“Evolution Column?”
Jack’s mind instantly flashed back to every lesson he’d sat through in theory class. Under the unshakable constraints of the Eternal Law, it was flat-out impossible for any profession to evolve or rank up—period.
“Wait… is this my cheat code?”
A jolt of raw excitement shot through him. He was just about to tap the Evolution Column open to dig into the details when a loud commotion erupted a few feet away.
“C’mon over, everyone! Get a load of my miracle profession potion!”
Jack recognized that smug, grating voice immediately. He glanced up to see Nix preening for the crowd.
The guy held up a glowing vial, chest puffed out like he’d just invented fire, and announced at the top of his lungs:
“Y’all wanna know why Jack unlocked that garbage Scavenger profession?
Dude’s got zero sense. Refused to drink my potion.
If he’d chugged this? He would’ve landed a way better profession, no question!”
Nix’s pitch was total nonsense on paper, but with Jack standing right there as a living “what not to do” example, half the crowd started wavering. One by one, they fished out gold coins and handed them over for a bottle of his snake oil.
“Nix, you’ve been making a pretty penny riding my reputation, huh?” Jack strolled over, his voice thick with sarcasm.
Nix flicked him a disdainful glance and snapped, “A Scavenger? Piss off. You don’t get to talk to me.”
Watching the guy do a complete 180 now that the tables were turned, Jack just let out a cold laugh and said nothing more. He just sighed internally at how shamelessly opportunistic these clowns were.
A week ago, every single one of them had been up his ass, showering him with compliments and favors like he was the next big shot. The second he unlocked Scavenger, though? They all treated him like he was contagious, scrambling to get as far away as possible, like even breathing the same air as him would give them bad luck.
“Jack!”
A sharp female voice cut through the crowd. A young woman stepped in front of him, her expression icy.
“You’re not coming to tonight’s cohort party. Don’t even bother showing up.”
Jack stared at her. That was Vera, their class president.
Back when they were planning the party, Vera had glued herself to his side every single day, practically begging him to be the guest of honor. Now she was uninviting him like he was a stranger who’d wandered off the street.
But Jack didn’t have time to waste on these losers right now. All he cared about was figuring out what the Evolution Column could do.
By the time he got home, his parents had already seen the profession awakening results broadcast on the city’s public feed. Unlike his two-faced classmates and instructors, they’d laid out a full, warm spread on the dinner table, just to let him know they had his back.
His dad, Rick, clapped a hand on his shoulder and said gently, “Jack, there’s no shame in being a Scavenger. Put in the work, and you’ll make it work.”
Jack nodded quietly. He finished his meal fast, then headed straight for his bedroom.
The second the door clicked shut, he pulled up the Evolution Column and pored over every line of its description. Ten minutes later, he had a perfect grasp of how it worked.
First, its core ability let him unlock multiple professions. As long as he hit the corresponding criteria, he could pick up entirely new profession trees no one else could access.
But the real game-changer was its profession advancement function. With the right evolution materials and enough grind, he could actually rank up even the lowest-tier professions.
Right there on the interface, the upgrade path for his Scavenger profession was laid out plain as day:
[Evolution Path: F-rank Scavenger → E-rank Wasteland Hunter]
[Evolution Requirements:
1. Log 10+ hours of scavenging activity.
2. Collect 10 discarded items with a minimum value of 100 dollars each during scavenging.
3. Acquire one pair of F-rank or higher quality hunting claws.]
Staring at the completed first requirement (he’d already spent an hour picking through trash after the awakening ceremony), Jack thought his heart was gonna burst with excitement. Just three simple tasks, and he could turn the most useless F-rank profession into an E-rank combat-adjacent role? That was the biggest steal of the century.
He didn’t waste a single second. He jumped to his feet, grabbed his gear, and headed for the door.
“Jack? Where are you off to at this hour?” His mom called after him, frowning as she watched him sling his tattered sheepskin satchel over his shoulder.
“Scavenging!” he yelled over his shoulder, already halfway out the door.
His parents exchanged a look, both of them softening with relief. They’d been worried he’d take the awakening result hard—they never expected him to adjust to his new profession this fast.
There were dozens of scavenging sites around the city, but with his current stats, Jack could only hit the lowest-risk, lowest-tier zones. After a second’s thought, he settled on the abandoned auto yard southwest of
Frostveil City. It was inside the city’s protective barrier, so no feral monsters roamed the area, and it was packed full of scrapped hovers and old industrial vehicles—salvage value was way higher than your average city dump.
When he arrived, a handful of other Scavengers were scattered across the yard, rooting through piles of scrap metal. It was only then that Jack remembered to check the base skills that came with his profession. Even the worst F-rank profession came with at least one default skill, right?
[Skill: Keen Eye]
[Skill Effect: Increases the chance of discovering high-value treasures while scavenging.]
“Just as useless as I thought,” Jack grumbled to himself. Yeah, it boosted treasure find odds, but this was scavenging scrap, not looting a high-level dungeon. Finding actual “treasure” in a pile of rusted car parts? The odds were basically zero.
He didn’t dwell on it, though. He’d never expected the base Scavenger kit to have any hidden OP perks anyway. He squared his shoulders and dove straight into sorting through the scrap.
Before he knew it, six and a half hours had flown by. By that point, he’d already checked off requirement two: ten discarded items, each worth over 100 dollars, all stuffed in his satchel. All he had left to do was grind out the remaining two and a half hours, then find a cheap pair of F-rank hunting claws at the market.
He was elbow-deep in a dismantled hover engine when a shadow fell over the pile. Jack looked up to see a tall, sharp-featured woman standing over him, dressed in form-fitting black leather armor, with fiery red hair and dark tinted goggles pushed up on her forehead.
“Hey there.” She didn
’
t even flinch at his grime-covered hands, holding out her own to shake with a friendly smile. “That automotive core you just pulled out of that engine—would you be willing to sell it?”
“You mean this?” Jack fished the dented round mechanical component out of his satchel.
“Exactly that.”
“What’re you offering?” Jack had no clue why this random woman wanted a beat-up old core, but he wasn
’
t about to lowball himself.
The woman thought for a second, then tilted her head. “What do you need?”
Jack didn’t try to gouge her. He was straight up about it. “If you’ve got a pair of hunting claws on you, I’ll trade it right now.”
A faint smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth. She reached into the storage ring on her finger and pulled out a pair of sleek, serrated metal claws. “D-grade quality—Blood Talons. Trade for your core. Sound fair?”
Jack’s brain short-circuited for a second. He hadn’t expected her to pull out a D-grade weapon like it was just a pack of gum. Most low-tier adventurers couldn’t afford D-grade gear even if they saved for months.
“Deal!” He handed over the core immediately, grabbing the Blood Talons like they might vanish if he waited too long.
“Nice doing business with you. Maybe we’ll run into each other again.” She nodded politely, then turned and walked off without another word.
Jack knew that was just small talk. Someone who carried a storage ring and threw around D-grade gear like candy wasn’t gonna be hanging out with random Scavengers in a junkyard.
He shook off the thought and went back to scavenging, grinding out the last of his required time until the system pinged him that the 10-hour requirement was complete.
“Time to evolve!”
Staring at his system panel, where all three requirements were now marked “Complete,” Jack’s voice shook with excitement.
[Initiating evolution…]
The system’s flat mechanical tone rang in his ears.
[Evolution successful. Congratulations, host, on attaining E-rank profession: Wasteland Hunter!]
As the notification faded, Jack felt a warm surge of power spread through his body. Every single one of his base stats was climbing, fast—strength, agility, stamina, all getting a full, all-around boost.