Professionals!
This is the mighty pillar of the Human Empire, the core force ruling billions of planets and countless races. Without professionals, humans on Earth would never have left the solar system, let alone established the universe-conquering Human Empire.
After hundreds of thousands of years of development by the Empire, the professional system has become quite mature.
However mature it is, at any time, resources and knowledge always remain monopolized, and this professional system is no exception. The Imperial Family, nobility, various factions, and forces all hold the monopoly over the knowledge and resources for professional advancement.
Take Martial Dao as an example: under general circumstances, ordinary people who wish to pursue a profession in Martial Dao can only do so by studying at schools or martial arts halls, practicing martial skills, and engaging in various real combats, becoming eligible for the Tier One profession of Martial Dao System, [martial apprentice], only after reaching adulthood.
This is the monopoly of professional knowledge and resources.
Without schools, martial arts halls, systematic training, and real combat, relying solely on one's own exploration, it's unimaginable how much time and effort it would take to become the corresponding professional. During this time, there are risks of going astray; one wrong step could lead to a lifetime of regret.
This pertains to popular professions. After hundreds of thousands of years of exploration, with countless professionals paving the way, the path has been charted, the system matured. Therefore, the Empire offers some professional knowledge in middle schools for free.
But powerful and rare professions are entirely controlled by various factions. Whether professional resources or knowledge, they are monopolized by all parties. To acquire them, one must either pay a hefty sum or join their ranks.
Take the Martial Arts System as an example again. The mainstream advancement path for Martial Dao is apprentice, martial artist, samurai, martial master, and so on, progressing until achieving the ultimate profession of Martial God.
Outside the mainstream system, there are also many powerful branches. For instance, the Empire's famous Dragon Blood Family has a profession path known as the "Dragon Blood Martial Dao," which can cultivate Dragon Blood martial apprentices, martial artists, and ultimately the Dragon Blood Martial Saint.
The combat power of professionals on this path is extremely formidable, far surpassing those of the same tier in mainstream Martial Dao professions. The ultimate Dragon Blood Martial Saint can traverse the universe with their physical body and shatter planets with bare hands, making it one of the most powerful professional paths in the Empire.
However, this path belongs to the Dragon Blood Family, who not only keep the profession induction methods secret but also strictly control the "Dragon Blood" resources required for advancement. Outsiders have almost no chance to acquire them.
The Dragon Blood Family is like this, and so are other forces. Profession induction methods, advancement routes, and other professional resources are tightly controlled by various forces and even patented for protection. Even if one joins them, major contributions are required to access these resources.
This is reasonable. After all, finding a path requires a tremendous amount of effort and sacrifice. If profits cannot be earned to benefit family descendants, who would bother exploring while others reap the benefits?
Therefore, not even the Empire can force various forces to disclose their treasured knowledge and resources. On the contrary, they must be protected to maintain everyone's interests; otherwise, even the Empire could be overturned.
This makes professional knowledge and resources increasingly valuable. A mature and strong professional system is as good as a gold mountain, abundant and inexhaustible.
This is also the greatest difficulty Shen Hex faces at present.
He did not become a rare profession cultivator as expected but instead found himself as a previously unheard-of Transmigrator.
The Human Empire classifies professions into three types: common professions, rare professions, and special professions.
Common professions need no elaboration; they are average paths within each professional system, unremarkable and stable.
Rare professions are various branches of common professions, like the aforementioned Dragon Blood Martial Saint, being the core power of the Empire and major forces.
Special professions, as the name suggests, are special due to the numerous methods of profession creation and countless types, with unknown new professions emerging frequently, categorized as special due to lack of precedent.
This kind of special profession is like a mine, requiring a massive investment of resources for development. It might possess immense value or result in the investors losing everything.
Despite this, the Empire's official and behind-the-scenes forces remain actively engaged in developing various professions, especially those special professions with enormous potential.
The Transmigrator profession Shen Hex has now activated falls into this category, possessing the potential to traverse worlds even at Tier One, capable of directly alarming the Empire's high levels and even the Imperial Family.
Thus arises the question.
As a high school student with no background and orphaned, what treatment will he receive after activating such a special profession?
Will the Empire focus on nurturing him, secretly protecting him until he becomes a leader?
Or will he be controlled, enslaved, exploited for all his worth, and then dissected for study?
Shen Hex is not a conspiracy theorist enthusiast, but his decades of living experiences across two lifetimes tell him that one must prepare for the worst in some matters.
Hence, if possible, he does not want to expose his "Transmigrator" profession.
But if he doesn't expose it, how will he go to college and overcome the series of current and future challenges?
With furrowed brows, Shen Hex pondered for a long while before his heart finally settled.
Take one step at a time!
First, study the role of the Transmigrator. If powerful enough, all problems will resolve themselves.
If not... then he'll reconsider.
Shen Hex refocused, concentrating on the profession panel.
Transmigrator!
Gain experience by influencing the world?
And what's this, with Zhuang Zhou's Dream of the Butterfly, an ability to traverse consciousness?
With arms folded, Shen Hex sat on the bed, analyzing step by step.
For any profession, professional experience is crucial. It can enhance the professional rank, strengthen professional talents, hone professional items, and even transform a common profession into a rare one, with wide-ranging applications.
