I am the Arcane Archer, and all my skills are self-created.

The voice was full of mockery and undisguised malice.

Li Wu paused, knowing who it was without even turning around.

Zhao Tianyu is a rich second-generation student in the class; his father holds an important position in a first- or second-tier guild.

Relying on his family's wealth and power, he has always been domineering at school, especially enjoying making fun of students like Li Wu who come from poor families but have excellent grades, in order to gain a cheap sense of superiority.

Li Wu turned around and looked at the other person calmly.

Surrounded by several followers, Zhao Tianyu stood tall like a rooster displaying its plumage, as if afraid others wouldn't see the bronze badge on his chest that represented the "warrior" class.

"Hey, isn't this our Squad Leader Li? I heard you've finished awakening too? What's your profession? Show us!" Zhao Tianyu asked casually, his mocking smile almost reaching his ears.

A blond-haired lackey standing next to him immediately jumped out, his voice exaggeratedly high-pitched:

"Brother Yu, you don't know yet? Our Squad Leader Li is incredibly awesome! He's awakened the legendary hidden class!"

The blond-haired man deliberately dragged out his words, whetting the appetites of those around him, before revealing the answer with a sly laugh: "Arcane Archer! Hahahaha! A complete waste whose physical attacks are worse than a dog's, and whose magical attacks get him toyed with!"

"Pfft!"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

Zhao Tianyu's followers burst into laughter.

"Arcane Archer? That's the legendary class with the most chaotic skills, and the one that can't even learn universal skill books?"

"Holy crap, this luck is unbelievable! Awakening the hidden class should have been a perfect start, but then I drew a useless card!"

With extreme schadenfreude on his face, Zhao Tianyu walked up to Li Wu and patted him on the shoulder with a heavy thud.

"Li Wu, Li Wu, what kind of fate do you have? What's the use of being good at studying? In this era, career and talent are everything! Look at you, a disastrous start, how are you going to win?"

He puffed out his chest dramatically, as if showing off, the soldier's badge gleaming dazzlingly in the light:

"Me, a professional warrior! My talent is 'Intermediate Strength Enhancement,' a yellow-level outstanding talent! It's not top-tier, but it's very practical! And you? You haven't even awakened your talent yet, have you? A piece of trash paired with another piece of junk, that's quite a good match, hahaha!"

Li Wu raised his hand expressionlessly and dusted off the shoulder that had been patted by him.

This subtle movement caused the smile on Zhao Tianyu's face to freeze instantly.

"Is this any of your business?" Li Wu asked calmly.

There was no anger, no resentment, not even a trace of superfluous emotion.

This feeling of being ignored made Zhao Tianyu feel extremely frustrated.

However, a strange smile immediately appeared on his face. "Yes, it has nothing to do with me, but it does have something to do with Qiuyue!"

Autumn moon?!

Li Wu's heart clenched suddenly.

Li Qiuyue was his neighbor. The two grew up together and were childhood sweethearts, just short of confessing their feelings!

"That's between Qiuyue and me, what's it to you?" Li Wu's voice turned cold.

"What... what kind of attitude is this?" Zhao Tianyu's face darkened completely.

"Li Wu, don't push your luck! Do you still think you're the top student and class monitor you used to be? You're just a piece of trash now! A useless piece of trash who's awakened a worthless profession and can't even support himself!"

"I heard your mother is very ill and urgently needs money, right?" another lackey interjected sarcastically. "With your profession, let alone making money in the Origin Realm, even leaving the starting village is a problem! How are you going to treat your mother's illness?"

"That's right! How can someone like you give Qiuyue a future!" Zhao Tianyu pressed on relentlessly.

Just then, a beautiful figure walked out from outside the crowd.

"Qiuyue, you've arrived." When Li Wu saw the person who had come, a gentle expression finally appeared on her face.

Li Qiuyue wore a light blue dress, her long hair cascading down her shoulders. With her delicate and beautiful appearance, she was the undisputed class beauty.

However, her expression was unusually complicated at this moment, and she even deliberately avoided Li Wu's gaze, instead looking at Zhao Tianyu first.

Zhao Tianyu immediately put on a gentle smile, stepped forward, and said solicitously, "Qiuyue, I was just concerned about our class monitor, afraid he might do something rash."

"Is that so?" Li Qiuyue's voice was soft, yet carried a strange sense of detachment.

She finally turned her gaze to Li Wu, whose face she knew so well, but now she could no longer find the closeness and worry she once had.

"Li Wu," she began, her tone eerily calm, "Zhao Tianyu is right. In your current condition, it's really not suitable for you to think about those unrealistic things anymore."

boom!

