Chapter One: The Debt of Gratitude

Dear Mr. Lin Xia, your Grace Loan is overdue. Please repay promptly. Overdue payment will affect your credit record and prevent you from entering dungeons. Thank you for your understanding and support.

Friendly reminder: If your Grace Loan remains overdue for a prolonged period, according to the voluntary agreement signed by both parties, it will automatically convert into a Soul Loan.

Lin Xia sat in his rented apartment, staring silently at the debt collection message on his phone.

He had merely gone to sleep at home, and upon waking, found himself in another world.

According to the memories of the original owner, this was a world ruled by extraordinary professionals.

Beyond the safe zones, endless abyssal monsters roamed.

Ordinary people without supernatural powers faced certain death if they ventured outside.

For commoners hoping to transcend their status and become exalted professionals, the process was simple: during their senior year of high school, they needed to submit two million awakening funds to the school.

After awakening as a professional, they could participate in the major exams three months later.

Those with outstanding results could attend the Professional University for further study, gaining greater power and, upon graduation, earning the qualifications to join battle squads.

Considering that most ordinary families couldn’t muster two million at once, many lending companies jointly launched the Awakening Loan, claiming it was the only opportunity for the underprivileged to rise.

Among all loans, the Awakening Loan had the lowest interest rate, so it was branded by various institutions as the Grace Loan.

Of course, families with some savings could scrape together the awakening funds by emptying four wallets.

But the original owner, an orphan, had no family support.

Persuaded by the loan agencies, and driven by hope to transcend his class and enter the Professional University in three months, he clenched his teeth and signed up for the Grace Loan.

Predictably, he awakened the most ordinary Black Iron-tier talent.

Moreover, it was the most useless kind: a commander-type talent.

Talent: Loyalty.

Tier: Black Iron.

Description: When someone pledges loyalty to you, within a kilometer’s range, they can hear your teachings in their minds.

“I’ve heard that advanced professionals can all communicate telepathically. So what’s the point of my talent?”

“And someone pledges loyalty to me?”

“With a background like this, nothing to my name, who would ever serve me?”

“Isn’t this a totally useless talent?”

Lin Xia felt a headache coming on. The current situation left him bewildered.

What was the purpose of crossing over here?

Forget about Professional University!

Not to mention the top hundred universities, probably even the private institutions wouldn’t accept him.

A pure hellish start!

Was his existence here just to work off the original owner’s Grace Loan for a lifetime?

An annual interest rate approaching fifty percent—this was the lowest in this world?

Without factoring in compound interest, it would double in two years?

Even one’s soul could be openly used as collateral?

From this perspective, if he couldn’t repay for long, would he eventually be forced to suicide, and his organs and soul would simply drift away?

A world of extraordinary professionals—truly deranged!

Life Simulator binding complete.

Would the host like to begin the first simulation?

At that moment, a cold mechanical voice sounded in Lin Xia’s mind.

He was slightly taken aback—Life Simulator?

His golden finger?

Wonderful!

Faced with the desperate cycle of compounding interest, perhaps only cheating could break the deadlock.

With that thought, he triggered the first simulation.

Simulation begins.

Year 125 of the Age of the Extraordinary, March 19th. You look at your professional talent and the heavy debt you bear. Though resigned, you know life must go on.

So you start researching information about professionals online.

Soon, you realize the method for professionals to level up differs slightly from what you expected.

Whether entering dungeons or hunting abyssal monsters outside, there’s no such thing as experience points.

But when dungeon monsters or abyssal monsters die, depending on their level and tier, there’s a chance they drop divine crystals of varying grades.

Professionals refine these divine crystals to absorb their energy. Once the energy bar is full, their level increases.

Though your talent is quite poor, you lack combat experience, and know little about extraordinary professionals...

But since you’re destined to be burdened with debt for life, you figure you might as well struggle a bit.

Who knows, maybe you’ll find a balance between income and expenditure on the path of the extraordinary?

So you head to the Jiang City Dungeon Center to seek opportunities.

Upon entering the dungeon hall, you discover even entry costs money. Even a level 1 dungeon requires a three-thousand yuan ticket.

Higher-level dungeons demand even more.

Not only that—joining guilds, battle squads, even consulting about dungeons, all require payment.

If you don’t pay, no one will bother with you.

Especially since you’re a rookie professional, wearing no equipment, obviously from a poor background—no squad or professional wants anything to do with you.

Of course, your helplessness still attracts a certain group’s attention.

For example, the agents of lending institutions around the dungeons.

Now is the era of the Smart Web. With its data analytics, professionals from the lower strata have no secrets before these lenders.

So the agents instantly see that you’re a rookie professional with no family support, relying solely on a Grace Loan to chase your dreams.

Young people like you, burning with the belief that your fate is yours to command, are their prime target demographic.

Embracing the motto “the customer is king,” these agents are exceedingly attentive.

After a brief inquiry into the Dungeon Loan, you discover it charges by the day, but the interest is astronomical—a daily rate of ten percent.

But if you can defeat the dungeon boss and clear it, based on the dungeon’s output rate, you could repay the loan right after, meaning you only pay a few hundred extra.

You’re skeptical of this logic.

All this is premised on actually clearing the dungeon. Given your current situation, you doubt your chances.

But fate never entirely shuts the door. You notice a battle squad recruiting scavengers.

The squad covers the scavenger’s dungeon ticket.

Each scavenging run pays two hundred yuan, settled immediately.

Given your poverty, you’re eager for this job.

But when you apply, you’re told that to enter the squad as a scavenger, you must first join the Scavenger Alliance and obtain a certificate issued by them.

The Qingyun Squad, as a legitimate team, only hires scavengers certified by the Scavenger Alliance, which gives them confidence in your reliability.

When you seek out the join process, you discover the Scavenger Alliance has a probationary period.

Three months.

During these three months, all your income belongs to the collective.

After three months, a professional evaluation team assesses your scavenging activities to decide if you qualify for membership.

In other words, you must work three months for free to even have a chance of joining.

Lin Xia: “...”

Isn’t this outright exploitation?

Three months of unpaid labor?

He’d accept three days as reasonable.

But three months? Clearly a scam.