The blue, holographic numbers glowed in the dark, silent warehouse, a stark, digital monument to his failure.
[Target: Sister | Cost: 10,000 UP] [Target: Father | Cost: 5,000 UP]
Lin Hao stood motionless, the caked-on, drying grime of his purification and the dog's blood cracking on his skin. He was a [Level 6: Marrow Cleansing] cultivator. He was the "Campus Hero" who had just saved three lives. He was a 15-million-dollar millionaire.
And he was, in the only currency that now mattered, pathetically poor.
His 450 UP, which had felt like a dragon's hoard just ten minutes ago, was now revealed to be what it was: pocket change. It was a cruel joke.
The burning, acidic frustration he'd felt, the spike of failure, didn't fade. It cooled. It hardened. It crystallized into a cold, diamond-hard, absolute resolve.
He couldn't be sentimental. He couldn't be a "hero."
He was a planner. He was a provider. And his family was in mortal danger in a world that was just beginning to spawn monsters.
The 5,000 UP he needed for his father, the 10,000 he needed for his sister... he couldn't get that by being a "hero." He couldn't get it by being "cautious."
He had to get it by being smarter.
He looked at his exponential loop. [Ascension Bonus: ACTIVE. Your next daily UP gain will be 800 UP.]
It wasn't fast enough.
800 tomorrow. 1600 the next day. 3200 the day after that. It would still take him days of disciplined, perfect investment just to afford one health upgrade for his father. Days, while his family was undefended.
He needed to get his UP gain higher. Faster.
He had been focusing on the [$World Upgrade$] tab as the only engine for his growth. But what if it wasn't?
He had been building a skyscraper, his [Level 6] cultivation, on a foundation of wet, mortal sand.
He opened his [$Status$] tab. He forced himself to look at the line item he had been ignoring, the one that had been a low-priority "nice to have."
[Talent: Level 1: Mortal Root]
This was the real problem. This was the true bottleneck.
He was only this strong because the System was a brute-force cheat code, forcing the upgrades onto a body that was fundamentally unsuited for them. His purifications were so violent, his upgrades so intense, precisely because his "Mortal Root" was fighting them every step of the way. He was a car, driving at 100 mph, but he was doing it with the handbrake on.
What if... what if upgrading his talent didn't just make cultivation easier?
What if a better foundation meant a more efficient "loop"? A better "processor" for the System's power?
He couldn't prove it. But it was the only logical path. He had to fix his own foundation. He had to take the handbrake off.
He had 450 UP. He was starving. He was covered in filth. He didn't care.
This was more important.
He opened the [$Self Upgrade$] tab.
[Talent: Level 1: Mortal Root] -> [Upgrade: Level 2: Waste Root]? (Cost: 100 UP)
The word "Waste" was an insult. He was about to spend 100 UP, an enormous sum by his Day 1 standards, just to officially graduate from "Mortal" to "Trash."
But "Trash" was the first step on the ladder. "Mortal" wasn't even on the ladder.
"Confirm," he commanded, his will absolute.
[Deducting 100 UP. 350 UP Remaining.]
[Upgrading Host Talent: Level 1 -> Level 2...]
There was no heat. No cold. No agonizing itch or foul-smelling purge.
This was different.
It was a strange, deep-seated, fundamental... shift.
It was like a blockage, a plug deep in his soul that he hadn't even known was there, had just been... cleared.
He felt a deep, core-level click, as if a bone that had been misaligned his entire life had just been set properly.
He took a breath.
The Reiki in the warehouse air, the river of blue currents he could see with his [Level 6] eyes, changed.
It wasn't more plentiful. But his attraction to it, his body's passive, subconscious pull, was now... smoother. More efficient. The energy flowed into him with just a fraction less resistance. The engine was running cleaner.
It was a small change. But it was a profound one.
He had done it. He had fixed the core.
He looked at his new status.
[Talent: Level 2: Waste Root] [Upgrade Points (UP): 350]
He felt... better. Calmer. The burning frustration was still there, but now it had a path.
He was no longer a mortal. He was officially, fundamentally, a cultivator. Even if he was the worst of the worst.
He was not satisfied. He was just getting started.
He looked at the next upgrade on the talent path, just to see how far he had to go.
[Talent: Level 2: Waste Root] -> [Upgrade: Level 3: Inferior Root]?
The cost appeared.
[Cost: 1,000 UP]
Lin Hao stared at the number. One. Thousand.
His 350 UP, which he'd had for less than a second, was, once again, nothing.
The 100 UP had just been the entry fee. The next step costs ten times that.
He was still too poor.
The need for more UP, for thousands, for tens of thousands of UP, was no longer just a desire for power. It was no longer just a plan.
It was a burning, desperate, all-consuming obsession. It was his family's only lifeline. It was his single greatest motivation.