was considered very old.

In order to protect the grand Fantasy Light Group, Xia Qingyao had no choice but to find an excellent man, especially one who could increase the potential of her next generation of children, as soon as possible.

A young man with great potential like Lu Jin, who had no background and a clean record, was undoubtedly the best choice.

To the young Lu Jin, who had led a life of poverty, that was a chance to turn his life around.

It would save them decades of hard work. They would no longer have to live in a rented apartment that was only around 30 square meters. They would also no longer have to live in a suburb that was less than three kilometers away from the misty zone every day. They would even be able to help the talented Lu Shixue get ahead in life.

Other than being criticized, it was the perfect life.

Despite the fact that she was a gifted craftswoman, Lu Shixue’s daily income was just close to 200 credits. Yet, the monthly rent in the suburbs required 2,000 credits. The two of them would have to spend 2,000 to 3,000 credits a month on their daily synthetic nutritional meals.

Although Lu Jin hunted once in a while, he could usually only earn about 3,000 to 4,000 credits in a month. When he had higher earnings, it was around 5,000 to 6,000 credits a month. However, that was barely enough for the two of them to live in the suburbs. It was basically a pipe dream for them to move to the city center to lead better lives. Without having sufficient resources and training, fitness potential would remain as potential and would never turn into strength.

However, it was different for Lu Shixue. She was a truly gifted craftswoman. She was able to reach Level 10 in item-crafting without having any resources or guidance. That level was only attained by most in their thirties. Lu Shixue’s item-crafting potential was comparable to Lu Jin’s fitness potential. Furthermore, item-crafting was more profitable and craftsmen had a higher social status.

After reaching Level 10 in item-crafting, the difficulty of advancing was completely different from the first 10 levels. It required a huge accumulation of knowledge on items and precious materials such as memory fragments for crafting experiments. One could not simply level up by desire. Currently, in the City of Light, the only way for a craftsman to advance beyond Level 10 was to enroll in Light Academy.

Most importantly, according to the younger Lu Jin’s memory, the higher the level of the AR system, the longer one’s lifespan would be in this world. Those who could live beyond 60 years old had AR systems which were Level 20 and above. On the other hand, those whose AR systems were Level 10 or lower generally did not live past 45 years old…

The only way for Lu Shixue to upgrade her AR system beyond Level 10 was to enroll in Light Academy and become a craftswoman of Level 10 and above. Otherwise, she would always be crafting items in a mere workshop. Unlike the Adventurers who would only need to fight battles to upgrade their AR system, Lu Shixue might never get her AR system to be Level 10 and above.

It was a pity that younger Lu Jin had died in his own home, before that day even came…

Lu Jin, who was currently alive, was an internal beta tester of Fantasy World who had reached Level 27, which was a level that other testers could not achieve. Subsequently, he participated in the core testing of Fantasy World, a world where it was difficult to survive in.

The current world was completely different from the world that Lu Jin was familiar with. Lu Jin was powerless, especially when he was targeted by the Shadowraze.

His only choice was to become Xia Qingyao’s fiancé. He hoped that the Shadowraze had left because it was afraid of XIa Qingyao and her subordinates.

“Mr Lu Jin, since you’re my fiancé now, I can tell you about some of the issues that I have been hiding from you.” Xia Qingyao looked at Lu Jin, who had already signed the contract, and said apologetically, “I’m very sorry, it was a secret of Fantasy Light Group, I couldn’t reveal it before you signed the contract. Although I’m the CEO of the Group now, there are a few young men from influential families in the group who have been eying the position of my fiancé. I’m afraid that they have not given up yet. They might contact you privately. You may ignore them. With your current status in the Xia family, they wouldn’t dare to cause trouble.”

“Thank you for the reminder, Miss Qingyao.” Lu Jin nodded with a smile. He was not surprised.

Within each of the three groups that had been governing the City of Light for hundreds of years, most of the families had already been well-established. If they had been unable to sabotage the Xia family of the Fantasy Light Group, they would have thought of ways to improve the relationship between their families.

If they were related by blood, it would be extremely beneficial to those families. In future, they would have a chance to completely take over.

Among the descendants of those large families which had bountiful resources, there was definitely no lack of promising young men that Xia Qingyao could have chosen from.

In Light Academy, the most prestigious institution in the City of Light, more than 90% of the students were descendants of distinguished families from well-known groups. Ordinary people who wanted to enroll for further studies would have been discouraged, even if they were gifted, because of the exorbitant tuition fees that they could never afford.

Due to that, more than 90% of the outstanding youth in the City of Light, including the gifted ones, came from well-known families.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Xia Qingyao had wanted to protect the Xia family from being controlled by others, she probably wouldn’t have chosen him.

“I’ll get Lianyue to bring you all to the engagement banquet in three days, Mr Lu Jin. I won’t disturb you further now, Mr Lu Jin.”

Xia Qingyao glanced at Lu Jin, who seemed weak, with an air of concern. She bade them farewell and left without another word, with Qin Lianyue trailing behind her. Soon, they entered a maglev limousine that had been parked at the entrance and slowly disappeared from Lu Jin’s and Lu Shixue’s sight.

“Oh my god, it’s so unfair!” Lu Shixue couldn’t help but stare at Lu Jin who was beside her. Filled with jealousy, she said, “I didn’t expect Sister Qingyao to be so charming and beautiful. I can’t believe that you got away with that! I’m not having it! You’ll cook for the next few days!”

“…”

Lu Jin couldn’t help but turn to look at Lu Shixue, who had a look of pity and jealousy. All of a sudden, he began to wonder if she was indeed the biological sister of the younger Lu Jin…

After Lu Shixue left in a huff, Lu Jin gazed off into the distance where Xia Qingyao and others had gone and let out a deep sigh.

Although Xia Qingyao had laid everything out well, there was only one thing that he could do to move forward now. That was to upgrade his AR level. Without an AR level that was sufficiently high, he would barely have any social standing, let alone safety.

Then, Lu Jin drew out his AR data.

Previously, he had not had the time to check. His memory of the AR data was also extremely vague. Now, he finally had the time to take a good look at his stats.