Awakening：The Infinite Evolution of My Talent as a Low-Level Awakener - Chapter 338

Chapter 338: Unlocking Hidden Features?
Sterl wasn’t sure how long he had been out. When he woke up, he found that the cooldown for the cheat points had finally reset. He was lying in a lavish, large bed.

Surrounding him were more than ten maids sprawled across the bed, their sleeping postures surprisingly elegant, each one trying to showcase her charm as much as possible.

In short, it was professional! Even in their slumber, they provided Sterl with a significant aesthetic pleasure.

Upon hearing some noise, one of the maids attempted to struggle awake to serve him. However, Sterl chose not to disturb them and instead teleported back to his own room.

Last night, he had certainly exhausted the maids. However, due to their large number, he had mostly been resting, and half of them remained untouched, waiting for his next use.

By the way, although Sterl had relaxed somewhat last night, he still felt quite uncomfortable, primarily because his thoughts were lingering on the game pod after allocating his points. Even in his dreams, he maintained a faint connection…

It wasn’t until he entered his room and confirmed that the game pod showed no signs of change, looking just like the regular version, that he finally felt at ease.

Nevertheless, after some contemplation, he decided to extract the game pod core. The effects of his point allocation were reflected in the core, while the game pod served merely as a vessel. He then installed a core from the warehouse left behind by the Earthling race, which he had previously toyed with, into the current game pod.

Thus, the game pod in which Sterl was now lying was indistinguishable from its pre-allocation state.

Though he was lying in the game pod, he was using the newly allocated core to enter the game.

Instantly, a translucent figure appeared before him.

Two icons materialized.

One was the [Transcendence] icon, depicted as a stone-carved mural showcasing the standard configuration of an adventure party—warrior, archer, mage, assassin, and priest—all portrayed in a graceful and striking manner.

The other icon was a snarling, menacing skull, surrounded by eerie cold flames that sent a shiver down one’s spine. This was the game icon for Swallowing Heaven.

Sterl knew that if he logged into his [Transcendence] account, he would merely be ensnared by that formation, unable to escape. If those two figures decided to cause trouble, he would find it hard to resist.

At that moment, with no other options, Sterl clicked on the Swallowing Heaven account.

In an instant, a cascade of rainbow-like lights flashed before his eyes, projecting his consciousness from the game to an unknown destination…

This scene was something Sterl had witnessed before.

That scene was reminiscent of his first experience in [Transcendence] when he had just transmigrated as a baby. To his surprise, the Swallowing Heaven account displayed a similar sequence.

Then, an animation began to play before Sterl’s eyes, first revealing a structure resembling a towering stack of pancakes, where each layer symbolized a layer of hell. The camera then zoomed in on one of these layers, where a scene of war unfolded.

Strange beings were engaged in combat: a lich dragon made of bones, monstrous creatures stitched together from various corpses, and knights clad in ashen armor collided fiercely.

They fought with all their might, and with each enemy slain, they extracted a faint soul bone, integrating it into their bodies. Eventually, flames erupted from the knight, transforming him into a new form. The dragon regained flesh and blood from its skeletal frame, its power surging as dark energies enveloped it. The liches wielded their staves, becoming immensely powerful, able to unleash frost that froze vast expanses in an instant…

One by one, the formidable figures faded away, leaving only the two characters of the title “Swallowing Heaven.”

The scene was exhilarating and filled with adrenaline, yet Sterl remained unmoved. When he transmigrated as a baby, he also saw a similar war scene in the opening animation of [Transcendence].

However, unlike the straightforward brutality of Swallowing Heaven, where one simply killed enemies on the battlefield to ascend, the imagery in [Transcendence] illustrated a journey towards greatness, culminating in titles and accolades after slaying foes.

For ordinary people, it was quite shocking, but for Sterl, given his current strength, it was rather mundane. Those powerful units couldn’t withstand even a casual strike from Sterl…

However, it was precisely because of the animation and the logo that Sterl initially believed the world in [Transcendence] was merely a pure game world.

As the animation concluded, the character creation process officially began. Sterl remembered the screen when he had created his character in [Transcendence] after transmigrating—there was nothing but a simple yes/no option to create a character.

Selecting “yes” completed the process, while choosing “no” meant he didn’t wish to join the game. In that case, Earth didn’t cater to freeloaders; he was essentially told to fend for himself outside.

Now, however, Sterl realized that the initial screen indeed mirrored the character creation in [Transcendence]. There was only the yes/no option—nothing else.

Before him, a series of transparent codes illuminated the screen, displaying various prompts.

