Yuecheng City, Tianqing County, Yun State.
"Make sure you eat a full breakfast. Add another egg."
"Mom, I really can't eat anymore, I'm full." Lin Ke, standing at 6'0 tall, cute high school 12th grade guy, reluctantly declined as his mother, Su Yun, tried to put another egg into his bowl.
"This egg is from a white-feathered chicken, which has a faint trace of magical beast blood. It won't hurt to eat more of it." Su Yun said with concern, "Today is your most important day. What if you're just a smidge away from awakening your Emblem? Don't take this lightly. In the future, you can eat whatever you want, but now you must listen to us."
Lin Ke knew he could never win against his mother. Under the hopeful gaze of his parents, sister, and twin siblings, he reluctantly put the egg in his mouth.
His sister, Lin Shishi, is three years older than him. She's currently a sophomore in college and took leave to come back. She echoed their mother's words, "You must try your best. When you get to the awakening stone tablet, stay calm. Some studies say a calm mindset increases the chance of awakening Emblem. It's better to believe it might help."
His younger siblings are in junior high, 9th grade, and could only shout words of encouragement.
After drinking a big gulp of water to swallow the egg, Lin Ke sighed internally. The day had finally come.
Like the millions of transmigrators on Lanxing, Lin Ke was also a traveler between worlds. What made him unique was the timing of his transition: he was reincarnated as a baby after a car accident right after his junior high graduation. He's been in this world for seventeen years.
Because of this, Lin Ke didn't retain the mature thinking of an adult, and his memories from Earth faded like a distant dream.
In this world, called the Emblem Continent, mysteries abound.
There are other dimensions, monsters roam, and among humans, some possess powers that allow them to fly, burrow, and even move mountains.
To become one of these extraordinary beings, one needs to awaken their Emblem.
Emblems are the beginning of transcending humanity. Only those who awaken these runes can harness the world's elemental energy to cultivate and inscribe various effects onto the runes, resulting in diverse abilities.
After over seven hundred years of exploration, people have discovered that the optimal age for awakening runes is between seventeen and eighteen. So youngsters like Lin Ke, who just entered senior year of high school, are brought to the city's awakening stone tablet on the first day of school. Those who awaken their runes join the "Emblem Prep Class" to prepare for university. Those who don't continue their studies as regular students.
Both of Lin Ke's parents are ordinary people. In the terms of this world, the Lin family are "mortals." His sister, Lin Shishi, did not awaken any Emblems at his age either. So, contrary to his family's high hopes, Lin Ke was relatively calm.
Considering the statistics, children with both ordinary parents have only a 0.4% chance of rune awakening.
If he awakens and starts on the path to transcendence, great. If not, he'll find another way to shine, ensuring his new life is not wasted. This is Lin Ke's mindset.
...
At 9:30 in the morning, the entire Lin family escorted Lin Ke to the Awakening Stone Tablet in the southeast district of Yuecheng city.
After presenting his student ID from Yuecheng's Second High School, Lin Ke bid farewell to his family and entered the stone tablet square, guarded heavily.
"Mom, do you think my brother can succeed?" Lin Feifei, one of the twins, felt a tinge of jealousy seeing her parents' anxious gazes.
"Of course, he's been eating eggs from white-feathered chickens for a month. Parents in our group chat say it can increase the chances of awakening," Su Yun replied with a smile.
Lin Feifei stealthily opened a Whatsapp group named "Family Chat (Mom not included)".
Lin Feifei: Mom still hasn't realized those white-feathered chicken eggs are just ordinary eggs? 🤣
Lin Fang: Be careful. If Mom sees this, I'll get scolded for sure.
Lin Shishi: Can't you guys just sincerely pray for your brother?
Lin Feifei: Aren't you the one who bought those eggs, sis?
Lin Fang: +1
Lin Shishi: Anyway, we can never let Mom or Lin Ke know about this.
Lin Baoshan: Enough with the texting. Be careful around Mom.
"Ke, over here!" After entering, Lin Ke's classmate Wang Yan greeted him.
"Why are you so late? In twenty minutes, you'd have been tardy," Wang Yan said excitedly, his eyes gleaming behind his glasses.
"We're still early. It'll be at least an hour before our class begins, right?" Lin Ke responded, trying to calm his friend down.
"Come earlier and be more sincere, who knows, we might just succeed?" Wang Yan said enviously. "Sun Haoran from Sanzhong, the one who often played goalkeeper when we played soccer, awakened his Emblem yesterday. Although it's only an eighth-grade Emblem , his mom was ecstatic in the parent tutoring group chat, saying she had canceled all his tuition classes on the same day to save money for hiring a divine rune teacher to prepare him for the divine rune college entrance."
"It's still a small probability event." Lin Ke tried to calm Wang Yan down. In their entire school with over six hundred students, Sun Haoran was the only one with both parents being ordinary people to successfully awaken an Emblem .
"How many people in our class do you think can awaken their Emblems?" Wang Yan asked, leveraging the gossip. "Anyway, the class leader, Zhang Long, and Tang Yuhan, the big beauty, are definitely able to."
Children with both parents having Emblem s have a much higher probability of awakening divine runes compared to the average person. The three people Wang Yan mentioned all have at least one parent with Emblem s, giving them a success rate of over ninety percent.
As for why these "Born to be Supernature" children were in the same class as Lin Ke, it was simply because their parents were not particularly prominent socially; they had not made a significant leap in social status. The genuine individuals born into noble and established families were educated in private family schools from a young age, seldom seen by ordinary people.
In this way, Lin Ke and Wang Yan chatted intermittently, and time flew quickly until the awakening ceremony began.
This was the 231st time the awakening ceremony was held in Yuecheng city. The earlier practices of having opening ceremonies, principal speeches, and meaningless addresses by military bigwigs had long been abolished.
Everyone quickly got to the main event after bowing three times to the central stone tablet, which was about nine meters tall and emanated a green hue.
One could see the students from class one standing under the stone tablet according to their roll numbers. An executive from the Yuecheng Emblem University uttered a few incantations, and the stone tablet behind started to glow.
The light flashed three times before returning to calm.
"Next." The middle-aged man who was chanting announced the student's failure to awaken without any fluctuation in his expression.
Without giving time for the individual to shed tears over their failure, the student with the second highest roll number was urged to step forward.
"I didn't realize it when watching videos online, but this is really as fast as a production line," Wang Yan remarked at the side.
Ten minutes later, the first class welcomed an awakener.
A light ring illuminated beneath a female student after the stone tablet behind her flashed three times. Inside the ring, a pale red light circled her seven times.
"Grade seven Emblem! Welcome to apply to Yuecheng Emblem University next year," the middle-aged man announced with slightly elevated excitement.
Wang Yan, who often frequented the school's online forum, commented, "That girl's father is the deputy director of the Yuecheng Police Station, with official data stating a third tier Emblem power (Level 30+)."
In this world, the strongest Emblem saints had only ninth tier powers (Level 90+), and the third-order was not equivalent to a tier three nobody.
Lin Ke nodded, understanding that according to Earth's terms, the girl's father would be considered a 'village-level' powerhouse.
A frightening prospect indeed!