Each profession has different methods to acquire experience. For example, a martial artist can gain experience through practicing martial arts, combat, as well as consuming medicine, being under master-apprentice guidance, among many methods, making the number of entrants large and requirements low.
As a Transmigrator, he needs to impact the world to gain Professional Experience, meaning he has to cause a stir—the bigger the stir, the more experience he gains.
This is yet another challenge; causing a stir requires capital and involves corresponding risks. One wrong move, and it could all go up in smoke, or worse, leave no trace behind.
But things have come to this point, and he has no choice but to try.
Fortunately, he still has one Professional Talent!
Professionals come in all shapes and sizes, and their talents vary. Even for the same profession, different people will awaken different talents, and these talents can lead to the creation of powerful rare and special professions.
For example, Shen Hex's father awakened a talent called "Martial Dao Education" when advancing to Martial Artist, which enhanced his martial arts teaching effectiveness. This allowed Shen Martial Arts Hall to continually grow and become second only to rare martial arts schools.
Now, the Professional Talent Shen Hex has awakened allows him to transmigrate his consciousness to another world in the form of "Zhuang Zhou's Dream of the Butterfly."
Shen Hex can't say for sure what the use of this is.
But no matter what, he has to give it a try—it might just change his plight.
However, before that, he has one thing to do, and that is to sell the martial arts hall.
Transmigration means whatever the situation with Zhuang Zhou's Dream of the Butterfly, he currently seems to have only one chance. He must prepare thoroughly to seize the opportunity.
Thus, selling the martial arts hall is necessary. Random people and affairs must be handled cleanly to prevent interruptions during the dream transmigration, ruining all efforts.
No sooner said than done, Shen Hex stood up, gathered his belongings and left the hotel room.
Indeed, he was at the Yunlan Grand Hotel in the Upper City District, not at the martial arts hall home in the Central District.
He had no choice; this job was crucial to him, and the martial arts hall environment no longer felt safe.
Therefore, he not only came to this Upper City District hotel for the job but also brought his entire fortune. Following his parents' plan, he could proceed to sell the martial arts hall.
As the saying goes: "The love of parents is universal."
From Shen Hex's current point of view, his parents' recent trip was unusually peculiar, and their eventual disappearance was likely not a simple accident.
They even seemed to have left instructions for their affairs before departure, as if predicting dangers and possibly never returning, yet for reasons unknown, they had to take the risk.
Although Shen Hex now stands as a person who has lived two lives, the feeling is not one of replacing someone else's life upon rebirth, but rather like reincarnation—previously being Shen Hex, now still Shen Hex. Hence, he has feelings for this life's parents and is deeply worried.
But no matter how worried he is, his current strength does no good, leaving him helpless inside.
He checked out from the room, left the hotel, and took a flying car straight to City Hall.
Buying and selling; there needs to be a buyer for the seller.
Many people have their eyes on Shen Martial Arts Hall, but each of them is a hungry wolf or a tiger. Instead of letting those bastards have it cheap, it's better to sell it cheap to the official channels—directly to the Empire.
The Empire constantly deals in this type of business. They purchase properties and then resell them through auctions for profit.
Those martial arts halls that face strong competition utilize this method to annoy opponents, preferring to break than let themselves be oppressed massively, staving off unlimited bullying from adversaries.
Shen Hex has no ulterior motives, he simply wishes to avoid entanglements with these people, even if they might offer a higher price.
So...
"This is the family business your parents worked hard to build. Are you sure you want to sell it?"
An office within City Hall, a middle-aged man with a refined disposition set down his files, looked at Shen Hex in front of him, and sighed, "If anyone's giving you trouble, I can step in to mediate."
Shen Hex shook his head and said in a deep voice: "Thank you, Uncle Chen, but this was bound to happen eventually. It's better to endure short pain than prolonged agony."
This man was named Chen Tai, a friend of his parents—a moderately positioned official in City Hall. Father Shen and Mother Shen had prearranged with him, so Shen Hex could directly seek him to sell the martial arts hall.
"Alright then!"
Chen Tai heard this and no longer advised against it, saying, "I'll handle the procedures for you now. Since it's a direct official purchase, the price will be considerably lower, so be psychologically prepared."
Shen Hex nodded: "I understand, thank you, Uncle Chen!"
"Sigh!"
Chen Tai sighed deeply and then asked, "What's your plan after this? Is there a place for you to stay? Carrying such a large sum in the Central District or Lower City District is unsafe. Would you like to stay with me?"
"No need to trouble you, Uncle Chen."
Shen Hex still declined: "I've booked a room at Yunlan Hotel. I can stay there until school starts, and then live on campus."
"You've grown up, huh!"
Seeing Shen Hex respond this way, Chen Tai also nodded, saying in a deep voice: "I won't say much more. You can contact me if you need anything. Your parents may now be missing, but we, their old acquaintances, are still here and won't disregard you."
"Thank you, Uncle Chen!"
"..."
Procedures completed, Shen Hex left City Hall without lingering and took a flying car back to Yunlan Hotel, where he paid six months' rent and then returned to his room to shop online, preparing for the upcoming transmigration.