Roark considered himself exceptionally fortunate. Not only had he been blessed by the Civilization Challenging Tower preemptively, but his skill was also retively simple to use, showing him with Skill Points.

  There was just one problem. He had no idea how to use them.

  It was apparent from the panel design that there were seven categories of points. So far, he has unlocked three—Nuisance, Clown, and Troll.

  Although his accumuted points had already crossed several milestones on the panel, the system didn't show any prompts guiding him in using them.

  But Roark didn't feel too bothered. He was having plenty of fun seeing the numbers go up every time he opened his mouth.

  He was a simple man. Teasing others, making people squirm in discomfort, and forcing them to experience emotional upheavals were his favorite activities any day.

  “Maybe I need to enter the Challenging Tower first. Not all seed skills are usable outside the tower, unlike Lord Crimsonstar's...”

  That night, during dinner, he unceremoniously announced his pn to the family.

  “Tomorrow, I'll set out for the Tower. I hope you guys won't try to persuade me to stay anymore.”

  His parents, all four grandparents, three uncles, and four aunts, all of them exchanged lightning-fast looks amongst themselves.

  He knew what they were thinking. He was the youngest member of his generation. All of his older siblings and cousins had already left the family one by one, currently living in the barracks around the tower in hopes of making it big as a Challenger.

  For quite a while now, Roark has enjoyed being spoiled by the entire extended family. And since awakening as a civilization seed a few days ago, the adoration has increased ten times.

  They didn't want to see him leave the city so quickly, even if it meant that his entry into the Tower would be deyed. None of Roark's earlier requests had worked.

  To Roark's surprise, his mother voiced her agreement this time.

  “I guess keeping you here would only harm your potential as a Challenger. You're the only one to awaken as a Civilization Seed in our family. We can't afford to be selfish towards our city anymore.”

  Roark's father chimed in his support.

  “Our city is still cking in many aspects compared to the other development settlements. You have to work hard to earn precious resources for our people.”

  “My grandson is smarter than you, Erick. You don't have to spout that patriotic crap. It'll be enough if Roark can supply the basic resources requested by the city administration.”

  His maternal grandmother's words made his father a bit angry, but before he could refute her, his own mother cut in.

  “I agree. He should focus on developing himself as a Challenger.”

  Bolstered by the support of both of his grandmothers, Roark finished his food in high spirits and went to pack his bags.

  Seeing him disappear upstairs, the cheerful atmosphere around the dinner table changed into something heavier.

  “This kid... he's been intentionally mean to everyone just so that we'd let him leave,” Roark's youngest aunt muttered, gaze sad.

  Roark's mother used her napkin to wipe off the sudden wetness around her eyes.

  “Ever since he awakened as a seedling, he argued with me everyday over the silliest matters. Does he think he can frustrate his mother into pushing him away?”

  Roark's father opened his mouth to say that she was probably overthinking it, but seeing the gres from his mother and mother-in-w, he decided not to speak.

  “Carrie and Maron will probably come back home by the end of the year. They haven't had any success in the tower. The city administration there won't retain useless challengers for long.”

  The family perked up a little at the thought of the return of the older kids. The house wouldn't feel empty for long, then!

  “Ehehe, I've already met a couple of good matches for both of those brats,” Erick's mother said, her aged face flushed at the prospect of seeing her grandchildren get married.

  “Hmph, the matches I've fixed are better. Just wait and see!” Erick's mother-in-w decred, ughing confidently.

  The gloom in the dining room evaporated as pyful arguments broke out.

  Standing at the edge of the staircase, hidden from their sight, Roark nodded to himself with a smile on his face.

  They'll do fine without him. He just needed to kick his siblings and cousins out of the barracks after he reached the Challenging Tower.

  The next morning, under heavy acid rain, Roark boarded a juggernaut shuttle and bid farewell to his family. His mother finally couldn't hold back the tears at the st moment. Roark didn't have the heart to tease her over it.

  To shrug off the unpleasant feeling inside his chest, he started surveying the occupants of the shuttle once the wheels began to roll.

  The juggernaut shuttle chain was the only public transportation that could take one to the Civilization Challenging Tower. It was the result of a combined effort from all 25 cities spread around the Tower, developed over multiple decades.

  Naturally, the people seated inside weren't common folk. Everyone was headed in the same direction, same destination, the Tower.

  After a quick survey, Roark summarized his findings internally.

  Eleven passengers around his age, seventeen passengers aged between 20 to 30 years, and four middle-aged passengers. The distribution corresponded to the statistics perfectly.

  If you couldn't develop yourself inside the tower, every new year added to your age would increase the risk of your death. This was why most people returned from the barracks by their te twenties and settled down in their city.

  “The older passengers might be fairly advanced Challengers inside the tower. Doesn't that make them a great source of Hatred Points?”

  Feeling the spark of an evil idea inside his head, Roark looked under his seat and found what he was looking for immediately. A big red button beled as ‘Emergency Signal’.

  Without hesitation, he smmed his fist down on it, and a bring siren went off inside the shuttle. All the younger passengers jumped to their feet, while the older ones exchanged confused looks with each other.

  The shuttle hadn't left the city yet. Nothing dangerous could have happened so quickly in this region.

  As the shuttle supervisor quickly came over looking for the person who had activated the siren, Roark started apologizing profusely to each and every seat nearby in a low voice.

  “Sorry! Sorry! My bad! It was an accident!”

  [ Annoyance detected. ]

  [ Evaluation: Nuisance Rank ]

  [ Reward: 6 Nuisance Points ]

  Roark moved past several rows and muttered again, just loudly enough for those right next to him to hear.

  “It won't happen again! Sorry!”

  [ Reward: 38 Nuisance Points]

  He quickly made his way to another group sitting a couple of rows ahead.

  “I didn't see the bel under the button. I thought it was for seat adjustment!”

  [ Reward: 27 Nuisance Points ]

  Now he stood beside the st row, his nasal voice as annoying as it could be to uninterested people.

  “At least now we know that the buttons work, right? Ehehe...”

  [ Reward: 22 Nuisance Points ]

  After the commotion died down, the supervisor left Roark's seat with a scowl on his face, his countenance mirrored by almost everyone else in the shuttle.

  Roark was, however, content with his little experiment. He had managed to discover where the experts were seated in this shuttle!

  A fresh-faced couple, sitting at the very back, had given him 22 points when he had gone to apologize to them, 11 points per person. In the other groups, the average distribution of points per person didn't exceed 6.

  “Both of them are probably One-Star Challengers with three skills,” he muttered to himself, basing his assumption around past experiences of pissing off the Challengers he had met after awakening.

  “As for that group of middle-aged passengers...” His

  eyes fell on that group in puzzlement.

  “Not a single One-Star Challenger? Since when did the city administration allow ordinary people to visit the Tower? Strange!”