"Chen Luo, oh great 'Saint Chen,' could you do me a favor? I need these paper stars by tonight, but I don't have enough time. Can you fold a few for me?" A girl smiled as she dumped a pile of pre-cut, multicolored paper strips onto Chen Luo's desk.
Though her words were a request, her tone carried no hesitation—as if refusal was simply unthinkable.
"Sure." Chen Luo nodded faintly.
"Thanks." The girl tossed out a perfunctory word of gratitude before scurrying back to her seat.
"Honestly, why can't you ever say no? Next period is Old Zhang's class. If she catches you folding stars during lecture, you're getting a parent-teacher meeting for sure," Chen Luo's classmate muttered, stretching lazily across the desk, her beautiful curves on full display.
"Then I just won't get caught." Propping his chin on one hand, Chen Luo eyed the mountain of paper strips.
Such a pile of paper strips doesn't look like "a few" at all.
"No wonder everyone calls you 'Saint Chen.' You really are…"
His classmate had tried refusing these requests on his behalf before—but the problem was, he never turned anyone down.
"We, your subjects, were ready to fight to the death—why has Your Majesty rebelled instead?!"[1]
"You're terrible, making Chen Luo fold these for you. Didn't you say birthday gifts for your boyfriend should be handmade to show sincerity?" The requester's own classmate whispered after she returned.
"Come on, you know I'm all clumsy! This is the last class of the day, and his birthday's tomorrow. There's no time!" The girl rolled her eyes.
"Then fold them tonight?"
"And miss my dramas? Pfft. It's fine—Chen Luo doesn't care. Why should you? He's the legendary 'Saint Chen,' after all. Never says no to a classmate in need."
"I mean, sure, but…"
Ding-dong!
The bell rang. The history teacher—also their homeroom advisor—strode into the classroom, and the chatter died instantly.
…
Chen Luo folded stars mechanically, his gaze drifting toward the teacher.
At a glance, he seemed distracted—but a closer look would reveal his eyes fixed on something only he could see.
But unfortunately, this was the homeroom teacher's class, and no one dared to look around.
That'd be suicide.
99.9%
"Damn it, what kind of garbage talent is this? Stuck at 99.9% just to mess with me?" He sighed, glaring at the floating number only he could perceive while folding little stars.
"I hope that after this talent awakens, there will not be a talent for helping others. If so, i'll lose it."
As he silently cursed, his mind wandered to the tragic origins of his Saint Chen moniker.
"And that girl—if it's a birthday gift for your boyfriend, do it yourself! What am I, your stand-in boyfriend?" His sharp ears had caught her earlier muttering.
But complaints aside, for the sake of his impending talent awakening, Chen Luo endured.
This mysterious Talent Awakening Interface had haunted his vision for who-knows-how-long. If he had to trace it back, he'd probably find the birth of Saint Chen aligned perfectly with its appearance.
In short, after one time when Chen Luo helped someone throw out a bag of trash and saw the talent awakening progress bar jump by 0.1%, he knew he was in for a world of suffering.
"Damn it! Does this thing expect me to do a thousand good deeds?!"
"Who the hell would willingly do this? Screw that—wait, no… Fine. For the sake of whatever this 'talent' turns out to be, I'll endure for now."
But later, Chen Luo realized it wasn't as simple as doing 1,000 good deeds.
Because sometimes, even if you helped, it wouldn't count if the other person didn't acknowledge it.
There was a silver lining, though—if the help you provided was truly significant, the progress increase could be more than just 0.1%.
For example, when he once saw someone being bullied in the bathroom, he grabbed a mop, "enhanced" it with some organic battlefield seasoning, and proceeded to teach both the bullies and the victim the ancient art of "Dipped the mop in shit, swept across all directions." That alone netted him a whopping 0.25% progress boost.
At first glance, 1,000 good deeds might sound manageable—but in reality? Far from it.
Some days, he'd be lucky to even stumble upon one opportunity.
After all, Chen Luo was still a student. Between classes and homework, where was he supposed to find time to play the saint?
He had no idea how much of his free time he'd sacrificed just to crawl his way to 99.9%.
Finally, after folding 66 paper stars—so many that his hands were trembling—the last strip of paper was used up.
Under Chen Luo's eager gaze, that final, stubborn sliver of progress filled at last.
"I'm telling you, the Wei-Jin Northern and Southern Dynasties were a chaotic mess, not some romanticized era!"
"No! The Wei-Jin period was wild and beautiful! Back then, men could embrace softness as a virtue, women could ride to war, men and mem could even—"
THUD.
Chen Luo's face slammed straight into his desk.
"Sun Lian! Look what you've done—you've angered Chen Luo so much he's passed out!" The young history teacher, her makeup light but sharp, pointed accusingly at Chen Luo, who still hadn't lifted his head.
"???" Sun Lian's face twisted in utter confusion.
How is this my fault?!
"Chen Luo, are you alright?" The teacher asked, concerned.
But even quicker was Chen Luo's ever-watchful classmate.
"Chen Luo! You okay?"
"I-I'm fine… Just a sudden headache," Chen Luo mumbled, raising a weak hand to signal he wasn't dead yet.
"Good. Sun Lian, have your parents call me later. Look at what you've done." The teacher shot her a glare.
Sun Lian, now doubly baffled (first by the unjust blame, second by the impending parental call), numbly accepted a hidden bucket of paper stars passed covertly from Chen Luo's direction.
Wait… Did he get a headache from folding these for me?
Too guilty to argue, she could only swallow the unfairness in silence.
As the history lecture resumed, Chen Luo rubbed his temples, listening to the voice echoing in his mind:
[Ding! Talent Awakening progress complete. Activating talent now.]
[Ding! Congratulations on obtaining the EX-rank talent—Traveler.]
[You are someone who refuses mediocrity. You will journey across the world, exploring the unknown. Born a traveler, you were never meant to stay in one place—not even the world itself can bind you forever. Your kindness will bring you unexpected rewards.]
TL Note:
[1]: This line is a meme-fied reference to a famous historical quote from the Three Kingdoms period, originally spoken by a loyal general (Jiang Wei) to his emperor (Liu Shan) after the latter surrendered to the enemy without a fight. In its original context, it's a dramatic, exasperated lament—"We were prepared to die for you, so why did YOU betray US?!" This is used because Chen Luo's classmate is mocking herself—she tried to "protect" him by refusing requests, but he keeps enabling people anyway, making her efforts pointless