[Hidden Options Unlocked.]

[Unlocked Features: Face Customization]

[Unlocked Features: ID Nickname Creation]

[Unlocked Features: Race Selection]

[Unlocked Features: Talent Extraction and Selection]

[Unlocked Features: Birthplace Selection]

“Huh?”

Sterl had just been contemplating whether the point allocation was useless since he had only completed one-third of it. But now it seemed that was not the case at all! He had directly unlocked many hidden features of the game!

He was slightly surprised, realizing that yet another secret between [Transcendence] and Swallowing Heaven had appeared before him. Why had these features, which were inherently part of the game, been hidden?

However, after a moment of confusion, Sterl redirected his attention back to the character creation page…

He was immediately filled with excitement!

It was important to note that while [Transcendence] had powerful detection capabilities, it could only detect the attributes of the character created during the game, which just happened to reflect the player’s attributes in reality. Now that he could set his own attributes, it was the perfect disguise—one that could not be seen through by any means!

“Wow! The cheat really is impressive!”

Sterl couldn’t help but marvel. Although these were merely the most basic features of an online game, they were unattainable for other players in [Transcendence] and the farming community.

He decisively began his operations, first with face customization and race selection.

Sterl didn’t go for anything outrageous or intentionally ugly; instead, he chose an ordinary-looking, rather handsome young man of the human race.

Hell was characterized by chaos, and anything could appear here, including humans and even angels wielding divine powers. It was said that one layer of hell was named Heaven, ruled by a powerful divine-level angel, where countless ordinary beings lived in peace and prosperity.

By the way, when selecting a race, Sterl noticed a wide range of options available. Perhaps the system had been hidden deliberately, as Swallowing Heaven placed no restrictions on the selection of powerful races, including angels, blood lords, and vampires…

Yet, Sterl still chose the Earthling race, adhering to Gloria’s advice.

Next came the ID creation. He chose the name—”Mephistopheles.”

Though this ID was related to various mythological stories from Sterl’s previous life, it was actually a fairly common name in Swallowing Heaven; many players and demons used it.

As for his birthplace, Sterl searched for a while and finally found the layer of hell associated with the Archduke of Blood. He was determined to be born here, both to create some chaos during this expansion event and to scout when the two figures from the upper realms would be able to break their seals, allowing him to log in with his main character.

Of course, such actions carried inherent risks.

However… it didn’t matter.

Sterl’s true identity and his connection to Cirilo had not been exposed, so theoretically, he wouldn’t encounter any divine-level entities.

Finally, the last option was talent selection and extraction.

Sterl drew a total of three talents from the available options, and luck was on his side—he pulled one E-rank talent and two F-rank talents.

[Dancer of Death]

Rank: E

Effect: 20% of the damage you receive will be gradually deducted over the next 4 seconds.

…

[Power Strike]

Rank: F

Effect: Increases the power boost effect of your attacks by 10%.

…

[Divination]

Rank: F

Effect: You can predict whether an event will occur or not, with a 30% accuracy rate for correct predictions. This skill has a high energy cost.

…

Sterl casually glanced over the three talents, and indeed, the E-rank talent had a stronger effect. Despite its E rank, Dancer of Death was quite useful.

What did it mean that 20% of the damage he took would be gradually deducted over four seconds? In demigod-level battles, both sides could exchange immense firepower within a second or two. This essentially provided a fixed 20% damage reduction, calculated after any other reductions were applied.

It was a superb ability!

However…

This talent was pretty useless in the early game. For a regular player, relying on this to grow into a demigod was unlikely…

The other two F-rank talents were rather amusing. Power Strike had some utility, at least.

But Divination? It could only predict whether an event would happen or not, and the accuracy was only 30%. It would be better to just guess without the skill! At least the guessing would have a higher chance of being correct, not to mention that it consumed quite a bit of energy!

Anyone who ended up with that talent would truly be unlucky…

Sterl couldn’t help but scoff, finding the situation amusing, and he decisively made his choice.

[Divination].

Regardless, a talent that involved mysterious powers and esoteric knowledge had to possess a higher essence than the other two talents!

Adding this to his potential would clearly be stronger.

After making his selection, a glowing portal appeared before him, accompanied by a shining prompt.

[Touch the portal to enter the world of Swallowing Heaven!]

[Enjoy it all, player!]

[Warning: If you die in Swallowing Heaven, everything you gained through the game will be taken from you.]

This was basically the same as in [Transcendence]. Without any hesitation, Sterl stepped forward and touched the portal, instantly engulfed in a brilliant light…