Li Wu's mind went blank.

Unrealistic things?

Their relationship of more than ten years, those days and nights of going to and from school together, studying together, and dreaming about the future together, all became, in her words, light and unrealistic.

He stared intently at her, trying to find a trace of coercion or a joke on her face, but he was disappointed.

Li Qiuyue's expression was very serious, so serious it was cruel.

"I heard that Aunt's illness has worsened again," she continued, each word like a small hammer, striking Li Wu's most vulnerable spot.

"The surgery fee is not a small amount. Your awakened profession... Arcane Archer, as everyone knows, is impossible to earn money, and it's even difficult to protect oneself."

The surrounding laughter rang out again, this time even more unrestrained.

"Did you hear that, you piece of trash? Even your childhood sweetheart has seen the reality!" the blond henchman yelled.

Zhao Tianyu's smugness was almost overflowing. He waved his hand dismissively, signaling his followers to be quiet, and then looked at Li Qiuyue with deep affection:

"Qiuyue, don't worry, I'll find a way to treat the squad leader's mother's illness. I've already spoken to my dad, and he'll contact the best doctors. As for the surgery fees, just ask, and I can raise the money for you anytime."

These words were a blatant boast and a show of defiance directed at Li Wu!

It's telling him, "What you can't do, I can! What you can't give, I can also do!"

Li Qiuyue neither refused nor immediately accepted; she simply lowered her head and said in a voice barely above a whisper, "Thank you, Tianyu."

These words, like sharp knives, pierced Li Wu's heart in an instant.

He felt dizzy, as if a huge rock was blocking his chest, making it extremely difficult to breathe.

He wasn't stupid; he could tell that Li Qiuyue wasn't acting. She was forcing him and telling him that she had made her choice.

Why?

Just because he awakened a so-called "trash" profession?

Just because Zhao Tianyu is rich and powerful?

A relationship of more than ten years, how could it be so vulnerable in the face of cruel reality?

Li Wu laughed, a low laugh filled with self-mockery and endless sorrow.

"So?" he asked, looking at Li Qiuyue, his voice hoarse. "Is this your choice?"

Li Qiuyue's body trembled slightly. She suddenly raised her head and met Li Wu's gaze. Those once clear eyes were now filled with struggle and guilt, but even more so, there was a kind of determination that felt completely unfamiliar to him.

"Li Wu, I'm sorry. I... I need a man who can give me a future, not a boy I have to worry about." She seemed to have made her final decision, and her voice grew louder.

"Tianyu... he's promised me he'll take me to a top 20 guild and find someone to help me level up. He can give me the stability and future I want!"

"Haha...hahahaha!"

Li Wu could no longer hold back. She suddenly tilted her head back and burst into laughter, laughing so hard that tears almost streamed down her face, leaving everyone around her bewildered.

That's it!

That's it!

His mother's illness? That's all just an excuse!

Ultimately, it's all for her own future!

For the sake of the so-called future, she could abandon him without hesitation and throw herself into the arms of another man.

At this moment, all the heartache, resentment, and anger turned into a chilling, bone-deep cold, freezing the once warm heart.

"Okay, very good."

Li Wu stopped laughing, and the expression on his face turned completely cold, devoid of any emotion, leaving only deathly silence.

Looking at the seemingly perfect couple before him, he felt nothing but utter irony and disgust.

Li Wu ignored everyone else, turned around, squeezed through the crowd, and quickly left the Awakening Hall.

He now had only one thought in mind—to immediately enter the Realm of Origin, kill monsters, level up, and prove his talent!

In an inconspicuous corner of the hall, a cool and aloof figure stood quietly, taking in everything.

Hua Zitong watched Li Wu's departing figure, her beautiful face displaying an extremely complex expression.

As a reborn person, she thought she had everything in control of the future.

But today, she saw the soaring multicolored light, heard the name "Arcane Archer," a profession that had never shone in her previous life, and more importantly... she vaguely saw the outline of the jade pendant around Li Wu's neck, a pendant she knew all too well.

That jade pendant that she considered an ominous object and discarded immediately after her rebirth!

It was this jade pendant that brought her endless misfortune in her past life, delaying her entry into the Realm of Origin for a long time, and even...

"Why...why is it on him?"

Hua Zitong's voice trembled slightly.

Was it his act of discarding the jade pendant that, like the butterfly effect, changed his fate? Did it awaken a hidden profession that shouldn't have existed in the first place?

A strange sense of guilt and intense curiosity welled up inside me.

From this moment on, the trajectory of my past life seems to have begun to deviate.

Hua Zitong withdrew her gaze, and without the slightest hesitation, took long strides to catch up with Li Wu.