"My name is Yu Zhun. I am an Assassin. My talent is [Open and Aboveboard]. As long as I assassinate someone openly and aboveboard, I can achieve a 100% One-Hit Kill effect."
In the vast, boundless wilderness, a young man—just as handsome as the reader—stood calmly. He raised the dagger in his hand and pointed it at his current assassination target.
"My self-introduction is over, so are you ready?
"I am going to start killing you now."
"BAA—"
The Demon Beast, a Little Demon Sheep, which had four curved horns on its head but otherwise looked no different from a regular sheep, raised its head and glanced at Yu Zhun. After responding, it lowered its head again and continued munching on grass.
Yu Zhun stared at the Little Demon Sheep and slowly took a step forward. Two steps... Three steps! He extended his dagger and lightly tapped the creature.
[Life Value -180]
The Little Demon Sheep, which had been peacefully grazing, instantly collapsed to the ground.
X_X
[Congratulations on demonstrating your divine might and defeating the ferocious Demon Beast, Little Demon Sheep (Lv1). Level EXP +5. No special drops this time.]
"So... my Profession talent is really this absurd?" Yu Zhun looked at the text before him, his expression rather colorful.
A century ago, the High-dimensional Game *Divine Revelation* descended upon Blue Star. Humans on Blue Star could actively enter the game as soon as they reached eighteen years of age. Unlike ordinary games, players' senses in *Divine Revelation* were fully immersive. Everything felt completely real, and they could even use some of their in-game abilities in reality.
Reality's social order suffered a massive shock as a result. After a century of evolution, a new status quo formed where the [Divine Revelation Hall], founded by multiple Strongest individuals, co-governed Blue Star's order alongside various regional alliances.
Yu Zhun was an ordinary young man from the Yanhuang Alliance. Having just turned eighteen and obtained the qualification to enter *Divine Revelation*, he logged in immediately. During the Initial Profession selection, he didn't hesitate to choose the Profession he had been dreaming of for a long time: Assassin!
This brings us to the Profession system in *Divine Revelation*. Upon entering the game, players could choose an Initial Profession and draw a random Profession talent.
There were five Initial Professions in total: Assassin, Warrior, Priest, Mage, and Archer. The five Professions had different attribute tendencies and unique characteristics. Among them, the Assassin was the typical "Asshole" Profession. Most of its skills were related to elements like "hiding" and "Lurking," focusing entirely on the philosophy of "brushing off one's clothes after the deed is done, hiding one's body and name."
This was exactly why Yu Zhun chose the Assassin Profession. Compared to fist-to-flesh combat, he preferred the thrill of hiding in the dark and backstabbing people!
Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. Right after selecting his Profession, the Assassin-exclusive Profession talent he drew ended up backstabbing him instead.
A Profession talent accompanied a player for life. It was automatically drawn after selecting a Profession and could never be replaced. Based on their rank, talents were divided into seven tiers: D, C, B, A, S, SS, and SSS. The best SSS-rank talents were exceedingly rare. In the past century on Blue Star, out of nearly twenty billion players, the number of SSS-rank talents to ever appear didn't even break triple digits. Fortunately, Yu Zhun became one of them.
His talent, as he had introduced, was called [Open and Aboveboard]. As long as he carried out an assassination openly and aboveboard, he would secure a 100% assured kill.
It sounded incredibly badass, but... "I'm a fucking Assassin!"
Yu Zhun let out a long sigh at the sky and opened his attribute panel.
[Character Name: Yu Zhun]
[Level: Lv1 (5/100)]
[Profession: Assassin]
[Profession Talent: Open and Aboveboard (SSS-rank): Carrying out an assassination openly and aboveboard will inflict a 100% One-Hit Kill effect (Life Value forced to 0), restricted to hostile targets only.]
[Attributes:
Life Value: 200
Mana: 80
Physical Attack: 120
Magic Attack: 0
Physical Defense: 45
Magic Defense: 45]
[Skills: 1/4]
[Skill 1: Lurking (Lv1): Observe the target in secret and look for flaws. While undetected by the target, continuously accumulate status. Every minute ignores 5 points of the opponent's Physical Defense and increases own Physical Attack by 5 points. Takes effect on the first attack after Lurking ends.]
[Equipment: 1/3]
[Weapon: Dagger (White): Has no Equipment effects, but is a sufficiently sharp Initial Profession Equipment.]
Every Initial Profession came with an initial skill. The initial skill for Assassins was called [Lurking]. Taking Yu Zhun's current strength as an example, if he faced an opponent with the exact same attributes as himself, he would only need to use Lurking for nine minutes. When attacking, he could ignore all of the opponent's Physical Defense and directly deal 165 points of damage. If paired with a Profession talent that boosted damage output—even a common B-rank or C-rank talent—he would have a high chance of instantly killing his opponent.
This was the early-game carry—the Assassin!
Yet right now, despite possessing an SSS-rank talent, Yu Zhun couldn't synergize it with his one and only skill at all. Just look at it: one required him to be "open and aboveboard," while the other required him "not to be discovered by the target."
How the hell was he supposed to play?!
"BAA—"
The bleating of the Little Demon Sheep brought Yu Zhun slowly back to his senses. Looking at the creature walking toward him from a short distance away, its eyes filled with a gaze of clear, unadulterated stupidity, Yu Zhun sighed and stepped forward one pace at a time.
"Hello, my name is Yu Zhun..."
[Congratulations on demonstrating your divine might and defeating the ferocious Demon Beast, Little Demon Sheep (Lv1). Level EXP +5. No special drops this time.]
[Congratulations on demonstrating your divine might and defeating the ferocious Demon Beast, Little Demon Sheep (Lv1). Level EXP +5. Dropped item: Demon Sheep Horn.]
[Congratulations on demonstrating your divine might...]
[Congratulations, your level has increased to Lv2!]
"Finally leveled up." Yu Zhun stopped what he was doing, letting the fallen Little Demon Sheep turn into light and dissipate as he checked his panel again.
[Character Name: Yu Zhun]
[Level: Lv2 (0/150)]
[Profession: Assassin]
[Profession Talent: Open and Aboveboard (SSS-rank)]
[Attributes:
Life Value: 200→220
Mana: 80→85
Physical Attack: 120→130
Magic Attack: 0→0
Physical Defense: 45→50
Magic Defense: 45→50]
[Skills: 1/4]
[Equipment: 1/3]
With his level increase, his attributes received an across-the-board enhancement. For an Assassin Profession, the most important attribute was probably Physical Attack. However, Yu Zhun suddenly realized that this most crucial attribute seemingly held no meaning for him. He decided to check his loot instead.
After killing twenty ferocious Little Demon Sheep, Yu Zhun had obtained three special drops. As the weakest monster in the Newbie Village, the Little Demon Sheep's loot pool was very simple. It only dropped one thing: the [Demon Sheep Horn]. It couldn't be worn directly to produce special effects, but it could be used as a supplementary material for crafting certain Equipment, so there was a long-term demand for them.
A single [Demon Sheep Horn] could sell for two hundred bucks.
"I made six hundred bucks on my first day in the game. Let's call it a day here," Yu Zhun murmured, scratching his head as he prepared to log off.
Just as his consciousness returned to reality, an excited scream rang in his ear.
"Yu Zhun, a new big shot just got an SSS-rank talent!"